How rude!

I was just having another look at all the wedding photos when I spotted this:



I was hungry

That'll teach them not to give me cupcakes!

Love Toni

Well what do you know?

Not a lot is my usual reply. I have learnt over the last few months, what with TT and stuff that my relationship with food is complex very simple. I use food as a celebration; weddings, birthdays, winning the lottery, having good news. I also use it as a comforter; funerals, bad news, lonliness. When I'm bored I cook, when I'm happy I cook, when I'm depressed I cook, let's be honest I generally cook! So it is easy to see how I got to put so much weight on, especially over the last couple of years with no job and no-one to keep me company. Today's baking falls into the "I need cheering up" category. I'm suffering from Aussie withdrawal.

Lemon icing cupcakes

Having had 2 weeks off the D.I.E.T. thing I of course gained a couple of pounds, not that I mind in the slightest, it averages out at less than 3 ounces a day, a very small price to pay for all the joy I have had over the last fortnight. It does mean that I won't be eating any of the above!!

June 21st Garden

Thanks to Paula for her very prompt reminder that it is that time of the month again. It is also the longest day of the year, a fact which hadn't escaped my notice as the dawn chorus started at 3:41 this morning.

So here they are:

Some of my courgettes

Chilli plants

Carrots and peas

Beetroots

Garden peas

Tomatoes



A chilli



3 blackcurrants, the only 3!



Time to talk

It has been a busy week with an awful lot of wining and dining, meeting friends and talking into the wee small hours. It's not every week that friends from Australia fly over to attend your wedding and you have to make the most of it.

Yesterday Lynne, Dave, Mike and me went off on a trip into the past, visiting The Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster. We got to ride on a proper chuff-chuff (steam train to the uninitiated). I forgot to take my camera (where is my brain?) so haven't got any pics. We got off the train at Highley and had a look around the museum before popping down to the Ship Inn for a bite to eat and a pint. (Like I said, a LOT of wining and dining).

After lunch we continued our journey to Bridgnorth. It was on this leg of our journey that it became quite clear why I am pleased Mike didn't make a speech on Tuesday.

Mike and Dave were chatting away. The following is a snippet:

Mike: Lorna is like a Rolex.......... perpetual.
Dave: Are you sure she's real and not an imitation?
Mike: Definitely real, she sweeps......... Boom, boom!!

Talking of Tuesday, I'm still grinning like a Cheshire Cat. I could talk about the day in minute detail and bore you all to tears, but that was then and this is now and we have new adventures to plan for. There is the festival in August and a trip to Australia to save for. Possibly next year, but definitely, 100% guaranteed by my big birthday in 2013. Which is of course exactly 2 years today!! (Mike said I can carry him in my hand luggage if necessary.)

We rounded off our day with a trip to an All You Can Eat Chinese Buffet, mmmmmmmmm double helpings and as many desserts as you like. A very enjoyable day!

Wonderful Wedding

Thank you all for your very best wishes, we had an absolutely wonderful, fantastic, special day. I promised we would share our photos with you all so here is the link to our album on Photobucket:


Wedding Album

Or Flickr here:

Wedding Album

I only wish I could post the joy we felt to be sharing our special day with people who mean the world to us both, especially those who's journeys were long. As always seems to be the way, there were some who couldn't make it, they were missed. Special thanks to Dr SB, who only stayed for a short while, I think he came to make sure Mike wasn't over doing it.

Something Borrowed

We were out with our friends from Australia and another couple on Friday evening. John (not Australian) asked me if it is difficult to write the blog. No I said, you just type into a little box and click publish. I realised later that what he really meant was did I find it hard to think of things to say. Again the answer is no. In fact I find it much easier to say things in the blog. My tears while I type, be they tears of joy or sadness, don't stop me getting my message across. Words be they via email, text or IM have always been an important part of our relationship, in fact if it had not been for the Internet, Mike and I would never have met.

Today we are getting married and I know that tears of joy will flow freely and probably almost constantly. It is because of this that I would like to say a very special vow to Mike that I would never manage to express in the flesh. I actually found it on the internet, hence the title of the post.

