Neighbours in the city

We have new neighbours.

Well semi-neighbours. We live in a Georgian terrace house which has been split into flats with the same either side. We're on the ground floor, our new neighbours are in the basement flat next door.

Our first whiff of them being different was the cigarette smoke which drifted through our bedroom window from the little garden they have. Hmmm, this isn't normal we thought. So we closed the window and carried on as before. But it's hot now and sleeping with the window closed does not lead to good sleeping.

So last night we had the window open, and they were outside with their friends enjoying the summer night. We must have gone to bed about 11.30 ish and I dropped off pretty rapidly, but lightly. At about 1.30am I was woken by our new neighbours still outside chatting and laughing. Normally I would roll over and hope for the best but at 1.30am on a Monday night I thought it perhaps best to say something. So poking my head out of the window I just asked if they could be so kind as to be a little quieter. And all credit to them they were and I slept very well. But now I'm worried that I've upset them, even though I was very nice. I'm not sure what I imagine the repercussions to be but I'm worrying about something I really shouldn't be!

Which led me to thinking about living in London. I absolutely love it but we realised that if you live in central London you will live very close to other people. And people who you will probably never talk to, rarely see and even more rarely know. I'd still like to host some drinks for our 'house' but I'm not sure what the response would be. Do you think I should? What are your neighbours like?

Wifey weekend

By Friday evening of last week I was the walking sleeping. Work had been mad busy and I was ready for my weekend, so J and I went to our local Vietnamese restaurant and started the weekend with a yummy dinner full of goodness.

Saturday we decided to take a trip to Bicester Village, neither of us had ever been and we thought it would be interesting to go and see it. About an hour out of London by train there's a collection of designer discount stores. On the whole most are messy and have funny lines and sizes. J fared better than me, coming away with two lovely jumpers, while I wandered around looking at things I couldn't afford and ending up with a salt pig and some heat mats. Exciting huh?!

Sunday was an altogether more relaxing day, we went out to Weybridge to spend the afternoon with our friends who live there. Lunch outside, followed by a walk and afternoon tea was perfect and a great way to round off a weekend.

It's been glorious here, sunny and hot, although muggy and close too. It actually feels like summer, which is very exciting!

It's funny though, because even though we live together I love these weekends we spend together doing nice coupley things. We also managed to fit in some chores and cook a great dinner on Saturday evening. But I also really appreciate it because we now have something on every weekend until mid-September, perhaps even early October, so the chance to spend those days together in peace was wonderful, and I shall treasure them until October when hopefully we'll get another weekend like it!

What did you do this weekend? And how do you relax on the weekend?

Please vote for my friends cat! And can you spread the message too... XoXo

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And now for the shoes...

So here's where it gets exciting. I now have to get new shoes to go with the dress, yippee! None of the pairs I currently own will work. I've been looking online for ideas but I get too easily distracted into just looking at beautiful shoes which I can drool about and dream about! Anyhow, some ideas so far...


Number 1 - Rupert Sanderson

Image Matches fashion

Number 2 - Marc by Marc Jacobs

Image Matches Fashion

I love the second ones, the blue is amazing, and they look comfy (ish). But here I hit my big problem, J is shorter than me so I don't like wearing huge heels with him, where can I find fabulous but smaller heeled shoes which aren't ridiculously expensive and match the dress?!

And then of course there's the hat or fascinator to think about. The lovely Anna has already given me some great suggestions and then I'm thinking of trying to make it myself...

I did it!

I bought a dress! Online, which terrifies me, but it fits and looks nice so all is good and the search is over. Plus J likes it which is the ultimate test and here it is...

Image from Matches fashion

It's McQ by Alexander McQueen and is a lovely colour. Do you like it?

M x

Another day another dress...

Dress from Oasis

So I saw this dress today and I have to say it's a contender for the wedding. I know it's black but it's one shouldered which I still really like, has feathers and looks like a shape which might suit me, although I'm guessing those feathers could also do some expanding to the hip area...

Guess I should just get my lazy ass to the shops and try some bad boys on and then start making decisions, but until then I shall post little lovelies on here for me to dream of.

And thanks for your comments so far on the other dress! They are so very lovely and helpful.

M x

Wedding wear advice needed

This could be an ongoing series of posts until about August but here goes with the first. I am going to one wedding this year, which is the wedding of my sister-in-law. It's an English summer wedding where I've been asked to do a reading. So I need help with what to wear. Here is one of the options I've found, not tried on yet but think it could perhaps work. Although is it too casual and maternity wear like?

Dress and Image from Mangoshop.com

Any ideas for places to look, I've already tried Liberty and Reiss to no avail. English or London shops and ideally ones where I can try it on! I'm still not very good at internet shopping!

So then I should give you some criteria so you can help me with my search :)

• Colourful
• Strapless or one shouldered
• Possibly maxi but not for definite
  
• Weddingy but not too dressy
  

Am I perhaps just too fussy?! Any and all help so much appreciated!

Banksy - Bristol Museum

I'm not a big art person, I like it but don't spend hours staring at it. I can do an art museum very quickly... But I have always liked Banksy works, there are a lot in and around Farringdon where I lived in my first year in London and I grew to like their quirky ness, detail and messages. I noticed the other day that there's a whole exhibition of his work on in Bristol right now (where he apparently grew up), which I would love to go to. But things are busy right now and I have no time to get there, so instead here are a couple of my favourites from the web. I especially love that the Damien Hirst is an original! What do you think? Do you like them?

Images from Telegraph website

Good luck Rachel and M

The lovely Rachel of Peacock Feathers & Diamond Rings, is marrying M today. She is a very sweet person and they are a lovely couple, who I wish all the very best to. I hope our English weather shines on them and they have the day they have dreamt off. If you haven't already do check out her blog. It's well worth the visit!

