Closer to Getting Our Things Back!

We've heard back about our van in France, and they've quoted us 2000 euros (£1810 or $2730) to have the reconditioned engine fitted. The quote is in addition to the £750 ($1130) the engine will cost to buy and ship to France. We can't find that kind of money, so our only option now is to have the van scrapped and drive up to France with another van to retrieve our belongings.

Unfortunately it's caused a lot of frustration, because Hubby has replaced an engine single-handedly in the past, and, if he has the right equipment, it can take him 6 hours start to finish. The quote they've given us was based on 18 hours' labour, which we know is a con, but unfortunately they hold all the cards. It's illegal to tow a broken down vehicle through Spain, so we can't tow it to Hubby's Homeland. There isn't really any other way to get it here.

So we're making plans to travel back to France now. We've been offered a van by a friend, so we're just ensuring all the paperwork is sorted before we make our move. Parts of Europe are quite strict, so if we get pulled over, and it's registered in someone else's name, we could be in for more problems if they think it's stolen. So once that's all sorted, we will be on our way again. I estimate it to take around 4 days round trip, and hope to be leaving sometime this weekend.

In other news, I feel absolutely massive this week:


I'm surprised how much I've grown over the past week, but I'm definitely feeling it. The stretchmarks are taking over, and the aches and pains are coming. Hubby now needs to help me up off the sofa, and since we're sleeping on a mattress on the floor (our bed frame is on the van), I may as well be mountain climbing to get up out of it to go to the toilet during the night! But amongst it all, it's a good feeling. The baby is kicking lots. It will randomly stretch out, and make my belly a weird shape, which Hubby still finds alien-like!

All Moved, But... Where Are Our Things?

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted. I am still here; just. So much has happened, which I promise to update you on in the coming weeks. Life has been so busy with the move, but now I have more time to be able to post, so here goes. I will do it gradually...

I'm now 32 weeks pregnant. The time has gone so quickly already, so I dread to think how fast the last few weeks will go! I am now this big:


And I feel like if I get any bigger, I will explode. Looking at me, I still have plenty of space to grow, but the aches are coming thick and fast now, so I wonder what I will be feeling like in another 8 weeks! I have lots of stretchmarks, but luckily the majority are on the underside of my bump, so I am in blissful ignorance of their presence!

In regards to the move, I worked up until 12th February, and we spent the weekend packing our things. I kept out all the important things until the last minute, but Hubby decided to pack everything left in unmarked boxes, "boxes of crap" he called them, resulting in me losing my underwear, maternity clothes and toiletries.

Anyway, we officially moved out of our place on Monday 15th February, and moved in with my mum for the week while we tied up loose ends, met up with family etc. Hubby's parents came up to England to meet us and help share the load in their car. Hubby's mum is a retired midwife, and it was reassuring to have her on the journey with me; just in case something happened and I went into early labour.

We left England on 20th February, and made the journey to Homeland # 2 to see my grandmother, aunts and a few cousins, before continuing our journey through Europe and down to Hubby's Homeland. However we didn't get any further than Poitiers in France before the van broke down on us. We hadn't expected it, since we had taken it for a full service and had repairs done on it before leaving England, and everything seemed to be in working order. But now it seems the engine has gone. Completely.

The garage in France quoted us £5,000 for a new engine; a cost we couldn't afford. They then offered to scrap the van for us, but they couldn't do anything without the vehicle documentation; something we didn't have. The person we bought the van from was really lazy in submitting the form to the DVLA, and therefore we hadn't received copies of the documentation before we left England. Now we were in limbo. We promised to get the documents to them, but in the meantime we couldn't wait there in France, so we all crammed into Hubby's parents' car, and continued the journey to Hubby's Homeland with only the basics:

* Travel clothes (consisting of sweats and "Guinness" T-Shirts)
* Basic toiletries
* My medical notes
* Jewellery
* One laptop

To this day we are still surviving on these things alone. The van is still in France, but now we are debating whether to get a reconditioned engine sent from England to be fitted into the van, and for it to be given a new lease of life; or to scrap it as originally intended. The paperwork still hasn't reached us, but it is in the mail as we speak. We hope to receive it tomorrow.

People are asking why we don't just scrap it and be donw with it, and I can only tell them it's because of the costs. We would have to pay to hire a van to take us back up to France, transfer all our things over, possibly pay to have the old van scrapped, drive back to Hubby's Homeland (all the time paying toll roads and hotels), only to have to give the hired van back and buy another vehicle here. Vehicles here come with a minimum price tag of £3,000. You can't seem to get an old banger over here like you can in England. It's for that reason that we're now considering paying to have the van fixed, and then at least we still have a vehicle at the end of all this.

