Never Cross a Lady

Vintage at Southbank

2011-07-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

It was a fun Friday lunchtime today when Lady Cross and her pals found themselves wandering around the wonderful stalls at Vintage at Southbank.

There are some amazing finds, fabulous frocks and wonderful people, all of whom are friendly and willing to sell. Here is a quick preview of some of the best.

My favourite jewellery stall was bobbin & bow, with this hummingbird necklace being a choice pick. The jeweller was inspired by her grandmother, who was also a designer. All the pieces are handmade and extremely wearable as well as being beautiful.

In terms of big-hearted personalities, one big hit with the girls was Galina Sherri. She is a stylist extraordinaire and has record-label musicians on her books. Her amazing emporium of goodies included a pair of open-toe Ferragamos (sadly size 4.5), mother-of-pearl antique cuffs and a gorgeous array of clothes to suit any discerning vintage buff.

And when it's time to stop for tea, when who better to call than Mrs Stokes. Lovely tea sets at affordable prices, including great names such as Royal Albert and Webster. But that's not all. Mrs Stokes offers a china hire service, haberdashery, cake-plates and stands and even tea parties.

After all, a nice cup of English breakfast always tastes better in fine china. Why not make it vintage?

Lady Cross seals the deal

2011-07-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

Hi all

I thought I would share with you a quick hint about how to save money when making purchases, by sharing a recent shopping experience with you. I am not sure whether it is because of my non-practising lawyer status, or because of my Chinese heritage, but when purchasing items, I always remember the number one rule of negotiation - never accept a first offer.

Take for example the approach I took to buying a piece of jewellery for a close relative's special birthday. The piece that I picked out was not in the sale, and was priced at over £200. I sent a polite e-mail to customer services asking if they could offer me a discount code as I was buying a present for a 60th birthday. I pointed out that the item I wished to buy was not reduced, was retailing at a couple of hundred, and I would really appreciate any help they could offer me in relation to a special deal. A couple of days later, a very friendly and happy e-mail from a customer services adviser from H Samuel offered me an online code with a 15% discount. I also benefitted from cashback from my favourite cashback site Quidco (have you seen their latest advert on TV?).

I spoke to a friend at work about my success and she said she felt she could not bring herself to ask such a thing of a salesperson. I do have sympathy with that. If you feel uncomfortable about asking, then just don't. And to be honest, if you have that kind of vibe as you nervously ask Mr-Shiny-Shoes-in-a-Suit for a deal (while avoiding eye contact), the chances are that you will probably not strike gold. My friend agreed however that the worst response she could receive was a no. Which is true. And it is their prerogative to say no after all, so be prepared for that.

The key thing is to be polite, firm and non-abusive (non-abusive is important). After all, the staff are there to serve you and they probably make commission from your sale, so if they can help you commit to the sale with an incentive, then it is win-win situation - the best outcome in a negotiation scenario.

I know at times, customer service can be frustrating (you know my history with Santander), but at the end of the day, these people we encounter are not personally responsible for the bad experiences you have had. To be fair, sometimes they add to your irritation by being rude when you complain, which only exacerbates the situation, but generally I like to think that people are not horrible and do not have anything better to do then make your life a misery. Or has my foray from the steely legal sphere into the world of legal publishing left me soft and less cynical?

I'll let you be the judge of that.

Wedding touch

2011-04-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

Hello!

In the spirit of Royal Wedding madness, I am going to introduce you to Wedding Touch, a business venture of our friend Carren, who helped us on our special day. Check out her portfolio at http://www.theweddingtouch.blogspot.com/ which includes some pictures from our wedding.

Place cards, menus, table plans - all tailored to your specific wishes. My sister got our guests to sign their table menu which is a lovely wedding keepsake from the day. The table plan is beautifully framed and has pride of place in the study. I am particularly pleased about the table plan as each table was named after a Shakespeare play (well - our wedding was in Stratford upon Avon!) and Carren found old-fashioned pictures from each play and used them as watermark backgrounds for each table, with the guests names printed on top. The big "Jane-May and Graham" in the centre was handpainted.

