Beware! Living in Britain is more dangerous than you think!

“For those who, now querulous, wish to keep their biscuit-risk to a minimum, it is useful to note that the Custard Cream is apparently the most dangerous biscuit, with a rigorously scientific-looking Biscuit Injury Threat Evaluation rating of 5.63. It’s practically a sandwich made of guns…”

This made me laugh so much I almost passed out at my desk this morning; Caitlin Moran is a genius!

Wedding & food

I know I’m starting to sound like a bit of a broken record harping on all the time about the wedding, but I’m always staggered by how much people spend on them. There’s an article on The Times Online about how you can save money by having your reception in the garden in a marquee, but then goes on to say you should expect to spend up to £8000 on hiring the marquee!

Ummmm, last time I checked £8000 was a bloody lot of money, so if this is ‘saving’ money how much were they going to spend in the first place, complete lunacy.

I’ve spent almost 2 years planning our wedding and because of this I’ve brought it in at just under £2500, and that includes my dress, wedding cake, flowers, the photographer, N’s suit, outfits & shoes for 6 bridesmaids and a hot buffet sit down meal in the day & evening buffet including a disco, for 50 people – that’s £50 a head. We haven’t scrimped either, we’re having a 3 tier cake (£180) wedding favors for everyone and disposable cameras at all the tables, al the bridesmaids have bouquets and the groomsmen have button-holes, so I just don’t know how people spend £20,000 plus on a wedding, I really don’t.

I think I’m missing a massive business opportunity, Recession-Proof Budget Weddings (quick has that domain name been taken?) I mean I think that with a little planning and organization you can bring a wedding in on any budget you set, of course you might have to pass on the horse drawn carriage and the fireworks spelling out your’s and your beloveds name at midnight, but within reason you can have a wonderful day for not a lot.

It all just comes down to why you’re getting married. If it’s to celebrate your love for each other with the people you care about most you’d be happy doing it in a garden shed with fish ‘n chips for your wedding breakfast, but if you’re doing at to try and hold a failing relationship together all the glitter and gourmet canapés in the world isn’t going to save you.

Well I’ve got a lovely relaxed weekend planed as the out-laws are going away and so won’t be ‘just popping round’ and we can relax dong not a lot to be honest, my big plan for the weekend is to make the Twice Stuffed Chicken from Economy Gastronomy on BB2 earlier this week, there have been some good recipes and also some good ones using up left-over’s. It really is mind-boggling what people will throw away because they think it’s unsafe to use or just don’t know what to do with it.

It’s almost here!

I’ve been reading a new Blog lately A Mothers Ramblings and she has managed to make me feel a whole lot better about being hyper organized where Christmas is concerned, as she follows the Organised Christmas Holiday Plan and reading this means I no longer feel at all guilty (slightly smug maybe) about having all my Christmas present shopping done & wrapped & put away neatly in the office at home and also having bought all my cards and wrapping paper in the sale for 75% off as they were last years designs (like anyone can tell, they all still have the same message & a nice Christmassy picture) so I’m all done & dusted with over three months to go.

There is a reason for this, well apart from me being totally and obsessively, anally organised, we’re getting married 3 weeks before Christmas and there’s no way that I want to be worrying about what to get Great Aunt Beryl while I’m saying ‘I do’ or if we’ve got enough cards or gift labels while I’m cutting the cake or trying not to fall over my own feet during the first dance.

So there you have it my guilty little secret!

When I confessed to everyone in my office they all sort of groaned & said “Sod off, it’s ages yet”, but to be honest another bonus about having done everything so early, is that I managed to get all my presents in the sales and as we’ve got a wedding and honeymoon (more on this later) to pay for every penny counts and the fact that most of the presents were more than half price we’ve saved over £200. We also decided that we’re only going to get token gifts for the adults, not proper big ones, probably a bottle of wine or a nice box of biscuits or chocolates, if I had time I’d make them myself, but I’m guessing that in the coming months I’ll have enough to deal with!

On the move

This whole wireless thing is all new to me & I’m pretty excited to be sitting in a little coffee shop writing this, sipping my coffee like I’m in a movie or something, does that sound a bit wanky!?! Well anyway I don’t care, I like it, it makes me feel important, well everyone in here doesn’t know I’m just updating my little blog that hardly anyone reads, I could be composing a literary masterpiece or working on a cure for the common cold or something, well anyway I like it, so there.

It’s sort or all go right now in our house as the wedding grows ever closer, we’ve got to start making decisions, like how is everyone getting to the registry office etc, who’ll be taking care of setting up the cake, as it’s being made by a family friend who can’t make it on the day as they live quite a way away, so we need to find someone trustworthy to set it up & not drop it on the floor, that is if it actually makes it up here in one piece, my mum is having to bring it in the car 2.5 hours in a car with five people, I’m not hopeful to be honest! I’m tempted to just drop it all in N’s lap as I’ve organised everything else up to now, but I’m far too much of a control freak to let him do that, so I guess it’s all down to me, I’d better get going to be honest or else we’ll all be sat there after the food sort of going “I know there’s something missing, but I can’t quite think what it is!?!” all the while looking at the empty space on the table where the wedding cake should’ve sat.

As I said in my last post we’re having balloons as decorations, these are examples of what the company can do & we’re confident they’ll look just as good for us, well fingers crossed anyway!

This is just a short one as I only have an hour for my lunch and to be honest you’re lucky you got this much, it usually takes me ages to write a post & then edit it so it actually makes sense, so if you’re reading this & think bloody hell that was a particularly long sentence, it’s due to my lack of editing on this one, I’ll be better next time I promise.