Little sister comes to stay

It's been a week since I blogged, and I've spent all week thinking of something to write about, something that actually might be worth reading.

I was going to write about my irrational worrying, how I worry about the smallest of things, and get myself worked up over nothing. I did, however, think this was a slightly miserable topic to post about, especially after last week's cervical cancer post.

So tonight, I'm going to tell you about my little sister coming to stay for a couple of days. Well, she's not so little, just younger. She's taller than me, not that it's difficult to be taller than me. I'm only 5ft 2! She is 17, and just like I was at that age - wanting to travel to the other side of the country to visit her older sister. Today was the first time she has travelled on her own this far, the first time she's had to change trains on her own, and she did that to come and visit us. Seeing her at the station tonight was great. It's the first time I've seen her since the wedding.

Not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but right now she's enjoying being away from home, and enjoying playing on the iPad.

Cervical cancer awareness or A storyline too close to home?

I'm talking about the Eastenders story line. 

Last night when Tanya ripped up the letter, it made me cross. Since then, every time I have thought about it, I start to feel all the emotions of when I went through it. I'll never forget the day I came home from holiday, straight after New Year, to see those words, 'severe changes to cells' otherwise known as Severe Dyskariosis, or CIN 3. I'll never forget the fear I felt, and how quickly the big C word popped into my head. I'm not sure how I would have felt had I not had my husband to stand by me and support me. If I'd been alone, would I have reacted how she did? Now I know that Tanya is just a character in a soap, and not a real person, but the storyline is very real and hundreds of women go through this every week, possibly every day. 

Even watching it tonight, I was feeling emotional, seeing Tanya call the clinic and book that appointment. It's something I hope I never have to do again. Although the procedure wasn't as painful and horrific as it sounds, the emotional stress related to it was great. At the time, I was in a job where I was unhappy, with a boss who was more concerned about me not being able to return to work after than whether I was actually alright! Luckily, I had my supportive, although equally scared husband, some fantastic friends, some who had been through the same experience, and an amazing gynae-oncologist, and colposcopy nursing team. I'm not sure I would have got through it so easily without that nurse holding my hand and wiping my tears, or the gynae-oncologist who talked to me about Toy Story 3 during the whole procedure. At one point he even made me laugh!

I was one of the lucky ones. I got the all clear less than six months later, and although I need to now have smear tests every six months, they see no reason for the abnormalities to return. Still, it will not stop me from worrying every time I have one from now on. For Tanya, it's not going to be such a happy story as hers is going to be the big C word. For me, watching this storyline unfold is going to continue to be emotional, especially if they show her going to the clinic later this week.

I really hope that Eastenders airing this storyline will raise the awareness of cervical cancer, and will encourage many women to have regular smear tests.

Concrete Circus

Watching this amazing programme on Channel 4 called Concrete Circus. It's about Skateboarding, BMX tricks & Free running, and it's absolutely incredible to watch. The photos I'm about to share are no-where near the standard of skill shown on this programme, but are still really amazing, and take a lot of skill and nerve.

These photos were taken at Lifestyles Festival in Hunstanton, earlier this year. 

Quirky VW Stuff

I can't think of anything else to blog about tonight, so I'm going to share some photos of some of the quirky features I've seen on or in VW campervans over the last few years. It makes me think we should be adding some quirky features to our van. We are slowly filling up the rear side window with stickers, and have added a few stickers and tin surf signs to the interior, but loving these great features we have seen at shows.

Weeble Fire Truck

Pepparami

Just Married Monkey

Bit of Stickerage

Ugly Doll

Roadrunner

Nodding Jesus

Rat for a rat look

Gone Surfing Beetle Sign

God Bless Us!

Monkey behind the jail bars

Another lovely Sunday

Today has been another lovely Sunday spent with my lovely husband. This afternoon we headed over to West Raynham, an old RAF base, that is now a regenerated village. We met up with other VW owners for a barbecue, auto-jumble sale, photo shoot, and general camper chat. It was a great turnout with thirteen vans and a beetle, all lining up outside the old buildings on the old base. As well as the usual people who attend these meets, there were a few new faces too, and some lovely vans that we hadn't seen before.