The choice is obviously a gamble, and we're still liaising with both the seller of a reconditioned engine in England, and the garage that has our van in France, as to what the best option will be. I will keep you posted.

But on to today; we are going for our 4D scan in less than 3 hours. I need to get some lemonade to wake up the baby...

I'll update you more the next time I post.

Random Thoughts

* I'm beginning to think getting pregnant before emigrating was a bad idea. If we move abroad in mid-February as we intend to, we only have 11 weeks, or 77 days left to tie up all of our loose ends. That may sound a lot, but there's Christmas in the middle, and we're taking a trip to Hubby's Homeland in January, so in reality we have far less time to sort everything out. I was actually lying awake last night wondering how it's all going to slot together in time; we just have so much to do!

* I can't wait until we go for our 21 week scan. 21 days and counting...

* We've seen a buggy we want already. Scary, huh? Well, not totally scary, because my mother-in-law popped into a couple of shops in Hubby's Homeland to ask how quickly items would arrive into stock after ordering them, and the result is 12-16 weeks.

It means that even if we shop for things when we go over in January, it still might not be there when the baby is born in May! Because of this, we're looking into buying at least the buggy in the UK and taking it over with us. This is the one we've found, and we think it's a bargain at £199:

I know it's blue, and we won't know whether we're having a boy or a girl... but since when have I been traditional? And I'm bored of shopping for gender neutral colours.

* And finally, I paid a whopping £900 ($1,400) onto my credit cards today. I know, what was I thinking? I can't really afford to part with that kind of money, but I found a crazy balance of £1000 on a card I thought I'd cleared, so the debts I need to clear before we move have doubled. I would cut up the cards, but with a baby on the way I'm sensing it could be wise to keep hold of them...

It's Confession Time

There's a couple of things I need to say before I go any further. I caved... twice.

My new best friend is Pepsi Raw. I love her slender figure, her bubbly nature, her sweet kick, and her ability to keep me up all night. Pepsi Raw is not only tasty, it's got caffeine, and it's packed full of sugar - you can't very well have a natural drink, and expect them to have it in a diet form.

This doesn't bode well for either my diet, or my intention to kick the caffeine. Ugh, never mind. I'm drinking the final bottle of my 4-pack, and it's back to caffeine free Diet Coke tomorrow. It was good while it lasted.

But my second confession is a little more embarrassing. I got carried away when I promised myself I wouldn't do. I bought my second pregnancy book; before I'm even pregnant.


In fairness, I think you should know that I bought my first one when I was 2 weeks late a few months ago. I bought it because I had a feeling I was pregnant, so figured I would act pregnant until I found out otherwise. But in order to act pregnant, I had to research what that meant.

But this book is amazing. I love it already. It goes through your pregnancy from day 1 right through to after the delivery. It details what is happening in your body each day of your pregnancy, with full colour pictures and the odd fact thrown in.


And my reason for buying it? Well, I figured that you only find out you're pregnant when you're four weeks gone, and by that point I will have missed out on the first month. So I thought I would buy the book and get all spiffed up on the first month. That way, when the day comes and I do find out I'm pregnant; I know where I'm at and what's been going on in my body.

Work has flown by this week, but I'm still glad it's Friday. I love Friday even more than I love Pepsi Raw. I had a pretty crappy day yesterday, when I seriously reconsidered whether I should stay at my current job, or just walk out there and then. It was rough.

Of course I didn't walk out; I have rent to pay, and we have no savings to live on, so the reality is that we couldn't last a month without two incomes. That's the reason I've stuck with my job throughout this recession. It's safe, and I'm not about to be made redundant. So when I have trouble at work, I'm annoyed to say the least, because it's not like I can leave for something better.

I apologise in advance if you're reading this and you are unemployed. Of course I value my job; I would be stupid not to. I have a good contract and aside from the lousy pay, I have a good deal. It's better than nothing, but I'm a firm believer of people just getting on with one another wherever possible.

Nevertheless, I didn't walk out. I didn't even rise to the bait. I was civil, and I did my work; leaving at the end of the day; knowing that I had been the bigger person.

Of course, being the bigger person doesn't mean that it's any less tense on Friday morning. Roll on 5pm, because you won't see me for dust!

Good News!

I have two bits of good news to share today.

I mentioned in May that there may have been an offer for a house in Hubby's Homeland, but that we wouldn't know for certain for a few weeks. Well, weeks turned to months, and we had almost given up on the idea until yesterday. The house is ours whenever we're ready to move over there. The conditions are different to what they were, in that we won't be buying the house, but renting it from my father-in-law. It's only a one badroom apartment though, so we would only need it while our first child is young enough to sleep in with us; and afterwards, we can look for something else.

