pre-wedding drivel!

I don't think my toe is broken after all my whinging - guess my pain threshold isn't as high as I thought!
I had my hair tinted this morning, so now my copious amounts of white hair (bear in mind that I'm 26) have been tamed. I started going grey when I was 14, so you can probably imagine how much grey coverage I had acquired! I normally dye my hair throughout the year but was putting it off till before the wedding in case different dyes reacted and I ended up with orange hair or something on the day.

Do your worst...

With less than a week till the wedding I have now broken two nails after growing and tending them for 9 months. I'm not normally fussed over the appearance of nails at all, but I decided to at least attempt to make them presentable for the wedding. Typically, both breaks occurred whilst out with the dogs, so I will blame them entirely for it!
I have also got what I suspect to be a broken toe. I did a particulary good job of stumping it yesterday and now the nail is black/bruised and the toe itself has swollen quite considerably. It may just be the nail is bust, just to keep with the recent theme of kerritin abuse.

With any luck, this is the only thing that goes particulary wrong prior and during the wedding day - a couple of broken nails and a busted toe is not traumatic enough to spoil the day!

Cadover Bridge

With 12 days to go till the wedding, I haven't really had much time for blogging! Gareth and I have also been busy looking for jobs, and for a rental property. However, we decided to put the latter on the back burner for a number of reasons. Primarily until we actually have an income, but also we don't know where we'll end up and don't want to be stuck with a 6 month minimum contract when we need to move.

Last Sunday we went for a picnic to Cadover Bridge, Dartmoor, with my sister (Paul), her husband (Mark), our niece and nephew (Lily and Tom) and my parents. It was absolutely boiling even at 4pm, so lots of sunblock was sloshed around - I'm guessing peely skin on the wedding day isn't that appealing.
I also encouraged Glyn to swim by tempting him with a tennis ball. I got him to swim around me a couple of times before he decided he could manage alone and went to the other side of the bank. Once there, he lost the ball then promptly had a poo before realising he was stuck. I had to wade across the river to get pick up his poo and give him a shove back into the river so he could swim across. My family thought this was highly amusing until Karma intervened and Lily pooed in her swimsuit, so my sister had to change her!

Everyone seemed to have a great day, especially Molly (parents' dog) who found a flock of ducks to chase - they didn't look particulary worried by her presence and kept swimming back.

I will upload some photos soon (famous last words!)

Quick update

Just checking quickly so that people don't think I've lost the ability to blog! I will post a more detailed entry later when I have a bit more time.

I've now moved to Plymouth from Aberdeen after graduating with a 2:1 honours degree in zoology (photos will be added soon!). I'm now focussing on the wedding plans - one month away - and trying to sort out some space for stuff at home. Gareth and I are moving back in with my parents until we can afford our own place (jobs will probably help with that!) so it'll be a bit cramped for a while (4 adults, 3 dogs, 1 parrot and 1 snake makes for limited room!)

Race for Life 2008

I've just got back from completing Aberdeen's Race for Life on the beach. Despite the weather being horrendous this morning, the rain held off for the afternoon race which was a bit of a relief! I had pulled my right thigh muscle a few days prior to this race, so wasn't looking forward to the slippery road surface making things complicated! Despite this injury, I knocked 4 minutes off my time last year, which I was happy with considering my fitness/training has not gone to plan between doing fourth year of uni and organising a wedding!

I've included some photos, but unfortunately the camera battery died before the end of the race - I can assure you I was as fresh-faced as at the start! ;p

Stretching before the race - notice the typical white legs acquired through from living a long time in Scotland.

I'm pretty much dead centre in this photo -

the one with the skull bandana

Well, I'm off now to jump in a hot bath with a cup of hot chocolate. Glyn appeared to enjoy the day too as we took him along for the experience - we left Willow at home as the weather wouldn't have helped her arthritis and she would've eaten any other dog that happened to be there.

Hen weekend: Not the Jack the Ripper Tour!

For my hen weekend, I had planned a trip to London with some friends, my sister and mum to see the Jack the Ripper Tour. So, Nat, Fin and I met Mum and Paula after their bridesmaid dress shopping (the online company I originally ordered my sister's dress from never delivered; despite taking the money - a claim is in progress!) we took the tube to the hotel. That's when things started to go wrong... for reasons unknown, two tube stations were closed so everyone was booted off the train and we had to walk the distance (we could possibly have worked out an alternative tube route but don't know the tubes that well!). By the time we got to the hotel, the tour was due to start in 10mins. After checking in, we ordered a taxi at reception, then dumped our stuff in our rooms with no time for changing, makeup or even brushing our hair! When we met the taxi we found the receptionist had only ordered a taxi for four, despite there being five of us - we had some choice words about her! Rather than abandoning some of our number, we phoned the tour and asked if we could meet them somewhere, so we were back on the tubes (after paying a cancellation fee for the taxi!)

Missing the start of the tour.

Pod, Mum, Fin and Nat

We ended up missing the meeting point - tubes again! So phoned the tour and asked if there was anywhere else we could meet. Long story short, we missed that point too, but the tour had kindly left our tickets for the boat ride part of the tour with the staff at the quay. Once we realised that we were not going to make the tour at all, we were all able to relax and thoroughly enjoyed the evening - in some ways it was a better evening than if we had made the tour as everyone got to chat properly and get to know one another (paula had never met Fin or Nat before).

Paula, me and Mum

Fin, me and Nat

More things we didn't see;

the invisible man

Later that evening, we went out for a meal (I had mushroom lasagne which was fantastic!). We headed back to the hotel and were asleep before 10:30pm with no influence of alcohol - not the typical hen weekend!

In the morning, Mum, Paula and I (Nat had to leave early) met Fin in Oxford Street where we all settled in Borders - THE bookshop! - before heading off our separate ways. It was great seeing everyone again, especially as I hadn't seen my sister and Mum in about a year, and don't see Fin often since she moved to London.

P.s. Nat and I worked out we used most methods of travel during this weekend; planes, buses, trains, boats and cars!

Not an update

Yes, yes, I know I haven't updated my blog in ages, I will do so once I'm back in Aberdeen - it's pretty manic sorting various things out in Plymouth just now!