The Kitchen Cometh...

While dreaming of the potential grandeur of the kitchen of my dreams (above), this week has mainly been a fraught one...

Pulled from pillar to pole by duties, beauties, responsibilities and playfulness, I am cream-crackered - Knackered, shattered, exhausted, en-ratted even!

I took part in two marriages.   Beautiful, they were, in their simplicity and elegance.   I duly registered the first.   This involves writing out the marriage certificate (while 'spoiling' 3!) and entering the full details of the wedding in the register, which is kept in a safe vault for centuries.   It's important to use registrars' ink rather than ordinary ink, as it is more permanent and less prone to fade or corrode over time on paper, which ordinary ink does apparently...   It's a devil of an ink to get off your fingers or clothes.   Put registrars' ink together with a bride in an expensive white dress and you've a recipe for disaster!   Thankfully, only my fingers were victims.

I just watched the second, where a lovely lady in her fifties married her boss.   Both of them looked surprised and delighted to have found one another unexpectedly, and the bride sobbed with joy throughout...   I really find it hard not to cry at weddings, which is somewhat off-putting for guests when you're officiating!   I find a lot of pinching my hand is involved.

I've upped my voluntary counselling practice to two days per week.   This is the last year of my three year course, which is a bit intensive as it was truncated to two years in any case!   The race is on to get my counselling hours up to the required 150 in order to graduate from the programme this year...   I love the work, I really do.   And, like weddings, I feel it's a real privilege to support people at a crucial and fundamental time of their lives...

It takes its toll on me, however!   While I'm writing this, it's Sunday night at twenty-five to eight and my bed is calling my name like a Siren from the Sea!

On Thursday, I found myself here at Alnwick Castle and Garden:

Ancestral home to the Percy family for over seven hundred years, and where bits of the Harry Potter movies were filmed, I was at an assessment day for potential seasonal workers...   I met some lovely local people and took part in some bizarre and clever tests, so they could see our creative potential to become employees of the Duke and Duchess...      One test involved me, blindfold, pushing a girl around in a wheel-chair in the gift shop.   The idea was that we communicated effectively enough so that we were able to collect two items safely and soundly.   It was more fun than it sounds, and a very useful exercise in understanding the challenges facing visitors with disabilities.

I am like a bull in a china shop at the best of times, so this was a real exercise in control for me!

I don't know how I imagine that I'll fit additional work in to my schedule - if I'm lucky enough to be selected - but I quite fancied the chance to do some temporary work in this fabulous location, a world-class tourist attraction, and I'd be welcoming visitors to the beautiful Castle and Garden.  

Also, since I've started signing cheques to the bold and beautiful workmen to pay for said kitchen, my legs have started to wobble a bit, and it's time to think of bringing money in rather than paying it all out.

After all, I've my own castle to see to!

I'm all ears...

I am fur-deep in working on a psychotherapy assignment due to be handed in at a time of year when I should really be snoozing, and perusing my last bits of Christmas thingummy-bobbies I need to get hold of, to stop my head from falling off with blind panic!

December's also the month of my Birthday, with GJ's big Five-O milestone Birthday coming up in January - For which I've got a party planned - Eek!

I'm meeting one of my bessie mates from Uni on Thursday for a decadent and languid lunch at a beautiful spot in the Cathedral City of Durham. 

I've had to postpone a visit from a kitchen designer in order to honour my prior appointment with her - We've now known each other for thirty years, which is frightening when you think of it.   Her son is my godson, she has a lovely older daughter too, and I love them dearly although I probably only catch up with her about twice a year if we're lucky...   More's the pity.

I'm terrified at what the kitchen is going to cost me, though - And I wonder if any of you can make any recommendations for reasonable priced stuff, as my builders favour Howden's and I don't believe for one moment they're going to be as cheap as chips!   My existing kitchen was thirty years old and dilapidated when we first moved in almost ten years ago, so we're desperate for a functional kitchen that we can sit and eat in - Well, blog in, in my case!

On Saturday I had the pleasure of marrying a delightful couple who were only in their early twenties, just as I was when I married GJ twenty-five years ago!   One of the registrars referred to them as "bairns".   And I thought, yes they are, and I was!   Next weddings for me will be in January, so we might get some of the anticipated awful northern British winter away before then...   We've a smidgeon of snow on the hills as of this weekend.

December just seems like the kind of month where you have to squeeze a pint pot into a half!   We're off to see Lindsey Buckingham in the middle of the month, just before my birthday and I'm also hopeful of the promise of a late lunch with some ladies who are regulars from our local pub, who fancy a bit of a "do" at a posh Italian restaurant nearby.

Suldog asked me last post whence came the expression - "I couldn't give a flying kipper's fart!"

I thought I must have picked it up somewhere on my travels.   Turns out it's mine, I think.   I googled it and found no result except on my blog - Skrikes, I'm off again!

And so, if I don't see you through the week, I'll see you through the window, mes bloggy lovers!   Ciao bellas!

This fantastic image of the atmospheric ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle in December by photographer Guy Edwardes.   Stunning.   PLEASE CLICK FOR MORE ABOUT GUY.

And I'm just going to leave you with this beauty from La Bush: