So today I was sitting around after work thinking "Hey, I miss my blog!" and here I am. It's been a while, I know, but between work, and wedding planning, and life in general... not to mention a near-nervous breakdown, I haven't had much time to breathe, let alone blog.
This will be remedied, effective immediately.
What's been going on in the Land of K to keep me away so long, you ask? Well, I'd be only too delighted to fill you in!
The Big Move
Given that there's apparently something called A Recession going on nowadays, B and I decided we'd be smart to try and save as much money as we possibly can. My previous stint of unemployment left our savings severely depleted, to the point of giving people blank stares if they asked about "financial plans".
One of our biggest expenses was our rent. Our apartment was absolutely fantastic and we loved it to bits, but for one thing it was costing us a small fortune every month (even WITH the rent reduction last year), and we realised we were also quickly running out of space.
Cue a mad search of The Internets, where we found an absolutely fantastic new (to us) house. It's about 10 minutes down the road from our old apartment (cue also the Barenaked Ladies song, which plays in my head every time I write "old apartment"), has 3 bedrooms split over 6 levels, a rooftop garden and... the best part... is €500 less per month than we paid for the apartment.
Woo hoo!
The Olympics
Ah yes, the great Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Now, I freely admit to never being a fan of the whole idea. Personally I think the only good thing to come out of the Olympics was the widening of the Sea to Sky Highway, but that's beside the point.
We watched it. Oh yes. Stayed up until obscene o'clock to catch the Opening Ceremonies and several life-or-death hockey games. Introduced the inlaws to the joys of luge, skeleton, snowboardcross and aerials, and got to hear repeatedly that "Canada is so much awesomer than Ireland" from B's nieces and nephews.
And the homesickness. Holy God did I get homesick for an entire fortnight. There's something strange and surreal about watching your hometown on TV, knowing your friends and family are out there celebrating, and that I would be too, if I wasn't 5000 miles away watching the whole thing on TV. My God, the homesickness.
The Wedding
It's all coming together! This wedding planning malarkey is actually quite easy! (she says, having nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to book 10 inlaws on flights over to Canada)
But seriously. All the big ticket items are sorted. I have learned that EVERYTHING is cheaper if you go through the US - invites, decorations, etc. €4.50 per invitation in Ireland? I think not! I have also learned ridiculous things, like it WILL work out cheaper for you to fly your Irish wedding photographer over to Canada, put him up for 2 nights and pay a daily rate than it will to book a Canadian photographer.
It's madness, but I'm a quick learner.
Next up? All the small nitpicky details that are sure to do my head in.
Conclusion?
That pretty much sums up life, the universe and everything with B and K lately. Now that I'm (fully intending to be) back to posting regularly, I'll have lots more updates on the smaller, more mundane aspects of everyday life as well.
You know you love it. :)
Showing posts with label Wedding Bells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wedding Bells. Show all posts
April 26, 2010
June 27, 2009
Update!
Unfortunately my wee little blog seems to be getting neglected lately. It seems to be mostly due to the fact that I'm "working" again and so the days and weeks are flying by instead of progressing slowly and steadily. Honestly, I have no idea where June went and it's nearly July already! So I've decided to do a good things / piffling trifles recap of the last little while, before trying to post more regularly. Enjoy!
Good Things
1. My new "job" is great. The fact that I can tie my PR course project in to work is also great! I'm learning loads, mostly to do with software like Raiser's Edge, which is so ridiculously in demand at at the moment that I'll be fairly set when I finish the internship. That is, if I'm not able to wrangle a paid position out of the board! Fingers crossed.
2. As a kind of "thank you" for doing this internship I get to go to Ethiopia in November. Part of what I was working on this past week was finding out about local attractions in Addis Ababa and the surrounding area. Now I've been fairly diligent with this, and scoured the Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor and did a Flickr image search of all the places I found. Am now so excited at the prospect of going to Ethiopia I can hardly breathe. I love paid holidays to awesome places!
3. The organisation formerly known as my employers held a conference on Tuesday on the problem of sex trafficking and prostitution (delightful, I know!) at which the guest speaker, Victor Malarek, was someone I recommended! Clearly I still rock at that job even 8 months after I've left.
4. B and I have booked a consultation / engagement photo shoot with our first-choice wedding photographer this coming Tuesday. Again, am so excited I can barely breathe. I don't know what it is, but having an actual engagement shoot seems to move all this wedding stuff from the intangible to the realm of actual reality. As in, omigod we're actually doing this!
5. I am officially capable of waking up at 7.30am, commuting for 1 hour and 15 mins and NOT being sleepy OR grumpy (or any of the other dwarves, for that matter!)
6. B and the band are absolute rock legends, having supported Melophobia (fear of people named Mel? Fear of mellow people?) on the main stage at Whelans on Thursday night. They totally rocked a pretty crowded house and likely still have not come down off their post-performance high. And I am so incredibly proud of all of them it's ridiculous.
7. It's Pride Weekend! Rock the rainbows!
Piffling Trifles
1. Now that it's kind of warm and extremely humid, we've been leaving all the doors and windows of the apartment open wide. Result? We have random little flies in the living room. I hate flies. Get out of my house!!
2. I missed the Pride Parade due to a very important long distance phone call. Well worth it, though. I'll definitely catch the Pride Festival next year.
3. A whole day of sex trafficking and prostitution conferences is perhaps THE single most depressing way to spend a sunny Tuesday.
4. Potential Canadian wedding venues are crap at getting back to me about my enquiries. Don't tell me to email you for further information if you're not intending to write back!
