So we moved house. It was a bit of a crazy nightmare but we are now in and unpacked, and although there are a few things which haven't found a permanent home it is at least tidy and functional with no boxes left lying around. I really love it and haven't missed our old place once. It immediately felt like home. We've already done a rather over-excited IKEA trip and I am enjoying being boring and old and house-proud.

Now that the dust has settled, of course, it means it's FOUR DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING and SIX DAYS UNTIL JAPAN.

My mind hasn't wrapped around this yet.

We now have a proposed completion date for the flat, which means I am moving house in EIGHTEEN DAYS.

I am getting married in FORTY-SEVEN DAYS.

I am going to Japan in FORTY-NINE DAYS.

I feel like I am living in a parallel universe.

My brain can't take much more... way too much stuff... 

This weekend we picked out the men's outfits and got them all fitted and ordered. They're going with pinstripe grey trousers, an embroidered ivory waistcoat, light grey morning suit jacket and a dark red cravat to match the bridesmaids' boleros/sashes.

We've also sent out our invitations and ordered big travelling rucksacks for our honeymoon.

EEK!

It is now 110 days until the wedding...

A bit terrified. It still feels utterly surreal. I was never the type to plan my big white wedding from the age of 8 or whatever so I still can't really imagine myself dolled up in the dress and being a bride. It's a bit crazy.

We're ticking jobs off at a rate of knots, but it all feels a bit disparate at the moment; it doesn't feel like things are all coming together. This weekend we went to the venue with our photographer, because he hadn't worked there before, and he took some snaps for us. I don't like posing and I hate smiling for the camera because I end up grimacing. Still, they came out OK so hopefully on the day with all the excitement and us being all dolled up it will be good.

http://www.gmcphotographics.co.uk/blog/?p=6074

The next big thing is suit fitting for the fellas and shoe shopping for me and my bridesmaids. We also need to get back on the wagon with organising our honeymoon...

So, about a fortnight ago we went to see The Hobbit for a second time, and I noticed a pear on one of the shelves of Bilbo's pantry. I immediately started craving pears and had to nip into the supermarket to get some as soon as we got out of the cinema.

I now CANNOT STOP EATING PEARS. I'm eating about three a day. When we did our weekly shop yesterday, I bought FIFTEEN PEARS. I couldn't even fit them in one bag. It was something insane like THREE KILOS of pears.

Help me.  

Last year's total - 70 books!

Will update as and when. Add me on Goodreads!

Read:

A Song of Ice and Fire: A Clash of Kings
A Song of Ice and Fire: A Storm of Swords part 1
A Song of Ice and Fire: A Storm of Swords part 2
A Song of Ice and Fire: A Feast of Crows - all George R. R. Martin

The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockingjay - all Suzanne Collins

We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

Pure - Andrew Miller

Bag of Bones
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
Night Shift
Skeleton Crew
Danse Macabre
The Talisman
Desperation
The Regulators - all Stephen King

Service Of All The Dead
The Wench Is Dead 
The Secret Of Annexe 3
The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
The Daughters of Cain
The Remorseful Day - all Colin Dexter

Pigeon English - Stephen Kelman

The Thirteen Tale - Diane Setterfield

Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon

The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson

In Great Waters - Kit Whitfield

The Collected Short Stories - Roald Dahl

Into The Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes

Onyx and Crake
The Year of the Flood
The Handmaid's Tale
The Edible Woman 
Cat's Eye - all Margaret Attwood

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

The Woman in White
The Moonstone - both Wilkie Collins

The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin

The Fog - James Herbert

Notes From a Small Island - Bill Bryson

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Dracula - Bram Stoker

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson

At the Mountains of Madness & Other Novels of Terror
Dagon and Other Macabre Tales - both H.P. Lovecraft

Cloud Atlas
Number9dream
Ghostwritten
Black Swan Green
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - all David Mitchell

Tubes - Andrew Blum

The Hangman's Daughter - Oliver Pötzsch

Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch

A Very British Conspiracy Theory - Toby Wilde

The Wrong Boy - Willie Russell

9/11: The Simple Facts - Arthur Naiman

Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil

Winter in Madrid - C J Samson

In the Miso Soup
Piercing - both Ryu Murakami

Black Heart Blue - Louisa Reid

Hokkaido Highway Blues - Will Ferguson

The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker

Battle Royale - Koushun Takami

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

How to Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran

Wolf Hall
Bring Up The Bodies - both Hilary Mantel

Untold Story - Monica Ali

High Rise - J G Ballard

The Hobbit (re-read!) - J R R Tolkien

Fingersmith - Sarah Waters

The Woman in Black - Susan Hill

The Turn of the Screw - Henry James

Total: 83

So, to distract myself from my perpetually broken ITBs and the fact I still can't run, I am going to write about our honeymoon plans. Because it will cheer me up. And because it still doesn't feel real despite the fact that we are booking hotels now. Eep.

So. I still can't really believe that we are GOING TO JAPAN. I hope I don't have the same reaction as when we went to New York where I was in such a state of shock that I still don't feel like we actually went. Even the pictures look like I've photoshopped myself in at the top of the Empire State Building. Anyway.

We get married on Saturday 4th May (Star Wars Day!!), heading home on the Sunday after having breakfast and some drinks with our family and friends. Then the adventure begins...!

( The Plan...Collapse )

So excited I feel a bit sick.