It's such a weight off my mind. I don't know about you, but I've spent my adult years struggling just to make it through to the next pay day. I see friends buying houses and I wish I could be like them, but the reality is we've never made enough money to be able to put anything into savings, and the money we spend on rent is effectively money down the drain. But even before the recession it was near impossible for us to get a mortgage, even though the payments would be less than our rent.

Anyway, I'm not the only person in this situation, and I'm sure that if you're not in the boat; you know someone who is. But we're now lucky enough to have been offered a get-out clause, and it pretty much changes everything, and it means we can start thinking about the family we want to start so much.

Which leads me onto my next piece of news...

I don't know what the etiquette is on this one, but Hubby and I have agreed to start trying for a baby on our honeymoon. I'm so excited! I've been broody for so long now, and it finally seems that things are working in our favour.

Now that we're married, and now that the house is agreed; it just seems like the right time to be thinking about children. So we've set the start of our Hawaiian honeymoon as the point at which we start trying to conceive.

I know I'm jumping the gun here, but if it happens straight away, we could be parents in June. I'm not naïve, I know it might take a while, and I know we may face problems - My mother had trouble conceiving, and went through lengths just to have my brother; so she's always made it known that I might have trouble too. But they never did tests on me, so I won't know until we start actively trying to conceive. I think that's part of the reason we're not holding out much longer to have children... that and the fact that Hubby wants them before he's 30 (in 2011).

So we have six weeks to go, and I'm going to take this opportunity to get my body into shape for then. I'm going to concentrate on my diet and getting to my goal weight, and then it will just be a case of toning up and eating healthily. I've been taking pre-natal vitamins for about a month already. I just need to start reading up on the science of it all...

Phew - getting married, travelling further than I've ever been before, getting a house and trying for a baby... 2009's turning into a great year for us.

Virus Warning - I was sucked in, please don't let it happen to you

I thought I would post a warning about a virus, after my own laptop was infected last weekend. I pride myself on not being gullible to cons and scams, but this one had me fooled.

The virus is called PC Security 2009, and it embeds itself onto your computer without you realising. You soon find a little red cross icon on the bottom right corner of your screen. From this icon a message pops up warning you that your computer is infected, and that you should upgrade your antivirus in order to ensure these infections don’t become a threat to your computer.

This is a screen shot of what the virus looks like:


Unfortunately I couldn't find a screen shot of the warning messages, but it's similar to the pop up speech box that tells you when your wireless is not connected.

The infections the virus is warning you about are not real; this is simply the virus posting these messages. The messages soon come every couple of minutes, and make it very hard to use your computer without getting annoyed by them.

The virus also limits your online browsing. You can still view websites, but when you go to a new page, you may find a warning message urging you to upgrade your antivirus. It will give you two options; either upgrade to protect your computer, or continue browsing without upgrading. If you click to continue without upgrading, nothing happens. The web page you want will not load. The only way you can continue is to click to upgrade.

Once you do this, you will be taken to the PC Security 2009 website, where you can enter your credit card details in order to download a copy of the antivirus that will supposedly help you rid your computer of the apparent infections. Do NOT enter your credit cad details. I made the mistake of doing so, and I received no confirmation, no receipt; and I’d given them my mobile phone number too.

So, thinking it a little suspicious, I Googled the name of the site, and I found a list of sites warning against this virus, and detailing how to remove it from your system. Click the link to see the results of my Google Search (I promise it's safe to follow this link)

Seeing this, I then had to call my bank and put a stop on my credit card. Soon after this, a “system scan” began scanning the files on my computer, and it found over 700 imaginary infections. I say imaginary, because the infections aren’t really there; this is the virus making you think they’re there.

Within the hour I received a phone call from the hoax company, requesting more information, which this time I did not give. It took a good 6 hours to rid my computer of this virus, because it embeds itself in lots of different places, with lots of different files; so it’s hard to track down. I ended up downloading “AVG Free” to my computer, which managed to sort everything out.

Since Saturday I've been inundated with emails from the scammers, asking me to activate my membership. They also managed to debit my credit card of £55, which the bank is refusing to reimburse me, and I've received another couple of phone calls.

My poor judgement cost me £80, and my entire Saturday. I’m normally pretty smart with things like this, but this particular virus is designed to look exactly like Microsoft, so you think it’s authentic. Don’t be fooled by the same virus. If you find you have a virus on your computer, do not browse any sites with your, or any other person's personal details on (i.e. internet banking, emails or social networking sites).

Please forward this information to anyone who you think would benefit from this.

What's Going On?!

There are loads of strange stories going around in the news at the moment. Take these for example:

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GIRL ASKS FOR THREE STARS TATTOOED ON FACE, GETS FIFTY SIX:
A Belgian girl walked into a tattoo parlour and reportedly asked for three small stars to be tattooed on her face. She then (reportedly) falls asleep and the tattooist proceeds to tattoo a further 53 stars all across the left hand side of her face.