Carren's magical touch in attention to detail, and quality and beauty of design was the icing on the cake (!) and providing the perfect finishing touch to our wedding day.

Have fun this Royal Wedding bank holiday weekend guys and gals - enjoy the sunshine! And maybe even enjoy planning your own wedding with Wedding Touch!

Black Friday makes Mrs C see red

2010-11-23T13:29:00.000-08:00

Ok so Mrs Cross has had a little blogging holiday and is now back. That is, a holiday from blogging, as opposed to a holiday spent blogging, or a holiday with bloggers.

I did say in a earlier post that I was not going to rant negatively about things, so I am doing a slight twist on that, which is reporting on some bad customer service so that you can avoid the same mistakes that I made. And in try Polyanna spirit, "be glad" that you were not me this evening.

So in case you haven't heard, Black Friday lightning deals on Amazon are "amazing, not to be missed deals" that are listed for a limited period (usually only an hour) and it's fastest finger first, literally. The offers include massively discounted kitchenware, books, games and even Wiis which are likely to be highly sought after in the pre-Christmas rush.

I found a lightning deal that I liked that involved a collection of three Nigella Lawson cookery books at a cracking price of £15. This included Nigella's latest Kitchen book which Amazon usually retails for £12.99. So all in all, a good deal. If you can get it that is.

So the deal began promptly and I clicked on "Put in basket" with lightning speed and happily found that I was "in the queue" to receive this top deal. Little did I know that I would be "in the queue" over an hour later. When one hour passed, the deal expired and the Nigella books had never made it into my basket.

When I rang Amazon to discuss this, I spoke to a customer services representative who was very rude and unwilling to help me. To be honest, I think she was reading off a pre-typed sheet of answers, because most of her responses to my questions didn't even make sense. After ten minutes of waffle and getting nowhere, I asked to speak to her supervisor and was put on hold. A couple of minutes later, I was promptly cut off.

Now that I am typing this blog, I find the whole situation quite ridiculous and also very funny. Mostly because I was a complete fool to think I could beat the system and get the Nigella books at a bargain price. I thought if there was one person who could possibly do it, it was me. But I was wrong. And others will follow suit.

Still, for about an hour, I was happily grinning at the thought of snaring this deal, so to return to Polyanna for one final flourish, I am glad that although Amazon wasted a whole hour of my time, I was happy, but under false pretences.

So a couple of hours later, I have pizza in my tummy that Mr C ordered me and have been subjected to Stargate Universe. Which I secretly like. Now that's true happiness.

I AM BORING

2010-03-29T14:25:00.001-07:00

Ok, I'll get the nasty bit out of the way. Please vote for me in the Author Blog Awards. I am currently one of the front runners, and if I win, all those that voted for me win prizes too.

So enough of the begging and back to the business of blogging.

I was lucky enough (although this phrase may later seem ironic) to win tickets to a preview showing of lo sono l'amore (I am love) with Tilda Swinton cast as Emma Recchi, a Russian who married into a powerful Milanese family.

This film tries too hard to be something that it is not, and the results are not entirely pleasing. It is awkward instead of quirky, and embarrassing instead of emotional. The two hours I sat uncomfortably in my seat felt long and draining. I wanted to love this film, but wanting to love something is not the same as truly loving it.

Even the music, which in isolation might have been something was spoilt by the discordant matching of notes to scenes. And I speak as a Royal College of Music Junior Department veteran, as opposed to a "critic" that happens to tune into Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on the occasional Sunday morning on Classic FM.

I generally try to be positive about the things that I review because it isn't nice to say mean things. But I have a duty to be honest as well. So I will settle for an attempt at diplomacy. The most beautiful thing I can say about l'amore is that I had a nice long sit-down next to my husband who held my hand for a couple of hours after a busy day at work while I forced this horrendous experience on him. And the only punishment I got was his comment that I could use his line "I am boring" for the title of this blog entry.

