I've been slogging it out all weekend on my dissertation.  Doing pretty well, but need a bit of a break from sexy vampires.  Just my final chapter and conclusion to go, before some fine-tooth combing and ensuring all referencing is tickety-boo.  When it's finished, in the words of Micky Flanagan, I'm gonna do fuck-all.  Proper fuck-all.  Old-school fuck-all.  Lying there and staring at the sky.  I've got a mammoth pile of DVDs to get through, and I've just ordered a couple more, too.  I've also got to make the menu cards for the wedding, along with the table plan.  I plan to not return to education for some time, if at all.

Part of this is due to the fact that I no longer feel I need to, as I've recently, after the trials and tribulations of August, landed a new job with a salary that's most certainly not to be sniffed at, and it's going well so far.  Luckily, they were kind enough to give me nearly four weeks off for the wedding and honeymoon.  Must've done something right then!  I've been there two weeks already, and it's flown by.  I'm not even bothered by the commute at the moment, which is to London Bridge or Elephant & Castle depending on if/where I'm teaching that day.  I do plan to start walking from Waterloo as I no longer have the time (and to be honest, the inclination) to go to the gym.  Speaking of which, weight loss is almost at 2 1/2 stone, and I'm doubtful much more will come off before the big day.  Still, it's an achievement, as Victor keeps reminding me, so as long as I maintain it, I'm happy. 

In other wedding-y news, we had our engagement shoot in Birmingham on August Bank Holiday Sunday.  The day before, we went to Telford, to the Irongorge museums.  First stop was Blists Hill Victorian Town, which was quaint and picturesque, but then the skies opened on our way to the other attractions, so we headed into Birmingham, to the hotel.  Birmingham itself, I didn't enjoy.  I was hoping it might have some of the northern charm that Manchester has, but no.  So, we popped back to the hotel, had a nap, then went for a curry - it would've been shameful not to! The curry was delicious.  On the Sunday, we went to Rugby, where Victor spent most of his childhood before moving to Weymouth when he was 12.  I think he enjoyed his trip down memory lane!  We popped into the town, only to find everything was shut.  Oh, London, how I love thee.  So then we popped to Coventry which was even more of a scumhole.  Having seen a lot more of the UK recently, I love London more than I thought I already did. The Midlands is a veritable shithole!  However, back into Brum we went for our engagement shoot, with the lovely Steve Gerrard.  We talked about our wedding photos and other niggly bits, before heading out onto the streets of Birmingham.  Both Victor and I really enjoyed it, we didn't feel like we were posing, and Steve was great.  Looking forward to seeing the pictures, which should be any day now.  It will be really interesting to see what shots he gets of our actual day, which is now less than three weeks away.  EXCITING! 

A couple of weeks ago I also caught up with my favourite ex-work chums (minus Sarah) for a stitch'n'bitch session.  The plan was that Leanne would teach us how to crochet/knit, but there was too much wine involved so it was definitely much more of a bitch session.  I made some peanut butter bars to take along: