Honeymoon - A Photo Entry

On the Sunday morning we made a brief trip to my mums to see Matthew before setting off on our honeymoon. We collected hubbys mum, James and Liam and bought them back to our house before setting off on the 3.5 hour trip to Bristol.

We stopped the night in a branded hotel chain in the city centre. We were on the 7th floor up and had this lovely view from the lift area.

We were situated in a beautiful location and explored a little of the city whilst we were there. Bristol was nothing like I expected. I thought it would be ok but I loved it. It's certainly somewhere I would love to visit anothre time. Maybe as a full weekend break next time.

We ate at a restaurant a few miles out of Bristol on a large leisure complex. This night we had mexican. We had the starter platter to share with bbq chicken wings, nachos, corn on the cob, potato wedges and onion rings. That was delicious then hubby chose a mexican style lamb shank and I had steak. It was a lovely evening and nice to be away from all the planning.

We set off early Monday morning to Newquay in Cornwall and explored the local scenery before finding our accomodation.

Newquay is a fair size seaside town but has the most stunning beach.

All of these pictures are the same coast area. Theres just a few meters between each individual picture. Cornwall's coastline is long and has many bays and coves giving real depth to the land and so many different views. It's all Newquay beach but from different angles and where the gaps are in the rocks.

We booked into our beautiful little bed and breakfast in Crantock, a few miles away and it was a beautiful little house. It was an old vicarage and this was the view from our room.

We were situated a short walk from Crantock village and were just a few minutes walk from the beach.

Crantock beach is divided into two parts.

1. The estuary.

2. The Surfers beach.

It is a beautiful area and on our first afternoon we took a walk across the beach from the estuary and up some sand dunes....

Then up through a field....

We followed the coastal route along more fields and found a lovely little cave.....

We finally made it back to solid land and had a drink outside a pub overlooking the sea as we rested. The route back along the road was much faster.

We spent our evenings in Newquay the first two nights dining at an Indian Restaurant and a Seafood and Steak restaurant.

For  a long time I have been wanting to try scallops and I gave them a go as a starter.

I had seared scallops with a garlic and herb butter served with a homemade tomato salsa.

It was probably my most favourite dish of my holiday. It was beautiful. It was simple but fantastic. It's something I will definitely be trying at home one day. I then had the steak meal which was also lovely but I was far too stuffed for dessert.

On the last night in Crantock we went back to the hilltop pub and restaurant where we'd finished up when we took our hike. The food was lovely but nothing was going to compare to my scallops the night before.

We spent some time at a theme park which had a special victorian town feature. It was like going back in time and I really loved the exhibition. The lighting, building displays and everything were spot on. It was huge, like a real village with everything from horse grooming to shoemakers to solicitors to the original style post office. I loved this. I have always had a love of all things Victorian England. I especially have an interest in the darker side of it. (I do still have an obsession with the murders of Jack The Ripper and I am now discovering Sherlock Holmes) However I didn't think so much of the Blitz (World War 2 attack on London) exhibition. In fact all things war related scare me but that's another story.

There were beautiful gardens at this theme park and a mini thrill ride section. That was mostly for kids but hubby and I did go on one of it's biggest rides. A mini rollercoaster. A kid on before us was the same age as James and I bet our James would have loved it.

Our days were long and we did the sights. We saw Lands End, the furthest South West point of England.

We also took a trip to a working cider farm. That was much more interesting than I thought it would be and I got to sample some cider. I've never been a cider drinker at all so it was nice to try something new. I liked the traditional old style "scrumpy" which was lovely. It was fruity without the sparkling side of cider you normally get. I was quite impressed.

The honeymoon had to come to an end though and we spent the last night of our break on the grounds of a stately home in Bristol as we broke up our journey back.

We didn't stay here, but to the side of this glorious building. This was where we dined the last night.

So, in all I had the best week EVER. :)

Wedding Night

Subnote - If you want to set the scene a bit, scroll to the bottom of the page and press play for some nice background music.... then read on.

Also, 2 photo type entries are before this one. I am just trying to fill this in whilst the memories are still fresh. I mean it's been 10 days already. 

Part 2......

.......So we all separated. Matthew went off with my parents for a meal at a local pub. James and Liam went back with hubby's mum for a nap whilst myself, hubby, his brother, and my 2 sisters in law headed back to the hotel hubby and I were spending the night.

Hubby and I travelled by car whilst the others walked through the town to The George hotel on Colchesters main street. We sat and relaxed with a couple of friends for just over an hour before it was time to sort out the reception venue. Sitting relaxed in the hotel lobby I was able to get my wedding ring on at last. Though I still have my eczema, I didn't have the nerves or the panic that came with the ring being a little tight.

Some of the food for the reception was at hubby's mums. He went off to collect the food, as well as her and the boys. I began the set up process. The best man was supposed to be helping as were the others who were coming down after food to help me set up.

At 5.30 I was still working by myself trying to set tables, organise a cake stand, the cakes and balloons had arrived and I was running around like a headless chicken trying to do it all by myself. Eventually everyone turned up at the same time and I was finally getting the help I needed.

Just before 6, hubby returned with the rest of the food, the kids and my mother in law. Just as the first guests were arriving for the party. Things weren't finished but that wasn't my worry for the next half hour or so.

We disappeared off back to the hotel and parked the car up for the night. We went back in for another drink and for me to redo hair and make up. We then got a quiet half hour alone with a glass of wine and a beer whilst we waited for a taxi to take us back to the reception.

We got to the reception and were last to arrive. The place looked rather full and I was very happy with how many people had made it to the evening do. We spent part of the evening mingling and thanking people for coming and their gifts. It took a long time to get the best man round to doing his speech. The kids who were there kept asking for food and it did get to a point where I had to put it to hubby to tell the best man to get a move on or we'll skip it altogether. It got things moving. Our best man is a little of a control freak but I was the bride. ha.

He eventually did his speech, it was interactive with funny pictures of my groom on his kids playstation. It was funny if a little long. In all it was a good job. Matthew was laughing out very loud at jokes and making everyone else smile. After a toast to the bride and groom, hubby gave out flowers to the bridesmaids, his mum, my mum and his stepmum, the buffet was pronounced open and everyone got to eat. This pleased all the kids. We had SEVERELY over catered but I was pleased with the selection we had and I am glad the food didn't run out.

We cut the top cake fairly early after posing for photos and everyone enjoyed our cupcakes. The top traditional cake was shared out amongst the older generations too. We had about 15 cup cakes left over at the end of the night, they were wrapped up for the kids who stayed latest and extras for our kids of course.

When it came to the wedding dance there was a problem.

Despite being told that they had a catalogue of virtually every song on their system, they didn't have our wedding song.

We were prepared though and had it on cd in case.

However this was one thing we had overlooked.

Our cd was in the car at the hotel.

We were shown a list of wedding songs they had and I personally found it very limited and felt rather let down by the list of Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Aerosmith etc.

In the end we settled for Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All.

Three quarters of the way through our first dance hubby asked how long the song lasted. I smiled and told him about 3 minutes less than the song we had originally picked. So I guess it wasn't all bad.

The rest of the music was pretty general and rather forgettable. They did offer requests but the 3 songs I asked for in the current top 10 weren't on the playlist. I did find that disappointing that they had so little. On the night it was fine, but looking back, we'd have been better off having a different dj,

Other than that I can't really fault how things went.

People started drifting off fairly early. We started the reception early so that those with kids could come and had the option of leaving early.

We ourselves left the party around 11pm. Most people had gone. Mother in Law and hubbys younger sister had taken the babies back to their house for the night and Matthew was going to stay at my mums that night.

We were given a lift back into the town centre and had an unwind drink before finally getting to bed.

Though it had been a long day, it had been exciting and just flew by.

Finally, for anyone who didn't scroll down and may be interested, here's what we had picked for our wedding song.

Wedding Day

The night before the wedding, I packed up all the things I needed and headed off to my mums for the night. I managed to eat a sandwich that night but that was all.

In the morning I woke early. After a couple of hours sitting around with mugs of coffee it was time to head off to my hair appointment. I had the works. The wash, cut, blow dry, hair products and straighteners as I went from a one length bob back to having it a couple of inches shorter, layered and with a slight angled fringe to the right.

After this is it was time to head back to my mums, I got my make up on ready and was trying to glue on my false nails as the first of the bridesmaids arrived. The nails were a job and a half. The glue wouldn't come out properly and they kept coming off again over the course of the morning.

Shortly after, the other 2 bridesmaids who are now my sisters in law arrived with my mother in law. The finishing touches had to be done to their dresses. The girls decided they all wanted straps on their dresses, Vicky and Sharon went for the halterneck look whilst Callie went for the normal straps.

My super talented mother in law also made me my corsage to go on the side of my dress.

We had cups of tea and my mum had a selection of pies and quiches for us to snack on but none of us ate much.

The bridesmaids got ready first, then myself. MIL got ready last. However a little glitch meant that she ended up getting stuck in one of my mums bedrooms when she finally got herself ready. This was with about 10 minutes to spare before the taxi's arrived. One of the door handles is rather tempremental and when you shut it from the inside, it won't open again. We heard a big knock on the door and my dad went up and tried to bash the door open. That didn't work so my dad went up again armed with a hammer and she was freed.