If I were a film judge, this film would get 10/10 for effort but only 1/10 for attainment.

Just in a final attempt to be positive, I am very grateful to the esteemed publication that is the Guardian for letting me win free tickets, so I didn't have to pay. Thanking you kindly.

Does Kick-Ass kick ass or does it need its ass kicked...?

2010-03-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

The lovely people at seefilmfirst sent me to watch Kick-Ass on the condition that I did my homework which is this write-up.

Actually the headline isn't so controversial and it's completely borrowed from the film.

Kick-Ass is a funny, laugh-out-loud feel-good movie which obviously has you laughing out loud (it does what is says on the tin), but there are also moments where you can feel yourself welling up. Or maybe that's just me, the sentimentalist. And I did feel a bit guilty laughing at the guy being heated up in an industrial microwave, and that's not even the funniest killing of a bad guy. Though that's enough of the plot spoilers.

I would say that this film made me want to join some kind of gun club at the weekend. It makes you want to be as cool as Hit Girl, though not obviously as sad as Kick-Ass himself, but every geek as his redeeming features and Kick-Ass gets his girl in the end as we all know he will.

This is a film that you could happily watch at the cinema, buy on DVD on pre-release and then watch with your friends when you have a popcorn movie night. It's fun and it knows how to laugh at itself too.

Catch it when it comes to a screen near you...

Please vote for me

2010-03-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

Please vote for me as a fantastic author who is blog-tabulous!

We can win prizes together. Isn't that cute?

Xxx

Afternoon tea with Yevgeny

2010-03-22T00:46:00.000-07:00

During a lovely weekend stay back in Stratford-upon-Avon at Lu headquarters, Uncle Bob and Auntie Margaret invited us to be their guests at a piano recital of the young and rather promising Russian pianist, Yevgeny Sudbin. Already hailed as one of the most talented musicians of the 21st century, my expectations were high. And I was not disapppointed.

Everyone loves Chopin. And particular Sudbin's interpretations of the mazurkas and ballades. His technique is rather impeccable and his manner is vibrant and energetic, though under a degree of considerable control. It was unfortunate that it appeared as though the piano did not meet with Sudbin's standards, remarking politely later at tea that the piano "had once been very good". Note to the Civic Hall that perhaps they might consider an upgrade...

I am a bit of a groupie, so while I was waiting for him to unwrap my CD before signing it, we had a little chat about this and that. He doesn't like Alitalia, flew with BA recently from Holland but was unaffected by the strikes, enjoys yoga and would like to find more time for the gym, but can't and generally seems like a very amiable chap. When I asked him to write "practice makes perfect" in my CD, he said in a bemused fashion "Well it doesn't always".

Sudbin appeared a little tired while we bantered. In the middle of a world tour, off to the states next, this 30-year-old wonder seemed weary, though not wary. He indulged me in my funny questions and attempts at banter, and actually I think he did rather well.

You can catch Sudbin at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 25 March playing the same programme as heard in Stratford upon Avon, or at the Royal Festival Hall on 15 April when he performs Shostakovich's second piano concerto with the Philarmonia Orchestra.

Tune in next time for more cultural chit-chat. Until the next time...

Lady Cross becomes a critic

2010-03-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

I know there's no excuse to leaving my audience of 31 viewers (probably most of them were me) hanging in mid-air just before I got married, so here I am, back on the blog.

I've decided, in my wisdom as a married woman, to have a much more positive blog. Maybe it's the Yoga Hatha I've been doing at the gym, or maybe it's just that I've had a revelation, but all the negative angst about silly customer service must be raising my blood pressure, and that can't be a good thing.

So my new venture for my blog is not to moan, but to critique! I'm not quite sure which is worse, but I will give this a go and see what happens.

I've seen quite a few things for free through this brilliant website called seefilmfirst. You get sent codes to see films and show for free and they have a great range of locations to choose from around the UK.

