Sista..... Stand Up!

Yippee!! I can’t believe after such a short space of time we have managed to find somewhere to live.. After a mammoth email campaign we found a sweet Victorian conversion. Its over 2 floors and we occupy the 2nd floor and the bed room is part of the converted loft with an on suit bathroom! Gosh I'm good! It’s not as posh as the one we have now but it is quirky and has more character. Having the bedroom on the upper floor also means we have more quite! It’s also the same price as where we now so no worries about any extra rent. Its only 15 mins away from where we are now and is actually further into London so we have 2 less stops on the train! Gosh I am really good!! New landlord is quite keen for us to move in ASAP so he doesn’t miss his mortgage payment. Don’t want to drag it out anyway cause it means I can move us out and have a much better focus on the wedding. After a long chat we have agreed to move out on 11 February!!! Yes that’s 2 weeks from now and I have so much shit.... good shit mind..... Felt mentally knackered this morning not slept that well this week as I have so much stuff going around in my head... boxes, change of address, meter reading, contracts, cash flow, packing, labelling you name it, we got to do it!!! Despite all this stuff we have to do I know that someone is smiling on us cause I have never found a nice place so quick!! Hopefully this is the last place we will be before we have our own property paying our own mortgage instead of some other muppets rent......

I think I may have found my wedding shoes!! When I first started looking I had it in my mind that they had to be the most fabulous pair with as much bling and sparkle as I could cram on so when I walked up the isle everyone would be looking at my shoes and no where else.

When reality kicked in about prices and what was available I had a lengthy conversation with Randa about my shoe stress. Thinking about what has really worked for me in the past it was not the most expensive brands that cost the earth, but usually the cheaper vintage gems that I’d discover in some charity shop treasure chest or a modern classic that I would customize and sprinkle a little of my magic on and that is exactly what I want for these shoes. Thank god for ebay! I wont say to much as I do not want to give them away and I am not 100% decided they are the ones until I try my dress on with them when it comes back from America with my sister after Easter. In my heart I feel they are the ones. Vintage, Simple and elegant with a little sparkle….. mmmmm… Sorry Dorothy!

after the drama from before I was going to use a website that was really nice but would cost us £25 but being the bargain hunter I am, managed to find a new free one! We cant have all the details of how we met etc so I have put all those details on here now and this new site will now be purely for information only. It will be updated as I get more infor about accommodation, seating plans etc. Must go now as I have flat stuff to stress about but here are the details for the new site.
www.thehitchingpost.co.uk
Then enter the user name - junelovesrene
password - 4ever
June out!

Last night Rene and I had a shock when the landlord’s dad phoned to announce that his son was returning from Australia and wanted the flat back. His wife was pregnant and missing her family and wanted to come home! I am absolutely gutted!!! Why now when I only have another 6 moths to plan the wedding! This is also going to cost us extra money that was for the wedding!!... its just not what I need right now... we have about 6 weeks according which is a night mare for us... it took a while for us to find this place and getting somewhere nice that is not extortionate prices in London is a miracle... i thought I would be a lot more stressed about the whole thing but I am trying to channel the energy into looking for a new place instead of just getting pissed off. I’ve signed up to all the local estate agents on the internet so i suppose we will have to go through some shite ones before we get a nice one which is always really frustrating. life never seems to chug along nicely for me at the moment., there always seems to be some huge challenge that I am suppose to sort out like friggin whodini and 9x out of 10 I normally rise to the occasion but along with it there is usually lots of stress, tears, tantrums and loss of cash along the way but yes I usually get through it... it would just be nice to have things go the way I want it sometimes..... Hassle free.. I was in the same situation last year and nearly lost my mind looking for a flat. I eventually took a week off work and went on a mission passing my driving test and finding this flat in the same week... I will rise to the challenge but I really don’t feel like being a legend at the moment... i want to continue happily looking at romantic pictures of brides in tulle dresses and designing my invitations instead of packing and labelling 150 boxes ! ahhhhh

Tonight I took Rene to see Alton Ellis at the Jazz Café after a great meal at Wagamama as part of his bday pressy and it was wicked! The guy is a legend in his sixties and he was looking well sharp in a cream suit and matching trilby and he can still bus a tune!!! For those of you who are not familiar with his work, he is an old school Rock steady / Ska artist from the fifties and 60’s from Jamaica. There was also a live band that was also amazing… It was great to see the place rammed with a wide mix of races, everyone was lovin it!!! Especially when he kept saying RRRRRRReeewind Selector!!!! and the crowd when crazy when they started the track again!! Rene had lots of stories and memories of the old songs from when he was a younger rebel living in Ladbroke grove going to blues parties in his Kaften and afro… It was one of the best live shows I have seen and dare I say it better than Madonna! The vibe at the jazz café is quite intimate anyway and it added to the atmosphere when everyone was singing his songs. Rene and I have not a lot of social time due to the amount of money we are saving for the wedding and our future so this was a great relief for us to enjoy ourselves. It was nice seeing Rene shake a leg for change. Tee hee… I was watching out the corner of my eye as I knew he would stop if I took the piss and I wanted him to enjoy it as it was his birthday treat!! We rolled home and 1 am! Knackered but in very high spirits.. I have been hunting on eBay ever since for his greatest hits with no luck… The album has to have ‘I’m still in love’ on it and the only ones I have found do not have it!!..... I defy anyone else out there to find it!! Definitely one of our most memorable nights!!

New Year was another quiet send off for the two of us because of the tube strike but it was lovely! I know you are all probably fed up with my wizard of oz obsession but i have one last glorious tale for today that warmed my cockles! There was a parcel waiting for me at the post office from Miranda that had got delayed and I did not mange to pick it up until after xmas because of the post office mix up. there was some loving smellies from her but my favourite was the cutest ballet shoes, scrumptious sparkling red ballet shoes. Will put a picture!! I was so excited when I got them back to the office (opened on tube on way to work) I had to put them on and show them off !!!! Thanks you so much Miranda!!! Dorothy would be so proud!!!

Rene and I had a lovely rest at Xmas and lots of our friends and family were generous with lots of food and goodies. Thank you Sal and Drew for the lovely Xmas dinner and for letting me watch the wizard of oz again!!! Thank you uncle Dennis for the glorious feast on New Years Day and all the great conversation and hilarious stories. We shared some generosity on Boxing Day by having our 80 year old next door neighbour Nellie come for dinner as she was spending her xmas alone.... she is very sweet and we couldn’t stop laughing when we initially invited her and asked what she liked to eat, her hasty reply was 'nothing foreign!' the day was lovely and although she claimed to like ‘nothing foreign’ managed to clean off a full plate of rice n peas, jerk chicken, plantain and all the trimming!!!! it turns out she used to be a ammunition inspector in the war and took great pleasure in giving us the full history of the area along with who lived where and for how long etc...