I always have this problem when I've left it for ages. So many things must have happened to me, and yet my mind is a complete blank! Plus I reckon that my regular readership, if indeed such a group exists, have probably given up checking for updates. *sigh*
I've been meaning to blog about four things:
- My wedding plans, namely the legal bits
- My job, which has been extended
- Houses
- Buses
- Buildings
So, wedding plans. The main thing Rob and I have been working on is the registrar related stuff. I sent off a fax with all the relevant details to the registry office in Southend, and then I ended up talking to them on the phone quite a bit. Basically, the problem stems from the fact we want to get married in a church that a) isn't where we live, and b) isn't our regular place of worship. This isn't as odd as it sounds. I went to two churches in the Ashingdon area, one of which this is, although obviously I'm not in Essex anymore so I don't go there now. Unless I visit home.
This blog entry could be hard to understand, hehe... So, we're getting married there because it's easier to organise (I know loads of people in the area who'll help with things), and it's a nice modern church building. And my Mum can organise things because she's, erm, in the right place. We are bringing the leader of the church we attend in Leicester with us, to do the service. But the music group from the church in Ashingdon will be playing (my brother's their drummer). And things like that.
Anyway, the problem has a weird solution. I have to go and live in the Rochford and Castle Point District (where the church is) for seven days and nights before I have the 'notice of marriage' read. I can't live in the Southend District because it's not where the church is. So that means living with my Nan. (Or pretending to, mwahaha!) Then Rob and I have to get our 'notices of marriage' read - me in Southend and him in Leicester, preferably on the same day. That has to be done at least 16 days before the wedding is due to take place. If that all goes smoothly we should be allowed to get married. :)
I think that's that. If that made any sense.
Thing 2, then. My job. I must be doing alright at it because my contract has been extended! Or they're going to give me a different contract. A temporary one, instead of a casual one. Which gives me more rights. Anyway, looks like I'll be there until June. So that's good. I should be able to save a bit of money up. I'll be needing money, what with the wedding and setting up home with my man. :)
Which makes me think I should also blog about houses. You may, at this point, notice that houses was in the list of things I was going to blog about, and yet it seems that I have just thought of it. This is because I just scrolled up the page and added it. Anyway, we were looking at houses. Or rather flats. We thought we could rent either a cheap house or a flat, something around £300-£400 a month, then we can think about saving up for a deposit for our own house. Houses cost way too much to buy at the moment, and it's not that cheap to rent them either... And we can't count on me having a job. Otherwise it wouldn't be a problem at all, really. I'm sure it'll work out. We're probably going to look at some estate agents this afternoon.
Thing, er, 4. Buses. This isn't that interesting. I'm sure I had lots of points to make about buses, but I can't really think of any. Although... how come Arriva buses cost more for a weekly ticket, and yet they're running some truly ancient buses, and they tend to be dirtier? First buses are all nice and shiny. True, they don't have the automatic ticket thing that you feed your card weekly ticket into, instead of having to show a ticket to the driver, which is the thing I like most about Arriva buses, but... Maybe it costs them £2.50 (the difference in ticket price) to buy all the bits of card and make the machines work. Buy ink for them and things like that.
Um, last thing then, thing 5. Buildings. When recommending archaeological work, we tend to say people should make building records of things before they convert them (farmyard complexes, for example), or demolish them (old factories, things like that). I was wishing I'd maybe done a module in building recording in my degree. Photo surveys of buildings would be fun, or even more complicated surveying. Anyway, I was thinking this, then I noticed that James had made a website of abandoned buildings in Perth. Every day when I go through Leicester I notice all the amazing buildings - shops that look boring on street level but have amazing architecture higher up. I thought it'd be great to take pictures. Maybe have a clickable map of Leicester so that people could see various buildings of interest around the place. Of course, this would take time, and also there's the fact I don't like hanging around busy places taking pictures!
Probably nothing will come of that.
That's about it then. I'll stop now before I ramble you all into the ground. ;)
BTW, don't like Neighbours much at the moment, it's all weird and depressing. :(
I have been mostly.... READING: replicant night (kw jeter); edge magazine / WATCHING: neighbours (bbc 1); angel (sky 1); jake 2.0 (sky 1); friends (c4) / PLAYING: everquest / LISTENING: best of the divine comedy