Wedding gift

So i've been waiting awhile to do this post. Had to wait until I had actually given the couple my gift before posting it online.

So this is another of my ceramic pieces. It is a wedding vase - based on the tradional native vases. It is my architectual modern take on it.

Now for some photos...

Winton House - For some history on this place (amazing stuff) then click here
The fact that the build was start in the 1000 AD was just amazing !


Just to show you the size of the estate - the farmhouse accommodation is the little cluster or trees in the far fields on the other side of the thick line of trees.


The actual firework at the wedding were just UNREAL


The first dance


C & my four poster bed


our HUGE room - please note the detailed plaster ceiling work that was done 30 years before Jan van Riebeeck landed at the Cape !!! ie 1620 - that is just crazy to me.

The fireplace and rest of the room

The Reception

After the wedding ceremony we headed back to Winton house. I'll have to write more about the house later as it was SO beautiful ! And the history of the place - it always amazes me and makes me realise that South Africa as a country is so very young!



Of course the first thing after the ceremony was the photographs. This was being done by The Housemate as his gift to them. I'm still convinced that it was the most work in one go he has done in years! He normally only has to work for a few hours at a time. While this was going on the wedding guests got to start on the bubbly and canapes (cept I wouldn't call masses of thinly sliced veg and dips canapes)



I got to flit around the room doing my social butterfly trick, introducing people that didnt know each other (while added interesting facts to start conversation) And C ran around trying to gather different groups of people at the right times for the photos outside. How he did this I'll never know. I do remember him coming around going "have you seen someone that looks like he would be an uncle Alexander"



I was trying my darnedest to not drink my bubbly too fast so that I didn't get plastered before dinner but the damn waiter kept sneakily filling my glass up ! I was seriously suffering due to the lack of food ! By this stage (6pm ish) I had only had that 1 slice of toast at 9am !!! We just didn't have time to stop for food (or anywhere to get it) the whole day. The housemate was even trying to provide mints to sustain us on the way back from the church.



After the photos they were supposed to do the whole cake cutting things...but thanks to some quick thinking on the grooms part he organised that we headed straight out to the marquee for dinner ! :)



The marquee was beautiful and was absolutely movie perfect. All white drapes and gold chairs etc. I knew I was going to be an odd one to seat since C was sitting up at the main table but I must say that I didn't expect to be sitting at the "intellectual" table. I could have guess though since the one girl seems to have become quite attached to me and I heard later that she had mentioned he like of me to the groom before the wedding. So basically I was the ONLY person at the whole table that didnt have Dr in front of her name!! OMG. And then the other strange thing was that I was seated inbetween the girl and her bf. I'm not sure if that was how it was planned or if they had changed it themselves before getting to the table. There were def so awkward moments...like this one...



Dr Sporty Physics (to her bf across me): Midnite Gem knows that I perve over her bf in a suit.



Her bf: *glares at Midnite Gem*



OMG - talk about uncomfortable...And why glare at me ??? It not really my fault that I have a hot bf that she seems to need to state this fact to the table.



Well I did manage to survive the dinner. The food was great (cept my stomach was now complaining from TOO much food instead of the TOO little before) I just have to say that there was one particular chick at my table that was just insufferable - what a cow. I just cant even explain it.

The rest of the reception consisted of the first dance (to Smashing pumpkins, tonight tonight), lots of dancing, cake cutting, fireworks (seriously impressive ...cost!), cake eating and more food, then even more dancing with a bit of driving people back and forwards again. Also there was a random moment of finding a lost wedding ring that had fallen off a guest finger as she had recently lost alot of weight and so both her wedding ring and engagement ring came flying off while dancing and only once the light were one and everyone was leaving did she realise they were gone. I was just sitting there thinking in my head ..."oh no please dont tell me the hysterics are going to start now" while my eyes were scanning the floor from my seat for anything really ...there it was all the way on the other side of the room to where everyone was looking. I casually walked over, pick it up and returned it and then the hysterical thanks started - sometime you just cant win.

