Raphaels DF Diary - A Clean Page‏

x_raphael_xx

Well I'm back from my jollies in France!
It was very nice and relaxing, and quite a cheap mse holiday, C paid for my ferry ticket, and we stayed at her parents house so I only had to find spending money. I spent £85 in total, and that includes the grocery shopping we did over there!
I bought myself back a horse steak to try! Having it tonight
The weather was a little rainy the first couple of days, then brightened up for the rest of the holiday.
Here's me with a pink umbrella at the Abbaye de Bon-Repos


And the glorious scenery at Roscoff


I managed to get a couple of training runs in while I was there, lovely long roads to run on, with very few cars and beautiful scenery


We got back on Friday night, I had Saturday to rest then my Half Marathon on Sunday!
It was brilliant, the crowds were cheering us on all the way around, and C watched with Shadow and held up a sign for me I was cruising most of the way around, but had to walk up a couple of hills, then the last mile was a killer, I was so close and trying to keep going but my body wanted to stop!
Here's me at the 13 mile marker, with just the 0.1 mile to go, and the finish line in sight!

The_Dragon

Wow! Go the Runner on a half shell! Well done Raph!!

x_raphael_xx

Payday today I've transfered another chunk of cash into my wedding fund, it now stands at £885.16
I've also paid £20 into my ISA, I doubt I'll have much in it by April, but at least it's a start towards saving for my future

I've started playing the saxophone again, I've neglected it for a couple of weeks as I was concentrating on training for the half marathon, but I'm going to focus on it now. I've got my next lesson booked in for thursday.

Fathers Day is fast approaching, I found a great pair of socks in the pound shop. They have 'I'm the daddy' on them, so that's my dad sorted. I might get another pair for my step-dad too.

I went to the gym yesterday for the first time in a while, most of my exercise lately has been running outside.
It was the first bit of exercise I've done since my run and it was good to be doing something active again. My foot still hurts (I think my laces were too tight and I've bruised the top of my foot ) but I managed 10 minutes on the treadmill.
I saw Simon while I was at the gym, he was the instructor who gave me my initial induction and program, he told me I looked fantastic and he was impressed with my time for the run.
It was a great boost to get a compliment like that
I might go for a short 5 mile run today, while C is out playing cricket.

My birthday balloon ride was cancelled again the other week, due to the bad weather, I've re-booked it for Thursday 11th June in Tiverton. Hopefully it will be 3rd time lucky.:rolleyes:

x_raphael_xx

I've been a little naughty and taken some money out of my wedding fund to buy a Garmin Forerunner! It cost £122! It uses GPS to track your distance, time and speed when out running and you can make graphs & stuff on your PC to track your progress. I thought it was justified as I really enjoy running and I've been doing it for a while, so it's not a impulse gadget that I'll not use in a couple of months.

Running is going okay, body still hasn't quite recovered, I have to stop and walk every now and then, but I'm increasing the distance between the walks and my time isn't too bad. So I'm improving and getting back up to fitness.

I bought a new dress the other day too, £60!! It's the most I've ever spent on one outfit. But it will be worn to a friends wedding reception and my step-sisters wedding, and it's not too flashy to wear on a regular night out. So worth the money

So Wedding fund now stands at £762.41

x_raphael_xx

My Garmin arrived yesterday!! (Well it actually arrived Friday, but I missed the post) been out for a run and a bike ride with it and I love playing with the graphs. I'm loving my new toy

I was very pleased with my run as it was the first one since the Half that I ran the whole way without stopping, even thou my music stopped halfway round! :rolleyes:


Wedding fund is now up to £800. I'm hoping to put another £200 in by the end of the month

x_raphael_xx

Went out and did a 15.87 mile run on Saturday! My legs are still aching!

Not doing so well on the wedding fund, I've been naughty again & bought myself another new toy, a DS lite I obviously needed games too. I bought the console and games pre-owned so they were cheaper.
I wanted Scrabble but the 2009 was £30 in the shop! I got it online for £10

x_raphael_xx

Holy Moly!!! Where have I been!!!

Everything got so busy before the wedding that I didn't have time for MSE, but I'm back now Time for a huge post!

So...the wedding!!

We both had a fantastic day. We both woke up early and C (as she does every day) made me a cup of tea. I then left for the hairdressers down the road to be transformed. I didn't want a tiara, so had a fresh Gerbera in my hair instead. It took an hour to do & there was so much hairspray that my do lasted even through the dancing in the evening.
When I got back home my maid of honour,Ruth, had arrived with her mum & hairdresser in tow. My mum & step-dad & C's best man followed soon after so I cracked open the champagne.
The champagne was a free gift from Marks & Spencers, as they had messed up our cake order. When I placed the order I told them I wanted 'Mrs & Mrs C***** iced on the cake, and the lady checked about 6 times, even turning the screen for me to read where she typed it & it was on the print out receipt. Then a week to go I had a call from M&S' bakers, checking that I defiantly wanted Mrs & Mrs, which I confirmed.
When I went to pick it up they had iced 'Mr & Mrs' into it! So M&S sent it to a close bakery to get it fixed & delivered it in a taxi to our hotel. Not what I needed 2 days to go! But the cake was perfect on the day.
The house was manic, everyone rushing around getting ready, Ruth getting her hair done & flowers arriving, it took 3 people to tie me into my dress! My manager from work then arrived in his Merc to take us into the registry office, as it was dry he put the roof down so we arrived in style!


