Moving panic

Wedding - tick

House on market to rent - tick

Listed what to move - tick

Moving survey - tick (we have 800 cubic feet of stuff and are allowed 1000 cubic feet)

Confirmed temporary UK accomodation for early Aug - tick

Agreed with Jo and Chris sale of car - tick

Got US bank account set up - tick

Visa? Not yet... Interview at embassy on 27th July. Til then we continue going through our stuff and taking bags and bags to the charity shop. And hope it all goes well on the day this time.

Married

Its done and done!

Noma

Photos: Birch dessert to the left and a floral snack below.

To celebrate J & M's 5th Wedding Anniversary we went to Noma in Copenhagen. The food was very nice! But I think I prefer Mathias Dahlgren.

The best dish was pork loin covered in crushed crunchy pork rind, a bit like pork fish fingers. After that it was a close contest between one of the pre-meal snacks and one of the fish dishes; chicken skin sandwich (OMG I want more!) with cream cheese and caviar filling and the razor clam served in a tube of parsley jelly with horsradish granita and a beautiful chicken stock.

Main let down - desserts were a bit weird. One was birch sap meringue with birch sap sorbet and the other was a fromage topped with rosehip 'crunch' served with beetroot sorbet. Just give me a danish or some chocolate next time...

Getting married

So we decided to get married, JD needs to marry me to get the right type of visa. We decided that rather than just going to the registrar in the UK we would get married in Copenhagen as we were going there anyway in early June.

Administration / Documentation: OMG so much paper work needed just to get married. Wish we had decided on Vegas. With 1 day to go we still havnt got a confirmation that all the relevant information had been received, and to be fair we were only able to send the final bits a week before the date due to the 3 week wait time for JD's Certificate of no impediment. The Swedish Embassy in London sorted that out for me in 2 days.

Accomodation: Due to a conference in Copenhagen all hotels were fully booked up to the Friday, so we were booked into a B&B (a room in someone's flat). I finally found free rooms yesterday and have booked us in, our B&B room will be used by JD's friends who havent been able to find rooms either.

Lunch / Dinner: Our original reason to go to Copenhagen was to go to Noma with J, K, J and M. So I had booked us up for lunch. As we expanded the guest list a little I tried getting Noma to squeeze us all in but no go. Instead we are splitting up for lunch and will then meet back with the others at Tivoli in the afternoon. And dinner booked at Nimb inside Tivoli in the evening for the whole group.

Guests: Well, we weren't going to tell anyone but then I realised I wanted photos so told J & K so they could bring camera. Then JD mentioned it to his brother who talked to JD's two best friends. I then decided that if JD could have his brother along I wanted my sister - and then along came also her daughters and my parents. So we went from 4 guests to 12. But still v small.

Clothes: Heidi helped me pick out a dress. We spent a day trying on dresses and I am greatful I live in a country that likes cocktail dresses. JD decided to just wear one of the suits he had made in Hong Kong.

Rings: I wanted a ring in the same style as the silver ring JD got me in Copenhagen last year, and as she does an 18ct version I ordered that one. For JD we decided to take my great granddads old wedding ring which I got when I was confirmed (so made smaller for me at 16) - this needed extending and as 23ct which is very rare the extention was done in white gold. A small bit of the 23ct gold was added to a white gold band that was made for me as my second ring. (OK so my sister thinks this is cheating as we didnt get engaged. But I wanted two rings, so lets say we got engaged the night before. Humour me.) When I went to pick up the rings yesterday it turned out the re-work hadnt even started due to a date mix up. Panic. But the nice jewellers promised to get cracking immediately and I went back at 5 last night and they were done.

We dont know if we will be married tomorrow as we havent had confirmation on the paperwork being in order, but I have decided to be cool about it all in worst case we can always go back next weekend just over the day or something. But that will hopefully not be the case, instead I hope to share nice photos early next week.

Honeymoon: well none right now. We will take some time when we are both in the US, I am thinking a road trip as I like the idea of seeing a bit more of the country.

Home

Am home. Flight was fine and had the one spare seat of the whole flight next to me. Forgot laptop in restaurant at airport but rememberd when I was about to strap myself in, so ran off plane and back and luckily got it back.

Tired and hungry today. Was supposed to go straight on diet after two weeks of eating too much but guess it will have to wait. Its good to be home though.

Lazy days

Westchester mall was very nice. Large. EL will like it. B would love it. I found it a bit intimidating but made my way around most of it before heading back to the hotel to catch the late sunshine by the pool. Had sushi for lunch and dinner.

I have read quite a few books in the days I have been here, I really should have got a Barnes & Noble card the first day as I am a steady customer. Will need to visit before I head back on Wednesday so I have something to read on the plane...

I went to dinner with a collegue who flew in today from the UK, we have some big meetings next week. Its sooo nice to have company! I took him to this restaurant I had seen in Norwalk and we had some lovely food - scallops, prawns, clams and chip and corn on the cob. Finishing with a slice of cheesecake. Yum. Great restaurant that I look forward to coming back to, spending some hours sitting in the dockside bar drinking beer I think. Maybe not bring the car...

Dinner in NY

The plan was to work from the NY office yesterday, leave early and maybe go to a museum or so before meeting Amina and Katarina for dinner. But that plan was scuppered by meetings and more meetings, so I worked in Stamford til 4.30 then ran to the train and made it to the restaurant just in time for dinner.

It was lovely seeing some friends, everyone is very nice here but its not quite the same as being with friends. So we had a great dinner and then went to a pub across the street from their hotel. It served Magners so I felt quite at home.

On the train home I met a little old lady who had left her note book in her club and was fretting about this. Luckily a nice (and very handsome) man lent her his mobile so she could call and ask them to keep it for her. Highly amusing.

Today I am lazying in the hotelroom, planning to get some pampering done this morning and then do some driving around to improve my local knowledge. I am determined to try and find the beach so that is goal nr 1. And then possibly the Westchester mall.