I’ve been lazy. I must be honest and admit it… I haven’t updated my blog for so many weeks now because of pure laziness. But, I must also say, that the best part of those weeks I’ve been so busy! Honest!
Wedding:
Well, the D-Day came and went, everything passed so quickly that now it just seems a distant memory. It is such a shame that one spends so many months preparing so thoughtfully for that day, and then on the day you are so nervous about everything that for a moment you can’t even enjoy it.
I did enjoy it though. No, actually, I loved it. I was extremelly nervious during the hours previous to the actual ceremony. I was getting ready in my room, and lots of people kept coming and going and telling me things of what was going on downstairs. But I wanted to BE downstairs! Somehow I couldn’t understand why I had to stay hidden, when everybody in the hall was having fun! (Jon tells me though that he was not having fun. He probably was as nervous as me…)
The time came for me to go down and walk the aisle with my bridesmaids and uncle… When I entered the ceremony room I somehow stopped seeing people. I saw one or two faces, the rest were a blur. Until I saw Jon… I suddenly felt this rush inside me. I think it can only be described as “happiness through my veins”.
The ceremony was beautiful. I couldn’t have dreamt of a more beautiful wedding. Everything went smoothly and much better than planned. I thought I would struggle with the vows, but I managed to get some proper English pronunciation off me and deliver them properly. Even after I had cried! My brother did the most beautiful reading and I got all emotive and sensitive… And I cried.
Then we did all the official pictures… That was fun. I decided then and there on the spot that I wanted to throw my bouquet in pure American-film style. That was so funny and everybody loved it. The problem was that afterwards the photographer said: “you’re going to need that for the shots now…” But nevermind, the bouquet managed to stay “alive” for the rest of the day 
The wedding breakfast was a bit disappointed, as the caterer managed to completely screw the dishes we had booked with them. That got me in a bad mood for a while, and I felt terrible for the guests as the quality of the food was rubbish compared to what we had been promised (I must now say that Gorse Hill were good as a venue, but still have lots to improve on). The speeches after the dinner were fabulous. Jon’s speech made me cry (again) and laugh so much… Steve’s was hilarious, even with visual help of Jon’s “embarrasing” baby pictures. And my brother Jose’s… well, that one, though improvised, was also very moving and made me cry (once more)
And then the party started. All the evening guests had arrived by then. Jon and I were getting ready to do the first dance when suddenly saw that Graham had prepared a surprise… A table football appeared and Jon and I had our “first game” instead of a “first dance”!! It was fantastic and everybody loved it. I played Jon. I beat him. I played Graham. I beat him. I played Dave Flanagan. I beat him. I played Pablo… He beat me!
And we danced all night. I hadn’t danced so much since the 90s… I felt a bit guilty for not talking to people a bit more. Lots of people made the effort of turning up on the night and I barely talked to them. But I was having such a good time that I couldn’t leave the dancefloor! We finished at 2 in the morning… my feet gave up on me…
Honeymoon
I am not going to write a big blog about the honeymoon because Jon and I kept a diary during our holiday (courtsey of Paul and Olga) and we’re going to transcribe it into our website (www.mariaandjon.com) very soon, with pictures and videos of our adventures in LA and Hawaii.
I will only say that it was the holiday of a lifetime. The jetlag left us exhausted for a few days, but it was more than worth it. We WILL be going back to Hawaii one day. It’s too beautiful to just visit once.
Hightlights of the holiday?:
- Two chopper rides
- Bodyboarding
- Snuba diving
- Haleakala crater at sunset
- Eating pineapple!
After the Honeymoon
Going back to work was painful. Literally.
I was so clumsy and slow for the first day, making all kinds of mistakes… I think it would have been more beneficial to the company if I hadn’t come back at all; I wouldn’t had lost them any money! (£30, yes, I know…)
But the thought of an early weekend kept me going. We had only gone back to work on the Wednesday, so we had a very short week. On Friday we went into London to see Derren Brown’s new show, Enigma. It was brilliant, mind blowing… I still think about it, try to figure out how he did things, but it’s just of my reach.. my mind is not developed enough to understand such craftsmanship!
I can’t tell waht happened in the show, as it wouldn’t be fair on anyone reading this who might go and see the show themselves (not that anyone reads this anyhow…) but I’ll just say that it was better than seeing it on telly (although on telly or DVD they often tell you the secret behind the trick, and in the live show you just have yourself or your partner to torture finding an explanation)
That same night, after the show, we decided to go for a little walk around London. This was Friday 26th, the day after Michael Jackson died. We were walking towards Trafalgar Square when we realise that the base of Lord Nelson is full of people. As we get nearer we see that it’s people “mourning” Michael Jackson! It was quite something. Definetely weird. What really struck us was that 80% of the people gathered there weren’t older than 20 years old. I am not saying that there aren’t any real fans of MJ who aren’t younger than that, but it seemed to us that a lot of people were taking the event as an excuse to get drunk. I mean, MJ hasn’t really been in the spotlight for any original music merits since 1991… making all these people 12 years old? Of course, we’re talking about the King of Pop here and I am convinced that everybody on the face of the planet has at least once in their lifes listened to a MJ song.
