woah... are those MY finances??

scubaangel

That is a gorgeous venue - that view from the bedroom in picture nine, just amazing. If OH thinks it's alright sounds like a winner to me

I don't see why you can't have a Nessie cake, plenty of water in Cumbria so s/he might pop down to visit occasionally.

Erm no it's more sibling rivaly - my sister did the Windermere swim last year and I couldn't so she suggested as the family 'swimmer' I might like to take part with her this year. Sanity or lack thereof is an issue in my gene pool I fear. We have signed up to raise money for a charity (Macmillan) too but it wasn't the main reason for signing up for it.

stewby

Ah, I didn't think of sibling rivalry scuby. That also makes very good sense. Sounds like a brilliant reason... are you going to try and beat her time or just complete it so that she can't cast up anymore??
Macmillan is a brilliant charity. They do so much good work.


I love the venue. I love the mixture of modern and oldy worldy from the outside and I love the idea of having a suite with a wee staircase up to the roof. The whole thing just screams brilliance.
We are having a maximum of 20 to the wedding and we come from opposite ends of the country so this place is pretty much in the middle.

Erm, I might be just a wee bitty excited.

scubaangel

Both. I plan to beat her by any means at my disposal - she did it last year in a little under an hour, so her plan this year is beat that time - thus mine is to finish in front of her on the day. Am hoping my current running will have helped with my stamina so I don't need to train three or four times a week in the water as they recommend, am planning to swim in the pool once or twice a week until the Open Water club opens at Salford Quays then try to get down there once a week until from April until the swim in July. But that plan means finding the money to pay for the swims. The early pool swim is £4 so thats £8 a week, then registering at the O/W club is £15 for the year and £10 a swim session plus either hiring a wetsuit or buying my own - hire is £6, buying one I'm looking at about £100 for a decent one but chances are once I have it I'll keep swimming anyway so will get my moneys worth from it.

We'd have preferred to support Marie Curie as they were great while we've had them helping with Nana, but they're not one of the options and we know Macmillan do similar work.

Fmess

Loving the wedding venue, how romantic

Good luck with your training scuba, it's a great cause to be supporting too

Not much to report. Been away for a lovely weekend with my best friends but it cost a fortune as were in Central London both days (although accommodation was free). So excited for my week off

stewby

Ah scuby, I was going to say that I prefer Marie Curie but then I thought that might have sounded rude.


No wonder you are so determined to keep your exercise regime up. Are you able to do any cold water training?? I am only asking cause I saw an article about davina mcall taking unwell due to the cold water when she was trying to swim. Apparently her breathing cycle was off due to the cold and panicking.
:undecided

Did you do any touristy stuff whilst you were in London fmess?? I loved london when we went for the day. I made OH walk for about 7 miles just to find the gherkin. He wasn't very impressed but we did get to walk along the thames a bit which was lovely. He spoils me rotten. I am a very lucky girl.


Thoughts of turning 30 have been overtaken by planning the wedding and the honeymoon.


Now that we have found the venue, we spoke to my parents. Plan is to speak to OH's parents after we are engaged and see if they like the venue and then provisionally book it in May. Am so excited!!!!
:j

I also might have jumped the gun a little and asked my cousin to be bridesmaid... she is absolutely ecstatic and so pleased.


Looks like I will be doing all the planning as OH has said everything is up to me... apart from his outfit as he is not wearing a kilt. He knows me too well.


Today should be a spend-free day as we are not planning on going anywhere. So that will be number 12.


Hope everyone is doing well and remaining focussed.
Hugs.

Fmess

I feel like I am surrounded by wedding crazy people (my best friend and another friend are getting married in the next two years) I'm sure it is very exciting for you. I have to go help write wedding invitations on Wednesday and try on bridesmaid dresses on Saturday.

We did lots of lovely things in London but not the traditional tourist things as my friend lives there so we didn't want to bore her (I think whenever anyone visits she ends up doing the same attractions).

Loving being on half term apart from the amount of work I need to do Tried to confine it just to two days (today and Friday) but had to reply to a few coursework queries for kids yesterday and ended up doing some marking on Saturday as I was up early and didn't want to waste the time. Looks like I might be working nearly everyday at this rate.