Hmmm. She fell asleep? I doubt anyone can fall asleep with a needle so close to your bone like that. Let me just say; there's no jog mark from where she would have pushed him away upon waking up, and each star is completed. It just doesn't add up. The tattooist claims she asked him for 56 stars, and it was only when she got home that her father and boyfriend saw her that a problem arose.

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CHILD ACCIDENTALLY FLUSHES PUPPY DOWN TOILET:
A child tried to wash his muddy week-old Cocker Spaniel in the toilet, and pulled the chain, accidentally flushing him in the process.

Incredibly, the puppy survived and emerged 20 yards away from the house after the RSPCA and drainage services, Dyno Rod, fighting to pull him out.

The family have since named the puppy Dyno, in honour of the Dyno Rod worker who saved him. The little boy said he was "so sorry" and promised never to do it again. I bet he got the fright of his life when he saw his beloved puppy disappear round the U-bend...

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WILL & KATE LOOK FOR £5m HOME IN MALIBU:
Prince William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton are scouring Malibu Beach for a home; their meagre budget being £5,000,000. Five MILLION pounds ($8,200,000).

This one really got me thinking. Now, I'm an anti-royalist, and I don't mind admitting that. I dislike the royals more than I dislike chronic migraines. In fact I would rather live my entire life with migraines if it meant the royal family were disbanded.

What's more, the money they're spending on this house is that of the British taxpayer. And where's it going? Well, it's certainly not being pumped back into the British housing market, which is on its knees right now.

They get free education at the best universities (even if they don't have the grades to qualify, AKA Prince Charles), they don't have to repay their debts, and they spend my money. The Queen Mother alone is said to have racked up about £20,000,000 ($32,700,000) debt during her lifetime. When will it stop?

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KITTY USSHER QUITS AFTER ONE WEEK:
For those of you outside of the UK, there has been a huge row over expenses for a while now. It's recently come to light that members of parliament have been claiming a disgusting amount of things on their expenses:

* Douglas Hogg claimed approximately £2,000 to clean his moat at his second home.
* Jim Devine claimed £2,000 to re-wire his second home.
* Married couple, Alan & Ann Keen (both working as MPs) claimed £250,000 ($400,000) between them for mortgage payments on both of their homes, despite that only one home is allowed to be claimed for.
* Lembit Opik claimed £30 for a fancy dress wig.
* Tony Blair claiming £7,000 for a new roof on his second home two days before stepping down as Prime Minister.
* David Chaytor claimed £13,000 for a mortgage he had already paid.

...the list goes on. It seems to be every day that we hear another extraordinary claim, and subsequently that member of parliament quits/stands down or whatever.

This time it was Kitty Ussher who hit the headlines. Ms Ussher had only been working as Treasury Minister for a week when she threw in the towel and quit. She reportedly changed the designation of her home in order to avoid capital gains tax.

Under tax laws, people with more than one property are liable for capital gains tax on the sale of their second home, but must inform Revenue and Customs which this is.

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And finally a nice one...

VICAR OFFERS OWN MONEY TO FUND COUPLES' WEDDINGS:
A Cumbrian vicar has offered to put his own money forward to help cash-strapped couples marry in church during the recession.

The vicar, who earns £21,000 ($34,000) is offering to cover the statutory £250 fee from his own pocket, because he wants to make it easier for couples who are struggling to find the money. He was also quoted as having said he thought the Church of England should stop charging people for everything.

Lucky? Apparently Not

Now, don't get me wrong; I love my friends from school. They're kind, interesting people that I get along with, and relish catching up with them whenever we can (which, in all honesty, is not as often as we'd like). But I can't stand it when they speak without thinking.

In all fairness, the school I attended wasn't in our "catchment area", which I'll try to explain now. The catchment area is normally a 5 mile radius around said school, and kids inside that radius can enrol at the school without any problems. The school in my catchment was full when we moved into the area, so my older brother had to go further afield to a school that still had spaces. When an older sibling already goes to the school, you then have more entitlement to go to the same school than other kids who live closer. This worked great for us, because this was the top school in our area.

It also won't be a surprise that the best school in the area attracts wealthier families to live in the catchment area; therefore meaning that eventually, 90% of the kids are from well-to-do families. Normally I don't have a problem with wealthy people. I'm not going to be bitter just because we were brought up in less fortunate circumstances, and I'm not going to complain about the lack of opportunities we had as a result. At the end of the day, my upbringing was less than perfect, but I've grown into a mature, responsible person, and it doesn't take much to make me happy.

