predencia

I’ve been introduced to a new diet (or rather a way of life) based on blood type. It’s by a guy called Peter D’Abalo and basically says that there are certain personality traits that can be attributed to our blood types and certain foods that affect the different blood types in different ways. Andrew and I are trying it out. Basically he has to steer clear of wheat, dairy and various grains and pulses. I have to steer clear of chicken (sob! sob!) avocado (more sobs) cashews (how am I going to survive) and corn in all its forms. Be a bit of a blow when I go to the cinema tomorrow.

There are loads of avoids of things I’ve taken for granted such as tomatoes, cucumber, soya and even pumpkin. What to bulk out soup with now as lentil are also off the menu. We’re going to start properly tomorrow and see where we get to. The diet is supposed to help you live longer, deal with a multitude of ailments (if you have them) and give you loads more energy. I’ll let you know hiw it goes.

Got the passport. After days of chasing around to get proof of address at the banks, doctors and optitians all they asked to see on the day was my marriage licence. It took four hours and £114.00 and I walked out of the office in Peterborough with a new passport. Mrs Dixon it is now – an e-passport and a picture that makes me look like a criminal (no smiles allowed).

It feels great to be getting back into performing. Did a bellydance workshop on Sunday with Dawn O’Brien on two different styles – Fusion and American Folk something. It was so good my friend and I booked some private sessions with her and had the first one tonight. It’s so different having someone making sure your posture is right, that the moves are being done correctly and to have time to drill the moves to build muscle memory.

Have to find a way to fuse bellydance and poetry on stage – can I do it by the end of November for ‘Positively Red’?

Trying to get a passport in a hurry. The passport office will do a one day service for a change of name (even though it says otherwise on their website). Can’t believe how difficult it was to get my bank (Barclays) to print me a satement on headed paper in the branch. Apparently it is not permissible to do that – should go through head office and take 3-4 working days. Had to get the manager to sanction it after an extremely ‘jobs worth’ assistant assured me it couldn’t be done. No one at the doctor’s surgery could print on headed paper except the secretary – and she goes home at 3.30 p.m. Heaven preserve us from beauracracy!!

What else not going to plan? The full Wedding DVD will not be ready for another 4 weeks (as there is rather a lot of footage to edit) so plan for girlie night to watch it will have to be mid September – nearly two months after the event!!

What nice is happening? The collage of photos of the day arrived very quickly and looks great. My bridesmaid made me a lovely album of the event which included pictures from trying on the dress in the shop, the hen night, pictures from the morning before we even begun to get dressed, the siute we stayed in including the stunning views, some unusual shots of the rest of the day and pictures of the Sunday morning. I was touched – almost cried – by her thoughtfulness. I’ve been circulating the DVD of evening pictures, set to music, and getting great comments.

Rediscovering the splendid guidance of the Tarot. Spotted a Tarot Bible last week and have been working my way through it. It is extremely comprehensive. Love it and getting great guidance. Main message – relax and go with the flow.

I’m needing to attend to some practical things which feels like intrusion into my little bubble of happiness. Preparing for a court hearing for one. One interesting fact I discovered is that there is a VAT helpline that’s very interested in companies/individuals who offer cash options to customers. Even if you have no tangible proof but have the VAT number of the company they are prepared to investigate.

I’m also having to go through the tedious process of changing my name on a whole range of documents. A friend of mine gave me a tip – do it slowly – as things come up for renewal. May try that

I’ve ordered a collage of pictures from the wedding. One of Andrew’s friends sent us a small one she’d done and we liked it so much we’ve ordered a big one of almost 90 images. We should have all the pictures by next week and hopefully the DVD soon.

Saturday at Writers Without Borders was great – some fantastic writing – and the cake went down well. One member took a piece home for her daughter in the hope it may encourage her to become a less of a reluctant bride. I did the poem I’ve written for Andrew ‘Refugee’ – first public performance. It was very fitting; given that I’ve just taken his name. ‘After dinner Speech’ also got its first airing but it was proably better to have left it till another time. I brought in a few photos of the wedding to show the group and heard the word ‘stunning’ used several times about my dress. I was flattered.

Its now August and the scene is set for a round of birthdays. I have 9 friends and family with birthdays in August. I was out for a meal with one of them tonight. Her daughter arranged a surprise dinner at San Carlos on Temple St in the city cente. Its years since I’ve been there and I’d forgotton how lovely the food is and how vibrant and alive the atmosphere is. Those Italian waiters still work magic with the guests on the charm front – so much so that we didn’t grumble about the £20 service charge the added to the bill. They did such a splendid rendition of ‘Happy Birthday to you, it was worth it. Wine on par with the Belfry prices but it was a great evening – first official invite as Mr and Mrs.

I’m going to need to put in some serious time in the gym over the next few weeks if I’m not to undo all the good work which enabled be to fit into that dress.

I’m still reliving the day as I sift through the photos to choose the best ones for the albums/DVD. I am taken aback by the joy and laughter on the faces of our guests – especially when they are not aware of being photographed/filmed. Aahhh….it was such a wonderful day.

Two weeks ago today I was preparing for a wedding. Tonight I’m preparing for my writing group tomorrow. I’ll be taking wedding cake for the group. Tonight I also performed the veiled dance as a group – it didn’t work as well – too many of us on the stage and we looked scrappy. Some amazing dances by other performers. I’ve decided to try some other teachers over the summer; get a new perspective, learn some new moves. After the wedding I realized that I love dancing solo. I just need to get good enough to be able to do it well – and I can.

There are some fantastic wedding pictures. I’ll be getting some of them on the web soon. I’ve joined Facebook so could post them there. And still the thank you cards keep coming. At least we managed to get our sent out today – even things up a bit I guess. It took almost all day to write them up as I wanted to address and thank each guest personally, and to let them know that our wedding is being featured in the Sunday Telegraph’s Sunday magazine ‘Stella’ on the 9th August.

