hmmmmm just finished bowl of raspberries, greek yoghurt, honey and flaked almonds.

*insert homer drooling noise here*

Mmmm - sounds lovely >< I just had fresh cod fillet with a red pepper, pineapple and lime salsa

I had a pork pie for the first time Saturday. Not my fave.

Had a Ploughman's lunch & cider & played darts on a lovely sunny day in LA!

I got feedback from my supervisor -- he complimented me on my paper, and said what a joy it was to read. Now we just have to do revisions and we are home free -- and my life can go back to normal.

Going over to a friend's tomorrow night for a girly evening of red wine and 80s karaoke. Yay!

Well done Maven , seems like you were just being modest before

Awesome!

good morning uk!

Good afternoon. Hope everyone's day is going all to plan.

Oooooooo.... red wine and karaoke! Now that's my idea of a celebration! Time for Karaoke Kat!

Hurrah for karaoke kitty!

maven - awesome; now you know you've written a good paper!

By the way, when did everyone fix their wedding dates? I know that the best thing to do is to wait to book anywhere until your visa is in hand, but I'm worried about giving guests enough notice. Anyone book a date before having their visa in hand? I have my NoA2 and would like to fix a date in late December.

Having had a few unforseen delays with the case. We decided not to send out invites until the visa was approved at the interview.

We've had the venue booked for sometime. But I didn't want my family in the UK booking flights, then having to tell them that there has been another visa delay. They did know when we wanted the wedding to take place, so we didn't just drop the date on them. Once we got approval, family were all ready to book flights.

Our guests do know the rough date, but yes, I think I shall just have to advise them that it'd be best not to book plane tickets/accommodation until after the visa is in hand. I'm just being asked by Alex's mother to let her know a date as soon as possible so that a venue can be booked. Might be best to wait to book that, too...

I had to change my wedding date twice due to the slooooooooow way my divorce case was wending through the High Court. Once I got the decree nisi I at least knew when I would be free to marry, I got those invites printed and out. People kept asking, "Are you really getting married this time?" It was pretty embarrassing.

as soon as we had the visa and he touched ground in los angeles we were in vegas the next weekend. obviously, not a choice for everyone but the perfect choice for me considering the idea of getting my parents in the same room together would have required negotiations on par with bringing peace to the middle east!

Yeah, it should be totally tubular!



Love it!

we had the legal wedding a week after he came. Filed for AOS & planned the fancy wedding. Got our GC the day before the fancy wedding!

Guests had about 4 months notice.

Yeah I totally understand. I have my mum coming out to Chicago with her new hubby for the wedding. As a result, my Dad wont be coming.

Sometimes I do think it would have been much easier for us todo the vegas wedding. The things you do to please both your families.

Tell me about it. I told my mother about our decision and she really wanted to come and said "but you don't have to tell your father." My father would have found out through the grapevine that we got married, she was there and he wasn't there. Not fair to dad. It was going to be all of the family or no family, so we elected no family. Much less stressful that way! And our wedding was still a blast, especially when we won enough money to pay for AOS on the slots.

We told everyone like 6 months ahead but didn´t book anything until we had the visa in hand and told everyone not to arrange anything either until we tell them to do so It worked out very well Got visa in Dec and got married in Jan

Thank you, guys! I think I'll follow all of your advice and not confirm the date until after I have the visa in hand. Hopefully I'll still be able to give 3-4 months' notice. We're having it over the Christmas holidays as that way most people don't have to book time off work in advance (I was concerned that people would find it stressful being too close to Christmas but apparently that isn't the case).

I really, really wish I were doing the Vegas thing too, only for far more selfish reasons. I'm very fortunate to have family and future in-laws who get along very well (most of the time!) - I just don't want a wedding! It's not me and it's something I've never aspired to have. Ah well.

The only thing is I wish I would have booked things earlier...I decided to wait until I had graduated from uni (this past December) to start wedding planning. But honestly planning a wedding in 6 months is a tall order...even a relatively simple one like mine and Nicky's! But really most places required only a deposit, and then full payment a month or a few weeks before (as our wedding is a month from tomorrow...the next few weeks are going to be VERY hard on my poor visa card lol).

I do feel a bit sad that most of the guests will be from my side of the family, friends and work. Thankfully we only have about 30 - 40 people coming...a manageable number.

I guess Nicky and I could always go down to the casino in Joliet and play the slots LOL. Not quite the same as Vegas, but as close as I can get!

It's so hard to plan anything, since things can be so up in the air and there are no gaurentes with this process.
Stu and I just decided to get married at the courthouse and have a BBQ/party not too long after that.
Maybe someday we'll renew our vows or something and have more of a wedding ceremony.
Vegas sounds like fun though....

If I had had my druthers, we would have eloped. It's a long story, but my wedding day was a disaster even with just 5 guests and sowed the seeds of discord between my brother and me. Some evening, when I'm tired and emotional (read: drunk), I will post the whole sorry story. Suffice to say that there is no pleasing some people, and you should never hope problems will go away without tending to them sufficiently.

good morning everyone.

things are quiet around here these days. Please post, and save me from the big scary off topic!!!

Good afternoon!


Yeah; I'm hoping to avoid most of the pit-falls of planning a wedding in six months by sticking to the basics and doing as many things as possible myself. I've cut out everything we don't really need (flowers, photographer, attendants, DJ, etc.) and just need a place to host it, maybe a caterer (unless we go the cold food route) and an officiant. Our guest list is so far at 70-80 people, all of whom invited themselves. I'm hoping that maybe half those people decide they're unable to make it.