But I think by the age of 24, these kids, now adults, should think about what they say, before they say it. In other words, they should know their audience. It was barely 9pm when these two girls started chatting about their uni days, and how their time there seemed to fly by. My mother couldn't afford to send me to university, my father had money tied up in his business, so he couldn't pay either. The hardest thing was that I couldn't get a loan from the government, because they said my father had enough money to send me. In the end I had to accept that there was no money, and I had to go out and work. I missed out on the university experience because of a crazy loop-hole. If I'm honest, I'm not over it, because I could have flourished with a higher education, but the government let me fall through the net because of a stupid rule. I don't blame anyone for this (other than the government!), especially not my friends; they had the opportunity, and they took it - good for them.

The conversation quickly moved to how their first years were awful, because they were homesick, they wanted to see their friends, and they basically had a crap time. But their reasons just didn't seem justified. You're homesick, I understand that, but you're also 18 years old. I was living on my own at the age of 17, working 2 jobs and studying with these girls while I was at school.

One of their mothers actually drove up to the university campus and brought her daughter home each weekend, but this girl was still moaning. Even to this day, their parents are paying money to send their 24 year old daughters travelling round the world, and they still don't see how lucky they are.

It reminds me of a conversation I overheard in class when I was 17. One of my classmates turned 17 (the legal age to drive in the UK), and her mother had bought her a car. A car. Incredible, I know. I've seen "My Super Sweet Sixteen", and it's a world away from what I see day-to-day. But this hideously generous gift wasn't good enough for this brat. It wasn't the right colour, it didn't have the right alloy wheels, and it was a diesel and she wanted regular. Apparently she'd argued with her mother that morning, because, in her words "I told her exactly what I wanted, and she didn't listen". I remember listening to this conversation in disbelief. How can someone so lucky be so ungrateful? I'd have been lucky if I'd got a £20 note in my birthday card.

Urgh, I suppose I am having a bitch, but I do get annoyed at people like this. It's a different world. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only person on this Earth that appreciates the smaller things. I don't have many possessions, but I have a man that loves me, a family that would do anything for me, friends that understand me and a life I love. I have loved my life since I left school; the only resentment comes when I compare it to people who have had everything given to them on a plate - because let's face it; we'd all love an easy life.

Ironically, I probably would have lost Hubby, because when I was trying to apply to university, our relationship was still very new, and we would have just grown apart if I'd moved away. But because I stayed behind, I worked on our relationship, and now we're weeks away from getting married. I doubt I'd be in the same situation if I'd gone to university, so I'm grateful for that.

I consider myself very lucky, because I know people who are worse off than me, and I've been worse off than this. I just don't understand how they can have all of this, on top of having money and a university education thrown at them, and they still pick holes in it.

Reasons to be Happy

I'm giddy in a good way today. There's just so many good things happening around me!

* The weather is incredible at the moment, and I mean incredible. There hasn't been a cloud in the sky; it's been beautiful. The weather's set to continue until at least Sunday, and they say it's going to be a hot Summer.

* At work today a colleague of mine received an award for all of her hard work in the organisation. It's about time she was recognised, because she goes above and beyond to help people, and on top of all that; she's a good friend of mine.

* Lots of people around me are expecting babies. I'm not sure if it's just because it's Summer and all the bellies are out, but it seems there's loads of them around at the moment.

* I'm getting married five weeks tomorrow! Five weeks!! Now, that's very scary, but so exciting. I have to pinch myself because I quite literally can't believe it. This day has been so long coming, and it's now a matter of weeks. Awesome; in the original sense of the word.

* I've been learning about HTML tags, and found out that:

you can do cool things like this on your blog
* I'm watching "Britain's Got Talent", and it's getting more and more camp. I absolutely love it. These are the Dream Bears:



* Also on BGT, there was a little girl called Hollie Steel, singing "Edelweiss" (which, by the way, is one of my favourite songs in the world, because I'm a sucker for The Sound of Music), who started crying in the middle of her performance. Simon Cowell has assured her they will let her sing again. Pfft, and people say he's mean!

* I paid the final installment of our honeymoon this afternoon. I have a slight sick feeling now, because I only realised today that we booked a "room only" holiday, meaning we have to find more money for food. I'm sure I specified that we wanted all inclusive. Now I just have to admit my mistake to Hubby...

* Before finding this out I bought a really cute denim dress from Oasis (pictured right). I'm ashamed to admit that even though I have absolutely no spare cash this month, and the fact that I was looking for a "little black dress", I found this denim one and I loved it. I don't have many dresses for the Summer, and this was perfect. And what's more; it makes me look really slim! You don't need to know how much it is; because it was too much. I've already cut off the tag and washed it, so Hubby will never know...

