Lines and lines and lines

I'm not a great driver, but I do like my cars. It's got to that time where I have to select a new car on the company scheme or opt out and take the money. Having done the math it still doesn't make financial sense to opt out (damn you whoever drove into my car in a car park - I lost any chance of no claims discount there!). I'm going to miss my Celica though, it may be looking a bit battered due to my habit of not taking my riding boots off when I drive but it was a lovely car to own. The only real fault I've had on it is a broken interior light!

After much humming and hawing I've narrowed my choice down to 2 cars, a Seat Leon Cupra R or a Golf Gti. I really would have preferred a Honda Civic Type R but my company no longer has a lease deal with Honda.

Trying to test drive these 2 cars really has highlighted the difference in the customer service of what is effectively 2 branches of the same company. Seat were very responsive, and have loaned me a car for the whole weekend. VW have generally avoided returning calls, failed to make appointments and have been really not customer oriented. After a lot of phone calls, I admitted defeat and went to the local dealer and unleashed my WARTH (like wrath, but more sparkly). Within an hour they have grudgingly given me a test drive tomorrow for a whole 30 minutes. I suppose VW believe their product is so superior that they don't have to be nice to people.

And then there were 8

My hen night is rapidly shrinking in size! It's down to 8 attendees due to childbirth, clashing holidays and my general ineptness at making female friends in person rather than the internet.

I'm secretly kinda pleased though, 8 is a manageable number to get into bars with and it means my credit card hasn't got too stretched booking hotel rooms.

So the itinery is something like:-
Saturday afternoon, go to the horse races at Gosforth Park Newcastle.
Saturday evening, go for dinner - I've had a restaurant called Gershwins in Newcastle recommended, if anyone has gone there let me know! And then off to some not too rowdy bars if such things exist in Newcastle. I've had the 'Apartment' bar suggested as they sell pink champagne by the glass!

My main problem is that I'm going to have to have a 'mini-stag' for the all the boys I work with before my wedding, that's really going to be a wild and drunken night!

RSVP

Why don't people RSVP?

It's not exactly difficult, I even enclosed a card to make it easy for them. But still about 50% of the people haven't bothered to say they can't come to the wedding.

GRRR

What I did on my holidays

A couple of weekends ago I was off on a horse riding holiday in Mid-Wales. I booked it with Free-rein who were very professional and easy to deal with. I did the 3 day 'Onto the trail' ride which was a mixture of walk, trot and canter in the lovely Radnor hills. It also included basic horse care skills such as grooming, hoof picking and tacking up. As part of the holiday I spent 2 nights at the Red Lion where the food was really, really good for such a small out of the way place, and I ate so much I was sure that they would need to upgrade my pony.


The photo shows Friday and me just after breakfast. By the end of the holiday I'd got very attached to the pony and wanted to take her home. Like all animals she had her quirks, her favourite thing to do was to roll in puddles, which made grooming on the morning quite arduous.

First stage of my crystal flowers

So this is the first buttonhole I made up. I can't get the picture to do it justice as I'm taking it indoors at night, but it's about 10cm long consisting of 6 clear aurora borealis finish beads and two amethyst ones. Doesn't look too bad for a first attempt. Before I do the remaining 24 (!) I'm going to buy some very small needle nose pliers to make the binding and twisting of the wire a bit less tricky