Busy weekend...

I'm writing this while we wait for both sets of parents to descend on us for the day. It'll be the first time they've met, so it's a bit nerve-wracking! I'm away next week, but I'm sure Tim will let you know how the meeting goes...

My Mum and Dad came down last night, as Yorkshire is a bit of a trek from Bedford. Mum brought her wedding dress for me to try on - I won't be wearing it as it didn't suit me at all! Mum looked lovely in it, but as soon as I tried it on we both said 'errm - no'! So I'll be going wedding dress shopping in a couple of weeks - Em is coming over to help me and make sure I don't buy a meringue!

My name in lights

I found out the other day that the paper I co-authored for the Royal Aero Soc conference has been accepted for publication by the RAe journal. As I never produced any papaers from my thesis, this will be my first published paper so I'm rather chuffed! If anyone is interested in 'a feasibility study into model support systems for blended wing body aircraft in transonic wind tunnels', let me know and I'll get you a copy ;-)

Swarkestone Pavilion in Derbyshire. We're staying here for a few days at the start of our honeymoon. It's one of the many interesting and historic properties available to hire through The Landmark Trust (www.landmarktrust.org.uk)

Housing dilemma

Tim and I have decided that trying to organise a wedding whilst I keep going away and Tim prepares for his job and viva is not complicated enough, so we've started house hunting as well. There seem to be lots on the market in our price range, with a large range of decor standards! We've also found that some estate agents are really irritating - they won't take no for an answer which just puts us off even more!

We've seen one we really like, about 20 mins walk from the station for Tim, with good decoration and a very low price. There was another one we wanted to look round today, but the estate agent couldn't unlock the door! Things are moving quite fast - hopefully by next week we'll have put an offer in on something...

On a completely different note, thanks for the mention on your blog, Trish! Trish's blog has always inspired me - I aspire to one with such good quality pictures and beautiful entries!

Keeping busy...

I'll be in Bristol for the next two days, on a training course. I'm back there again for at least one day next week, for more training, followed by three days in Toulouse the following week on a meshing workshop.

As Tim pointed out, I never used to go away for work *before* he moved in...!

It's back!

My engagement ring is now back from the jewellers, where they were shaping my wedding ring round it. So it's now sparkling on my finger again :-)

More singing...

This weekend was another singing event - this time with the Nash Singers, my chamber choir. We were singing in the church in Preston Bissett, a small village just South of Buckingham and so an hour's drive from Bedford. My friend Margaret cooked dinner for me between the rehearsal and the concert, which meant I spent a lot less time driving around - although Tim dropped me off and then drove back for the concert, so he still spent a long time in the car!

I thought the music went OK in the end - I'm in two minds whether to ask them to sing at the wedding or not. I've been very spoilt singing with Philip in Reading, and I'm aware this choir aren't as good - not that I'm perfect or the best singer in it by a long way! But they are a great group of friends and I'm sure they'd love to sing for us. Tim thought they were OK at the concert, but we haven't discussed their involvement in the wedding yet... you never know, he might post and let you know!

Staying on the subject of wedding music, I've discovered that 'Serenade' by Derek Bourgeois, which Tim played to me as a brass band arrangement, has also been arranged for organ. I'd *love* to walk down the aisle to it, although it's got a very strange rhythm! All I need to do now is find an organist who's willing to play it...

The gift list

I had a day off work today, so we spent this afternoon wandering round Milton Keynes choosing which department store we wanted to have our gift list. We settled on John Lewis - they had a much better selection of everything, and very friendly and helpful staff. Apparently we even get vouchers for free tea and coffee in the canteen when we're choosing things! We're both looking forward to wandering round the store with a bar code scanner... we're not bothered about getting lots of presents, but it'll help us decide what sort of stuff we'd like to end up with :-)

Apart from that, not much has happened recently. I'm having a bit of trouble getting used to work again after all my gadding about. Still, only one day to go until the weekend. Tim is out at band practice this evening so there's only one tuba in the flat at the moment. I've got a concert on Saturday with the Nash singers, my chamber choir - I'll let you know how it goes...

Saturday sort out

We're spending today sorting out lots of bits n bobs - visited the registrar this morning to apply for an "authorisation of marriage", and booked an appointment with the florist for January - plan ahead! Tim has also sorted out a joint bank account for us, so we've got new debit cards and cheque books. There's no money in the account yet, but it's exciting nonetheless :-)

We met up with Nick and Helen for dinner last night - Nick is an old friend of mine from school. We've stayed in touch all through uni and beyond and used to meet up in the holidays, but we hadn't seen each other since his wedding earlier on this year. It was good to catch up - Helen and I spent most of the evening discussing weddings, unsurprisingly! We ate at belgo's ( http://www.belgo-restaurants.com), a sort of Belgian-themed restaurant which specialises in mussels and has a HUGE beer list. We worked our way through lots of different beers, with the help of the head waiter who kept suggesting new ones to try. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone visiting London!

Sad news for Ian... someone has written his travel book!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316724742/qid=1099752190/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/202-5464479-2531051

I shall be adding it to my wish list... sorry, Ian!

OO, C++

I'm in London this week, on a C++ training course. It's been a couple of years since I did any serious code writing, so it's a bit hard going - still getting my head round the idea of object oriented code. Still, it's improving my employability no end, which can't be a bad thing.

The people on the couse are all fine, and about the same standard as me - there's only one annoying person who seems to want to show off his knowledge a lot. Every now and again he reminds me of Adam Lea and "Vorticity" (for the Met Posse readers!)

My hotel room is a bit of a shoebox and doesn't have radio 4 - so even though it's back in Bedford I still can't listen!! I'm looking forward to Saturday morning when I can have a lie in and listen again - though Home Truths will not be the same without John Peel. Sadly missed by us all, I'm sure.

It's back!

It's been a difficult weekend in Bedfordshire. At some point on saturday a radio mast near Peterborough fell down, and we've been without Radios 1-4 and Classic FM ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/3970807.stm ). Mornings are a lot harder to handle without radio 4. Thankfully it's back now, so we'll be able to enjoy the dash to turn off the radio at 6:30 on a monday evening which has become a part of our lives recently.

Tim

Edit: I'm trying to remember to write in red so you know it's me. I'll probably forget next time though. Ah well.