Sales shopping

We ventured out and hit the sales today - I was looking for a digital radio, and Tim was on the hunt for an mp3 player. I was very successful and am now the proud owner of an Evoke-1XT, which is compact and portable but which also plugs into the separates in the sitting room. All those new radio stations - bliss! Tim wasn't quite so fortunate, and will probably buy something over the internet as there wasn't much choice in town. We also managed to buy the clock we wanted for the sitting room - photo to follow...

Christmas was spent at Tim's parents, along with his brother, sister, brother-in-law and nephew, so it was a pretty crowded house! It was all very festive and relaxing, though unfortunately all the men managed to pick up a stomach bug and spent boxing day/the day after in bed. Still, everyone has recovered now. We've got a day and a half at home (Tim is doing some studying for his CFA and I'm relaxing but should be sorting out wedding invites), then we're off to Huddersfield for New Year with the Reading lot.

Merry Christmas, everyone

Last day at work today, so I'm putting off actually doing anything. I'm counting down until four 'o' clock, when it's officially Christmas as far as I'm concerned. We're off to Tim's parents for Christmas, then meeting up with Chris, Sian, James and Ian for new year, which I'm sure will be detailed in more than one blog afterwards!

Anyway, hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas wherever they are, and a fantastic new year :-)

Last minute sorting

I went to Milton Keynes last night to pick up my wedding dress - finding a space to park wasn't as nightmarish as last time, but on the way back to the car I managed to turn the wrong way out of debenhams and got hopelessly lost in the shopping centre. In the end I had to retrace my steps and start again. I don't know anyone who actually likes MK centre - it's designed to get you lost!

Anyway, the dress is hanging up at my friend's house, at least until after Christmas. It actually fits me now, so hopefully will need taken in a bit, as well as shortened, before May.

That's it for wedding preparations now until after Christmas, when we'll start on the invites. I'm looking forward to a relaxing few days at Tim's parents, with no organising to do! This will be the first Christmas I haven't spent with my Mum and Dad, so it'll be interesting seeing what other people do. Apparently we'll probably watch the Queen's speech, which will be a first for me...

We picked up our wedding rings this weekend - very early, I know, but as we'd had them especially made we started the process quite early on. They're just what we wanted - mine's a narrow white gold band which fits around my engagement ring, and Tim's is a wider band with the shape of my engagement ring etched into it. Mine is tiny compared to Tim's - I really do seem to have miniscule fingers!

The rings are safely hidden away at the moment, with no more trying on allowed before May :-)

Bah Humbug

I'm at work late tonight, having spent all morning waiting at home for a parcel to be delivered. It finally arrived at 1 'o' clock, which meant I could have gone to work and popped home in my lunch hour! Still, it means we've got all the Christmas presents sorted now - just need to send them all out to relatives. The Christmas cards are also written and awaiting stamps, so I'm feeling quite organised.

I'm still not feeling very Christmassy, though - this hasn't been helped by missing my Christmas concert on Sunday as I'd come down with a cold which made me lose my voice! Exactly the same thing happened to me last year, so I'm starting to think I'm fated never to sing carol descants again...

Tim is still getting used to his new status. The first piece of post addressed to 'Dr Mosedale' arrived today, so I'm looking forward to seeing his grin when he sees it! It's such a relief for both of us to have the viva done and be able to move on - in a self-centered way, it means I can move on from my pretty nasty viva experience as well. On with the wedding/house buying plans!!

Is there a doctor in the house?

I am now officially a viva survivor. It was quite nice to be told as I went in that they were going to give me a PhD, although as I struggled through an explanation of subtropical gyres I did wonder if they'd change their minds. Apart from that, it went quite well, and I don't really know where the 2 hours and 45 minutes went. All in all, a good day, and a huge relief to have it over and done with (barring the few minor corrections, of course).

The dress...

...has been ordered - it's 'ivory', apparently. I can't say much about it, as Tim isn't supposed to know. Em and I had a great day with me trying on a whole variety of styles of dress - Em nearly fell off the chair laughing when I tried on a particularly large one. In the end I chose one of the first ones I tried on - I really liked it, and Em approved. I don't think I'll be having a veil - 50 pounds for a bit of netting seems a bit steep! But a tiara might be fun... any suggestions on hairstyles gratefully received ;-)

It's finally happened!

News from home that I forgot to mention... my Dad got to be Father Christmas at the Church Christmas Fair! Well it had to happen eventually...

Apparently he even grew his beard a bit for the part - bless :-) According to Mum, the ladies of the congregation thought he was lovely!

Elspeth and Samuel (slightly blurry as it's not the greatest camera!) If you look closely, Elspeth is smiling...

Busy weekend

Well I'm finally back, both in the country and in Bedford. Four days in Toulouse was fun but it's very nice to be home again! The workshop was hard going, and my waist line has suffered from all the gourmet food I had to eat. Speaking of which, on the Chris Taylor free lunch scale Airbus Toulouse get 10/10 - three course meal with wine, with loads of choice, followed by gallons of expresso coffee. This was just from their normal canteen as well, nothing fancy. No wonder we were allowed two hours for lunch each day...

Anyway, I got back on Thursday night in time for our works Christmas party on Friday night. Tim finally got to meet all my office mates and put names to faces. He also got to drink lots from the free bar, so he was a bit dehydrated on Saturday morning! We had a 10:00 meeting with the mortgage advisor, where we found out that the great mortgage they'd suggested last time we were in (a week ago) was no longer available. This meant we had to go through the whole process again - choosing a good mortgage, getting a decision in principle and then applying for it. I'm feeling very stressed about the whole house buying thing at the moment! Weddings are easy in comparison...

To finish our busy weekend, we then went down to Bristol to babysit Samuel, who is now 3 and a half months old. I'll try to put up a picture if we've got one - he's very cute! It was the first time Rachel and David had gone out for the evening since he was born, and thankfully Tim and I coped without having to change a nappy or ring for help. I'm looking forward to playing with him at Christmas now!

Em is coming up tomorrow to help me shop for a wedding dress. Since I've put on a stone in the last year, which I'm planning on losing again before the wedding, we need to find something which will fit me when I'm a bit smaller than I am now. This could be complicated!

It's all going on

Evening all. Elspeth's away in Toulouse this week, so I thought that while she was away I'd buy a house. I hope she doesn't mind. The offer has been accepted, and I've even checked how long the walk is from the house to the station (21 minutes) for my twice-daily walk. It's a bit further than where we live at the moment (13 minutes), but isn't too far. Tomorrow is my first day: hopefully it won't be too taxing. Under normal circumstances I'd be fretting about it a bit, but I'm spending too much time being concerned about my impending viva to worry about anything else.

Other things up this week: Elspeth's work christmas do on friday, so the first turkey of the season. More family visitations as we're going to Bristol to babysit Samuel, my nephew, for Rachel and David, as they're going out for the evening. Apparently he sleeps now, so that hopefully won't be too hard! The parents met up last weekend: it all went well except that we ending up paying for taking them out to dinner. Never mind, it's a small price for the amount they want to pay for the wedding :-)

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!