It's been birthday week for Little Lu. Lots of lovely presents all round and lots of lovely wishes on Facebook and by snail mail too.
We started with drinks and dinner with my fiancé and six friends at the Smithfield Bar and Grill. The service was excellent, the company fantastic and the food, very good indeed. I had calamari for starters, shared a chateaubriand with Mr Cross for mains, and had a lovely warm chocolate dessert with ice cream, with a candle in the middle with everyone singing Happy Birthday.
The next day, we went to see Fugitive Pieces at the Prince Charles cinema in Leicester Square. Reminded me a bit of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which is not how I remembered the book.
Yesterday, the fiancé took me to Le Caprice for dinner and then we went on to the opening night of Cosi Fan Tutte at the London Coliseum (ENO). The only disappointment with Le Caprice, was that the bang bang chicken as a starter tasted like a jar of Sun Pat peanut butter had been emptied over it, but otherwise, it was an excellent meal, and the staff were very attentive. Beware of the 12.5% service charge and cover charges which are automatically included.
Cosi Fan Tutte was excellent, although being Mozart, each line is repeated about four times, because of the symmetry of Mozart's music. Ah well, it was nice to see some familiar names in the orchestra from my Royal College of Music days.
I'm now exhausted after three nights out on the trot. Maybe old age is getting to me, who knows, but I love my sleep and was glad that I didn't need to wake up at 7.10am this morning.
Thanks to everyone for a lovely week, particularly to Mr Cross, kiss kiss.
Saturday 30 May 2009
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Little Lu countdown
Well, the clock has started to tick. It's ten weeks on Saturday!
Final preparations have begun, including meeting with our wonderful wedding co-ordinator, Laura to run through all the details. She is lovely and makes everything so easy for us. Plus she is super organised which really helps.
We have been fairly sensible budget wise, and so have managed to squeeze in a few optional extras to make our day complete. Lips sealed for now, but I promise a full run-down once I am Mrs Cross... Watch this space.
A girl at work was selling her gym membership, so I am now a proud member of Soho Gyms. So far I've been to three classes: abs training, yoga and body attack. All of them very hard but good. It's a great gym and the instructors are friendly, helpful and demanding, all for our own good of course.
Other than that, the Lu Crew base in Stratford upon Avon has undergone an overhaul, and looks tip top. Three new bathrooms, re-wiring, all new lighting and brand new carpets throughout. Just a few snagging issues as they say in construction, and it's home. Elder sister Lu is due home in a couple of weeks for an inspection. She's had my report and it was glowing.
Other than that, it's my birthday tomorrow and I'm off with a few friends to the Smithfield Bar and Grill. Two for one cocktails in happy hour and then on to a private room for myself and seven guests. Should be a great time. Thursday is a film in Leicester Square and on Friday, Mr Cross is taking me to Le Caprice for dinner and then on to see the English National Opera performing Cosi Fan Tute at the Coliseum. I think I will be feeling like a bit worn out by the weekend.
Over and out, tune in next time.
Final preparations have begun, including meeting with our wonderful wedding co-ordinator, Laura to run through all the details. She is lovely and makes everything so easy for us. Plus she is super organised which really helps.
We have been fairly sensible budget wise, and so have managed to squeeze in a few optional extras to make our day complete. Lips sealed for now, but I promise a full run-down once I am Mrs Cross... Watch this space.
A girl at work was selling her gym membership, so I am now a proud member of Soho Gyms. So far I've been to three classes: abs training, yoga and body attack. All of them very hard but good. It's a great gym and the instructors are friendly, helpful and demanding, all for our own good of course.
Other than that, the Lu Crew base in Stratford upon Avon has undergone an overhaul, and looks tip top. Three new bathrooms, re-wiring, all new lighting and brand new carpets throughout. Just a few snagging issues as they say in construction, and it's home. Elder sister Lu is due home in a couple of weeks for an inspection. She's had my report and it was glowing.
Other than that, it's my birthday tomorrow and I'm off with a few friends to the Smithfield Bar and Grill. Two for one cocktails in happy hour and then on to a private room for myself and seven guests. Should be a great time. Thursday is a film in Leicester Square and on Friday, Mr Cross is taking me to Le Caprice for dinner and then on to see the English National Opera performing Cosi Fan Tute at the Coliseum. I think I will be feeling like a bit worn out by the weekend.
Over and out, tune in next time.
Tuesday 12 May 2009
Party planning
So it's wedding update time.
What's the latest in the Land of Little Lu when it comes to getting married? Well we've decided to throw a pre-wedding party. This is completely separate from a hen or stag do, and is a good excuse to get people together to have some fun before the wedding. In Chinese weddings, the celebrations go on for days, and I'm trying to incorporate a little bit of my culture into our wedding.