So we packed everyone off into taxi's and send the bride and groom off to bed. Finally there was only one guest left who was waiting for her lost bf to come fetch her who had also had a flat tire on the way and was now lost. After much trying to get broken messages through due the the horrid mobile reception. Just after 2 am he arrive and C and I could wave them off and head up to bed as we were the last up other then the wedding co-ordinator.

We absolutely collapsed onto the beautiful four poster bed in the BEAUTIFUL original main room of the house. As we melted into the gorgeous fluffly duvet and matress and curled up, C turned to me and said: "I was so going to ravaged you tonight ...but frankly my gorgeous I'm just too exhausted." LOL and so was I! So we just wrap ourselves up in each other put our head on the extremely soft pillows and were both instanly fast sleep.

Morning came way too quickly and had us up and packed and down for breakfast at 10. Breakfast was amazing - talk about have absolutly everything laid out for you. So we ate ourselves stupid. Then said all our goodbyes, picked up the groom cousin and the maid of honour and dropped them off in Endinburgh and then head off to glasgow for the afternoon and onto Fort William to stay the next night.

More to come from the travels in Scotland....

The Church

*Ok, I strangely feel that I need to quickly write a little disclaimer note here. I have to say that I absolutely LOVED going to the wedding. I was beautiful amazing day. And such a wonderfully happy day as well. Seeing Dr&Mr Intellectual all loved up and passionate in their love for one another was so wonderful. I also loved the meeting of new people, the socialising and the great energy of running around doing things. SO if there are any moany or negative sounding bits to my blog about the wedding it is not meant in offense to the day - it is just my silly little opinion and nothing ultimately detracted from a wonderful experience for me. So if any comes upon this rambling please just take it for what it is - ramblings and nothing seriously or meaningful*

SO...

off to the church ...
What an interesting church to say the least! I reckon it is one of those not sure if it should be classified as a cathedral or church - but i think it is pretty close to former then the latter. It happened to have the longest aisle in Scotland - how is that for daunting to walk down !!! Luckily they had arranged it that the alter was half way up the aisle and the wedding register signing was all the way at the end of the aisle. A mass of the guests (mostly the Edinburgh friends) had gather outside the church once we all arrived from the house. The family members mostly headed in but the rest of use all said our hellos etc (well mostly all the girl who knew each other from the hen night) Finally we all headed into the church. I had ABSOLUTELY no idea where to sit myself ! It was really strange. I know that most weddings all have a bride and groom side to the church but it was decided that the groom didn't have enough people to fill his side so that rule was scrapped.

There were some early people sitting pretty far towards the back and the people I came with from the house were all going up front. I wasn't keen to sit too far back as I wont be able to see and stuff. I did wondered where and what the hell the ushers were supposed to be doing?? No one seemed to know where they were going. So I landed up 3 rows from the front. I did notice that the first 2 rows had name tags on them - which i think was great for the family - but tell me if I'm wrong but the fact that the usher and his wife had name tags on their seats when some of the relatives didn't??? I found this extremely weird. I started to think that yes there is another example of how you get treated differently if you are someones wife over just being someones partner. C did mention to me days later that he had found more name tags in a box that didn't get set out. anyways moving on.

The Church has the most amazing history which C told me more about afterwards from the info that the minister was telling him. Things like it was burnt down by one of the King Henry's and John Knox was part of the ministry there (he was born in the town) and had over seen major parts of the repair and rebuilding. More info here. Random thing to point out but it seems that churches in Scotland are called Kirk, I mean how close is that to the Afrikaans word for church, Kerk! It is also pronounced the same.

