Beware! This one's about the W!

Mr L is best manning for his friend who is getting married on September 30th. Yesterday we got a beautiful, handmade invitation from them.

Us? Our invites were £3.50 for ten from Marks and Sparks, and whilst we may have written them, oh okay, written some of them, we haven't sent them yet. We don't even have stamps! And we get married in 2 months.

Oops.

Lovely hair

Ohmygod!! How fabulous is my new haircut? And the fringe! Marvellous! Look at the layers, ooh and I like the parting on a different side. Lovely, lovely hair!

You can't have your cake and eat it

Cake #3 The winner!

Or can you? Two weekends ago we trekked up to my mum and dads for a visit and The Great Chocolate Wedding Cake Tasting Competition (TGCWTC).

Now, at the W there will be three cakes. A traditional fruit cake which I am making (I'm using the family Christmas cake recipe, but with less Santa decoration), a vegan, alcohol free fruit cake which Mr L is making for the guests that don't drink, and the chocolate cake, which my mum is making, requested by Mr L but coveted by our godson. I can see it now, Mr L with one side of the cake, a 5 year old with the other, the cake flying through the air...

Anyway, at TGCWTC we tried four cakes. My poor mum was so enthusiastic at the beginning, we left her on the Saturday cheery and looking forward to trying out four different recipes. My sister came home at 10pm the same day to find her at her wits end wrestling with fondant icing. She made the cakes, cut them in half, iced half of each cake (there were two different types of icing) and numbered the cakes. Then we all (12 of us) had a piece of each cake.

Life's too short to explain everything that happened at the TGCWTC so here are the highlights;

• Godson put in charge of giving cakes marks on chart we drew together.
• We were allowed to eat the cake before our dinner - when does that ever happen? In fact my mum was encouraging it!
• Cake #4 (which we tried first, don't ask) enjoyed by all, especially godson who wolfed it all down without dropping a bit.
• Cake #2 full of booze and chocolate, yummy but the general consensus was that it was "a bit too rich".
• Cake #3 Mmm, coffee and chocolate and delicious.
• Cake #1 Mmmmm, also delicious! This is so difficult!
• Every cake preceded by Mr S asking "is this cake #1?".
• Me worrying about godson dropping brown cake onto mums new beige carpet. Guess who made more mess (clue: initials are LL)?
• Mrs S phoning up when she got home to say "don't tell your mum, but I've been sick".
• Mr L having to have the next day off work with tummy ache.
• D asking for seconds! Seconds!

You should be able to see (but not taste, boo!) the other cakes by clicking on the cake above...You'll also find the epitime of the Wedding Cake; Scott & Charlene's cake. Altogether now "Suddenly you're here with meeee".

I want my MP3

I don't smoke, I don't drink that much. My vice? My MP3 player. I can't go anywhere without it, since it arrived in the post at work 10 months ago we have been inseperable. Until now.

On Saturday night we were staying with my bestest friend, Mrs S, and I was showing off my lovely little MP3 player. My beautiful purple Zen Micro. Sob. Mrs S was saying how she wanted an MP3 player, but then admitted she didn't know what they did, or why she wanted one. I blame the continous repeating of the Balamory christmas dvd that her 2 year old insists on watching "Mummy, Mory! Moreeeeeeeeeeeey", it's obviously sent her insane.

Anyway, when we went up to bed 1.5 litres of Sangria later, I was too sleepy to actually put my player back in my bag. It wasn't until we were at my parents and leaving for the station the next day until I realised I'd left it on their bedside table! Noooooooooooooo! Double Nooooooooo!!!

I won't get it back until my mum comes to visit in THREE WEEKS!! So for now, I'm listening to my radio, my post Walkman (RIP) pre-MP3 musical accompanyment. And instead of my usual expensive fabulous, outside noise blocking headphones? I have a pair of headphones my dad stole from the open-top tour bus of London.

Sob.

Cluck. Part One.

Whilst reading his, please bear in mind that the ladies involved in this, were also involved in this. We are also mostly librarians. We like to plan. Mostly to take over the world, mwah ha haaaa. Did I say that out loud? The following has been taken from various emails sent today, entirely in work time. Names have been changed to protect the librarian sisterhood.

From: Me
To: Bookish Barbara & Miss S.

Okay, here are my musings on the Hen Night.
1. Check into hotel as soon as we can. Mrs S wants an afternoon nap, I want my moneys worth :)
2. Get ready, with at least 2 changes of outfit per person, whilst drinking lots* and having a mini buffet like at Booky B's. Lots of M&S small food. Yum.
3. Go for a few drinks, meet the others who aren't staying in the hotel (fools!). Possibly go for cocktails* in that swanky bar that I went to with Mrs D although they are £6/7 a pop, yet are huge and delicious. Classy.
4. Go and shake our moneymakers at the student union. Not so classy.
5. Get back to hotel, sleep/be sick/steal toiletries.
6. For those who want to, go for breakfast/lunch (ooh I mean 'brunch' don't I?) at Eat and 2 Veg. Mmm.
7. Go home
* = Not my non-drinking sister. Boo!

How's that sound?

From: Booky B
To: Me & Miss S

I had an email about my friend Crazy Hen's (note: this is not her real name) hen night which is on the 12th of never (note: these are not the real dates) and it sounds hideous. It's in a galaxy far far away (note: this is not the real venue) for a start, and they want everyone to dress in pink and pay £15 each to hire a pink limo, and go to some hideous meat market to get mawled. And as I'm missing the wedding I can't really miss it. Agh! Your plan sounds much better Lady L!

From: Miss S
To: Me & Booky B

Ok - I'll leave booking the hotel to you - but anything else and I'm your girl. Balloons, banners and glitter are mspecialtyty!

To be continued....

Valentine

No, I'm not a week early, this is actually a Public Service Announcement.

Stop what you're doing immediately and go here to pre-order the new single from The Delays. Because if this isn't the best thing I've heard in a good five years, then I don't know what is. Click on e-card to get a sneaky listen, and I defy you not to dance when you hear this. I don't care if you are at work! This song is so amazingly good, it makes me slightly hysterical! You may have noticed!

Too good to be true?

Hey, remember when this happened when I tried to register with a new GP? This morning I finally got round to registering with a new, new GP. I walked in, asked if I could register, the receptionist smiled (smiled!) at me, said "yes, when can you come in for an appointment with the nurse?", booked me an appointment with the nurse, gave me one (not three) form to fill in, then smiled again and that was it.

I'm still waiting to wake up/fall out of the parallel universe.