On Wednesday, we saw Waiting for Godot with Sir Ian McKellan and Matthew Kelly. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much because I didn't want to have high expectations and be disappointed. And believe me, I was not. McKellan is not overbearing, and Kelly is overbearing and a larger than life character - but he's merely playing his role. I've heard bad things about Godot, but I very much enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who can get tickets before its run ends on 4 April. It's on at the Haymarket and after the performances finish in London, it's going on a world tour. Try to catch it before it goes.

That's me for now. Thanks for tuning in, and let me know what you think of my new PMA. I feel relaxed and enlightened already and hope you do too. Here's hoping you can also benefit from free theatre and cinema tickets soon.

So now I'm Cross

2009-09-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

It's goodbye Little Lu and a big hello from Lady Cross. So after two and half years of planning and preparation, Little Lu got married to Mr Cross on Saturday 8 August at St Gregory's Church in sunny Stratford upon Avon (yes - we were lucky with the weather, and Alveston Manor hosted a fantastic reception. The guests were charming, the wedding breakfast was delicious, the music was beautiful, the flowers were gorgeous, the cake of cheese and mice bride and groom were delightful, and I am a very lucky lady. Huge thanks to the two families for all their hard work and special mentions should go to the two mothers, my bestest friend and my sister (Big Lu) and brother Lu's girlfriend, Carren.

We went to Santorini for the honeymoon where we gained and maintained lovely tans, ate far too well, went swimming an awful lot, and somehow managed to watch a great deal of English Premiership football. Ah, how nothing changes. You can take the boy out of England, but...

So here is the part where Lu gets Cross. There was me, little Mrs Cross thinking that all the stress and strain of planning a wedding was over and I would arrive home to our lovely new house, to enjoy unwrapping all the John Lewis (JL) gift list presents. How wrong I was. And just how very wrong I was, I could not ever have possibly imagined.

To put it very bluntly, I would honestly say that this was the worst experience I have ever had as a consumer, albeit surprisingly, given their standing as a pillar of British society.

Big Lu had kindly bought us the fridge as our wedding gift and we were looking forward to receiving it, having been fridgeless since we moved into our new abode. The first fridge was dented and the delivery men immediately offered us 25% off. The alarm bells started ringing. We wondered if this was ex-display model or possibly a customer return. Big Lu requested we order collection of el dento and JL could deliver another.

Second time round, even the delivery men commented that the replacement was far worse than the original! They took away both fridges, so again, Mr and Mrs Cross were left sans frigo.

On the third attempt (you might wonder if their advertising slogan should be "third time lucky"), JL managed to cancel the courier who should have delivered our "goodwill gesture" upgraded fridge. The worst of it was that the communication between departments was so poor that they did not know we were still waiting for our fridge, because our order had got mixed up with someone else's. Had I not decided to "phone up and nag", doubtless to say, we would still be fridgeless as I write/moan/sigh.

I was consoled by JL ustomer services that I had been one of the unlucky ones. What a consolation! I would hate to think this is how their best customers are treated. Two goodwill attempts to apologise for the first mistake went wrong - and horribly wrong. I just fail to understand how things can go so wrong, so many times, over what appears to be a simple collection and delivery. And it's a fridge. It's not space science.

But it's just not that simple. It never is. I'm not going to put this down as some cheesy character building exercise, developing my strengths, and all that malarkey, and turning the other cheek. It's an absolute scandal! And Lu-turned-Cross is not going to let this one slide, by any stretch of the imagination.

No, what I will do is go into lawyer-negotiation mode over the compensation. And I've already pre-agreed with JL that I will receive cold hard cash for the anxiety and stress the gift list has inflicted on me. I haven't properly explained every single little detail of how having JL as our gift list provider was probably the worst decision of our lives, but suffice to say that the once sparkling reputation of this store has been flung into the deepest cesspit of that firey underworld in the depths of hell.