And here's a photo I've stolen from her blog... Rachel - hope you don't mind! I just love love love this picture.

M x x x

On blogging and your personality

I did a survey yesterday about blogging and personality, it can be found here in case you want to do it too! I think I had read about it on a blog, I forget where and as I love doing personality surveys did it. My results told me about my personality but not how that links to blogging, although I think I'll get by without that! So for those of you who might be interested here goes...

1. 23/50 Neuroticism, also known as Emotional Instability. Apparently my score was higher than 36.2% of people who have taken the test. My score means I am more vunerable to stress and anxiety, however being about the middle I think that I am probably about average on the scale, although more neurotic than a lot of other bloggers!
   
2. 41/50 Extroversion. My score here was higher than 85% of people who took the test, which surprises me as I think of blogging as quite an extrovert thing to do. My high score means I tend to be active, energetic and enjoy being around others, which sounds like a pretty apt description!
   
3. 35/50 Openness to experience. Only higher than 20.1% of people! So you bloggers must be very open to new things. Or more so than me anyway. And although this seems self-explanatory, those who score highly are intellectually curious, appreciative of art and sensitive to beauty. Low scores tend to show more traditional tastes.
   
4. 36/50 Conscientiousness. Higher than 59.9% of people. So maybe there's quite a few little lying bloggers out there, teehee! A high score on this shows persistence, responsibility, and perhaps overly perfectionistic and concerned with order. Which kind of fits, somethings I am a complete perfectionist about, others very relaxed about, say mess is fine, but badly formatted documents drive me mad!
   
5. 43/50 Agreeableness. The tendency to be sympathetic and cooperative towards others. A high score shows one strives for social harmony and value getting along with others. Disagreeable people tend to be suspicious and hostile. And my score was 85.3% higher than other people who had taken the test. Which again surprises me there are many lovely bloggers out there.
   

My apologies for the self-indulgence in examining myself here but if you do do the test I would love to hear how you compare :)

New shoes!

Sshh, don't tell J or he might try and get me to throw away a pair, remember the one-in-one-out policy I mentioned a long time ago... but here are my new Banana Republic sandals. I haven't been able to wear them yet, London has been grey and miserable. But I am very excited about their first test run, and fingers crossed they don't rip my feet to shreds! Hope you like them :)

What I did this weekend

It was a busy weekend, J was away on a stag do in Riga so I filled it up a bit so I didn't miss him too much. So here goes for what I did:

• Went to see England v Netherlands in the first of the Twenty20 cricket matches, we lost by one run
• Got really drunk at the cricket
• Woke up with a hideous hangover on Saturday morning
• Went dress shopping with my sister
• Tried on about 12 dresses, all were hideous, maybe it's me...
• Went to work, good to get things done without interruption
• Made yummy pasta with sauce and brocolli to try and make the hangover go
• Watched two pants DVDs, neither of which I would recommend, they were The Women and What Just Happened
• Went to church
• Bought new sandals! Woo hoo! More on that later...
• Went to a friends birthday drinks
• Made nice Risotto

So all in all a good weekend, although I think it would have been better if J was around. I don't sleep so well when he's not here.

Hope you all had nice weekend's too!

Congratulations Krista and Wade

Today Krista of Canadian Bride is getting married. It's been great fun following her wedding and I'm very excited to see her dress at long last. My very warmest wishes to her a Wade for a fabulous day full of everything they wished for. For a wonderful honeymoon. And finally looking forward to the photos!

M x

Voting day!

For all those in the UK and EU go VOTE!!! Today are the European and some local elections. I voted this morning and enjoyed the feeling of exercising my democratic right. So people, go use it and make your voice heard. You never know we might even have a general election soon...

Wowsers, one big jellyfish

In a quiet moment at work I was looking on the BBC website and came across this news story, about an amazing crop circle. Isn't it beautiful!

Happy humpday!

Thoughts from the weekend

We spent a lovely weekend in Dorset with J's family and two things came out of it. One much littler than the other but both have been playing on my mind today.

1. J said I mother him more when we're back at his, I don't notice this but perhaps I do, maybe as competition with his mother? Or maybe to prove I'm looking after him. I'm not sure why but I must make a mental note to try not to so much when we're next down.

2. I'm often not willing to speak up for myself which makes me work something over in my mind far more then I should and thus get more upset. The example behind this is a longer one so if you'll bear with me here goes:

J's sister H was one of my bridesmaids, she came on my hen night, she did my wedding make-up and I really made an effort to include her in my wedding. She's getting married in August and had already told me she would have liked me to be a bridesmaid but if I was one then her other sister-in-law who she doesn't get on with so well would also have to be one. So I find out this weekend that now this other sister-in-law is a bridesmaid. I also find out that she's having two hen nights one of which has happened and neither of which I know anything about. Don't get me wrong it's her wedding, her decisions, I guess I was just upset not to have been told about the sister-in-law becoming a bridesmaid, if I had been told when it had happened I wouldn't have perhaps felt upset now. And on the hen nights again it's her decision but I want to be there to celebrate with her and to support her on this journey and I kind of feel like I'm being pushed away.

I know a lot of the reason is that I'm in London and she lives in Dorset so I'm not always there to remind her to include me. But I would like to be included. I should also say that she has asked me to do a reading which I have chosen, which I know is pretty special.

So I think I'm just going to say to her that I was a bit upset but am worried by saying that I'll cause more stress and trouble, which I don't want to do! Aaaahh!

Apologies for the ramble, I'm sure it'll all get sorted out very soon.

M x