To do do do

Now we do have a great big scary Wedding to-do list, partly on the advice of all the WIC sites out there but also because I am genetically inclined to organisation (and am making a career of it).

However there is another to-do list that I haven't yet written down but have been carrying in my head for a while. None of the things on it are essential to the wedding. I'm little sad if I hear of girls who suddenly feel this great pressure to loose weight or change whatever about themselves just for this one day event


.... however ....


maybe a special memorable day thirteen months away is a good motivator to do some of those things I have been meaning to do for a while.


So with that in mind - here's my "not wedding related but wedding motivated to-do list"

* Get fitted for contact lenses - I really don't relish the idea of sticking my finger in my eyes but in the summer it becomes a choice between being blinded or being blind (or, at Wimbledon, wearing my big trendy sunnies over my specs - suddenly not so trendy).

I would like to be able to see what's going on at my wedding without being speccy four-eyes!

* Take Dancing Classes – now I know this is a fairly traditional bride and groom stuff but we have been meaning to take classes for ages (years in fact). We did a few Salsa classes and loved it, danced ourselves silly all over Brazil and have a not-so-secret obsession with a certain BBC dance show (yes, both of us!) On top of that, Tanzschule (dance school) in 6th form is the norm for my German cousins so N’s gotta keep up if he wants to join the family!

* Relearn to Drive – I can drive and I used to do it a lot, from one end of the country to the other in my cherry red Polo. But now I don’t have a car and N drives his company car and suddenly, it’s been 4 years and I’m out of practise and scared to get behind the wheel.

Pathetic and must be sorted ASAP!

* Improve my Italian – languages are not like riding a bike; they are more like maintaining one – ignore them for long enough they get rusty and dusty and squeak a bit. There are Italians in my office but the furthest I get is exchanging pleasantries. I feel it’s only right I should be able to articulate more than that if I’m getting married over there right? (and N says he’s going to try his hand at a bit of Deutsch!)

* Get fit – I don’t mean starve myself skinny or destroy myself with unachievable goals … but just get off my ass once in a while. Apparently it gets harder to do once you’ve had kids so this might be my last chance!

* Grow out my fringe – harder to do than I thought. Might require some seriously dedicated exertion!

and one for the boy who, although practically perfect in every way, has one area in which he could improve …

* Give up smoking!

Back in Blog

Good golly, over a month’s hiatus from blogging – hmm, not very committed or dedicated of me! I do have some excuses though.

Foremost of these is that I have been feeling a bit disconnected from the whole wedding planning thing. We had a big rush of excitement with the engagement and then the trip to Italy and the plan coming together and then ... not much! I read blogs and save some pictures of things we might like but somehow it seems so far off and unreal. Kindly people ask, with an expectant smile, how the wedding plans are coming along and I haven’t really much to say other than “great!” which is probably as much as most people want to hear anyway.

The other excuse is that I got burned – and not in a metaphorical way but in a right-arm-looking-like-giant-bubble-wrap way. Eeeek!
I was of course very brave about the whole thing (!?) but it did make me feel ugly and scratchy and a bit miserable as well as very stupid for letting it happen in the first place.
However, as the saying goes, every cloud has its silver lining or rather, in this case, a flowery one. I decided that as essential to the healing process as antiseptic pain relief cream were also some beautiful scarves to cover my bandages. Liberty’s was just across the road and has a bin full of hankies for about £6 each on the haberdashery floor. So, relishing the excuse to go into one of my favourite places in London, I treated myself to some beautiful cotton handkerchiefs in their lovely prints – so joyful and spring like and just what the doctor [should have] ordered!

And this is how I convinced myself that our bridesmaids would look lovely Liberty print sundress – now I just need to convince them!

[click for full image]