And who needs an excuse for karaoke? Well not me! I love karaoke and all my friends to do, so what better way to celebrate two people getting together?
The only thing is, that people need to be slightly "merry" to overcome their inhibitions and get up and sing. But I've a feeling this won't be a problem.
Other wedding preparation progress includes keeping fit to get in shape for my gorgeous wedding dress. I'm doing the 5K city run in July as a running target and in my lunchtimes, you can find Little Lu running up and down the South bank, looking gormless and tired. I seem to wear a rather blank expression when I run. Must change that.
Well that's enough for now. I'll have more for later. Toodle-pip!
What's the latest in the Land of Little Lu when it comes to getting married? Well we've decided to throw a pre-wedding party. This is completely separate from a hen or stag do, and is a good excuse to get people together to have some fun before the wedding. In Chinese weddings, the celebrations go on for days, and I'm trying to incorporate a little bit of my culture into our wedding.
And who needs an excuse for karaoke? Well not me! I love karaoke and all my friends to do, so what better way to celebrate two people getting together?
The only thing is, that people need to be slightly "merry" to overcome their inhibitions and get up and sing. But I've a feeling this won't be a problem.
Other wedding preparation progress includes keeping fit to get in shape for my gorgeous wedding dress. I'm doing the 5K city run in July as a running target and in my lunchtimes, you can find Little Lu running up and down the South bank, looking gormless and tired. I seem to wear a rather blank expression when I run. Must change that.
Well that's enough for now. I'll have more for later. Toodle-pip!
Saturday 2 May 2009
Old chums
It's the facebook phenomenon.
Out of nowhere, you suddenly have 300 friends. And some of those people you weren't particularly bothered about in the first place. Or worse still, you really didn't like them, for one reason or another. With the upcoming wedding, I am suddenly finding that I have a lot of "friends" who had disappeared into the woodwork a long time ago. Now, they're sprouting up from everywhere.
To be honest, people are bad at keeping in touch. We've all taken longer than we should to reply to a text or return a call. Birthdays and other special events are easily forgotten, and it's so easy to send one less Christmas card each year.
And, in all fairness, some people that I've reconnected with have picked up with me as if it was only yesterday that we were last together. And the wedding is a perfect excuse for me to get back in touch. And I've been in touch with lots of people who are delighted, albeit a bit surprised to have been invited.
There's also those who fall into the category of "wanting an invitation and that's why I'm now in the frame". With that category, to invite or not to invite is a close call. It's about trying to remember why we never stayed in touch, or wondering quite why somebody is being super-pally even though you haven't spoken in five years and they did not send you a Christmas card when you picked the best one from the pack for them.
At the bottom of my heart, I would like to have a wedding of a thousand guests, but at the end of the day, I am inviting those that matter to me, those that I want to see me getting married to the best guy I've ever met. And trust me, those people have to be pretty special to make the cut.
So I've whittled it down to 110 or so, plus or minus a few undecideds and all seems well. I'm really looking forward to the big day - just over three months left to go.
Well that's enough Little Lu sharing for today. I've done pretty well keeping to the twice a week regime at blogger.com. See you a few days...
Out of nowhere, you suddenly have 300 friends. And some of those people you weren't particularly bothered about in the first place. Or worse still, you really didn't like them, for one reason or another. With the upcoming wedding, I am suddenly finding that I have a lot of "friends" who had disappeared into the woodwork a long time ago. Now, they're sprouting up from everywhere.
To be honest, people are bad at keeping in touch. We've all taken longer than we should to reply to a text or return a call. Birthdays and other special events are easily forgotten, and it's so easy to send one less Christmas card each year.
And, in all fairness, some people that I've reconnected with have picked up with me as if it was only yesterday that we were last together. And the wedding is a perfect excuse for me to get back in touch. And I've been in touch with lots of people who are delighted, albeit a bit surprised to have been invited.
There's also those who fall into the category of "wanting an invitation and that's why I'm now in the frame". With that category, to invite or not to invite is a close call. It's about trying to remember why we never stayed in touch, or wondering quite why somebody is being super-pally even though you haven't spoken in five years and they did not send you a Christmas card when you picked the best one from the pack for them.
At the bottom of my heart, I would like to have a wedding of a thousand guests, but at the end of the day, I am inviting those that matter to me, those that I want to see me getting married to the best guy I've ever met. And trust me, those people have to be pretty special to make the cut.
So I've whittled it down to 110 or so, plus or minus a few undecideds and all seems well. I'm really looking forward to the big day - just over three months left to go.
Well that's enough Little Lu sharing for today. I've done pretty well keeping to the twice a week regime at blogger.com. See you a few days...
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