Today feels a long way removed from the visit to court on Monday – concilation didn’t work and I’ve since learned a lot about water standards. About the WRC and Whitters and about junctions and connections. I’ve had to educate myself quickly to understand what I need to clarify with the independent surveyor who will be appointed by the claimant to assess what has and has not been done to our drains. Now the wedding is over I can dedicate a lot more time to understanding this issue as it will be going to full hearing and I expect to win.

I’m looking forward to reading poems tomorrow and to hearing others’ writings. Still living in bubble of love -it feels great!!

It quarter to four on Saturday and I’ve been reliving the day. I’ve had calls and texts from guests who are reliving it too. Still haven’t seen many pictures from the evening. Have developed the ones from the disposable cameras but they are very dark (don’t think many people used the flashes) I’m still relishing the day ones and finding it very difficult to narrow them down to just 40 images for the album. Evening ones should be available next week for viewing on the web.

I’ve got used to being Mrs Dixon amazing quickly (mind you it’s been a long time coming). I feel I’ve changed on the inside and was struggling to understand why – until my bridesmaid pointed out today that in changing my name I changed my energy vibration. I feel a lot calmer, more self assured, a lot easier with life. Its not just a feeling of having someone to move forward with – its something quite intangible. I’m actually enjoying being a wife!!!

The thank you cards and letters keep coming from guests who want to thank us for a great day/evening. Seems like the wrong way round – we should be thanking all our guests for being there and for the many and varied presents – which we will do as soon as we can get our Thank You cards. The stationer who hand made all our stationary is ill and may not be able to attend to them for some time. We are also trying to track all the people who contributed to our Paris trip as the travel agents did not record all the names.

The adrenaline is beginning to wear off and my body is craving sleep, cake and champagne.

It’s Wednesday and I’m going to venture out into Birmingham. We’ve hardly left the house; I went with Andrew to see his parents on Monday for about 30 minutes and to the Co-op for ten minutes yesterday. We spent most of the day opening presents on Monday and have been overwhelmed by our guests generosity. (And we haven’t had the gifts purchased through Debenhams delivered yet but we are aware of who bought us what) We know of some of the contributors to our Paris trip but not all the names were recorded so thank you, thank you, thank you everyone.

We’ve been sent the web proofs of the wedding photos and are taken aback by the way the photographer managed to capture the essence of the day – every looks so happy! In fact the toast master told us that it is the happiest wedding he has ever presided over – and he’s been at it a long time. I’ll email the photo link in case you want to see what happened at the cermony (if you weren’t there) or if you want to purchase photos. The rep from Stella magazine (Daily Telegraph) phoned yesterday to check if everything went OK and how I felt about the day. Article will be out towards the end of August. Will keep you posted.

We’ve received a number of thank you cards from our friends saying how much they enjoyed the day/evening; what a unique event it was; and one guest so enjoyed using the mike in front of an audience that she’s considering a change of career!!

I feel like I’m still floating around in a bubble. I want to hold on to this feeling for as long as I can.

Oh my God, what a day!! It’s true what they say, it all goes by so quickly. All those months (even years) of planning and suddenly it’s over. It’s the end of the night and you are climbing into bed – legal status completely changed, clutching either a new husband or a new wife. And what a day it was. Such a kelideoscope of of wonderful moments; so many smiling, laughing, joyous faces; so many well wishes; so many amazing people in one room; the light, the energy that glowed from everyone. I will never forget the day.

The day went almost to plan; and where it deviated I’m sure it was all in divine order. Just a bit of information for those I didn’t get round to telling on the day. The wedding is being featured in the Daily Telegraph’s ‘Stella’ magazine. You could not have failed to notice that there was a camera crew with rather specialists lighting equipment – well, that was the Telegraph’s camera guys. I was told they would arrive, stay for about 20-30 minutes and would discretely take some pictures. As you will remember they were around for the ceremony and the whole of the photography session (and I’m told they were taking pictrues before the cermony too) I hadn’t mentioned this to anyone for two reasons. 1) They may not have arrived and people’s expectations may bad been dashed, and 2) People may have been anxious and I didn’t want that. Not even Andrew knew – and it wasn’t till we were well into our meal that I told him. He was cool about it. I’ll let you know when the article will be out.

I loved the ceremony. Walking into the room and seeing all those beaming faces, knowing that they were all rooting for us, and seeing the look on Andrew’s face when he turned around a saw me would have been enough for the day – and yet there was so much more.

I’m not sure what was going on on Table 4 but all the other tables wanted some. Thanks to those of you who were grateful for the speeches being short – and thanks to my brother for sparing you from some of my much more embarassing moments. He was very kind. There was such amazing energy in the room, which only intensified when all the evening guests arrived. Such colour, such vibrancy, such love – we felt it from everyone – not a single grumpy person in the house. We didn’t know Lassell was going to ask people to come up and say things about us so we were totally taken aback by all the lovely things everyone said.

And yes, Andrew was as surprised as you were by the belly dance. You have no idea how difficult its been trying to keep it secret for so many months. We’ve had many request for a posting on Youtube, we’ll see what we can do. Just for the information, there was a bit of confusion with the music on my first dance – the DJ thought I’d finished and turned faded the music when in fact I was only half way though the dance – maybe that’s all you were meant to see. Anyway thanks for your appreciation for the Shakira dance. My eldest son has calculated how much it’s going to cost him for therapy to get the image out of his head of his mom dancing to one of his favourite songs.

And I’m really surprised that so many of you made it to the Belair – and were still there at closing time. 4 a.m, totally exhausted but still high on adrenaline we made it to bed. It was a perfect day.