Out of action... for a while at least

Travels are well and truely underway and weddingness has taken a back seat (in fact, is being totally ignored). I haven't even thought about weddings for ages (and I just had a quick wizz through at least 5 blogging weddings I've missed - my goodness what a beautiful bunch of brides you all are!)


Not that I mean to ignore all those emails I get from The Knot telling me to book a caterer, a coordinator etc etc.... but it's kind of tricky whn you're backpacking through Pakistan to even engage in the options, let alone go about picking one.


I think we need a wedding planner that I can outsource all this shit to.... but T is not really coming round to that idea (regardless of my increasingly unsubtle hints). I spoke to Mum last night, who is panicking that all the local caterers are booked. Really? All of them?


Anyway, I just wanted to say a HUGE congratulations to Krista, Rachel, Shonagh, Marie... your weddings look amazing.


Shonagh - how did your wedding planner work out? You're near Manchester, right? Maybe I could pinch her (now she has all that free time!)? And caterer? Anyone else I can pinch....? Did have a marquee?? :)

(I'm kind of stressed about the caterer thing. The two local companies want 60 quid a head for canapes, dinner and something in the evening. We're not getting salaries again until Christmas. Incompatible).


A final thing: a know a couple of you mentioned you were interested in reading about travels. On the off chance this wasn't just a demonstration of British-style over-politeness, here's the link: fromdelhitolondon.blogspot.com
One caveat: The travel blog is mainly used by friends and family. It uses real names etc. The wedding blog is other brides don't know me in in non-cyber life. It's kind of secret. T doesn't know it exists. I'd be very happy if the two worlds were never to mix (if family started looking at this blog it would be kind of awful, and I'd have to go through and delete lots of back posts). I certainly don't want T reading about our fights in a blog. He'd go mad (hmmm... maybe I just shouln't have written about them.) Anyway, if you'd like to read the travel blog, obviously go for it. But please don't mention the W word, or this blog, in comments. I know you're sensible ladies, you know what I mean.... (it's worth checking out just to cringe at my Dad's humour. You will figure out very quickly why I'm worried about his speech!)

Really?

No more Danny...
...and Jon and Kate both had affairs.

What a terrible day in the (Star) world of reality TV.

DAMNIT

Now neither T nor I are huge ones for what we consider unnecessary formality. But I feel pretty strongly that you shouldn’t get someone’s name wrong on the invitation. If a girl has got married, you should make the effort to find out if they’ve changed their name or not (and looking on Facebook doesn’t count as checking – that site is REALLY tough to make changes on).

Yesterday I posted all the Save the Dates. Today I realized that all my Miss friends from uni are now Dr friends. They’ve all qualified. And all have new titles. And I got it wrong :-(

I know they won’t care, but I’m mad with myself. ANNOYING.

So here's the thing about the recession

We're not going to get the economy back on track sitting at home eating dahl every night, now are we?

(I need some justification for the ludicrous level of spendiness we appear to be going through at the moment. I'm buying expensive Indian tat like it's going out of fashion (was it ever in fashion?!). And on Monday we're going to the Maldives. Ouch.)

Holiday time

Since finishing work, we have been using up all our frequent flier miles we've earnt over the last 2 years and seeing the bits of India we haven't seen yet.

Last week was spent trekking the Singalila Ridge, which goes along the India/Nepal border. We should probably have realised that at some point the trail would venture into Nepal, but o no... off we trotted without our passports. Which wasn't really a problem until we got to the hostel we were supposed to by sleeping in...


O yes. That is us... at the end of a 24K day, discovering that our hostel for that night is in another country. And we don't have our passports. Nice.


Luckily the Indian border guards seemed REALLY bored, and after we'd entertained them with our pigeon Hindi for 10 minutes ("We live in Delhi. We are Indian. Honest") they just chuckled and let us past. Easy really.

And once learnt the trick, all border guards were easily passed. Which is a good job, becuase we got to places like this:

I especially like what my hair is doing in this photo. Less sex in a cornfield and more just bits of an actual cornfield attached to my head. Pleasant.

The first day

Yesterday was my last day at work. Today is the first day of our six months off. WHOOP.

I was going to spend it doing all kinds of fun, not-working kind of things.

Unfortunately, the hangover is raging and I am lying on the couch watching American Idol and Beauty and the Geek feeling sorry for myself.

And the fact it's 46 degrees outside is not encouraging me to leave my air conditioned haven.

Brain not evening functioning enough to type. Urggh.