I am sorry to hear you didn't enjoy your wedding day. I'm often a little too good at ignoring problems, so I'll take your advice and try to resolve any that I come across.

Sorry Poiteen, I've just been a bit down these days so have been mainly lurking. Plus, I really should do my job once in a while!

I think it's just that weddings are a bit like Christmas, everyone wants it to be a nice occasion, but sometimes the pressure of everything going nicely and everyone getting along makes it a high pressure event. And so the little things that get ignored all year suddenly turn in to rows. Then again, I'd say most weddings go off without a hitch.



But Julez, we'll be here to cheer you up!!! Sorry the house hunt is carrying on for longer that you wanted. It will be worth it in the end.v

Work? A job? Oh wait...I do have one of those.

Sorry to hear you are feeling down, julez. I really hope that you are able to find a house soon.

So, how are we going to cheer Julez up? Well, I wish I had a video of my mate Milica and I doing our 80s karaoke last night -- that would make you chuckle, Julez. You should have heard us totally NAIL "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "Uptown Girl." "Tainted Love" and "Heart of Glass" turned out awesome as well, but the unmitigated disasters were "It's Tricky" and "Caribbean Queen."

Maven, all fatastic tunes straight out of my era!! It sounds like a blast!! I think I could probably ace "It's Tricky"

I'm mostly OK, just a bit frustrated with the house nonsense. I am so angry that the house we were going to buy has a major structural defect and that we have to keep looking. Now we are looking even further away from the city, which I'm not very happy about given it will be a longer commute and with gas prices, etc. etc.

We really do need to move as my house is a bit small for the 5 of us and I want to get into the suburbs for some better schools for the kids. I really wanted to make sure we moved before the next shool year started, but don't want to rush out and buy just anything. It all makes me feel

Thanks, guys, for cheering me up!

I'm with you. I would much rather read posts in the UK and Canada forums.



Huh? What? What did I miss? Where is that posted? Is there a secret thread I don't know about? Julez, what happened? Last I heard your offer was accepted and I was congratulating you. Link please!

For me no karaoke night is complete without Charlene's I've Never Been To Me. If they don't have that, then Total Eclipse of the Heart - a good choice for someone with no vocal skills whatsoever.

Can't wait till we have our LA karaoke bashes, then!

Illumine and rkl favorite backstage bar has karaoke Wednesdays!

i've never done karaoke, but house parties in ireland often turn in to sing songs. last time i met up with a few of my friends from college it ended up in a sing song too. made me homesick.

I am SO there.



And I'm bringing Poiteen as well -- karaoke virgin!

After the offer was accepted, we did the home inspection and found out from the building inspector that the outer wall of the house is bowed out. We expected issues as the house was built in 1900, but nothing of this magnitude. The building inspector has no idea if this will be a problem for us, but since there is definitely a stuctural issue it will become a problem when we want to sell the house. Factoring in costs of hiring strucutral engineers, uncertainty of what might happen with the bowing and concerns about salability in the future, we just didn't feel it was a good investment.

So there you have it and we are back to square one!

I'm prolly not the best person to ask...


awww - don't venture into there!!! You'll never get out alive!!!!


Aww Julez - I am sorry to hear it all went a bit pear-shaped I am sure it was just not meant to be... which MEANS that you have an even perfecter (it is a word - I just made it up ) house for you!! If it's any consolation, we still have no house either and I move in little over a month

As for gas prices I am glad I filled up when I did... I filled up in the morning and it was £1.09 per litre, then when I came home from work, eight hours later, it had jumped to £1.13

Prolly not going to get any sympathy from Londoners though... I am sure it is worse there...

We made my brother sing "I am Woman" once. He rawked.



What about asking the owner to provide an assessment from a structural engineer and, if the prognosis is not too scary, getting some estimates and going back with a huge low-ball offer? You might even use the opportunity to do renovations at the same time. The owner might be relieved to sell it if they see no other way out, and you might end up with a really good deal. Just a thought. Structural issues can be dealt with.... in fact I have dealt with them. They're not insurmountable.

Well i dunno if i should laugh or cry.


I got home yesterday from work to find that my dog which is an alsation had decided that my police certificates smelt really yummy and had to chew on the envelope to see if they tasted good. I guess they didnt taste as good as she initially thought so now have brand new police certs with teeth marks in.

my reaction was this -

am hoping that when i need to use them they will be fine about it and see the funny side " please Miss my dog ate my homework"

I would definitely see the funny side of that.

Ohhh pandora - that is too annoying and funny at the same time! I am sure it will be ok and it will definitely be a story to tell at the Embassy!!

I'm sorry that is very funny to me.

The consular officers seem like nice and very reasonable people, I'm sure they'll let you off

Excellent song choices, Robyn! Gotta love gems like these from the 80's!

Our doggy used to love to eat socks that are made of the pantyhose material...same like pantyhose just short like socks....what do you call that? Anyway...it went through her system and it was so stretchable that it was really painful for her to poop it out...I mean it would hang out of her butt but she wouldn´t let us pull it completely out We had to take her to the vet and he pulled it out. That happened a couple of times. Poor doggy

now thats some strange habit - shame the socks didnt prewrap the poop then would of made it easier

we had to start hiding these socks in front of her cuz she would never learn from her mistakes