What I did on my weekend...

The weeks are flashing by at the moment - it is rather scary to think that in 7 weeks' time, I will be Mrs Toon.
However, this weekend was a mixture of wedding preparation and taekwon do.
Saturday mid morning to early afternoon was spent at the Castle School in Thornbury desparately trying to stop my muscles going onto autopilot whilst doing my patterns, line work and step sparring in front of an examiner. The problem is that I've practiced these so much that my muscles know what they are doing without a huge amount of intervention from my brain - this does, however, lead to sloppy work (and the occasional complete "Huh?" moment as my brain wakes up and tries to remember what it is actually supposed to be doing!) However, the questions that I was asked were reasonably easy (not exactly what was on the sheet, but, as I'd been expecting that from the last grading, I'd memorised more than just the "You will be asked 4 out of these 10 questions" section)
So - I am now officially a yellow belt - 8th Kup and definitely off the bottom rungs of the ladder. At this point, I'm expected to be getting a good groundwork in the basics (the meaning of the yellow being "The ground from which the plant grows"), and probably shouldn't be still being muddled between side kick and turning kick...
So - after TKD, John took the car into town to drop off some books at Oxfam, and I killed people on Theme Hospital (yes, it's an old game. Yes, it isn't the best God game about, but I find it very relaxing, and can lose a good couple of hours in it without any trouble!)
Then, when he got back, we headed to Cribbs, John to buy some new trousers, and me to see what Per Una had to offer... (I *hate* clothes shopping with a passion. Even the thought of it gives me a headache. But for some reason, I love Per Una - it is my one fashion weakness. Fortunately, even though it is slightly on the pricey side, it isn't the most expensive shopping habit I could have!) I was very restrained in the end - after going into the changing rooms with a total of 8 items, I only came away with 2 - a new pair of linen trousers and a lovely Batik kaftan. So my hunter-gatherer instinct is assuaged for the time being :-)
Then home for my favourite butternut squash recipe (halved, brushed with oil, roasted in the oven for 40 mins, with slow fried veg, goat's cheese and parmesan breadcrumbs over the top), and Jekyll...
Now - I am one of the demographic that the BBC hates. Unless I have a really good motivation to watch TV, I don't, and my motivation severely dips if I don't watch a series regularly. Last week Jekyll was bumped for some small concert, and it felt like a big effort to sit down and concentrate for an hour, even though I was left bouncing on the edge of my seat at the end of the last episode. However, this episode was really worth the effort! It was all told in flashback, with about half an hour of "now" time passing. I am really enjoying this form of story telling - moving the current story on slowly, and letting us try to piece it all together. It definitely wouldn't be as fun being told in linear format. Some lovely lines, including the really cheeky "Are you my Daddy?" (and if you don't get it, then go and watch "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances", also by Steve Moffat), and I am loving Gina Bellman as Claire Jackman - she really got to come into her own in this episode. And we are out next weekend, so I'm going to have to wait for the Replay on Sunday to see how this cliffhanger ends! (nice BBC didn't spoil edge-of-seat cliffhanger with a trailer - I was shocked!)
Sunday we had a lovely long lie in - they don't happen that often, so I tend to make the most of them (and then completely smash my sleeping patterns as a result!), and then off to Tortworth Court to meet with our wedding photographer. Tony Charnock (although his website isn't loading at the moment!) is a really nice, genuine guy. He was really helpful - getting us to think about things that we hadn't even considered (such as "What time will you be getting ready?"), and was really enthusiastic about the dress (he was dreading that I was going to say I was getting married in Ivory, which apparantly is a pain to try to get right in a photo!) He also showed us a number of different albums, including a book - i.e. you have your wedding photos vanity published into a really nice coffee table book! (I'm hoping that this will be on his website when it comes back up again - if so, I'll link to it...) Unfortunately, that option doubled the overall costs, and wasn't *really* justifiable! So we've gone for a lovely leather bound digital print option, (again, if the option becomes available on his website, I'll link to it...), where the layout isn't just photo;photo;photo - there are lots of overlays and backgrounds (difficult to explain!)
And then, Sunday evening was TKD again - this time a fitness evening, where we spent over an hour and a half (because Kerry lost track of the time!) doing skipping, stomach crunches, running and other circuit exercises. Great fun, but my legs are paying for it now - every time I stand up, my muscles have shortened by another inch!
Finally, back home for the sausages that wouldn't cook (15 minutes in the George Fornby grill, plus 10 minutes extra (after I cut them open and realised they were still pink), plus half an hour or so under the grill. John ate them, I didn't...), and a mild panic when I realised that the info on the wedding ceremony should have been with South Glos council two weeks ago... Fortunately, they let me fax the completed copy through today...