The Wedding Planner

I love my caterers, I love my caterers, I love my caterers.

They just called and I can have 11 people and a baby at the top table, so I don't need to offend anyone at all and it will all be fabulous. Of course, there will still be 6 Leamy females and one male baby infant, as distinct from two Collier females and three males, but that's fine. Hurrah hurrah hurrah.

And they weren't even annoyed at me for changing the plans so late in the day; they don't want the final seating plan until next week - in fact, they think that it's nice of me to get it to them so early!

Time for a to-do:

1. Finish OU essay.
2. Find and book accomodation for two or three of my sisters.
3. Dye towels so that we can pretend we have matching sets.
4. Figure out schedule for laundry so that there will be enough clean towels and bedding for all the people who want to stay in ourhouse at various times. This means doing laundry the morning of the wedding; there doesn't seem to be any way around that.
5. Eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
6. Make shopping list for groceries not stocked by organic supplier.
7. Remind Rob to finish booking the honeymoon, and to call the plumber about the fact that I am 5'1" tall and the shower we had installed is optimised for people who are 5'9" and I can barely use it. It's still better than nothing, but it's not marvellous. Ho hum. The plumber only met me three times, I suppose. Perhaps I have a tall personality.
8. Call the florist to check about what the hell we're doing for flowers. Argh argh argh.
9. Money things. Boo.

Quiz result

Your HARE DAEMON represents your passive,
kindhearted, and honorable nature. Though you
are occasionally shy with new people, friends
admire your unshakable tranquility, even in the
face of chaos.

What Animal Would Your Daemon Settle As?
brought to you by Quizilla

Todo listing again

1. Finish OU essay.Did some study; made serious progress, actually.
2. Find and book accomodation for two or three of my sisters.
3. Dye towels so that we can pretend we have matching sets.Just need to wait for them to finish spinning and find somewhere to dry them.
4. Figure out schedule for laundry so that there will be enough clean towels and bedding for all the people who want to stay in our house at various times. This means doing laundry the morning of the wedding; there doesn't seem to be any way around that.This won't be all that hard, really; I can do and hang out one load as a "normal, sane-making" thing, the same way I wash up when there's a crisis
5. Eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner.Ate an apple, a chocolate bar, and a bowl of cereal. This counts.
6. Make shopping list for groceries not stocked by organic supplier.Begun.
7. Remind Rob to finish booking the honeymoon, and to call the plumber about the fact that I am 5'1" tall and the shower we had installed is optimised for people who are 5'9" and I can barely use it. It's still better than nothing, but it's not marvellous. Ho hum. The plumber only met me three times, I suppose. Perhaps I have a tall personality.
8. Call the florist to check about what the hell we're doing for flowers. Argh argh argh.
9. Money things. Boo.

W-day -25

Seating plan.

What do I do about babies? Do I provide a seat for their carry-cot and no place setting? How do I know whether the baby is old enough for a high chair?

What do I do about shy people who only know me and no-one else at the whole wedding?

How rude is it to put a baby's high-chair next to its parent and a stranger, if the stranger has a take-it-or-leave-it attitude to babies?

General.

What if some of the kids are ill-disciplined or annoying? Can I drown them? We've sort of had to invite some children whom we actually don't know, so that their parents are able to attend - not having the parents there would leave us married in the legal sense, but would be quite unsatisfying.

Why don't we know more men? Well over half the guests will be female.

If I am providing one room with no music, but smoking allowed, and one room with music and no smoking allowed, and a small room with neither allowed and an armchair for nursing mothers, have I left any rooms out? I can get one more very small room, but I honestly can't think of any use for it that wouldn't be more fun back at the hotel. (Yes, there are bathrooms!)

Whose responsibility is it to ensure that a guest can leave and come back at intervals as she may be somewhat poorly (8 months pregnant and the first one had Complications)? Do I have to get her a taxi? Pay for it? Arrange to have someone friendly drive her to and fro? Neither one of us drives.

I am not panicking. I am not panicking. I am procrastinating study.

5 things I do that other people want to do, and vice versa

I don't work. I mean, I have no employer. I am, in fact, a lady of leisure.
I have a garden with strawberries and blackberries.
I have three cats.
I eat what I like when I like.
I assault my house with nails and saws and paint and so on. I like DIY.

I don't write. Haven't for ages.
I don't knit.
I don't sew much.
I don't paint, and even when I do, it's nothing like as good as it ought to be.
I don't domesticate very effectively.

Radegund interviews me

1. Three concrete changes you'd like to see in the standard British/Irish education system.

   Less segregation by age, which is so arbitrary it makes me furious.

   More attention paid to what children would like to learn (no-one ever taught the boys I knew about dinosaurs, they learned that all on their own and so eagerly it made your eyes water).

   And . . . the return of matriculation exams, rather than A-levels or the Leaving certificate; give a bit more contorl to the universities over who they will let.

2. How important is fashion/trend in your life?

   Difficult one. I tend to be vaguely aware of what's in fashion, and generally either sneer at it or cry "but I got lambasted for doing that 8 years ago!" However, fashion has a serious effect on what I can get my hands on to wear myself.

   Fashion in non-clothes things - I suspect very little.

   Trend - I have no idea whatsoever. More than I'm aware of, I'm sure. I probably follow some blindly. Like this interview thing.

3. I think the story of your "escape" from Dublin is brilliant. What (if anything) would make you go back?

   "Make" me? No idea. But I couldn't go back until I could buy a house as good as the one I have, get medical care as easily as I can here, and oh yes, I can't handle the lack of racial mix anymore - after an initial adjustment period, living in areas where white/nonwhite is 60/40 or less, I feel very Right. Plus the babies are prettier.

   I would go back like a shot if my mother needed me to.

4. Would you like your children to learn Irish?

   I'm hoping that if I speak to them in Irish and Rob's mother speaks to them in Swedish, they might have some idea of where they come from. Realising that my children might grow up not-fluent nearly made me go straight home again, about a year ago. I intend to ask for lots of Irish-language books to read to them.

5. If you were to start writing again, what would you write?

   Something about tears and love and the sea. Something about the satisfaction of an angst-free life. Something suburban and young.

   Little poems and drabbles first. If it ever comes back, then maybe I'll resurrect the not-a-novel.