I haven't been to a wedding in a church for pretty much exactly 10 years (In 1998 I came to England for my brothers wedding in a little LITTLE village in Gloustershire where I was bridesmaid in the most horrid dress that was too big!) I must say that Dr & Mr I's wedding was nice and short and not TOO churchy well not compared to the hour & a half service that my brother had. It did feel very surreal to me for some reason. I have to say I love their contemporary reading from "for whom the bells toll" (I cant find the actual reading but it was beautiful)

They also did have the obligatory string quartet and this is funny cause if you ask my mom we have been joking about how I would never have one at my own wedding. So I had to have a little chuckle to myself. I did realise sitting there in the church and watching the wedding that even though I love the surrounding and the architecture of a church I could not actually have a church wedding myself - def not at this stage of my life. This is also funny due to the fact that I think I have a bit of a fear regarding getting married. C loves to poke fun at me about it. There are so many reasons that I fear it. One of them is that I do think that the way people hype their weddings up is ridiculous. and that the amount of money spent on weddings is crazy. I think it is just too over the top and I just don't think that is very ME. (Again this is all just my opinion) This wedding did spark plenty of conversations about what each person would like for their wedding. And I of course got very wrapped up in it all as well. It is great fun coming up with things one would like to do. I do think that I would like a wedding as such if I get married but I know that it wouldn't be your traditional wedding or over the top. My other issues around marriage is alot to do with probably the "forever" part. Maybe it has to do with being trapped or loosing ones Independence even more. BUT as much as that all sits in my head I do think that it is great to be able to make that kind of public statement of status in people lives. There are still different attitudes that people have towards a couple that is married and one that is simply life partners even if they have been together twice as long and may even have kids. For this reason alone I fully understand people fighting for legal gay marriages!!

Ok I've def been side tracked here - my mind and fingers sometime run away with me.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful and watching them up there was great - Dr I looked absolutely STUNNING in her wedding gown and Mr I looked seriously smart in his get up. And of course I have to say that C looked so amazing in the best man get up (of course the same as the groom) He does look so amazing in a suit normally but now the whole waistcoat and cravat thing added he look super hot (ok i'm biased) LOL. It was very weird watching him from afar up at the alter.

After a VERY happy Dr & Mr I walked down the aisle out of the church out in to the thankful NOT raining day we all did the photos and congrats and socialising bit until the bundled of into the gorgeous luxury cars and us into the bus and back to the house for the reception.

To be continued....

Slack...

So yeah - am def being slack at my blogging again ...but in my defense I was still pretending i was on holiday at the end of last week and I was waiting for the pictures from our travels around scotland... honestly I'm still waiting for those. The housemate, known as the Ginger Ninja from now on, did show us the pics he had taken of C and I at the wedding but I've not gotten them from his computer to mine yet!

Well i'll still just write some random stuff about the wedding and travel and stuff and we'll see how far I get with the rest of the day before I bugger off home.

The friday of the last post was just insane...rushing to get work done, having my review lunch thing, rushing off to the airport, check-in, being delayed and not knowing why, getting into Edinburgh late, fighting with car hire place re after hours charge due to being delayed...lets just say that by the time we actually made it to the farmhouse accommodation on the estate where the wedding was, I was absolutely FINISHED. But we did do some socialising with the people that were still up at midnight.

At about 00:45 the groom, Mr intellectual, came crashing into the kitchen holding up his jeans in one hand and the phone held to his ear in the other trying to talk to a taxi driver that didnt sound like he was speaking english. It turned out that the last of the relatives that were arriving to stay at the other accommodation on the estate were in a taxi who was lost on the estate and had no idea where he was or where he was going. C and Mr I had to then jump into our rental car (we were like one of the other people there with a car) and go find the taxi and get them to the right place.

I heard afterwards that once they got them to the cottage Mr I started to walk them to the door then suddenly realised that his bride to be was in there as well and he literally went screaming back to the car - least he get into trouble for seeing the bride the night before the wedding.

I obviously didnt get to sleep until C was finally back and cuddled up in bed with me around 01:30 probably closer to 2am !!

The saturday of the wedding started off chilled enough with us strolling downstairs at 9am to make toast and sociallise a little more with the other that werent up late the night before. Then after chilling around for a bit we started figuring out what needed to be done...oh fuck was it alot. Firstly we had to start moving things over to the main house as us and the groom and others were staying there that night instead of the farmhouse where others would be arriving to stay later.

after a few runs we realised that time was running out ... C and Mr I had to be dressed and photos taken in 10 mins...we def ran late there and then we had to get C and Ginger Ninja over to the house to meet with the wedding co-ordinator. I quickly got ready and dressed etc (except for the heels) and we headed off to the main house...C got the list of his responsibilities which was very badly thought out and seemed to have him doing everything...mainly the problem was that if he was organising and lifting people around the estate to get everyone to the main house at 2:30 for the bus how could he be at the farmhouse with the groom getting the fancy car to the church at 2??? I mean really.