The bouquets and flowers for the hair were all out and I gave them their jewellery gifts. They all looked stunning. We managed to get out into the garden for a couple of photos before it was time to head off. Some photos I am looking forward to seeing as it was quite windy and I had my veil in my face and had to hold it on in some shots too so they could be fun to see.

The taxis arrived and the bridesmaids and my MIL went off in the first taxi. Myself, mum and dad hung around a little while to let them get there first and I arrived a few minutes later at the registry office in a black Mercedes.

I was led into the waiting area with my bridesmaids. We had to wait here whilst people were ushered into the room we were marying in. I had a brief chat with the Registrar and had to confirm my details as bf and co all waited nicely in the other room.

As soon as we got there, one of my nails came off again. I didnt keep the rest of the glue so it was missing. Haha. Luckily it was a thumb one and would have been hidden behind the flowers.

After what felt like a long wait though it was probably around 10 minutes, we were called through to make our entrance when a family of latecomers arrived. As the door was held open for the bridesmaids, a mutual friend and his family arrived late and rushed into the room creating a bit of a laugh to all around. They open the door for the bride and in run our old co-worker Mark and his clan.

The music we had chosen Canon by Pachebel (if you want to youtube it, its very well known) was playing in the background as the bridesmaids led me and my dad into the room.

Bf looked very serious.

He later said I looked very nervous.

We said our vows which were alot longer than the ones I thought I had picked but they were lovely vows and not too short. It said everything that needed to be said and I liked the way that although we hadn't written the vows ourselves, they meant something personal to us both.

It soon came to the next stage of the ceremony. The registrar asked who had the rings. A very proud little boy in the wings shouted out "I have!" as Matthew bought the rings to the front of the room. He looked so smart and so proud to have had the responsibility of looking after the rings. We did the vows regarding rings and as I feared, my eczema meant that my wedding ring didn't fit properly. To avoid problems, I quickly slipped it onto my little finger to be wearing it. We were then declared husband and wife and sealed our marriage with a kiss.

We signed our wedding certificate and our best man and bridesmaids acted as our witnesses. Then we had a few photos taken as we pretended to sign the register book (It's for show)

I heard Matthew in the front row ask my mum if it was finished now because he was bored. You can always trust a 6 year old to be honest with their thoughts. :)

We then lead everyone out into the courtyard for more photographs.

We got all the normal family photos, the bridesmaids, friends, kids etc and separated off to do our own things.

Part two coming soon.....

A New Name But The Same Old Me.

As of August 21st 2010, I have had a lovely new name.

I am yet to sign anything with my new surname but it did feel good booking into our guest houses and hotels as Mr and Mrs T.

I have very few photo's at the moment but for those of you not on facebook, here are just a couple to be going on with.

We've not yet recieved our main photos. My brother in law and his wife had 2 cameras to do our official photographs. One in colour, one set in black and white so we will have a nice variety once we get them here.

So here I am in my lovely dress that was made by my talented mother in law.

The dress was ivory taffeta with a silk covered bodice with flower shaped sequins. A corset was attached underneath to keep it all up in the right position up top. The veil was also handmade with the floral sequins adding a dash of sparkle.

As you can see, I opted out of the purple florals. I went for the pink contrast in the bouquets. I did love the colours.

The bridesmaids were in deep purple satin with a shimmer fabric over the top. These were again made by my new mother in law.

I made the pink and white rose bouquets as well as the jewelled flower in their hair. I even sewed the ribbon around the flower stems. I am USELESS at anything like that.

The men wore black suits, with lilac shirts then a dark purple with lilac swirl waistcoat and tie. Once again, hand crafted by my mother in law. Posting this picture is the first time I have realised the best man was more in grey than black. He did have a problem with his original suit and had to find another one the night before the wedding, but who at a wedding notices the best man that much? haha

The boys wore a black suit witth a complete lilac ensemble beneath. These were actually bought but the kids looked so smart.

I will soon have the proper wedding story to post with more photos but thought I would just share a couple of pictures to anyone who had been waiting to see them with a little explanation on each picture.

A weeks Holiday

OK people, today is it. The big day has finally arrived so I am going to be missing in action for a few days. I wish you all well.

The last minute plans didn't go as we wamted amd yesterday my grandad was admitted to hospital for tests with a suspected heart attack. All is looking good now though and he should be out around 10am so he can make the wedding. Our reception place then said they hadn't room for our food which I spent half the day preparing as fiance was running round to get chicken pieces that hadn't arrived on our food order. But now I can breathe and just take my time today.

