So, 2012. Gulp. It’s a big year for me, and for us. I mean, we’re getting married in a few weeks! More on that in a minute, but while I didn’t want to do a full on year in review type blog post, I do want to acknowledge a few things!

I guess this big thing is the engagement. That was awesome. And I’m excited to be getting married. I’m not sure why tbh, I never really thought anything would change, but it obviously is going to, and I like it :) I’m learning a lot about our relationship, and it all seems good. We work together well, we’re a team and I’m excited for the future. I’m excited for us.

I’m excited about the wedding as well. I’m realising that it won’t be the fairytale wedding the magazines tell us we should want – it won’t be a traditional wedding at all really. We’re doing it quickly so I’ve had to let go of a lot of the ideas I wanted. I’m not going to be able to make napkins for the table. I’m not going to be able to make all the invitations and orders of service. What I’m hoping it will be is fun with good food and a chance to see all my friends and family together for a good time. We’re not fussy people, and I think if I tried to create a wedding that would look at home in the pages of a magazine, I’d spend the day feeling awkward and uncomfortable, and I kind of want to enjoy the day!

I started a WI as well! I’m pretty proud of myself on that front, if a little daunted by the responsibility I feel towards the group now. Knowing people have made friends through it and that they come for the social aspects as well as the speakers – that feels pretty good!

I got a new job! Did I mention this? I don’t think I did. I was facing redundancy and had to apply for a new role at work, which was awful, but I got the job, and the person I was up against has been offered a new job which she’s excited about, so that’s good as well :)

It’s going to be a good year I think. And I plan to enjoy it. I’m not going to beat myself up over resolutions and lists of what I should be doing, other then the vague ‘enjoy myself’. And maybe this by Neil Gaiman. I like this.

I love winter in a weird way. I’m currently in bed with a cosy blanket as well as a sunggly duvet, wearing warm PJs and drinking tea that tastes like mulled wine. You can’t do that in summer. In fact, summer evenings normally find me lying on top of the bed, wailing how I just can’t get cool enough to sleep, and repeatedly turning my pillow over and over to try and get some relief.

Yesterday James and I went to Boring 2011, a conference organised by James Ward in East London, that promised to celebrate on the ordinary and focus on the minutiae of daily life. We had talks about hand dryers and the sounds of vending machines and small talk and the whole thing was finished off with an awesome talk by Adam Curtis which started with a talk and video of tiny snippets of video from the ends and starts of old BBC tapes. James took a photo of the running order and I want to blog properly about it, but he’s off doing something else at the moment, so that will have to wait.

Today was spent doing not much at all. I mean, I did a pile of ironing, and made a vegetable stew and cleaned the kitchen, and had a bath, but it was all vey relaxed. I felt a bit out of sorts today, which I am sure if a reaction to the reaction to the horrendously stressful week I’ve had. I’ve got the best outcome for me, but this has been at the detriment to someone else (not my doing I hasten to add!) The quietness of just pottering about was what I needed, and following a bath, I feel much more ready to face the world tomorrow.

This week I’ve got a WI committee meeting, and our wedding photographer is coming round on Wednesday night to discuss the details – at that point we’ll be less then 12 weeks out. Gulp.

Joseph Grimaldi Park, a photo by nikki m on Flickr.

The other week, James and I met friends for lunch in Angel. Being a Sunday, most of the tube was subject to ‘engineering works’, so we decided to walk along Pentonville Road from Kings Cross. I’d done this a couple of weeks before, and had noticed this funny little park about halfway up, called Joseph Grimaldi Park, and on our way back from lunch (Old Queens Head – lovely lunch, but I do feel £6.40 for a pint of lime and soda and a pint of lemonade is a little steep!) we decided to have a look round.

Now, I just did a quick google about the park before and I seem to be in the minority of finding it quite a sad little place. It’s the site of the old Pentonville Chapel, and there are still a number of gravestones scattered around, or up against walls. Apologies, photos were taken on an iphone in very bright sunlight, so not sure if you can see, but a large amount of them are covered in graffiti, and the majority of them are crumbling and falling apart. All apart from Grimaldi’s grave, which is afforded the security of a fence round it. I know he was a ‘celebrity’ in his time, and we should preserve his grave, but the lack of protection for other graves in the immediate vicinity upset me a bit. I would like to think we afforded the same respect in death to everyone, but this park just…doesn’t.

I keep thinking of things to blog about, then thinking that ‘argh, no time to do this!’ so don’t.

So, giving myself ten minutes to whack this entry out, before bed, so apologies if it’s awful and reads terribly. No time to edit!

Did I mention I’m setting up a WI? I’ve been a member for a couple of years now, and decided I would love to set one up in Ealing – we do have one, but it’s a Wednesday afternoon type one, and not that practical for people who work! There’s three of us doing it – myself, a lady called Val, and Lorna – who, incidentally, bought me the cutest little acrylic rabbit badge the other day :D

Let me know if you’d like more details, it would be lovely to see some of you there!

I suppose a blog entry written this week can’t fail to mention the disturbances over the last week. I assumed – possibly naively – that in Ealing we’d be safe from any problems. I think that’s why watching News24 live, as buses and buildings were set on fire, and windows were smashed upset me so much. I’ll admit I was scared. I know realistically nothing was going to happen to us – we live away from the main town, and back from the main roads, but just the fact it was in Ealing made it all too close for comfort. I barely got any sleep on Monday night, and my main reaction on Tuesday morning, when I woke up and recalled the night before was one of fury. I was almost in tears with frustration, and anger, and I tweeted at the time that how fucking dare they to do this to my city? How dare they think it was okay to set fire to people’s homes, to throw bricks and missiles at the police – scrub that, at PEOPLE. I was a bit wary about the weekend, expecting it all to kick off again, but hopefully we’re past it now, and won’t have to watch our city burning on live news any more.

photo, a photo by nikki m on Flickr.

Ive had a lovely weekend, and I have much to blog about! But, for now, look at my so called ‘Easter Cactus’! I thought the little pink buds I had before were the flower, but apparently not! <3

Another reason for squeezing this update in tonight was that I want to make May my 30 days of lists month. I missed this when it started, but I liked the idea of it and decided that May would be a good month to look at it – I’ll maybe do a round up or something on the 31st day! Part of the idea is to put a bit of effort towards showing off your lists, and maybe I’ll do that another night – I may even go back and update this one! – but for tonight, have a simple list.

List 1: A few things about yourself

I suppose in no particular order I’m a girlfriend, a daughter, a baker, a friend, a crafter (I knit, sew, embroider and crochet), and ipad fiend, a competent cook, a book lover, a domestic goddess wannabe, a magazine addict, an RSS junkie, a database monkey, a bit of a mess magnet, a WI member, a wannabe runner…

Do you think I’ve missed anything? Fancy joining in?