I there I was running around, hopping in and out of the car, fetching and carrying people to the main house. The annoying thing was there was no bloody cellphone reception on the whole estate. So when I needed to arrange times for the guest to be ready I had to drive to where they were knock on thier door, arrange a time and then go away and come back like 20 mins later. And these were people that I didnt know! Oh well it was all for C and good friends so I didnt really mind at all !!! Anything to make the day stress free for them. Besides it was better having things to do rather then sitting around not knowing what to do with myself alone.

After the bride being the obligatory late in coming down from upstairs we were able to head off to the church. But in all honestlywho would blame her as trying to get down 3 flights of a stone spiral staircase in a traditional wedding dress complete with hoop under skirt is pretty hard !!

To be continued...

Off to the land of Kilts and Whiskey and mountains

So we are finally off to the wedding - heading off to the airport in about 20 mins!! just cant wait to get out of work!! It is crazy here !!

Actually dont really have the time to sit here and blog - need to run off an dprint drawings finish things up - and i'm going to have to leave my desk in a state - i did try to tidy it last night...but today cluttered it up again.

Cant wait for our little tour of driving around scotland that we have planned for after the wedding. So i'll only be back at this desk next Thursday - YAY.

Laters!

p.s. to go with the theme of wedding..hows this for an alternative wedding cake (apparently the theme was gothic and it was Halloween)

Debenhams sux ASS!!!

OMG - what a horrid stressful annoying emotional day I had on Saturday.

As per my previous post I was somewhat worried about the fact that the dress from DEBENHAMS (nice big letters to help the search engines find this page where i'm going to say how much I hate DEBENHAMS) had not yet arrived. They did say that it would be Monday but since I had a bad feeling in my gut I called the customer services number on Saturday morning to find out what was the status and if they told it was with the couriers still then I would demand their number.

Oh boy did I have a bad feeling for a reason. I find out that they had tried to deliver it 3 times and now it was on its way back to the warehouse. After more questions I find out that they have been trying to deliver it to the building next door and not my work address. They then try to tell me that it must have been my mistyping !! By now I was getting more and more worked up and I realised what this was meaning and getting more and more angry at the fact that they couldnt even pick up the phone after getting it wrong the first time let alone the third time! As I have mentioned before it seems that as I get more angry and frustrasted I land up crying ...It is flippin annoying and I'm also sure it didnt help that I had my frikkin period as well. (I hate using that as an excuse tho! )

So now I start half shouting at them and hald blubbering too. How annoying. But I did have proof via 3 emails that I had typed my address in correctly and that their record had it correct. They had obviously given the couriers the wrong address.

After this was discuss I was like ...well you have to get that dress to me - I need now ! But oh dear, now they have no more stock of my size in the warehouse or online. Maybe there are some in the shops but they cant check those stocks at this call centre. I was SO pissed now. Your telling me that you cant just send me the dress I was supposed to get in the first place that is heading back to the warehouse. OH NO - that wont be put back into stock piles and is marked LOST!!! you've got to be freaking kidding me.

I still cant get my head how this company actually manages any customer services or manages to manage online orders as well. It seems that the online is run separately to the actual stores and the stores are also stocked and run separatly as well. I called the other call centre to check the stock in the stores (something that I wasnt expecting to actually work since the whole reason I ordered it online was cause they didnt have my size in the Oxford st store.) That call centre then has to individually check each store. How carzy is it not to have ONE it system that shows all the stock and where it is located. But no that isnt possible in their little world. One of the stores may have it BUT i had to call them direct to find out...again HOW THE HELL DOES THIS COMPANY SURVIVE??? I called but no cigar...they only had 2 left and it wasnt my size.

