Yesterday we ticked another box of 'things that you have to do to prove you are in a serious relationship' - we had a fight in Ikea!

Also Ian manhandled onto a trolley, got in the car to come home, and put together a bookcase for me in the study. Yay for capable boyfriends! But boo for their putting air fresheners in the car to which I am allergic. Sneeze splutter.

Today I am at work. Dull - though the sun has come out for five minutes so I think an early lunchtime is called for. It cost £2.50 to take the tube in from Kew and half the carriage was reading the Telegraph!!! Oyster is officially the most confusing thing ever - I got from Deptford to Heathrow for £1.50, for crying out loud! It might be time to go back to travelcards...

Kew however is fabulous. There is an organic supermarket by the station that has about 150 kinds of soya and three different kinds of yoghurt I can eat, not to mention all four flavours of soya ice-cream. In fact it contains just about all the food I could ever want to eat. Hurrah! And a little organic cafe has just opened up as well, so we don't have to go to Starbucks. Double yay! And did I mention the pub has the best proper veggie burgers ever and Weissbier on tap? Quadruple woot!

Of course the rent is so much I can't afford to actually frequent any of these places, but I'm just going to pretend I can for a week or two.

* posted by nat 11:21 AM

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Ways in which Ian and I differ, #3192

Ian: You look really nice in that pashmina.
Me: ...
Ian: Not pashmina?
Me: It's a kaftan...
Ian: Oh, they're all foreign...

* posted by nat 11:31 PM

All in all... that was fairly painless. A little Polish man came with his van and unflappably moved everything by picking it up at what seemed like impossible angles (Ian helped too!) and stacking it neatly into the van. Then unstacked it into our new flat. I organised furniture placings and then the parents arrived and Ian had a shower and then we went to the pub to sit outside in the sun for a late lunch - good food, good beer, good pub, hurrah - and to vaguely keep tabs on the men's final. Then back home to unpack kitchen things and put the bedroom together, then we collapsed.

Yesterday I unpacked many books and mother took me to Richmond where I raided Waitrose. Whee! In the evening Ian and I went for a quick getting-bearings drive which involved me directing him across Richmond Park to say hi to the deer.

Today I have mostly been dead, but I am dead in my flat. And the internet is back! And I am eating cherries. So life's not too bad.

* posted by nat 3:21 PM

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Van is coming at 10.

Argh!

* posted by nat 8:47 AM

Argh! I'm going to bed!

* posted by nat 1:37 AM

Saturday, July 07, 2007

But! I found my toe ring! All is not bad! (Also is not problem as toe ring is portable and will accessorize nicely with new sandals - perhaps actually will take tent to beach. It's still sandy.)

* posted by nat 11:18 PM

I keep throwing stuff away and more appears!

New plan: have bonfire, move to desert with tent (and satellite internet connection and solar powered battery recharger). It's the way forward!

* posted by nat 11:15 PM

Where has all this stuff come from? I'm sure I don't own this much stuff!

Argh!

* posted by nat 9:24 PM

I keep finding books strewn across the house in random places! Books get everywhere!

* posted by nat 6:54 PM

How is it 5 o'clock already?

*throws things away frantically*

*eats chocolate*

*plays Spider*

*watches tennis*

*packs one box of stuff*

Am rubbish packer.

* posted by nat 4:47 PM

Friday, July 06, 2007

Something is eating my underwear. I never seem to have any when I'm at home. This is probably indicative of the amount of time I have been spending at Ian's. Maybe I should start an emergency clean underwear drawer, to go with the emergency chocolate stash. Good things about moving: underwear shall be reunited in one drawer. Aaah.

I have thrown away vast amounts of paper and keep telling Ian that I will be bringing lots of boxes of books, books, books! (There is room in my office, Ian said unhelpfully.) Also today, have found some nice plates. Must sort through kitchen stuff. Another good thing about moving: at least the frogs will be able to live back in a bed again. I don't think they ever quite got over Ian throwing them out - although obviously Frog keeps on creeping back in, but the others have been in a lonely chest of drawers exile with a penguin and a giraffe. But they will have a bed again! Hurrah!