Hope you are having a lovely day in, I went to the gym this morning and I am about to walk the dogs but apart from that I am staying in and working.

stewby

Don't panic... I will try to keep the wedding chatter to a minimum as I can't really do much for three years (wedding isn't until 2018).


This is just the initial excitement.


New passport has come back. Hate the picture (there's a surprise). But at least I have one so we can go to Barcelona in April and Kos in June.
:j

Have you done the whole touristy thing before though?? I do love being a tourist somewhere. London was amazing when we were there (only went for the day though). I would love to go back some day soon.


That's one of the things that put me off teaching (apart from the fact that I wasn't smart enough). The fact that the holidays weren't actually holidays as you had to do classroom planning and also the fact that it was so rigid. I remember primary 7 (I was 11) and we did the wind in the willows book and all about oil rigs. You don't really get that flexibility any more.


I have a heap of respect for anyone who can go into teaching. After spending a week doing work experience, I realised that I did not have the patience or guts to work with kids. I find teachers get made into scapegoats a lot of the time and it makes me sad.
:undecided

Are you having a nice week off (otherwise).
Hugs.

scubaangel

I saw a report on Davina's problems, frankly at this time of year I'm not surprised, I dive year round normally and find my winter dives are shortened by my breathing getting erratic (by my standards) even in a dry suit! Yeah the swim centre where the event is being held has an open water club which is based there and has another using it two nights a week so I'm waiting for registration to open for this season and then when they open in April will try to get down there at least once a week. On the day they have a nice big acclimatisation area too so you can be in the water for a while before you start the mile itself.

Fmess

I'm only joking about the wedding. It must be very exciting.

I've done the London tourist thing when I was a teenager but can't remember most of it so will have to take a trip one day and do it again.

The rest of the week is lovely but so far it doesn't look like I am going to have any restful days at home as I have lots of people to catch up with lol. I have worked hard today (just finished) so hopefully might have 24 hours off tomorrow

I agree that teachers are often the scapegoats and lots of people think it is an easy job because of the holidays, but I think you get out of it what you put into it. I couldn't teach a lesson where I wasn't 100% confident that I had tried my hardest to provide a good lesson.

Hope you've had a lovely day at home.

stewby

Ah... that makes sense about davina scuby. I just know what I had read in the news.
The acclimitisation pool sounds like a good idea beforehand (not that I am an expert). I hope you keep us up to date with how you are getting on. I am rooting for you to win.


Ach, don't worry fmess. To be honest, I will be bored of planning something so far in the future and start focussing on more fun stuff like the honeymoon (touring round america)... and I am currently spending a lot of time looking over tours of the UK my friend has done to get some ideas.


When we went, we did the HOHO buses and had a wander round harrods. It was amazing and not too expensive (considering what I had heard about london). The thing that shocked me the most was that they had squirrels in the parks!! I know that sounds stupid but I am a country girl who had never been near anywhere the size of london and I had assumed it was just a mass of buildings with a couple of green corners that they called parks... but they had squirrels and when you were in the parks, you sometimes couldn't even tell you were in london. We also did the boat tour (part of the HOHO deal) and it was brilliant too.
I definitely need to go back some day.


Glad to hear you might get a day off tomorrow. We are heading over to my auntie's house tomorrow for holiday planning. She is being incredibly awkward so I can see it going very wrong.
She wants hot weather, less than £500, from a scottish airport, decent hotel, stuff to do, shopping nearby, etc.
I found an all inclusive one for about £550 which means no food costs and local drink included but she isn't keen cause it is £50 over budget. She can't grasp that she would spend over £50 on food and drink for the week. It's also from our local airport which means mum doens't have to worry about flying too much.
I hate it when I start to feel that the logical choice is actually the illogical one (if you know what I mean).
:doh:

Anyways... hope you have a lovely day off tomorrow and get a chance to actually relax and unwind.
Hope you have a great day too scuby... and achieve your goals.
Hugs.

P.S: in money related news: paid another £600 off the credit card today... although the £2k for the holiday is away to go on the card tomorrow (however, I get half of it before I leave my auntie's house and the other half once I get home so it will all be paid off very quickly).