Summer weekend in Shropshire

One day, I might actually have enough time to write a proper post. We got back from Shropshire at 12.30am on Monday morning and I am still playing catch up at work from our holiday. We spent the weekend at M's parents' golf course helping out with M's father's captains weekend. There was a black tie dinner dance on the Saturday evening and then on Sunday M's parents were hosting a marquee on the 11th green, serving refreshments including a barbeque to all the players as they came round. All 200 of them. Here I am helping out.

I also wanted to share this little insight on twitter. I am not sure about it being grand enough to be Jane Austen but it certainly felt a little like Miss Joan Hunter Dunn. But I love how English the weekend must have sounded. And it was. Tea, sandwiches, burgers in rolls, sunshine, golf and vintage dresses.

AmidPrivilege RT @peacockfeather: On our way to shropshire for M's dad's captains weekend. Black tie dinner dance tonight. [sounds like jane austen:)]

 {photo by M of me in a 1950s vintage American sundress and panama hat. Despite the occasion being so English I wanted to channel a Madmen-esque look of being decoratively supportive}

Gozo Doorways

Straight back to work after getting off the plane. Busy week. Off again for a family do. No time to stop or think or even get back on track with work or blogging or washing. And yet I found these turquoise doorways extremely soothing. When I am a grown up all my doors will have handles like the bottom right and be stained a beautiful shade of green.

postcard from gozo

It's hot here. Hot and dry and dusty and far more arid here
than I thought possible. The island is mostly yellow and beige
and brown, low against a blue sky. If you imagined a mix of
Italian, english and arabic, gozo is what you'd get. Stone buildings
with few exterior windows round inner coutyards, villages with central
squares, churches with mosque like round tops, siestas and red
telephone boxes.

We are staying in an old farm house, high on the cliff, at the
far west of the island. The sun sits on the walled terrace with pool
all day, at the end of the day filling the vaulted interior with warm
amber light. Walk outside onto the dusty road and you are immediately in farm
land, peaceful yet sinister. On the first day we discovered a fire which had sprung
up in the stubbled fields and was burning the cliffside and hay bales. We called the
fire brigade and stood there watching the flames raging amongst debris which, to my over-imaginative
mind suggested far sinister a scenario: helmet, car/plane seat and a trainer, all within 20 metres
of each other. The wind shrieking past does nothing to dispell the thought.

Life settles quickly into a pattern, as it does anywhere. Sleeping,eating, swimming, painting and long leisurely evening meals
with plenty of wine and conversation well into the early hours. Occasionally we leave the immediate vicinity of the village for
food, or to walk, or go to the beach. Last night we sat on a roof top for supper
and then in a square with a lit up church, tables and beer and watched the football. Tonight we will go dancing
at a club which today's guardian tells us is so good that it is reminiscent of ibiza's
glory days. It matters not to me, I just want to dance all night in an open air nightclub on the beach/caves.

To be continued...

To Gozo

I have been putting off writing recently because I felt I didn't have the photos on the right computer to go with the post. Well, bugger that. Perhaps you even read for the writing, not the photos anyway?

This week has been one busy, rollercoaster week. We spent Sunday afternoon watching two baby blue-tits learn to fly and helped them out of several sticky situations. The larger one even sat and shouted on my hand for a long while after I helped him out of the tangle he got into my my jumper on the washing line. Sadly, by twilight they still hadn't managed to even take off and so, as it got dark, we retreated inside, leaving them snuggled into the wall outside in a sheltered corner, heads under wings. We sat and wrote an application form for a beautiful cottage we had set our hearts on renting from the National Trust. In the morning, the blue-tits had both died, lying peacefully on the floor, seemingly too small to last the night. We didn't even get an interview for the house - apparently we hadn't applied for one before and others had, so we were vetoed before we could even make our case. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried on both discoveries.

This weekend marks our first anniversary. We leave for a week in Gozo on Tuesday but first to London, for a hen party on Saturday, afternoon tea in a swanky hotel on Sunday and perhaps a spot of London shopping. Yet, leaving work for a week means that this week I have been inundated with stuff to do - everything seems to happen at once and I am so busy I haven't even packed yet. I also have done no planning for the hen party, not even an outfit, and I still have to buy a silly item for the bride. We are also supposed to bring cupcakes for a picnic but eff knows when I am going to find time to fit that it.

I am also feeling surprisingly sad that it's a whole year since our wedding. I had such an amazing time that weekend with all our friends and family. I wish we could do it again. Not the wedding perhaps, but that party. Still, we have to leave it to others this year. But happy about anniversaries. (Although I am definitely a bad wife - I haven't yet even thought about an anniversary present. I haven't even had time to make a card. Please, tell me I'm not the only one.) I really cannot believe that a whole year has passed.

I have also found out about several babies this week, each time I was so excited for the person in question and then sad for myself that we have decided that even if we should get on with trying (undergoing more tests for gynae problems) we just cannot afford to have a baby. Career, money and house wise. It's just not the right time. Yet. I just hope that by the time it is affordable the moment hasn't passed. But yey for those who can and are. I have been absolutely thrilled by each and every announcement, blog friend and real-life friends alike. They are so blurred now anyway I can't remember where if at all the line is these days.

So stress and busy-ness and good news and sad news and how-the-eff-am-I-going-to-fit-it-all-in worries. And yet, after Tuesday, lies a week of sunbathing, wine, cocktails, reading and (hopefully) hot weather.

See you all in a week or so.