* I did also find a "little black dress" (pictured left), which I needed for our joint Stag & Hen party, which is on 8th June. Our theme is "Blues Brothers", and I had the hat, the heels, the stockings and garter, but no dress. Panic over though, because I've found it, and managed to squeeze into a UK size 10 (I'm normally a 12). Unfortunately there's no space for my bra, but the tightness of the material will keep me in check, haha. Me = Cloud Nine.

* I received a letter from my great aunt today, who lives in Homeland # 3. I contacted her a while ago in a bid to find out what she knew of the family. I read her letter when I got back from work today, and she said some really nice things. I was just left feeling like I was flying. There's something about receiving letters from family and friends that can instantly lift your spirits.

* And last of all; it's Friday, which means I don't have to set my alarm tonight :)

Officially More Intelligent Than My PC

I know computers are supposed to be cleverer than the average human, and that they're supposed to be the ultimate problem solver; but sometimes I'm sure I could run circles around them. Like today...

I have been reading the latest blogs in my feed, and subseqently commented on one, and my computer went absolutely bonkers. It was opening webpage after webpage for about 5 minutes (I dread to think how many pages it had opened at the end of it all); when finally it decided it couldn't continue, had a little panic and beeped at me. Failing the Ctrl-Alt-Del function (which I tried a few times), I ended up having to restart the computer.

Now, I'm no Bill Gates, but I spend about 90 hours a week on the computer, and I know how to work it. And I know this isn't normal behaviour. And I don't know about you, but if I behaved like that at my job; I'd be out the door. Well, perhaps not, but my colleagues would wonder how I'd got past the interview. I think I should sack my PC.

But this isn't the only weird IT issue I've had today. My usual computer has given up the ghost, taunting me with crazy error messages until I had to accept defeat and walk away. The technician (only a phone call away; they're quite useful really) says the hard drive has gone, rendering all my documents inaccessible.

I suppose I'm lucky it wasn't sparking at me, lol. Needless to say; it's been a very strange day, and I've decided this office is as mad as a box of frogs. But as you know; these things seem to happen to me. It's only been a couple of months since I blew up another computer (incidentally, it's the one I'm currently using to tell you this story!)

So, probably quite wisely; I decided I should put a distance between myself and technology (if only for an hour), and I set about sorting out my new passport. Since the application is so awkward (I'm changing my name, but not yet married into the name; my current passport is foreign, even though I'm not...), I chose to take it to the Post Office and pay a fee for their "Check & Send Service", letting them check the details before sending it (since they know more about passport forms than I do) - and paying £78 for the privilege (I should point out that that cost is for the Check & Send service as well as the passport itself, so it's not a total robbery). This getting married malarkey is getting awfully expensive! But hopefully (all my digits crossed), I shall have my new passport, in my married name (yay!) in the next couple of weeks.

What I did learn today though, is that you get a free passport if you are over the age of 80. So that's... 55 more years until I'm eligible. And in that case, I shall hold off all my major travel until then, and reap the benefits :)

I had some pretty decent photos to go with my passport application, hooray! After years of looking pretty gormless on my passports (and having the guards chuckle too), I now take the time to make myself look gorgeous whenever I have to have photos taken. I first started doing this when I applied for my provisional driving license (I still haven't taken any lessons; I only use it for ID when buying alcohol - the UK are really tight on ID). The photos turned out okay too, except for my head looking a bit off centre. I must have a slouch!

And I'm officially back on the Weight Watchers wagon this week after gaining 1lb and weighing more than I did when I first collected my wedding dress.

So I'm sticking to the rules again, pointing everything I eat and refusing to go near chocolate and crisps (my two favourite things!). But this time next week will be a different story; because I will have succeeded!

Wedding Discussions...

On Monday Hubby and I went to the register office to have my passport forms signed, and we took the opportunity to have another look at the room in which we’ll be getting married. We haven’t been there since we attended wedding there in 2003, so we booked it based on our memory.

N.B: I don't know how much you know about English weddings, but if you don't want to marry in a church (I'm not religious), and you don't have stacks of cash, it's really only the local register office you can use. And since my dad's offered his house for the reception, it was the register office in his city that we are using.

We were pleased to find out that:

• They’ve re-decorated and the scary turquoise doors have gone (which clashed with the seats, I may add).
• The waiting room is much more swish.
• Where the couple used to face the registrar and a white wall, they now face a beautiful stained glass window (pictured). It does look out onto a car park, but you can’t have everything!
• There’s much more light in the room, thanks to the window.
• And most importantly (in my opinion), there is now a proper aisle for me to walk down. In the old layout, the bride came through the door, walked 2 metres and she was there. She didn’t even get to pass the guests on her way in. But now, you come in through the same door, but the registrar and groom are at the other end, meaning you have about 6 metres of aisle, which means my chapel train gown will seen – hooray!

