Reach for the stars...

niccatw

I found ginger snaps from cheesecake making. Not my favourite but I'm not complaining . Jam on digestives is great! Even better if you've some cream cheese...

Pregnant friend has another dress - but we've no idea if it will match with the other two bridesmaids! They were going shopping with bride yesterday! I'm about to head off and catch the latest gossip (and see the second dress :shhh:).

Dramas are more entertaining when you're not directly involved in them

But now I'm probably going to go for an Italian that wasn't budgeted for and has messed up an intended NSD again! None so far this month. Whoops! Need to step up the game!

anonymoose_3

I do 4 days in then I have 4 days off which makes up for the stupidly early starts

Is it wrong that I kinda hope your preggers friend new dress doesn't match as a haha to the bride for messing about:o

mmmm Italian Enjoy!!

niccatw

Pregnant friend has had quite a saga - I'm surprised she wasn't shocked into labour on the hen night! Went to pick her up and get her there, only to get a phone call saying the bride was in Monsoon an hour before every-one was supposed to be meeting. Pregnant friend is always on time (I don't know how we have remained friends for so long; I'm never on time!) so she was stressing about that. Then it transpired that bride had bought two purple drersses, one which she got cheap as it had a stain and needs taken up. Purple doesn't go with the teal dress, or the green dress, or the chocolate dress that bride asked pregnant friend to get online (so far all at pregant friend's expense! Though she will be re-imbursed).

As you can imagine, pregnant friend was absolutley raging! And completely stressed! We got back to her house about 11.30pm (later than anticipated as the bride was very late for her own party), and immediately jumped online. Her poor hubbie had been on the phone for most of the drive home (a good hour) and had narrowed down the choices! But there's not many purple maternity dresses out there for an 8 months pregnant bridesmaid! That can be delivered inside 3 days!

So, no. It doesn't match, it's bright pink. It was the only suitable one in stock and will hopefully arrive before they need to leave tomorrow! Luckily the maternity dress site has 24 hour telephone support! (I'm guessing the whole enterprise started from one women's bad experience when she was pregnant and she knows you need to be there for advice and questions whenever the notion strikes a pregnant women!). They also needed to order it before midniight that night as there was a sale finishing and they needed it sent out as soon as to have any chance of getting it before the wedding on Saturday!

What a pallava :eek:

On the plus side, the food was lovely at the restuarant and it only cost me a fiver as pregnant friend gave me money for diesel which I didn't want to take from her (she and her husband are excellent hosts and do a mean sponge cake! And I must cost them a lot of money in teabags ). But I was hugely underdressed in my jeand and boots instead of a cocktail dress - but I was only there as a driver and gate-crasher .

niccatw

Wednesday was yoga day - it was hard work, but I really enjoyed it. We did lots of core muscle and thigh work. And, of course, I toppled over a few times!

Then I headed into town for counselling. It's weird; I'm really enjoying it! In fact, I think most folk would benefit from it! There's lots of little things I've been doing for years that have irritated me - and counselling just puts it all into perspective!

We discussed how I handle conflict; or rather how I don't (head in the sand... hmmmm, now where can we see any parallels... see signature!) and how I don't feel people hear me when I'm talking (mostly work related, but there are overspills). And a few things clicked into place! So now I'm trying to change some of the little things... baby steps!

But I feel so much bettter. So many of my friends have advised me to change jobs, but I never felt that was the right thing. I love my job - when I get the chance to do it! It's the red tape, lack of resources and lack of quick decision making that drive me mad. And that's going to happen wherever I go in my line of work, so I need to learn how to deal with it. Then I can figure out whether it's this particular job that's not right for me, or if it's just me that's not dealing with the job particularly well at the moment. If that makes any sense!

Anyway, counselling is in the city centre, so invariably I end up spending money! I can't help it. I'm rarely in the city centre and there's so many shops and they are so pretty and they have so many pretty things in them and they call out to me and ask me where I've been hiding for so many years .

But I feel I can justify my spends as they were mostly cards for birthdays and house-warmings and forth-coming babies and things (April is a 7 birthdays month :eek:). Although my friend and I are less able to justify bumping into each other and nipping to a nearby pub for a couple of early evening drinks before she jumped on her train and I found myself in the co-op buying pizza and pasties and creme aggs! Whoops!

Nevermind! So as you can imagine, today I have been ignoring my spending diary again :cool:. But I have at least got in my first NSD of the month! Phew! I was getting a little bit worried for a bit there!

Still not recieved my free crisps to trial (I'm worried the postman got a bit hungry and I'll never get them ) . Or my new online banking details. I did receive a wedding invite for July. Now, if I learn how to work my sewing machine, and get me some material, I have a lovely pattern from my Sew magazine... I might get a new dress without having to declare anything on the crazy clothes challenge . (May need my Aunt to be on standby to fix my mistakes though :rotfl:)

niccatw

Hmmmmm! My snowball clacularor is confusing me. It says it will take me 236 months to pay everything off (:eek: ... though I think that might be due to the N Rock payment which is connected to the mortgage...). But that's not what's confusing me the most...

It's that it is suggesting I make all the overpayments to the 0% interests first - so HFC and friends and family. That doesn't make sense to me :think: :wall:. Any ideas?

I'm torn between throwing overpayments to N Rock so I can move my mortgage should the SVR increase, or RBS, which is the highest interest rate. I've also been toying with the idea of phoning up MBNA and finding out if they'll offer me any deals now I'm all paid up. I could get this paid into my bank account and then drastically reduce either N Rock or RBS... decisions, decisions!

Realistically it would need to be RBS as it's 10.2% APR. SVR on mortgage is currently 4.75%.... hmmmmm :think:

Any opinions/thoughts/experiences would be gratefully received!

niccatw

:doh:That snowball was obviously paying back in order of the balance of each debt...

Have completed an interest order snowball which reckons I should be done in 37 months if I can keep up the same rate of payments. Phew!

Though still doesn't solve my RBS/N Rock dilemma... or whether I want another MBNA debt to bring down the overall interest paid (assuming they'd offer me anything!) ...

niccatw

If I could up my payments by £200 a month I could be debt free in 28 months .

I hope Inland Revenue get back to me soon!

And perhaps I best start photographing all that ebay stuff!

Though now I should probably stop playing on the snowball calculator and get some sleep!

WASHER

I thought I didn't sleep much.

Go to bed and get some sleep, I'm on kitty watch, see you in the morning.

Take care

WASHER.x.

WASHER

This wedding is a nightmare, your poor friend, I do feel for her. I would just say I'm not being your bridesmaid, despite the timing, the bride doesn't deserve friends like yours.

niccatw

I think that's pretty much what she's decided to do! She says she'll carry a posy and sit at the front and be bridesmaid in spirit. But she'll hardly be able to walk down the aisle as it is (she has that hip/pelvic bone thing) and she doesn't want to look "like the fogetful pregnant one that didn't make it to her seat in time" .

I just hope she (and her husband) can take a deep breath and enjoy the day despite everything!

You must be shattered too - you could only have had 4 hours sleep at most last night!

I am going to be now though

Night night