Monday, May 16, 2016

Eurovision 2016

I LOVE Eurovision! My parents never really watched it, however my friend's parents did and I used to stay during that weekend. I'm not sure if it is the cheese factor, poor song writing, excessive costumes, but I adore it!

Now, since Australia were invited to join, they appear to have taken it a little seriously...which will need to rectified. We must ensure that someone sends them a memo stating that it's never to be serious and terrible is much more appropriate. I'll start writing it up as soon as possible...they should know.Additionally, this year they nearly won, so I guess we should discuss where they will host it, if they do win in the future, as let's be fair, it can't be hosted in their fair country. I guess Scandinavia or Britain would be best. I'd suggest Ireland but they've been purposefully not winning due to finances, or should I say the lack of them!
Many people joked about Australia being part of Europe, check out this helpful map:



European Map
image courtesy of the internet


I joked that Australia were invited out of kind one time and didn't realise that it wasn't a repeat invite...however I'm enjoying that it is becoming a bigger thing.
This year, Sweden's production value was far too high and Justin Timberlake shouldn't have appeared, but all in all it was a good evening. Even the new, maddening scoring was filled with tense and nail biting moments, I hope it continues through to next year also!
My other hope is that if we continue to extend invites to other countries that we never, I repeat never, let America in. They will just ruin it for everyone, however Canada, you are welcome any time! I can see it now, Mounties flying across the stage and the singer dressed in Ice hockey gear and a Moose climbing a mountain...while writing to Australia, I may write to Canada also.
For anyone interested, here is a map (I believe it to be accurate) explaining when certain countries joined the wonderful evening of celebration, nothing political and national humiliation:

Eurovision Map
image courtesy of the internet

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Wedding Planning Pt.1

I fear that these posts will become Wedding Planning Pt.4879 very soon, so in advance I apologise! Gees, do I apologise, I've only been at this for a few weeks and am already over it. In fact, when I started looking into it, I was over it.
Since last spring I have been popping in and out of potential wedding planning, like I said above: ugh! Ro and I have investigated having it hosted in Wales, in Oxford, in London, in Oxford, in the Cotswolds and back in Wales to never ever it's too much work!
We found one place which seemed perfect and I spoke briefly about it in a post from November 2015, however once we contacted them, they requested £8000 for the hire of the venue for the weekend and food, our guests were then expected to part with £200-450 for accommodation, plus we needed the registrar, license and booze. Their website told tales about being home grown, organic and yet when we asked if there was a corkage fee for homemade Elderflower Champagne, we were told £11 per bottle! Homegrown, my arse! Typical capitalist wankers who spout organic lifestyle but made their riches in London being exploitive and continue to do so in Wales. It really irritated me greatly and once I received that email, it made my mind up to delete the venue from our shortlist.
After that, we considered doing it in London, hiring a rental space and bringing everything in, or getting married in a town hall, having old Routemasters to take up to our reception in the private room of a pub or restaurant. I contacted a couple of bars about renting them, they're minimum spend was £25k exclusively, or £10k and opening to the public at 10.30pm. I think it is safe to say that they had no interest in dealing with weddings. We worked out that renting a space and loading everything in would cost a fair penny and I'd rather not spend a deposit for a house on a piss up with friends and family!
We did find this: St Dunstan in the East and thought it would be a wonderful place to get married and then realised this is England and it would most likely rain, no matter what month it is and we'd still need a reception venue afterwards.
So, we gave up for a while and then, one day while looking online I stumbled across a Charitable Trust Nature Reserve in Somerset and fell in love! We hope to get married there in the future and look forward to planning our BIG day with you all...that is if we don't break up during an argument on what colour the ribbons on the fence posts should be?! As that sounds plausible from the tales I've been told about wedding planning.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

New Website

Come find me here!

It's a work in progress, so please be kind and patient.

Sunday, May 08, 2016

Lilacs


image.jpg

Our entire building is upside down due to it's facelift: painted windows & doors, freshly plastered & painted walls, and the brickwork washed - it's going to look dead posh very soon! 
However, I fear our front garden will pretty much remain the same: patchy weed filled grass, over grown trees & bushes, and general crap from neighbours who don't respect the neighbourhood or the environment. But I was delighted to see that the lilac bush has flowered and developed some beautifully scented flowers this year, so much so that I've taken some cuttings for our living room!
Our tiny section of London isn't that bad really, the Lilac and Rosemary bushes can almost make you feel like you're in the countryside.

Thursday, May 05, 2016

London Politics

I am a Sadiq Khan supporter. We have had our fun with Boris. He was light entertainment and a great relief from the shitty situation most of us had found ourselves in, post the financial crash of 2008. However it is now time to get London back on top. It is time for the poor to know that they are not just an inconvenience; for the elderly to feel safe in their homes; the young to get the right education and opportunities they deserve; and for everyone to have a London to enjoy, rather than feel excluded from the majority of it.
I recently read the above article and was reminded of the time when I first moved to London. During that time, I had a flat I couldn’t afford, no proper job and a partner who was suffering from depression, or an inability to be sure of his situation; I’ve no idea but it wasn’t necessarily the rainbow and roses I had hoped. As everyone does, I painted a happy picture on my face.
My first proper jobs were temporary positions and I was paid weekly. Due to this situation I had to choose between food and electricity; getting up earlier to catch the bus, as I couldn’t afford to get the tube to work and eat; not attending certain events with friends as I couldn’t afford to get there and eat / drink; and always working out how many journeys I would make that week verses that month, to see if the weekly / monthly pass would work out cheaper. On various occasions I didn’t attend weddings of friends and missed my cousin's funeral all because I couldn’t even afford the train/coach, accommodation, or flights, and I still feel crappy for missing out on such life events.
I’ve always been overly generous but during that time I had to become the person who paid for their drinks separately and avoided rounds, asking to be taken out of the bill split at the end of the meal. I hated it, it wasn’t me. Sometimes I tried to not be that person and during those times I would pay via credit card, this resulted with me getting into £5k in debt over two years…an amount which felt impossible to pay off and to this day I am still paying off. And this is why I have sympathy for those who are not in comfortable situations. It is so easy to forget that others don’t have it like you do and that once upon a time, you were not as comfortable as you are now.
I am pleased to say that I haven’t been in this position over the last few years, there have been times but never that bad. And yes, I would definitely claim I am bad with money, but it is because I have little respect for it: it is far too easy come and very easy go! Therefore, I enjoy it for what it is. I do not save and save and never have fun, but I also do not spend everything and live from nothing for weeks at a time. I am lucky: I have had support from my family and fiancĂ©e, I have a fantastic loving support network of friends and now have an incredible job and feel more appreciative than ever for my lot.
Due to this, I want others to know what this feels like. I’m in the belief that Sadiq Khan can help to do this. For too long, London has been run by politicians influenced by corporations and greedy friends. We are becoming more like America every year and I cannot stand it. Having watched Zac Goldsmith’s PR team constantly throw mud at Sadiq Khan has been shameful. These are not the movements of a strong, confident candidate, these are the actions of someone who is fearful that they’ve lost and are desperate to drag someone else down with them. And that is not the type of person who should run a City such as London, the constant attack that Sadiq Khan is a supporter of terrorism because he is Muslim, are like the constant questions about juggling family and work life that Women in the public eye get asked. It is shameful.
Therefore, I have voted Sadiq Khan, as he hasn’t thrown mud at anyone, and has time and time again stated his promises and hopes for the future. My only hope is that he lives up to the hype and delivers what he has promised. Time will tell.
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