2008-10-27 - 7:18 p.m.

I'm going to try to write a snapshot entry rather than a "this is what I've been doing for the last three weeks". Only I always seem to have trouble with those.

Work is, on balance, stressful, and I'm pretty self critical so I don't feel like I'm doing a good job, but there are moments of real satisfaction. I'm no longer finding a lack of discipline to be an issue. Every day last week I was in at 7.30am and not out until after 5pm, and there was precious little checking of hotmail, or anything of that ilk. My days were overflowing, but it's the quality of work, my reflection on the decisions that I've had to make, or the way I've handled a particular situation, that I stress about.

And then I'm finding it hard to relax at home, due to long days at work and a huge to do list and social calendar between now and March next year. No matter what I'm doing I seem to be thinking about what I could or should be doing. I think we had a completely free weekend the one just past, and I was almost reluctant to make plans to go out to dinner on Saturday night, or spend most of Sunday in the city looking at wedding related stuff when I could have been at home cleaning the mould from the walls. I don't think I've managed to go for a run all month, but then I needed a couple of weeks at work where there was nothing encouraging me to leave while I still had things to do. So last week was just that, and I still managed to cook 3 nights of the week and go to trivia on Thursday.

The wedding planning is coming along pretty well the more I think about it. If I may summarise:

- Deposit paid for Observatory Hill.
- 2 Deposits paid for L'Aqua
- Reception package includes wedding night accommodation, DJ, first tier of wedding cake and a bunch of other things
- Jo has dress and shoes
- Jo's bridesmaids are measured, and the design for their dress has been picked
- Cars organised
- Photographer, videographer and celebrant chosen
- Florist chosen, finer details being considered by Jo
- Invitation supplier chosen
- Extended guest list (ie everybody we would even consider inviting) all but finalised (including addresses), so that names can be printed on invites and envelopes, and the second round will be all ready to go when all the distant overseas relatives send their apologies (please please please please please).
- Quote obtained for honeymoon. Itinerary all but decided on.

Things to do:

- Wedding rings
- Suits
- Bonbonniere
- Have bridesmaids dresses made (dressmaker is still hunting for one of the colours)
- Sort out finer details of honeymoon (which quoted hotels and airport transfers are over-the-top, organise a private tour of the Mekong Delta, get visas for Vietnam, see Travel Doctor)
- Work out what music we want at various times
- Work out what we actually want in the ceremony
- Work out running times for reception
- Hassle a commitment out of Bernie
- Sashes for chairs, chairs for ceremony, decide if we want red carpet and arch, work out what else we need to hire (PA for reception etc)
- Work out what sort of cake we want and how much on top of the included tier
- About a million and one things in the month before the wedding, mostly going back to all the people we chose 6 months ago and then forgot about to discuss finer details.
- All the things that currently slip my mind

And after next weekend, I think we have something on every weekend until Christmas:

7/8 November: Newtown Festival on Sunday

15/16 November: Kim's birthday on Saturday, possible Baby Shower (guys invited too) on the Sunday

21/22/23 November: Fordie's gig on Friday night.

28/29/30 November: Possibly ill advised (from a financial and time point of view) weekend on a boat on the Hawkesbury. Hmmm, very little of that sentence sounds ill advised on reflection, why do I put a negative slant on everything?

5/6/7 December: Likely Work Christmas party on Friday afternoon/night (otherwise Mountain Goats at the Manning Bar). Homebake on Saturday.

11-15th December: In Perth for Cathy's Wedding.

19/20/21 December: Jo's Work Christmas Party on the Friday. Rest of weekend reserved for frantic last minute Christmas shopping.

There, it's official (with a bit of melodramatic license anyway- it's not like we'll be forced at gunpoint to attend the Newtown Festival)- no free weekends until Christmas!

I've done okay for a snapshot entry really. Now I'm going to have some dinner.

�

previous - next