Saving the Date

So you know how a couple of weeks ago I was all like 'Save the Dates are done la-di-da'? What I actually meant was, 'Save the Dates are designed, now let me try and get them printed.'

What I should have done is sent the design to moo.com or vistaprint or some other pay-very-little-get-super-postcards type site.

What I actually did was think that seeing as I live in india, the land of cheap labour, cheap shopping etc, I should get them done here.

Having lived here for over 2 years I'm not exactly green at this stuff, but I always forget how hard it is to actually get stuff done. Typing the whole story will just make me mad again, but it went something like this:

- printer 1 - good thick card. No lamination machine.
- printer 2 - only thin card
- printer 1 - forget the lamination, just go with matt. No green ink.
- back to printer 2 to persuade us to bring card from elsewhere
- printer 1 to buy the card, but they have now run out.
- two day break while I gear myself up to try again
- printer 3. No thick card.
- back to printer 1. Purchase card, which they now have in.
- printer 2. Boss man is there who decides we can't use card from elsewhere.
- sit in a coffee shop until the boss leaves
- get them printed at printer 2
- discard approx 30% due to grubby finger prints, cutting not straight etc
- take to printer 1 to laminate the front.
- get the first batch of 10, which are laminated on both sides. As they're postcards, this means they now can't be written on.
- explain the one-sided lamination bit again
- finally (whoop) get a stack of 83 decent postcards. With only one having to be discarded for what I'm sure was a bogie on the back. Gross.

So yes they were cheap (1200 total, which is about 15 quid), but IT WAS FRIGGIN PAINFUL.

Vistaprint, I will never snub you again.

Couple crush

I posted one picture from this wedding last week. But I keep going back and looking at it. I want to be in this wedding. Or at least be invited.

I thought I was getting over my obsession until I found their videos. Just watch. And love.

Groom style

Yesterday I sent T this link http://men.style.com/gq/features/slideshow/v/051407WED as I thought it had a couple of looks in that he might like. When he got home from work, he announced that I could stop suggesting outfits for him as he already knew what he was going to wear. HUH?! Mr No Interest in anything wedding related knows what he's going to wear? OK. So that's me told.

He presented me with this photo of director Wes Anderson:

Then after a bit of intense googling I found a better shot of the suit itself:

And I do actually quite like it. And if it makes T happy, then I REALLY like it!

Now we just need to find a greeny-colour suit. I don't even know what colour you'd call it. Olive? Chartreuse?

The Outnet

From the same people as net-a-porter.... fresh in my inbox this morning:

http://www.theoutnet.com

amazing (although no heels in my bigfoot shoe size at a height i could actually walk in...)

It's the final countdown

It turns out that I have a few vacation days that I have to take before April 30th, so I'm taking them next week. And that means I only have seven more working days until we finish. WHOOOP.

That's seven more working days between now and Novemeber 1st. SO EXCITING!

I am so done with working. I am trying hard not to be one of those annoying people who leaves tasks half done before they leave a job, but needless to say I am failing pretty miserably.

In other news, I fractured my toe. Which is proving both highly inconvenient (no heels, no gym) and pretty painful (who knew your fourth toe was so essential to walking?) It is kind of black and swollen.

And in other other news three of my friends in Delhi are pregnant. Which is obviously super-exciting but leaves me as the only babyless member of the gang. It's funny - here I am the last one to get married, start a family etc - I feel like we're the furthest behind in life, if you like. But back in the UK I am the only one of my friends who is engaged... the rest aren't even contemplating it. Same with buying a house - we will buy when we get back to London, when most of my friends are still in shared rented places.

T's friends are a bit older and more settled (he's 5 years older than me). They all seem to be having babies too. T is definitely getting broody, but I'm not so sure yet. A few more years of the life we're leading, thank you, and some quality married time for just us. Then maybe we could start trying.

A bride who knows how to have fun

via Wedding Cabaret.

Easter weekend safari trip

Just back home. And here are the best shots:

other cool blogging stuff

Now I have successfully figured out how do do this from my bby, does anyone know how to see who is looking at your blog? Figure out how many hits you're getting? Even better, where in the world those people are?

Now that would be AMAZING.

and with pictures?

we can use my new favourite Save the Date as a test...

Now can we make mobile blogging work

If this works, I will be amazed. And it will be COOL!

My problem with Bluefly.com

This morning I woke up and had an email from Bluefly saying they had 40% of Christian Louboutin shoes for 10 hours only. Wowza. I have been on the lookout for some bright blue CLs to wear as my Something Blue since pretty much the second I got engaged (although at 5ft 11 the heel can be 3 inch MAX, and preferably 1 or 2 inches) with no luck at all. Zilch.