Well, I think that will do nicely for now. Next time, Lady Cross will rant about something else, as a "getting this off my chest" exercise. Or possibly reveal more intricate details about the JL saga. It's good for me, and it's good for you too. Mutually beneficial. Plus I'm sure you are dying to know how I manage in taking on JL in the big compensation fight. Let's just say, there will be no prisoners. In the meantime, take care and see you soon.

Final preparations

2009-08-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

So, after a long break from blogging, I'm back, just four days before the wedding.

What's been happening in Little Lu world? Well, one big thing is that we have bought a house and moved into it. Our new home is littered with unpacked boxes which contain all our belongings that need to find places to live in. Getting some more furniture might help to put things away! Ah well, messy and bare as it is, it's our home and we hope to be very happy there.

I have to give full credit to our solicitors, Breeze and Wyles who turned around the transaction in just over six weeks, which is some kind of miracle. Special praise should also go to the Hornchurch branch of Beresfords for ironing out a few difficulties. And although I had some customer service issues, HSBC were also committed to completing the transaction just a week before the wedding. And they did resolve all my customer service issues to my satisfaction, although I did have to fight my corner a bit. So now, not only are we homeowners, but also mortgage payers... Ooooh-er...

Back at the House of Lu, family members have been flying in from Hong Kong and Los Angeles to attend the wedding celebrations, to much excitement. My maternal grandparents, one aunt and one little cute cousin and one older cousin are all in situ. I think the older cousin is currently going round Mary Arden's house (Shakespeare's mother). We are awaiting another cousin, the cousin's husband and the cousin's husband's cousin. So LOTS of family. I am very touched and honoured that they are making these special efforts to attend.

I'm just enjoying the build up now to the big day. Everyone says your wedding day will go past in a flash, so I'm trying desperately hard not to wish away the days leading up to it. Besides, it's been fun packing up our things and moving into the house, and doing a very extensive and thorough clean from top to bottom of our new abode.

Mr Cross and I have been engaged nearly two and half years. It's funny how time flies. We've both found jobs that we enjoy and made a great bunch of friends, and grown up together. I'm very immature, but I can be sensible when I need to be, and Mr Cross just seems to enjoy looking after me.

Be warned that once the festivities are over, blog readers will be subjected to many many photos. There will be so many, that you will wish you had never stumbled across my little ramblings.

I promise to try harder with my posts once I'm a married woman. After all, I won't be wedding planning or house buying anymore, so what else will I do with my time?

2009-05-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

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.

Little Lu countdown

2009-05-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

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.

Party planning

2009-05-12T03:55:00.000-07:00

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!

Old chums

2009-05-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

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...

Credit card catastrophe

2009-04-26T04:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here it is, my first rant.

I would just like to point out, as a little caveat, that I am not one of those people that has nothing better to do with my time than be a serial complainer. It's the end of the financial year at work, and my boss and I are working terribly hard, I have a wonderful fiancé that I love to spend time with, I'm getting fit for myself and the wedding and I like to have a healthy social life too. So "nothing better to do with my time" just doesn't fit my bill. But there are just some things that people and large corporations should not be allowed to get away with.

Also, this is not just a moan about capitalism in general, nor a protest against fat cat chairmen with large bonuses.

Enough said.

Well, I have a couple of credit cards. One I am very pleased with, with is a Lu crew credit card with American Express. I've never had a problem with them, and you can save up British Airways airmiles for them and get tickets Oracle and Daddy Lu's holidays, which they enjoy and love.

Here it comes... And then there's Tesco. Every little thing about their online credit card statement does not help. It is impossibly difficult to understand. And I'm ok at maths, honestly, plus I managed to survive the law school accounts exams unscathed. But when you look at your online statement, you just don't want to. And it's not just the numbers. Balance means unbalanced, spending plus adjustments is not adjusted, and if you ever set up a direct debit... Well just don't.