Have a good week everyone. x

Jeans - August

Look at my ticker people, 68lbs down. 2lbs to go. The carb free attempt is paying off.

Today I went shopping for jeans. My last pair, the ones I lovingly nicknamed "my thin jeans" were just too big. They were sagging everywhere even on my knees. So I went out looking for new ones. Still in the dark about what size I am officially I went into my favourite clothes shop and tried on a pair I thought I should fit into. They were about 4 inches too big around my waist and 6 inches around my bum.

I went to try on the size below and they were out of stock. Something though made me be brave and skip to the next size down.

It was worth a try.

I thought they probably would not do up at all as we always need to allow extra for jeans.

They went on over my legs and thighs the perfect fit. The test was in the doing up. They did up fine. I confess to a little bulge above the waistline as is always the case in well fitting jeans after having 3 babies but this is an ongoing challenge and I will make these too big for me too. 

I need to work on my body image. After all I went into a shop to buy a pair of size 22 jeans and came out with a size 18 (US 16) and the hugest smile on my face.

I am amazed by this

Bf is always telling me I am not as big as I think I am. I know it's easy to say and whilst I feel the difference, there is alot of change in my body since last October but while my body and confidence improve, my actual mentality takes a little while to catch up.

I guess the proof will be in the wedding photos.

It's The Final Countdown

Whatever will be will be. Right?

My scales have been erratic this week and the official  number now is 66lbs down. Still.

In fact, the way my scales messed me about last week, (said i'd put on 7lbs in 2 days despite me being good) I am relieved to be the same weight.

This week is the final push.

6 days complex carb free. No potatoes, rice, pasta, bread or other grains. 1 week of solid fresh meat and veg. I don't want to be a bloated bride on Saturday.

Yep, S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y!!!

No "in x weeks" about it, I am going to be a married woman this time next week and setting off on my honeymoon.

The number on the dial no longer counts, I have my dream dress. It fits alot smaller than I was this time last year and I my wedding day is not going to be about lbs.

In all terms. I have succeeded.

*Just for the record, this is not my dress not that I am giving anything away THIS close to the wedding. wink wink.*

And now it's time for something completely different

I am in the mood for a debate of sorts. Todays subect:

Climate change.

Global Warming.

Or whatever it is called this week.

Is it a thing that actually exists?

Is the world changing because we humans are killing it?

Or would this all be happening as part of the universal cycle?

My views on this are straight forward.

I believe that while we are not helping with the altering world, extreme weather, pattern changes and all sorts of other phenomena would happen wether we were here or not.

I like to think I am rather scientifically minded and see that each part of what goes in the world is a big cycle.

Let's begin with earthquakes.

A headline reads "Asia's biggest quake since 1924"

This does not mean that this is the biggest earthquake ever, it doesn't mean there's not been others but it's the biggest one in a while. One thing we get alot of in England is statistics on rainfall "The Wettest summer since 1932" etc. "The dryest January since records began!" English weather records started in the mid 50's so we've had the dryest January in over 50 years.

These do not sound such shocking headlines when put in realist non-panic-mongering terms do they?

Another thing I always think about when turning a blind eye to the apocolyptic weather tales, is that we know more than ever about more than ever.

Jump back 150 years.

Would we have known about flooding in Pakistan? What was happening in South Korea? What was happening in the next village?

News was slow and often word of mouth. Newspapers were printed slower and news could be 2-3 days behind by the time it reached press, another 2 by the time it was in the hands of the vendors.

The world has got smaller since science and technology have come into this world on it's grand scale that it is. Communications have got stronger and nowhere in the world is beyond reach with air travel. If something big in the world happens, news correspondents are often there within hours to report live. Nothing is out of reach with the world media. We hear about everything. We know as much about the other side of the world as we do about our own towns.

Some things of course can only be blamed on man.

The oil spill.
Wars.
The shortage of fossil fuels.

But humans never seem to be happy unless they are fretting about something.

Emissions from fuels do have an effect on the environment. The smog of the polluted cities, the state of the rivers and seas.

Now what about the ozone layer?  More to the point that hole in the ozone layer we heard so much about in the 90's that doesn't even get a mention these days? When did you last hear about the ozone layer? So what really causes that? Work of man or a cycle from the sun?

The sun goes through cycles. The sun burns hotter than it did 2000 years ago, during the ice age the sun was on a cooling period. The sun goes through ages and phrases as does the earth. The sun is expected to burn itself out with it's intense burning and eruptions in around 2 million years.

So is it us? Is it the earth? Or even the sun that is to blame for the worlds climate right now?

I've left some seeds for you to think about, so join in and share your thoughts.