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    Forwarding Address 28 years-old human... Pancreatitis Depressed
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2003-04-07 - 5:33 p.m. Stressed? Moi? I am not from a family that expresses emotions with any great passion. Sure, we can have the odd hug and tell each other we love each other. We can see each other through hard times and upsets etc. But we�re not a family that is ever going to end up on Trisha. At least it seemed we weren�t until I decided to get hitched. I am feeling ever so slightly battered after this weekend. It started on Friday morning. Fairy took me out into the Essex countryside (well, Enfield and Lakeside anyway) to hunt for wedding dresses. The people in the first place we went to, which I will publicly name and shame as Celebrations in Enfield nearly had me in tears by the time we left the shop. When we arrived we stepped over a couple of very pleasant workmen who were busily smoking and refitting the front carpet of the shop. The woman who greeted us seemed a little miserable but we were soon happily browsing through the racks and picking out dresses to try on. We were the only customers there, and nobody else came in. There were three shop staff, and one baby belonging to one of them. For some reason the shop was also a cr�che on this particular day! So I got undressed in the changing room, whilst other shop assistants kept wandering through unannounced to get things from the storeroom to the side of the changing room. Once in my first dress the girl had to run off to take a phone call from a customer � quite why one of the other two couldn�t have taken the call is beyond me, from what I could hear the customer phoning only wanted the address of a website! So another woman, the miserable one who had greeted us when we arrived, told me to come out into the shop to show Fairy the dress. I asked if it would be ok if Fairy came and saw it in the changing room, as I was a little embarrassed to be prancing about in an ill-fitting dress with the two workmen looking on. She seemed to take this a little personally but grudgingly went and got Fairy to come in. Fairy and I discussed the dress for a few seconds, I didn�t like it much, it was unflattering and had pointy bits that made me look a little like Glenda the Good Witch. We had to wait alone in the changing rooms for ten minutes while the girl that was s�posed to be assisting me took her phone call. When she came back she was a little snappy with us and then asked if I liked the dress. Before I could answer the miserable woman piped up �No, she doesn�t like it!� Now, when you�re contorting yourself into near impossible positions to get into fluffy dresses, wearing only your knickers, you kind of need the comfort of nice people surrounding you. These were not nice people. Anyone thinking of going there � do not bother! Slightly disheartened by our experience we decided to drive to Lakeside and get some lunch. Lunch thankfully was gorgeous, scrummy baked potatoes with lovely generous toppings and fresh handfuls of salad�makes me hungry just remembering it! Then we had a wander around Lakeside. Our friend Bee, another bridesmaid, had mentioned she had seen some bridal dresses in a shop called Monsoon so we thought we�d go and have a look. When we got to the window I fell in love with every dress in the display! So we went straight in� We found the bridal collection at the back of the store, I wanted to try all of them on, they were all so simple and elegant and not as obvious as the ones we had previously seen in proper bridal shops. It said on a sign that you had to make an appointment to try them on, but I thought I would ask one of the two shop assistants on duty if we could try them, just in case. Three and a half hours later I came out less �250 but plus one wedding dress. Not only that but in the course of the afternoon we managed to find bridesmaids dresses too! I wasn�t even going to have them in dresses, I wanted them in suits until I saw these! And the shoes were sparkly and beaded and satin and sling backed and pointy � shoes that I would normally run screaming from � but I fell in love with them. The shop assistant couldn�t do enough for us, she patiently helped me in and out of the same dresses over and over again, at the same time dealing with other customers coming in trying on clothes. She made my entire week. And now I have, hanging in Fairy�s bedroom at home, a beautiful wedding dress that I keep wanting to try on again every five minutes. I�m sure one day soon Fairy will awake at 4am to find me hovering outside her wardrobe. But on Friday night Monkey and me had an enormous row over the cost of suit hire. It is seriously amazing the things you can find to argue about when organising a wedding. It was awful, but we made up in the end and fell asleep hugging as usual. On Saturday my sister and I had planned a surprise birthday meal for my mum, it was a lovely evening and she really liked her dinner and her presents. Then on Sunday I had to break the news to my Dad that we had gone �1000 over budget because we had forgotten to calculate the buffet for 120 in our original figures. This meant I had to send twenty minutes explaining to my Father why it was necessary to provide food in the evening when he was �already paying for them to have bloody dinner� Later on that same day � my Mum, my sister and I went back to Lakeside so Sister could try on the bridesmaid dress. Then things stated to go downhill. My sister was asking about the food as she is a vegetarian and also can�t eat wheat, gluton or dairy. I won�t go into details as it is far far far too complicated and long winded, but we ended up falling out hugely over the choice of vegetables in the buffet selection for the evening reception (like I said, it�s amazing what you can find to argue about) My Mum got upset because Sis and I had fallen out, and she reckoned her �entire birthday weekend was ruined!!� There were lots of tears, a few tantrums and we eventually smoothed things out, thank God. Luckily Monkey was on hand straight away with a very large glass of Pinot down our local boozer. Unfortunately I had one too many of them (it was the stress) and this morning I was one very green commuter indeed. And now I am completely knackered and all I want to do is eat a Cadbury�s Cr�me Egg McFlurry�but I have a wedding dress now, so it�s lettuce and carrots from hereonin�. |
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