So I go on the site and OMYGODTHEYHAVESOME. In the sale. In my size. One pair only. So obviously I put them in my shopping bag. Only they don't ship to the UK. Or India. No problemo... I have a friend in the US who can take delivery for me and post them on. Try to buy again and they won't take foreign credit cards. Except if you're from Canada, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Korea or Switzerland. WTF?! Where's the UK on the list? Surely our credit cards are trustworthy? (although having thought about it, maybe not so much at the moment).

Anyway, by the time I had figured out who in the US I knew well enough to ask to just buy them for me, the 10 hour sale period was over. And at $500 I'm not sure I love them enough. (At $300 I totally did!)
Here are the offending items:



And here are some others I am currently lusting after (although all are either way too high or not blue or both):

Maybe I just just forget the blue shoe thing. Or the CL thing. Or go and live in South Korea.

The Big Trip

So as I have metioned before, we are leaving India in 2 short months to head back to Blighty. We both asked for and have been given 6 months unpaid leave from our jobs (yay the downturn!) so we are planning to leave Delhi and head back to the UK overland.

Sex and the Central Asian Visa.

Wow there are some countries that just don't seem to want tourists. But we're getting there. So we are now proud owners of tourist visas for Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. We have applied for Tajikistan and are expecting it this week. China should be easy, but is valid from the second they put it in your passport. Pakistan required 3 visits to the embassy on sequential days, so no chance until work is finished. Then there's just Iran and Turkmeinistan to worry about. Iran we're on some kind of waiting clearance list, and expect an answer sometime towards the end of April. TM is tricky tricky and we may have to pay for a guided tour or suchlike.

And then we have a plan - YAY! And even though I may well sound like a wanky traveller type, I'm going to share it with you anyway.

April 30th - finish work. WOOHOO

May - keep the flat in Delhi but go on lots of trips. Probably a trekking trip in the Himalayas and maybe a few days in the Maldives. Maybe even a quick trip back to the UK to deposit my engagement ring (not entirely sure the Stans, as I've come to lovingly know them through the visa application process, are the safest place for an uninsured diamond)

June - set off for home. The route will go India-Pakistan-China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey-side trip into Georgia for T's birthday-back to Turkey-Greece.... I'm not sure how far into Europe you get before you start seeing 'Waterloo' as a destination on trains... I guess we'll spend some time island hopping, I fancy Croatia, he has a friend in Italy, I guess France, then we're home!

October - arrive home. Giving us one month to choose somewhere in London to live, buy a house and Get Sorted. Easy.

Nov 1 - start back at work.

Crikey that's a long trip!

Save the Dates - check!

We are done! Well not exactly done, but the decision is made! And we agreed! Woo!

This is the design we're getting:


from etsy shop ellothere. Not too 'weddingy' (T's criteria), cute and whimsical (mine). And I think sets the tone for the sort of wedding we will have. Love it.

Jonathan is going to send me the digital design and then I'll get them printed out somewhere local onto postcards. We're going back to the UK for a few days next month, so I'll post them while we're there.

I want to put a website address on the back, which means we need to get one. So I'm off to research how to register a domain and all that jazz.

After we get married, I want to live in a house with love heart smoke coming out of the chimney.

Going AWOL

So first I got busy Having A Good Time. It was Holi (amazing) and I got all colourful

(and don't remember much of it - this is my confused look!)

Oops.

Then we jetted off to Goa for the weekend for some R&R. We are in our last 2 months in India, so clearly making the most of it.

And life was lovely.

Then I was having a bit of a wobble* and didn't sign in for a couple of weeks. There's another girl at work getting married and we got each other in a tiz. An invitation, font, dress and videographer - induced tiz. Then I did sign in today and my goodness the world's a better place again.

First the lovely Marie gave me awards: http://wifeinthecity.blogspot.com/2009/03/choose-your-own-award.html (which I ignored til now - sorry sorry)

Then I checked out the posts I had missed and it turns out everyone else is wobbling to. Although they're all being a lot more sassy about it than I have been about anything! (I subscribe to the 'hide and it might go away' school of thought). So thank you Meg, East Side and all the other inspirational posts this week. PERFECT.

So... here we go - back into it (with a healthly dose of bhang (only joking) and common sense).


*For wobble, read Crisis that I was going to have an inferior wedding and I didn't really care that much. It's in a field and it will probably rain. My friends will binge drink and his will all have crying babies. I will be lucky to coax T to arrive in a sober state.