When I last wrote, I told you about the reception room for the wedding, and it is with great pleasure that I can now confirm that we have booked it. We were nicely surprised by the size, the decoration and the price, so we didn’t hesitate. That’s one ticked off the list, and finally some good news in terms of the organisation of our wedding. Because we still don’t have our wedding rings (well, we do have one, which doesn’t really help us, and it’s ugly, not at all like the model presented by the jeweller). But we did find a very cute little ring box. I still haven’t got my dress, despite the desperate efforts of my good friend Mary who sends me new designs every day. So far, I’m leaning towards a light sweater/skirt combo for the ceremony (which was Mary’s suggestion, by the way), and a fun dress for the evening (in this style). Leave your opinion in the comments, if you have one; all ideas are welcome.
In other news, we both took a week off to rest and get a change of scenery. We would normally have gone to Wales, as we used to every summer before COVID, but unfortunately, things didn’t work out the way we wanted and we had to postpone our stay. In the meantime, we had planned not to work, so we took part in our town’s annual local festivities, which just happened to happen last weekend, and then we pottered around in the region, especially in Lille and Charleroi (where I’m from), which are relatively close to our home.
Then the hammer fell, and what we feared would happen finally did: one Wednesday evening an architect came to our door to borrow sellotape to stick a planning notice to a lamp post. The owners of the plot next to ours, which has been left undeveloped and sold off many times over the last few years, have applied for planning permission. They intend to build two houses (which they will then rent out) directly next to ours, with many deviations from the planning code. The work is expected to take a whole year, which, for people who work from home every day, is far from ideal given the level of noise disturbance. In short, this may well have been the kick in the pants we needed to get back to looking for another house elsewhere and sell this one.
Have you read Intimations (2020) by Zadie Smith? I read it recently and really enjoyed it. The whole thing is a reflection on the search for meaning in times of COVID, all in the intelligent and luminous style to which Smith has accustomed us. I highly recommend it.
What about you? How is it going? Tell me all about it!
I’ll get back to my work and leave you with a few photos I took during our (small) wanderings.
See you next week!
