"I knew we shouldn't have hired those cowboys!"

Passage from India!

"I'm sure that meeting was at 9 o'clock?!"


Phew, I'm home! After 12 months of travelling round the world posing as a corporate work whore I'm finally back in London after doing a bit of a moonlight flit! After tense negotiations I walked out of work sending shockwaves around work and with all of the bosses.

After a work schedule that has consistently been decided at the last minute, involved extended trips (to Athens, Sofia, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Aarhus and Madras to name but a few of the glamorous destinations I have visited), a particularly nasty two month stretch away from home with no weekends and no time to see my fiancee, friends or family, and longhaul economy flights, I have finally said enough is enough.

It all started on Friday when I told them that I would not take their less-than-24 hour notice request for me to work in India next week, missing yet another weekend at home, only to fly in to London the following weekend, leave immediately for Greece and thereby miss my own engagement celebrations! I informed my boss that I would be returning to London on the next flight and would not be completing any more work. He then tried to negotiate but soon realised that I would be on that flight whatever happened.

Clearly, it has sent everyone into a complete spin, including the Indian client who still think I'll be there on Monday and I have been getting phonecalls by people who think I've resigned, but I am home now and looking forward to some more time in London...well, given what I've just done I suspect some impending gardening leave and probably an indefinite stint in London...

Does anyone out there have any ideas for a Chinese/English wedding?

We both live in London and are currently looking for wedding venues which will allow us to have a traditional Chinese banquet. So far it seems that we could only do this if we hold the reception in a restaurant in either Chinatown or Queensway, but we would like to hold the wedding at a stately home or country hotel either in London or up to an hour drive outside. All of the venues that we have approached so far have said that we would need to use their list of approved caterers but we are keen to find somewhere where we can get genuine authentic Chinese food! For all those who love Chinese food, I am sure you know what I mean!

So, I've got 2 golden questions for anyone out there:

1. Does anyone know of any London (or just outside) venues where we can hold a Chinese banquet reception?
2. Does anyone know of any Chinese caterers that cater specifically for Chinese events and functions?

Go on, take the challenge and stop me from running round and round in circles! :-) Thanks!

New Addition to the Family

Our other bit of news is the new addition to the family... a kitten! He is a blue British Shorthair and his name is Rafferty Poshsocks. Here he is playing with his new activity centre.

At the moment he seems determined to tear the place up and has a witching hour at about 10pm when he runs around the house at 90 miles an hour, does somersaults and rags everything in sight! He can't bear it when he's not the centre of attention and follows us both everywhere, including the shower! Cats normally hate getting wet, so he's an odd one...he also seems to love carrots. He also hates it when I am on my computer as it means he doesn't have my undivided attention. The photo on the left is him getting his revenge and making sure I cannot get any work done. Clever cat.

Here is a picture of Nugi on the balcony where he proposed.

Yey! We're engaged!

Welcome to our new blog!

Our first big bit of news that we want to share is that we have just got engaged! Nugi asked me to marry him while we were in Costa Rica, and very romantic it was too! He took me to a beautiful spa overlooking a coffee plantation in the central valley of Costa Rica (www.xandari.com). We had our own villa, with a view of the valley and Volcan Poas, an active volcano, in the background. We spent the day using the spa facilities: having a mud wrap (!), enjoying the jacuzzi and the pool and just generally pampering ourselves.

In the evening Nugi told me to dress up so I kind of had a little inkling that he may be up to something, but dinner passed and still nothing had happened (though he had shuffled nervously around in his seat quite a lot!). We then went for a midnight swim, and still nothing. Finally, we were sitting quietly on the balcony sipping red wine by candlelight, looking over into the valley which was lit up as if by silver lanterns; the night was perfect as it was beautifully warm with a mild mountain breeze, the insects were singing and everything was peaceful. Nugi was still a little quieter than normal and seemed obsessed by kicking away the insects which kept divebombing on the floor in front of me, and I had by this time convinced myself that nothing was going to happen and put on some tracksuit bottoms instead of my dress. Then Nugi got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I later realised that he had been kicking the insects away as he was about to get down on both knees and had no desire to squish a cockroach in the process. Anyway, despite the tracksuit and the insects, he asked me anyway and so now it is full steam ahead with the wedding planning and we are both soooo excited!

Above is a picture of us the day after he asked me to marry him. I had been trying to pull of a tongue in cheek Posh n Becks style picture to show off the ring, but as we could both not stop laughing, we ended up with this one with the valley in the background.