"I promise to give you the best of myself and to ask of you no more than you can give. 
I promise to accept you the way you are. I fell in love with you for the qualities, abilities and outlook on life that you have, and won't try to reshape you in a different image.
I promise to respect you as a person with your own interests, desires, and needs, and to realise that those are sometimes different, but no less important than my own.
I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you see through the window of my personal world into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.
I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face change as we both change in order to keep our relationship alive and exciting. 
And finally, I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give and all I feel inside in the only way I know how... completely and forever."

It's the final countdown.

Dress, check.
Shoes, check.
Undies, check.
Jewellery, check.
Suit, check.
Shirt and tie, check.
Rings, check.
Catering organised.
Money for licence in envelope.
Flowers in buckets in garage ready for making bouquet tomorrow. Yes that's right, I'm making my own bouquet, well it can't be that hard and I did spend 2 weeks a few years ago helping out in a florist's over a busy period that had both Valentine's Day and Mother's Day in it.

It's a shame all our loyal followers can't be here with us tomorrow. We promise we will upload the photos just as soon as we get chance. I've already made sure that the album I created on Photobucket is open for you all to view (I know there maybe better sites, but I already had an account with them, I am open to suggestions if there is somewhere much better.)

8.30 p.m. update:

One poorly friend calling to say she and hubby are coming down from Liverpool, despite doctor's orders, check.

Bucket load of tears and phone handed over to Mike, check.

I am so ecstatically happy.

Thinning Thursdays - the final week before the wedding.

The results are in. After 19 weeks I have lost a grand total of two stone seven and a half pounds. That's 35 1/2 pounds. I am, to put it simply, dead chuffed.

I have gone from this to this:

 

Something old.

Dear Auntie Paula,

I thought I would let you know what I have been up to recently. I had a bit of excitement on Monday night, well actually Tuesday morning at 1:30, when I heard a couple of foxes fighting outside the house. I jumped up to look out of the window and there it was, a fox. Being a friendly sort (ahem) I said hello, quite loudly so I could be heard and it looked up at me. Wow I thought, a fox is looking at me, so I shouted even louder and started wagging my tail. I tried to get Mike and Lorna to let me out to play, but they just grumbled about the time and went back to sleep.

The two of them haven't been spending as much time playing with me recently, so I've had to amuse myself. Any way yesterday they were busy and I got bored.

Mom says she doesn't know how so much stuffing fitted into such a small ball.

Sorry, Mom says it has had it this time.

Hope you, B. and Bud are well

Love Toni x x x

Something new.

The weather the past couple of days has been so fantastic that we finally decided to unwrap and use the beach chairs we bought last year.

Mine seemed to have something missing, I'm talking to Trading Standards.

So far so good.

Finished necklaces.

Finished earrings.

Forgive me people.

I might as well warn you all that this is not an uplifting, cheerful, or helpful post. It is a tear stained grumble of the biggest possible magnitude. The reasons are many, at least I think they are, maybe everything is linked and it is more a domino effect, hell I don't know and more importantly I don't care.

First thing was that yesterday I went to see my hairdresser, worried about getting a cut on the day, just in case, I decided 2 weeks before was a good idea. Oh boy I am glad I did. A trim turned into a massacre. It is so short, and I can only hope it grows miraculously over the next 12 days. Every time I go to the loo I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I burst into tears. Everything was meant to be perfect for my special day. I thought about posting a pic, but my red rimmed eyes are not attractive. Mike thinks it looks wonderful. The irony is that it is how I wanted it for Solidarność but on that occasion it was left too long. I don't have a long hair fetish, just an idea of how I thought it should look given the dress I'm wearing. So that was the starter.

The main course (well the next bit) was something I cannot really discuss, let's just say there are a few issues with the extended family.

Which brings us to the dessert course which is exactly what I did last night. I drank a bottle of wine (yes a whole one to myself) and defrosted a cheesecake (lemon and very yummy) and this morning I feel wretched because I have spoilt my D.I.E.T. and the guilt of that and my hair and the spitefulness of other people makes me want to buy a cream cake.

12 days to go folks, do you think I'll cheer up in time?