After the meet we headed over to Hunstanton in Norfolk, to enjoy fish and chips by the sea. This is where having the van is great as we can just pull up at the sea front, set up the table, and eat takeaway fish and chips on a plate with proper cutlery. Not that I have anything against eating chips out of the paper with a wooden fork, whilst sitting on a bench. Some of the best fish & chip takeaways I've had, have been eaten this way. Sometimes it's just nice to have a little luxury!
No trip to the seaside is complete without hot sugared doughnuts, so after dinner we headed off to find some. First though we stopped off at the arcade, as for me, no trip to the seaside is complete without pushing a few two-pence coins through machines in the arcade. Although I know that everything I win will go back into the machine, I seem to get great enjoyment from playing on them. What gives me more pleasure, is when my husband joins in too, as this is something he doesn't always do. I don't think he gets the same satisfaction from the two-penny falls that I do. I should bet if I was posting one pound coins into gun games it would be a different story! Tonight though, my husband did join me at the two-penny machines, and we had several bets on the horse racing game together too which reminded me of being younger as a lot of the modern arcades don't have these anymore.
Our evening was completed by sitting on the sea wall and eating hot doughnuts together. All in all, an inexpensive but enjoyable evening.

I feel I have been typing a little too much tonight, so I leave you now with some photos from today.

Too much caffeine, no editing and interesting prediction

When I first started blogging more than two years ago it was because I was having sleep issues, which at the time I put down to the stresses of wedding planning. After the wedding I was still having issues so I started the 'no caffeine after 5pm' rule. If you haven't noted the time already then I'll tell you its gone one in the morning and I'm very wide awake. I blame the coffee I had at 6pm and the malibu & coke I had after dinner. Of course it could also be because I've done little today or that is quite bright in the house tonight due to a full moon. So I have resorted to blogging to help tire me, and i've decided to try the ipad for this, which could be interesting as it lacks in editing features and its predictive text can be interesting at times. Having previously spent many hours on www.damnyouautocorrect.com, I am familiar with some of the interesting corrections iPad & iPhone can make.


This time last year, we were spending our last night in New York before heading down to Miami. Tonight we have been watching a DVD, and just relaxing together. It was nice to have a weekend with very little planned. Last night we went to the restaurant where we held our wedding reception. It was a treat from the in-laws, who gave us some money so that we could enjoy the fine cooking at this lovely place with a fantastic chef. As expected the food was exceptional and was the kind of meal you never want to finish. If we ever become rich we will eat there every Friday!


Tomorrow is another VW filled day with a meet up with the East Coast Air Cooled club, followed by fish & chips at the seaside, we may even go and spend some 2ps in the arcade.

What a difference a year makes

Have been looking back at our wedding photos and seeing how much has changed for our guests. 

Since we got married, one friend who had a pretty large bump, has since had a beautiful baby girl, and is due to give birth to a boy in a few weeks. Another of our guests was pregnant at the wedding and has since had her baby girl. Two other friends fell pregnant shortly after the wedding and had baby boys earlier this year, one a first baby and the other a second. Another couple are expecting their first baby in December. Then there's the three couples who have got married since our wedding, and one of those couples had their first baby on Monday this week.

Maybe there was something in the water at our wedding. I didn't drink any!

It's not all about us

Our wedding day for us, was memorable because we were getting married, but for the rest of the world it will be the weekend that 33 miners started their 2 month ordeal trapped in a Chilean mine.


Our first anniversary weekend will be remembered as the weekend when riots broke out in London. Four evenings on, watching it on the news, I still find it hard to understand why this is happening. The situation seems to be getting worse and I can't see an end to it. It makes me angry that these people are doing this for no apparent reason other than to vandalise and to steal. It sickens me to know that the majority of these people are teenagers, the next generation, and they feel it's acceptable to behave like this. What went wrong in their upbringing? Earlier on the news I saw a teen being interviewed saying they are doing it because they don't feel respected by adults. Do they really think that behaving in this way is going to gain them respect? When did they start to believe that vandalising buildings and terrorising innocent people was OK? Where are the parents of these youths? Do they know their children are involved in this? If they were members of my family  I'd be deeply ashamed.

A lovely weekend

On August 7th 2010, I married the man I'd waited a long time to meet. I know it's a cliche, but it really was the best day of my life. 

A year on, we decided we'd spend the day at a VW show. It's probably not something many people would choose for their anniversary, but with our love of classic VWs and our lack of money, it seemed a good choice for us.