We stayed the night in a hotel in Charing Cross and the following day we took a trip to the Science Museum. It was quite good, but we didn’t see it all. We must come back some other time to finish all the levels we missed. After the museum we wandered around South Kesington looking for somewhere to eat and we came across a very good Spanish Restaurant called Casa Brindisa. I don’t normally go to Spanish restaurants here in the UK because they ALWAYS disappoint me. But this one… This one was great. Every single plate that we ordered was delicious. I was really impressed. I have already recommended it and I have to make sure to go back there, as it brings quite nice memories of “home”.
People ask me how married life is and I always say: Same as before. But I lie. It’s not the same. It’s even better. I love Jon with all my heart, and every minute I thank the gods for given me such a wonderful life…
And that is pretty much it. We’re now filling up our calendar for July, meeting friends and family every weekend… And somehow we thought that we would have all the time in the world after the wedding!
The really serious “final countdown” has started (Is it only me, or does everybody have to hum the tune to Europe’s song when the words “the final countdown” appear anywhere…?)
I can not believe it is two weeks to the great day. It hadn’t really downed on me yet, but this afternoon, as Jon was getting ready to go on his Stag-do weekend finally the penny dropped. Yes, in two week’s time we will be married. In two week’s time we will be husband and wife. In a fortnight I will no longer be a 31-year-old-single-girl, but a 31-year-old-married-woman. How scary!
Tomorrow I’m going into London for a “pre-wedding get together”. I don’t want to call it a Hen Night because of several reasons (the most important one: it won’t take place at night) Seriously, it is just a get together with my only few friends here in the UK. We will go for lunch to a Greek restaurant (www.therealgreek.com) in Marylebone and then the plan is to either go to Hyde Park and get a boat on the Serpentine, or go to the Photographer’s Gallery (www.photonet.org.uk) in Oxford Street if the weather is not too good. Depending on how we all are feeling, we may even do both things! I would very much like to do both, but we’ll see…
And not much more to tell, really. Well, probably lots of things, but at the moment I’m so stressed about the whole thing, that the more I think about it, the more nervous I become! So better leave it like that. In 4 weeks time, when we’re back from the honeymoon, there’ll be no more talk about the wedding… It all will be over…
I don’t know how it happened. We were about to have dinner and I had to find something on telly to watch while we ate and I just saw that the Eurovision song contest would be starting in 5 minutes, so I decided it would be fun to watch a bit of it.
But, I don’t know how it happened. Somehow I got stuck to the telly and watched the whole thing, despite promising Jon that it would “finish soon” and then we could watch the Eddie Izzard comedy show that he wanted to see so much.
So, firstly I must say that this is the first time I have seen the programme since 2002 when Rosa was representing Spain with her powerful voice singing “Europe’s living a celebration”. And, first impressions? I must say, I thought Russia put on a great show, I loved the visual design and the presentations of each country with that model (was she Miss World or something like that?). AND, most of the songs were quite good! As someone said (I think it was Lloyd Webber), finally Eurovision is about the SONGS again.
My favourite songs as I watched the programme were Iceland, Russia, Portugal, Malta and Norway. I wasn’t surprised that Norway won, the song is just so pretty and catchy! But I was somehow surprised that Malta didn’t get more votes (it came 22nd with 31 points) as I thought the song was very good and the singer had an amazing voice. UK’s Jade also did very well (compared to the lack of points in the last few years) but I must say I wasn’t crazy about the song. She is a very good singer, it’s just that the song didn’t capture me.
And then…. Soraya sang. I hated the song, I hated her dress, I especially hated her backing singers… Hasn’t Spain learnt anything in the past years of what kind of song is likely to do well in Eurovision? A few months back I heard that Melody was going to represent Spain and I thought it was a very good idea, as Melody’s voice and style could fit the contest. Watch the song here, but please ignore the first minute!
I’ve always said that Eurovision song contest shouldn’t be purely a pop contest, but a contest where the songs REPRESENT the countries. For example, Portugal’s song this year had a very traditional portuguese style but without losing the pop factor, the same with Turkey and Moldova. I also think that each country should sing in their mother tongue not always in English. But it seems like more and more countries are opting for the safe option of going for pop in English…
(Bad) Surprises of the night? Sweden (WTF happened with her voice!!) and Albania (dodgy looking guy in a all-body wetsuit? and two clowns?). I can’t believe Sweden got more points than Malta for example… Scary.