5. Note to potential Irish venue: please please please, learn the difference between "its" and "it's"... oh, and "your" and "you're". I might just be that much of a grammar freak that the mistakes in your "newly updated" wedding brochure could be a dealbreaker.
So, as you can see things are definitely on the up. The piffling trifles I can live with, and the good things definitely outweigh them anyway, so I'm delighted.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to chase tiny flies around the living room with a rolled up newspaper...
Good Things
1. My new "job" is great. The fact that I can tie my PR course project in to work is also great! I'm learning loads, mostly to do with software like Raiser's Edge, which is so ridiculously in demand at at the moment that I'll be fairly set when I finish the internship. That is, if I'm not able to wrangle a paid position out of the board! Fingers crossed.
2. As a kind of "thank you" for doing this internship I get to go to Ethiopia in November. Part of what I was working on this past week was finding out about local attractions in Addis Ababa and the surrounding area. Now I've been fairly diligent with this, and scoured the Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor and did a Flickr image search of all the places I found. Am now so excited at the prospect of going to Ethiopia I can hardly breathe. I love paid holidays to awesome places!
3. The organisation formerly known as my employers held a conference on Tuesday on the problem of sex trafficking and prostitution (delightful, I know!) at which the guest speaker, Victor Malarek, was someone I recommended! Clearly I still rock at that job even 8 months after I've left.
4. B and I have booked a consultation / engagement photo shoot with our first-choice wedding photographer this coming Tuesday. Again, am so excited I can barely breathe. I don't know what it is, but having an actual engagement shoot seems to move all this wedding stuff from the intangible to the realm of actual reality. As in, omigod we're actually doing this!
5. I am officially capable of waking up at 7.30am, commuting for 1 hour and 15 mins and NOT being sleepy OR grumpy (or any of the other dwarves, for that matter!)
6. B and the band are absolute rock legends, having supported Melophobia (fear of people named Mel? Fear of mellow people?) on the main stage at Whelans on Thursday night. They totally rocked a pretty crowded house and likely still have not come down off their post-performance high. And I am so incredibly proud of all of them it's ridiculous.
7. It's Pride Weekend! Rock the rainbows!
Piffling Trifles
1. Now that it's kind of warm and extremely humid, we've been leaving all the doors and windows of the apartment open wide. Result? We have random little flies in the living room. I hate flies. Get out of my house!!
2. I missed the Pride Parade due to a very important long distance phone call. Well worth it, though. I'll definitely catch the Pride Festival next year.
3. A whole day of sex trafficking and prostitution conferences is perhaps THE single most depressing way to spend a sunny Tuesday.
4. Potential Canadian wedding venues are crap at getting back to me about my enquiries. Don't tell me to email you for further information if you're not intending to write back!
5. Note to potential Irish venue: please please please, learn the difference between "its" and "it's"... oh, and "your" and "you're". I might just be that much of a grammar freak that the mistakes in your "newly updated" wedding brochure could be a dealbreaker.
So, as you can see things are definitely on the up. The piffling trifles I can live with, and the good things definitely outweigh them anyway, so I'm delighted.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to chase tiny flies around the living room with a rolled up newspaper...
May 8, 2009
Caped Crusaders... for social justice
The internet knows things about me. It's really quite frightening.
Ok, so I was the one who changed my Facebook relationship status thing from "in a relationship" to "engaged", but does that REALLY have to mean that every other ad I see is for wedding venues, photographers and hen/stagette parties? Ok ok, so I admit that I DID click on the photographer's ad... and he seems like a brilliant (and reasonably priced!) photographer. You've won this round, Facebook.
What I also found interesting is that with ONE mention on Twitter of wedding plans, I gained TWO new followers - a bridal shop just outside Derry, and a psychic/astrologer whose specialty is wedding astrology. She wrote a book called "Never Throw Rice at a Pisces"! I don't think I know any Pisces (anyone born between Feb 19 and March 20?), but I will be sure to make a note of it for any future Piscean weddings.
I decided against signing up for her US$350 bridal astrology consultation, but I did check our LoveMatch on another astrology website. I've said it before - I may have been unemployed too long when I start doing things like this.
Here is my favourite excerpt from what it said about me (Libra) and B (Aquarius):
"Both Aquarius and Libra are concerned with the betterment of the world and their fellow people. These two are an extraordinary duo for standing up for social justice or radical change in the community."
We're like superheroes! United, we are unstoppable! Nobel Peace Prize, here we come!
Is it tacky to wear a superhero cape over a wedding dress?
Ok, so I was the one who changed my Facebook relationship status thing from "in a relationship" to "engaged", but does that REALLY have to mean that every other ad I see is for wedding venues, photographers and hen/stagette parties? Ok ok, so I admit that I DID click on the photographer's ad... and he seems like a brilliant (and reasonably priced!) photographer. You've won this round, Facebook.
What I also found interesting is that with ONE mention on Twitter of wedding plans, I gained TWO new followers - a bridal shop just outside Derry, and a psychic/astrologer whose specialty is wedding astrology. She wrote a book called "Never Throw Rice at a Pisces"! I don't think I know any Pisces (anyone born between Feb 19 and March 20?), but I will be sure to make a note of it for any future Piscean weddings.
I decided against signing up for her US$350 bridal astrology consultation, but I did check our LoveMatch on another astrology website. I've said it before - I may have been unemployed too long when I start doing things like this.
Here is my favourite excerpt from what it said about me (Libra) and B (Aquarius):
"Both Aquarius and Libra are concerned with the betterment of the world and their fellow people. These two are an extraordinary duo for standing up for social justice or radical change in the community."
We're like superheroes! United, we are unstoppable! Nobel Peace Prize, here we come!
Is it tacky to wear a superhero cape over a wedding dress?
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