We also discussed a lot of wedding things with my dad and stepmum, taking advantage of the fact that Hubby was with me. We have a lot of family coming from abroad, and we can only offer 10 people accommodation, which meant we had to make our decisions based on languages spoken (eg having Spanish speakers with other Spanish speakers), as well as giving the oldies somewhere easily accessible to sleep. we even discussed photo opportunities around the city, which has been a stress of mine since Christmas. The register office doesn't have any grass or trees nearby, and the reception venue will be taken up by a big marquee, meaning we had to look elsewhere. We've found a number of places, but haven't got permission for any of them. So in case we're caught, I shall have to practise sprinting in my wedding dress...

All in all, we got a lot agreed, which makes me feel a lot better about things.

This Saturday I’m off to Kingston to sort out our gift list. I’m looking forward to having one of those hand-held barcode scanners where you just zap everything you fancy. I’ve only ever seen them in “27 Dresses”, but this Saturday I get my own. It’s the simple things…

Work, thankfully, is less busy this week. I’m relishing being able to sit at my desk and plod through my emails, as I normally do. We had a meeting recently about our pay, and if all goes smoothly and is accepted by the unions, I may be in for a £900 lump sum payment in October. I can’t wait, but fingers crossed the unions agree, otherwise it’s back to the drawing board for the fourth time. Hmm…

And lastly, Hubby has a Sous Chef! He ended up hiring an old colleague of his who recently came back into town. Hubby knows him, and knows how he works. He’s not about to do a bunk. What a relief, except, this guy was invited to our wedding, and it now means he’s not able to come because he’ll be working in Hubby’s place...

Nobody Ever Warned Me About...

It occurred to me today that adulthood is never how you expect it to be. When you're a kid, you ache to be older, but when you are older, it seems childhood was so much easier. I never hated school, but I grew sick of writing essays about things that didn't interest me. I love being an adult... most of the time. But this morning I had to sign over 75% of my paycheque to rent, council tax, gas, electricity and water; and I found myself wishing I was back in school, being herded around by the teachers. It just seemed easier back then. So today, my post is going to be focused on "nobody ever warned me about..."

Nobody ever warned me about:

* Chocolate's tendency to camp out on my hips
* Credit cards, and the mess you can cause getting into debt (and the mess I'm still in)
* Relationships, and how they can hurt
* Friends betraying you
* Politics
* Stress in general
* Reaching a certain age and having to act responsibly (I must not have reached the magic number yet!)
* Having to spend four years working two jobs just to pay the rent

Then again, nobody ever told me about:

* How wonderfully amazing junk food can be when you reward yourself for being good
* How great shopping sprees feel (haha)
* How incredible it can feel to be in love with someone, and have them love you back
* How one good friendship can make up for all the false friendships in your life, and how that friend can help you through anything - if you let them
* How chuffed you can feel when you can get involved in a political conversation, and actually understand what they're saying
* How a massage can help relieve all your problems; if only for five minutes
* How good it can feel to cut loose and go crazy once in a while
* How you can meet the most amazing people through work, that they can be like a second family to you, and you can have such a blast that working 70 hours a week just doesn't even matter. You're tired, but you're having the time of your life

There's a positive and a negative to each point; and I've realised that finding the positive can make you feel so much better. I'm still working on trying to find a positive for my lack of money this month though, but hey; perhaps it will encourage me to diet, since I won't be able to afford food! Well; it's not that bad yet...

Hooray for Hubby!

I'm continuously surprised how fast a weekend can pass; and this weekend was one of those that you just don't seem to feel you've had. I'm back at work on this rainy Monday afternoon and wishing I was tucked up in bed watching reruns of "Friends".

Hubby has found himself a Sous Chef, so much to our relief, he will begin to have days off again in the next month or so. He's really worn out at the moment, so I'm glad he'll finally be able to relax a little, and have some time to himself.

We celebrated with a glass of Pimms (which, if you haven't tried yet; I strongly recommend). Anyway, it's been about 10 months since I made my last Pimms, and I accidentally made it too strong, meaning Hubby went off it completely. I'm hardly one to waste a good drink, so I revelled in being able to drink both, ha ha!

I emailed my stepmum yesterday, giving her the details of our wedding guest list. She's very intricate in the organisation, because we're having the reception at their house, so she wants to be able to sort everything out. She's asked to know final numbers, as well as approximate ages of everyone so that we can plan entertainment etc. It's all go, it seems. I've got to discuss flowers with my colleague, who has offered to help us, and I've got to go for a hair trail on 9th May.