So yeah, all in all I enjoyed the night, just because for the excitement of seeing the UK finish 5th and the laughter inside me seeing that Spain didn’t get any points until so late. Too little too late
I’ve been using the “livingsocial” application on Facebook quite often recently. You have to choose your Top 5 of anything: Top 5 bands you love, Top 5 best films of all time, Top 5 sports to watch, Top 5 books you dislike, etc.
This morning I filled in a few, and among others the one I want to talk about: “If time and money were no objection, choose your top 5 subjects you would go back to school for“. My answers were: Photography, English Language History, Electrical Engineering, Cooking & Food, and Business Organisations, Management and Leadership.
These 5 subject matters came to my head pretty much straight away, I bearly had to think about it for long.
Photography: I’ve been very busy in the last couple of months and have had no time to go out and take pics. But it still remains my favourite hobby. I’ve always said that if I won the lottery and could afford to work as anything, it would definetly be as a photographer. My poor flickr site has been a bit abandoned lately, even though I pledged to go out and take more and more pictures at the beginning of the year… Oh well.. We’ll see what will happen after the wedding.
One of my favourite pictures
English Language History: This subject has always fascinated me. Even back at Uni it was one of my favourite subjects. The problem I found were the teachers (oh yes, blame it on the teachers). They didn’t make the subject attractive, although I loved reading the books. Baugh and Cable’s book, compulsory reading at uni, is now proudly standing on my bookshelf and I re-read it sometimes just for fun.
The book I’m reading at the moment (”Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson) has fully inspired me to somehow keep studying this amazing subject. It is an amazing book dealing with a very relevant subject: Language through history and how it is changing nowadays. I recommend it to anyone into English and its origin, plus Bryson has a great sense of humour and it makes for great reading.
Electrical Engineering: Obviously, working for Andromeda this is a very important subject to me. I have already said on this blog before how challenging I find my day to day job. Not difficult but challenging. And the key to the problem lies in my lack of electrical engineering knowledge. I bought a couple of books (this one was the best) but they really didn’t work. I think I just lack the right grey materia in my brain, the one that make guys so good at maths and so on. I am not calling myself stupid, I’m just not a “science|” girl…
Cooking and Food: I love food. Anyone who knows me knows that I eat a lot. I am not a fussy eater, I like mostly everything, and I like food in industrial quantities. I know how to cook, the only problem is that I always end up cooking the same recipes, maybe for lack of time, or simply because I am scared of trying new things and failing miserably. One day, when time and money are no object, I am going to attend one of those fancy cooking courses (they are sooo expensive!) and then go to “Come dine with me” LOL
At this rate I’m going to be fat by the age of 35!
And finally, Business Organisations, Management and Leadership: Office politics fascinate me and trouble me at the same time. I am only in the engineering support team in my office, but I am always going on about all the things that are wrong and that I would change if I was a manager or a leader. However I am well aware of the implications of being in such position, all the stress, all the fingers pointing at you. I suppose that if my career was heading towards that direction, I wouldn’t mind doing a course in management. But for the time being office politics are just a pastime.
Aer Lingus (aka “Aer Fungus”, or as my brother likes to call it “CunniLingus”) have recently started flying to several European cities, Malaga among others. This was great news for me when I heard because I know the company and I know they are good and cheap, so having good and cheap flights to Malaga was heaven sent (especially after the other two big competitors from Gatwick - EasyJet and Monarch - have been putting prices up little by little in the last couple of years, making it almost impossible to get a return flight for less than £120 if you’re not booking months in advance)
For work reasons, I’ve flown to Dublin with Aer Lingus quite a lot in the last few months (although not as often as poor Jon!) and I have always found myself in a very comfortable and quiet atmosphere: exactly what you need when you fly regularly. Most of the time they play classical music as you’re boarding and also when you’re leaving the plane. Nothing to complain about really.
But here’s the difference. I flew with Aer Lingus to Malaga just the other day and the difference was huge. Not on Aer Lingus’s part. No. They did everything exactly the same. With the same professionality that I would expect in an London - Dublin flight. The difference was in the people travelling.
In a normal, weekday flight to Dublin you find mostly business people, and some other normal travellers, but business people mainly. The atmosphere is quite, people appreciate the classical music, nobody is drunk and don’t shout down the plane to get their mates attention. That is what you get when you fly to Malaga. I wasn’t expecting anything like a flight to Dublin, but I wasn’t prepared to the kind of unwashed masses and riffraff that I found there.
It saddens me that the only people who ever visit my Spanish neck of the woods are the kind of people that make the Spaniards dislike the British at first sight. The kind of people who go there just because it’s sunny and they can abuse drugs and alcohol, wreck a few pubs, have a few one night stands with beautiful Spanish girls (leaving a few STDs on the way too) and bugger off back to Blighty as if nothing bad ever happened. The kind of people who laughs at the fact that Aer Lingus plays classical music when you’re boarding the plane. The kind of people you tend to avoid in the UK anyways.
And then some people still wonder why British tourists are still called “hooligans” (among other things) by Spaniards…