Also good: no longer will I have to deal with the psychotic internet box that hates my computer. It refused to connect me for about three hours yesterday, until eventually I gave up and braved my brother's room to get at the neighbours' unlocked connection. Whereupon the Livebox muscled back in, just to prove it could. I shall not miss it!

For now though, a bit of Wimbledon, and then off to get the keys to the new place. Eek!

* posted by nat 12:53 PM

Monday, July 02, 2007

On Saturday Jess and Hugh got married, in a culmination of events that go something along these lines:

1999, Jim drops by the house in St Ann's Road and drags me out for a drink. I drag Jess along too. In the pub, there are some of Jim's friends and some of Jim's friends friends. One of those is Hugh. Hugh spends the whole night eyeing up Jess and once the pub closes he, Jim, Jess and I go back to my room and stay up until 3am working through my collection of Eastern European spirits. Eventually people leave. I see Hugh out. On the doorstep he says, cheerfully (if completely pissed) "I'm sure we'll see each other again someday!"

I close the door and think: but you don't have our number.

*

In 2001, Kat says, I've this friend who was on my course who's going to train to be a pilot and I think he's be perfect for Jess! She pulls a photo of him up on her computer and I say, "Gosh, he looks familiar..."

Hugh then goes to train in Spain and Jess moves to Moscow. Kat despairs.

*

In August 2005, after never giving up, Kat finally gets Hugh and Jess in the same place - at her birthday picnic. Jess spends half the picnic grumbling about being set up and trying to get away from Hugh, who is trying to monopolise her. Later we go to the pub, and they somehow end up discussing marriage, and fine wines.

Jess agrees to go out on a date with him.

On their first date, he takes her out for a really expensive dinner, and for the final night flight on the London Eye.

For the third date, he flies her to Stuttgart for the weekend.

I phone up Kat to complain.

*

The wedding was epic, in a thoroughly understated way. It rained horrendously; there were vast quantities of Australian wine and fabulous food; the sweepstake on Jess' father's speech length was won by the bride (at three and a half minutes, culminating in him congratulating Jess "for keeping onto a boyfriend until the end of June" - at which point all of her ex-housemates collapsed in hysterical laughter and earned evil looks from Jess when we couldn't quite stop. Hugh gave the most adorable speech ever in which a good number of us got namechecked (Me too! Yay!) at which point we all burst into tears and decided that he had, in fact, married /all/ of us.

At this point it was going so well Kat pinned Ian into a corner and demanded ANOTHER wedding, and soon. Ian gave her to understand that if she was lucky, we might invite her to our housewarming. Jess and Hugh cut the cake with an old family sword that someone had taken into battle in the Somme with them. It was all right to get it out of the scabbard without inquiring when someone had last cleaned it; but not all right to put it back in when it was covered in wedding cake.

The wine kept flowing, the older guests left and the younger ones finished up the wine and kept going on the champagne. Around this point, certain friends of the bride started eyeing up (or in one case falling into) certain friends of the groom. Alcohol-induced entertainment followed, as we repaired to the local gastropub for dinner.

"I need sunglasses," wailed Jess' mother, as the scenes around the table rapidly degenerated into orgy-like status.

Jess and Hugh ran away to the Lake District, people were dragged off other people and put into taxis, the restaurant overcharged us on the bill (probably for sending people blind) but Ian took them to task and sorted it out (yay I have a capable boyfriend!) and then Ian took me home.

"I thought your friends were mature," he said, upset. I just laughed.

Best. Wedding. Ever.

--

On Sunday, there was a girls' meeting for burgers in Greenwich. Some of us laughed. Others sat with their head in their hands. We drank milkshakes, dissected events, and went to the park, where the sun almost came out for a little bit.

Ian and I drove Kat up to Liverpool Street, taking in the sights. "You're navigating really well!" said Kat, at which point I directed Ian down a road that had been closed off for roadworks. Oops. The little car is a lot bigger than it looks. Hurrah car.

* posted by nat 9:32 PM