THE Wedding Dress

I am waiting for my very good friend to come visit today - she got engaged 1 week ago, booked her wedding 4 days ago, and today we are going wedding dress shopping.   Their wedding is in 4 months, eek!  I am a bit giddy with excitement - it is nearly one year since my wedding and I absolutely loved planning it! (well, looking back with a retroscope, I did!)

My wedding dress shopping was a bit..... unorthodox.  I went into town to get some t-shirts, and came home with a wedding dress.  I just thought I'd pop into a shop.....  My dress was the bargain of the century though it had £1250 off!  I'm very glad thats what happened because a) I'm the most indecisive person ever and would have been in serious trouble if there had been many and b) I didn't really have anyone to go dress shopping with - not that would have involved hundreds of miles of travelling.  So thats what happened.  Having said I didn't ever want a (strapless) big traditional dress, I put one on and felt like a bride.  I very much loved my dress!  And very much need to get it cleaned and in nice acid free tissue paper!

Here are a few of my favourite pics of the moment from Once Wed (that website..... wow.... if I could have had an outside wedding, damn english unpredictable weather!)  And my dress.

(Yes, I had atrocious posture on my wedding day)

Shiawase

Edamame + good sake + chicken katsu curry + green tea ice cream = happy Katie.

I was feeling very fed up this evening as I've really been struggling with my studying,  and when asked about dinner plans I said I wanted chicken caesar salad or japanese for dinner (pretty precise for me, I'm usually very indecisive).  My husband took me to my very favourite restaurant, Sakura and it made me happy again.  Even though the Gorillaz weren't there this time.

Randomness

Thats all for today.

(Oh, and evidently, I love artichokes in olive oil, hate boiled ones.  Just in case you ever needed to know)

Grumpy gardening

Today I woke up in an almighty grump, which wasn't very helpful for what needed to be a super productive day!  I did however, manage to finish cleaning the house (inspection tomorrow), do a Waitrose shop and spend a few hours in the garden sorting out all my plants and vegetables.  I think being with Buddha helped, but it's coming back again now....
My garden should be full of colour and fragrance soon, I planted more lavender, rosemary, mimulus and petunias and hopefully in the summer will have carrots, spinach, coriander, tomatoes, strawberries, lollo rosso and spring onions.  My tiny little garden is cramped full of pots and containers!  I will take photos once our grass has grown back - it dies every winter and we have to reseed it.
What I didn't manage to do today was any studying or go to the gym - so probably shouldn't have had that slice of Key Lime pie then!  Back to work tomorrow for 3 days.

Coastal living

My view from the treadmill this morning, pretty lovely along with some Florence & The Machine, apart from the breathlessness!

(Not sure why its a bit wonky - my iphone has a habit of doing that)

Thankful for good friends and happy mail!

I received some very lovely mail from my oldest friend Emma (as in longest time friends, not her age!) from Oh Gosh to cheer me up as the last few weeks have been particularly rough ones and doing what felt like eternal nights didn't really help.  It was lovely to wake up and find a little package full of surprises!  We have still been rubbish with meeting up, but thats mainly because I never have any weekends off - but it in Glastonbury Festival in just over 2 months time, and we will make up for lost chat and lost drinking hours at that, I'm sure!

Anyway, thanks Ems, you made my day! xx

My Easter

Yey for a long weekend off!  My easter consisted of:
- drinks with work friends including a few of the consultants, it all turned a bit odd
- my husband hacking a lot and recovering from the most horrible cold ever
- finally finishing watching the last series of 24, can make a start of this series now!
- 4 lovely long lie ins
- way too many eggs (not the chocolate variety)
- black russians at Louisa's party as well as the most obnoxious guy ever!
- our first ever attempt at meringues - with a hand whisk.  It took one hour, but then we got to have Eton mess
- Blu rays - Up (amazing but cried within 5 minutes) and Inglourious Basterds (not what I was expecting)
- a quick trip to Chichester

I am working nights for a week from tomorrow, with one day off on Saturday (what am I supposed to do with that???) so most likely won't have anything interesting to say for a while.  Then its study study study for my exam in June, but then Glastonbury, so the last half of June will be good.  We also possibly have a fun trip lined up for the weekend after my exam, hopefully it will happen!  

(Pics are of my kitty eating my flowers and our Eton Mess)

Apologies for the radio silence

Source: sadly lost, I tried!

The last 3 weeks have been very much up and down, but the downs have been pretty down.  I'm not going to bring it all to the internet, I don't want to write it all down.  My husband and I have been stressed like we never have been before.  We've both been pretty ill.  We've also had one or two really really amazing days.  And then just when we thought that might be it, we heard some more bad news.  Not directly affecting us but the kind of news that stops you in your tracks, that you think about 24/7, one of the saddest, most horrible stories I have ever heard.  So I haven't felt like writing much, I haven't felt like doing much at all.  Normal service will be resumed shortly, when I get my head out of this whole mess.  And maybe when some people decide they might want to return our calls once in a while.

My thoughts and prayers are with T and his family, even though he'll never know.

Thats all.