This weekend I'm taking advantage of the bank holiday (Saturday-Monday) and going to Homeland #2. To aid you here; and for the sake of protecting identities:

* Homeland #1 is where I was born and raised (1/2 my heritage)
* Homeland #2 is where my mother was raised (1/4 of my heritage)
* Homeland #3 is where my grandmother grew up (1/4 of my heritage)

It's safe to say I'm a bit of a mongrel, but I'm proud of it. I have family in each country, so they will be mentioned a fair few times, which is why I thought I'd explain them now. We're going to meet up with family, and it will be my last trip abroad before the wedding; so when I get back I will need to surrender my current passport while I apply for a new one in my married name (very exciting!). However, it also means that I can't go to Hubby's Homeland until after the wedding, so if Hubby's grandfather doesn't make it, I won't be able to attend the funeral. It's funny how they penalise you for getting married...

Anyway; here's to another week. It's set to be a busy one, which is good, but it means there's less time to daydream!

Happy St George's Day!

A happy St George's day to you all! I don't care if you're not English, or not descended from English stock; have a cup of tea (or a glass of Pimms) and a scone and sit back and enjoy the sunshine. It's sunny here today; apparently the warmest April in 30 years! Despite landing at 1:30pm yesterday, by the time I went to bed last night I was still in holiday mode, and so when I woke up this morning and turned on GMTV (morning television) to learn that it was St George's Day, I actually groaned. Don't get me wrong; I absolutely love this day, but it meant I had to root around for something red and white to wear to work; despite having chaos all around me from unpacking our suitcase!


Anyway, find some clothes I did, and I'm now at work wearing a white top, a red skirt that is now too big for me (the joys of losing weight!), and white ballerina pumps - beautiful!

As I made my way in to work today, I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that I didn't see anyone else wearing the national colours, or waving a flag or anything. Not that that wouldn't have been weird. It's a pity more English people don't celebrate our patron saint day. Everyone's happy to celebrate St Patrick's day, but nobody even cares when it's St George's day. This is what it's come down to: A couple of events in London, followed by haters yelling at them because they're offending the non-English members of our communities.

I don't want to seem rude, but if immigrants come to England, surely they are expecting to be thrown into an English society; all stiff upper lipped, non church-going, non saying hello in the street style. If I go to China I don't expect them to greet me with a cup of tea and a shortbread biscuit. Last year the government were actually telling people not to wear or display the flag of St George for fear of making foreigners feel unwelcome. My own mother is foreign, and even she thinks the country has become too obsessed with keeping her sweet. Political correctness gone mad.

Anyway; my mini rant out of the way - My trip to Hubby's Homeland went better than I expected. Hubby's grandfather, though not well, was better than we thought he would be. He's getting radiotherapy, so hopefully it will help him a little. While we were the weather was amazing; not a single cloud in the sky for the duration of our stay. We went fishing, went to the new casino, ate out, and caught up with Hubby's Best Man and his wife, as well as other friends.

One of our friends is taking part in the local version of "Strictly Come Dancing" or "Dancing With The Stars" for those of you in the US. We went to see the opening night while they were filming it for TV, and we had a great time. The six couples danced either the Waltz or the Cha Cha Cha. Although we can't see the televised shows here in the UK, we're asking them to keep us updated on our friend's progress in the contest.

I ate so much while I was there though, and I feel like such a porker, so as of today, I'm back on Weight Watchers with a vengeance. We went for breakfast, and Hubby had toast with garlic and olive oil (yum!). We also took the opportunity to have lots of fried food, a Burger King, a KFC and a whole bag of Jelly Babies...

The importance of today is three-fold for me though; because my little brother celebrates his birthday on 23rd April, and my grandfather also died on this day. So as well as celebrating being English (not British), I give my brother a call to wish him a happy birthday, and take a moment to think of my grandfather.

In other news, and possibly the most important of all; Hubby and I have agreed that it's time to think about getting on the housing ladder in his home country. So I've said that once 2010 comes around, he can scout around for a job there, and if he finds one with a decent salary; he'll accept it and we'll be emigrating.

Now, for those of you who don't know; Hubby grew up abroad, and I moved back there with him in 2004, but moved back to the UK when I was offered double bubble as a store manager. He has always wanted his children to have the same upbringing as he did, and Hubby's Homeland is the safest, friendliest place we know. So once we married we would try for kids, and move abroad once we found out we were expecting.

BUT things never really work as easily as you think they will. There is a housing list you need to go on for government housing, and you can only go on it once you've been living there for a year. But we can't live with his parents with a screaming newborn, so we've realised we're going to have to plan things a little better.

So here's the deal; if Hubby can find a decent job over there, we can get a mortgage (stupidly affordable over there), I can then focus on finding a job that doesn't need any fluency of Spanish (even though the official language is English, this is harder than you'd think). We can then try for a family, I will be able to raise the kids, learn Spanish, and we'll live happily ever after. I'm not sure about the last part, but that's the plan at least!