So on Saturday afternoon, we packed up Bella the campervan, and headed to the Norfolk Broads to Clippesby Hall Campsite. It was our first visit here, and as they were quite full, they said they'd squeeze us in. I was quite worried we'd be packed in close to other campers, and was not really sure what to expect. I needn't have worried, as when we got there, we had a very spacious pitch in a beautiful wooded area on what was the best campsite we have ever camped on. 

On Sunday, our anniversary, we woke up early to the sun shining, and opened our cards from each other, and from family and friends. After a fried breakfast cooked in the campervan, we headed off to White Noise VW Show.

It's at shows like this where I wish that we had a nice interior & upholstery so we could enter the Show & Shine with a fair chance of winning. Unfortunately, I don't think the van will ever be show winning quality. It doesn't make us stop planning to spend more money on making the interior nice though, and this weekend have been making a mental list of things to do next. I guess we'll never have a really nice home, but a great van instead! 

Looking forward to staying at this lovely campsite again, hopefully for a bit longer next time so that we can explore the Norfolk Broads, and the Norfolk coast.

 

Up earlier than expected

Sometimes I am so stupid! Last night I planned to set the alarm one hour on from our usual work day time of 6.45, that way we could have half an hour of snoozing before we actually needed to get up. After setting the alarm, we settled down in bed, and played angry birds together, not exactly the usual bedtime activities of newly-weds I know! After a few games, hubby decided to go to sleep and I thought I'd read a few pages of my book, so I was quite shocked that the clock was showing nearly 1 o'clock. Surely we hadn't been playing for that long? Still, silly me never thought to check on the iPad I was holding!

No wonder it felt like a work morning when the alarm went off, and no wonder I hit that snooze button several times - I'd only gone and put the time on 1 hour! 

At least we now have more time to chill before what will be an extremely busy day. Off to hubby's workplace for their annual family fun day, where I seem to become a member of staff for the day as I help out with the stalls, handing out sweets and prizes to hyperactive children. Maybe when we have our own children I'll get out of helping and get to join in the day a bit more. It will be a few more years before we see if that happens!

2 days to go.....

Until our first wedding anniversary, and this time last year I had finished my last day at work as a Miss, and had spent one day making final preparations. 

I had a good send off from work, with a desk decorated with balloons & confetti and some lovely presents. I ended the day by driving to get my nails done, sitting in a car of confetti, with balloons hanging from the wing mirrors and a sign saying 'Honk at me, I'm getting married'! Wednesday was also the day the van got sprayed!

Thursday was spent picking up wedding rings and the all important dress, getting my Dad's suit changed and filling favour boxes with sweets. It was also the day where panic was setting in good and proper, as the van was still drying and needed to be put back together and needed an MOT. This turned into the most stressful part of the build up as we still didn't know if she'd be ready in time. 

Friday was spent decorating the reception venue, a lovely restaurant in the village where we live. I was helped by my little sister while my fiance was at the garage desperately helping wherever he could with re-assembling the van, which failed the MOT that morning.  Van aside, I can honestly say that I was at my calmest that day and was feeling extremely chilled out about the wedding. By mid afternoon, Bella the campervan had passed the MOT and it was all hands on deck to get her cleaned up, and get the interior fitted back in. Finally finished at 9pm, my fiance left to go and spend the night at his parents, with his daughter, and so began my last night as a Miss. 

Back to the present, and plans are to go to White Noise VW show this Sunday, our anniversary day. We will be camping in the van on Saturday & Sunday night at Clippesby Hall Campsite. 

On Monday I will fully report on the weekend, and also write a mini report about the wedding day.

 Before and After

Failed already!

Well this week I was supposed to be looking back at last year, and already, just a few days after starting this blog, I've missed a day. So last year the 2nd & 3rd of August were Monday & Tuesday, and still quite calm in terms of wedding planning. 

On the Monday, my Mum arrived with my Auntie Jean, younger brother & sister, and their Dad.  They rented a house nearby for a couple of weeks so had a bit of a holiday too. They also brought our first wedding present, which became a feature on the day. 

On Tuesday I went out with female family, close friends, a neighbour, and a little male guest for my second hen night, a quieter night than the first one, but still complete with it's typical hen night tack. It was at this point that everything started to feel very real!