So after 4 calls I had to admit defeat and realise that I would not be getting the dress I wanted. I really didnt want this stress in my life - why did it have to be so much of a fight. I'm so glad that I didnt leave the calling until monday like they suggested on thursday. WHICH that is another bone of contension for me...WHY didnt the chick I spoke to on Thursday know that they were having trouble delivering it when the chick on sat had all the reported dates of failed delivery. AND WHY THE HELL COULDNT THEY HAVE PICKED UP THE PHONE AND INFORMED ME. I mean this is what we are all so contactable in this day and age.

So after C had calmed down the blubbering me he made plans that we would go off that day and find me a dress. He is SO amazing! After hours and hours of shopping for a dress he was still so supportive and positive while I felt like shit. I just have to say I have such a hard time with dresses as the one side of me is taller then the other due to my skew spine and this makes dresses sit funnily on my hips. OR there was some other problem with each and every one i tried on. Finally I had been ignoring the more expensive dress I liked...but with 1/2 until shops closed I finally tried it on and it was great. From the moment I zipped up the zip I knew I would be happy with this dress. Cept I'm still not happy with the price (double the original dress's price) - but I know that I would rather pay the price and be comfortable in the dress I have to wear at the wedding then unhappy with a cheaper dress.

Sadly all this drama ruined the plans that we had with Miss M, jailbait etc to go to the Mayors Thames festival...So that was also not helping the horrid mood I was in.

Strangely enough though I do think that the dress I have now I def more ME. It has black lace (makes me happy) and has a more edgy look. DEF more my style.

Here is a pic of it... P.s note that this is Tuesday afternoon that i'm writing about this and I'm still angry !! I'm now waiting for them to return the money for the dress and if they dont pretty soon I am going to start some serious shouting!!!

Handbag shopping

So its friday !! WHOO HOOO - damn I love it when the weekend comes around. I was supposed to have a very hectic day today like the rest of the week was but it looks like I can chill out a little bit which is great... cause i have the hugest migraine since last night and i'm finding it extremely difficult to even look at the screen without throbbing pain and nasuea hitting me. So sorry if this post is typed badly at looking at the keyboard only is def much better for the head !

My life has been taken over by shopping ! this seems to be my only mission these days. Firstly I seriously needed a new handbag ! my current one was fraying at the edges and i'm sure the handle was about to part ways with the body of the bag anyday now. But as usual I have to be one fussy girl.

I wanted to find the perfect handbag that i'll love and cherish and will hold everything i want it to hold without looking like I was going to fall over with such a big bag. I wanted real leather (takes more wear and tear) and wanted a black bag, with a pocket on the outside, no visible stitching etc. But every bag i looked at just wasnt right. They were either too big or they were too small. or were shiney or too many gold chains and accessories attached.

Anyways... i finally found the bag i liked even though it wasnt what I thought i would like. And the other problem was that it was cream !! NOt what i wanted. So I went and thought about it alot... even went past the bag again on another shopping trip for the wedding outfit. Until I was shopping for shoes for the wedding and went past it just one more...and there suddenly were black ones!!! yay ....And the best part... for 3 days only everything was on sale. So I got the bag and i found shoes and got 20 % off it all ...YAY !!!

Ok so I do love a bargin - it just makes it so much better for me ! So that is the bag above. Pretty Misha Barton label bag !

All the shopping has also been to do with the wedding that we are off to next Friday - I really didnt realise all the effort that goes into attending a freaking wedding. I've had to sort an outfit out...a dress, shoes, etc etc the whole formal wedding stuff. and the wedding present and transport etc. I'm so glad that I sorted the flights and train months ago!

I finally decided on a dress...I hope it is right! I've ordered it 10 days ago and it still hasnt arrived. The shop says that it is with the couiers and has been since the 4th - but it is most likely only to arrive monday or tuesday next week...i'm so freaked out by this!! what if it doesnt arrive and then i only have 2 day till we leave for the weddign and I happen to have work things on both nights...so there isnt a margin for fuck ups --- arg !!!!

anyways...here is the dress i chose and I've found shoes the perfect colour match (I didnt expect that!) now just need that pashimina to keep me warm and a bag to hold stuff since C wont be holding much since he is best man.