Their call centre puts you through about eight different sets of options. I was really pleased with myself having keyed in my credit card number, date of birth and pin, and got through another couple of levels, and then, most unfortunately, I pressed the wrong option and was greeted with "This office is now closed. Please try again later." CLOSED??? At 12.34pm. How dare they?

Their saving grace was a lovely guy who gently explained my problem and patiently talked me through. He even took my suggestion of "making the online statement system more user-friendly" with good grace. Unfortunately, I didn't get his name, but I'm sure I made his day with my helpful comments.

Hmmm, I feel much better now. I think the grumble is definitely better out than in. All that negative energy building up inside of me. In fact, you know what? Tesco credit card have saved me from dishing out for a therapist. Maybe I'll write them a thank you letter. Or then again... maybe I won't.

Kid me or kid me not?

2009-04-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

So it's wedding update time.

In a nutshell, and not to get to slushy or anything, I'm marrying the most wonderful man I've ever met (cue the sickbags). I promise not to go any further. We got engaged over two years ago and I've been wedding planning ever since. Venues in the town I'm getting married in get snapped up very quickly, particularly for Saturdays in the summer. So we have a lovely venue, beautiful church, fantastic photographer, wonderful cake people, amazing wedding singer...

The RSVPs have been trickling in. We had 113 on the guest list and so far six definite no's. Because the venue is so popular, we need to hit minimum numbers of 100. Just to make doubly sure, we needed to firm up on the "maybe's". And so the time old question rises again: kid me or kid me not? In other words, do we allow little ones to attend or not? A few people have said if they could bring their kids, they would be there like a shot.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. In fact every wedding I've been to have had children of all ages (including drunken has-beens...) and they've all been lovely. I think if someone could guarantee me a sunny day... Ah well, I'll say my prayers and hope someone up there is smiling on me on our wedding day.

It's just that I also have visions of some little horror running around crashing into everyone, screaming his head off, with grubby baked bean fingers. Quite why I have this image I'm not sure, and maybe this is more of a reflection of the person I am, I don't know.

What I need is a sign, that's it, a sign. Or maybe some helpful person reading this post will helpfully post some words of wisdom in response. That would be really useful. So, to the unknown blogger that has yet to post, I await your wise words...

Well I can't make a decision without my fiancé, so I guess you'll need to find out next time what we decide.

Launching a little line from a Little Lu

2009-04-18T06:13:00.001-07:00

So here it is, the blog of Little Lu.

It's the start of the weekend, which by 12.30pm, has already clocked up four hours of working from home with the help of a handy little Citrix token. I can now access all my files as if I was in the office, without having to leave the house. Wonderful.

So what's going on in my world, the world of Little Lu? Well I'm getting married in less than four months. Well three months and twenty days to be precise. It's not quite Bridezilla stage yet, but soon, I'm sure. I'm enjoying the wedding planning, probably because I have the luxury of time. We got engaged two years ago and arranged most of the big things like the church and reception venue fairly early on. But more of that later.

Work wise, I'm an editor in legal publishing. I qualified as a lawyer back in September last year and decided publishing was where I wanted to be, and here I am. There's a great working atmosphere in the office and the work is good. Couldn't ask for more. Except maybe a clothing allowance. Speaking of which...

I like shopping. Well actually, I love shopping. That's better. A great website called MoneySavingExpert (MSE) created by a guy called Martin Lewis taught me how to look for discount codes when shopping and also, how to get cashback on your online purchases.

A couple of months back when I was looking for a reasonably priced pair of authentic Uggs, I came across a site called Shudoo, through MSE. They e-mailed me earlier this week with a special promotion of 20% off if you sign up to their newsletter (http://www.shudoo.co.uk/forms.php?form_id=30). I'm quite tempted by another pair of French Sole ballet pumps.

That's enough for a first post. Mummy Lu, or the Oracle (as she's known in the Lu Crew), always said something about keeping something back for later. So that's what I'm doing now. Taking the Oracle's advice and keeping something back for later. Well lots more in fact. See you next time for more Little Lu ramblings.