The ceremony was lovely, everything went well, then came the bit I was dreading, playing my saxophone! Ruth was in-charge of getting it to the registry office & setting it up so it was ready for me to just pick up & play. I did a song called 'I love you truly' by a lady called Carrie Jacobs-Bond, one of the first successful female song/score writers. I was better than I thought I was going to be, I squeaked a couple of notes, but it was generally okay.
Dad also presented us with necklaces he'd got made, a gold letter C for me to wear, and a gold letter S for C. They have a small gap in the letter, so when you place them next to each other the gap makes a heart.


During the ceremony it started raining so we headed straight to the hotel for the group photos on the stairs. Our 3 course meal was lovely, although the portions were huge. I had chicken fajita salad for starters, roast pork for the main & chocolate fudge cake for pudding, which I couldn't even finish, as beautiful as it was!


During the pause between the main & the pud me and C were mingling & chatting to our guests when the toastmaster came up to me and said the registry office was on the phone and wanted to speak to one of us. I went to the phone only for the registry office to tell me they had no record of us paying for the ceremony! She wanted to know what date we paid and in what way, I had no idea as C had gone in and I didn't know if she paid by card or cash. I told the lady that the earliest we could sort it would be the next day and she said 'Oh that's no problem, I understand'. What a time to ring! During our reception!
C rang them the next day and they had found the receipt, but didn't apologise.
After the meal we had the cake cutting, before C started off the speeches, she did really well, I was nervous about mine but managed okay, apart from getting emotional & not being able to finish the sentences.
Then we had a couple of hours break, most people went home or back to their hotels to change and freshen up. We popped upstairs to our room in the hotel and opened some presents.


For our evening do we had the ballroom in the hotel & had booked a ceilidh band instead of a disco, it's kinda like barn dancing to Irish music, so much fun! It was brilliant, I only had time to drink 3 drinks all night, 2 were just J20's because I didn't want to drink but I needed something cold. It was so fun I didn't feel the need to drink to have a good night, which was great, and meant I didn't feel ill or hungover the next day.


Halfway through the evening the band had a break and we opened up the buffet, before the band came back on I played my sax again, I did the same song that I played at the ceremony, and I also played 'Bicycle made for two', and every one sang along! I didn't play as well as I did earlier but everyone enjoyed it.


The wedding was on the Thursday, and we left for our Honeymoon on Sunday, it gave us a change to tidy away all the presents & clean the house before we left so we didn't come home to a mess. Ruth looked after Shadow as part of our wedding present, which saved us £120 in kennel fees. Ruth is an artist & also drew a picture of me and C as a wedding present, it's so life like, it's brilliant.


We went to New York for our honeymoon, we did all the tourist stuff, Empire State building, Staten Island ferry, Statue of Liberty, Time Square & Hard Rock Cafe etc etc etc It was amazing, and we did so much walking! We could see the Chrysler Building & the Empire State from our hotel window, and we were one block from Macys.
A lot of people gave us money as a wedding present so we changed it all to dollars, which meant we were able to do a lot of fun stuff like a horse & carriage around Central Park, a 3 hour boat ride around NYC, dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (I had a steak which was amazing, the best steak I have ever eaten!), and ice skating in Bryant Park.
Grand Central station & the New York Library were amazing buildings, marble everywhere and painted ceilings. Almost like museums, very impressive, even the post office had columns & marble!
We only had bad weather one evening when it rained, and the Empire State Building disappeared in the clouds! It was weird!
A couple of photos for you all


Our entrance (I'm on the left)


Me on the sax


Wollman Rink at Central Park


Me under Brooklyn bridge


Me & Lady Liberty

So yeah, we had a fantastic time, now to get back to normality!

I was reading thru my diary last night and looked at my goals I set in January...

So what do I have planned for 2009?
My 4 main challenges will be...

1)Lose the last few lbs then maintain my weight at 11 stone.
2)Start putting away savings for my future - Probably looking into a cash ISA for he moment.
3)Start planning and paying for the wedding & honeymoon!!
4)Buying and learning to play the saxophone

1)Well my weight is being maintained, I have cancelled my gym contract as I am running now (I've done another half marathon since the Plymouth one, I shaved a few mins off my time too!) and I can save the £43 a month and exercise for free!

2)I have put some savings away, not much due to paying for the wedding and honeymoon, but I do have a few hundred put away which is a nice start.

3)We managed to save for the wedding and honeymoon, so none of it was paid on credit, which means we are clear, no dragging it on for months after paying it off!!

4)I'm doing well with my saxophone, almost finished my first 'learn as you play' book, which my tutor says will take me up to a grade 3 level.

So what are the next challenges??
Well I want to build my savings up, and I have to save for a trip to Japan we have planned for next November, it was were we originally planned to have our honeymoon, but would have been too expensive on top of the wedding, so we are going for our first anniversary instead. I want to have about £3000 saved and at the moment I have about £200, so a way to go yet!
I now have £460 in my ISA, which is a good start, but nowhere near the £3600 yearly limit, so I want to throw a little more at that too.

beanielou

Glad it all went so well Mrs & Mrs

SarahNeedle1872

Wow! What an update!! Glad everything went well for you both, and you had a great time in NY - I'm gonna move there one day! Well jealous about Japan too!

Your photos are lovely, you both look very happy

Sx

The_Dragon

You both look so happy! Oh and re Japan - you would be better to go in May - so maybe your 18 month anniversary! That is when the cherry blossom is out and it is supposed to be wonderful