Busy Times

Well it's been a busy month, what with starting the business and sorting out the wedding.

Mum came to visit immediately after I finished work. She lives down in Somerset and it was really nice to see her. We spent a few days catching up and I took her down to see the wedding venue in all it's glory. As we have been keeping this a secret from most of the guests and the invitations haven't gone out yet, I won't mention where.

A couple of days afterwards Nick went to Eagle Heights for his Christmas present - Xmas 2007 that was! He loves birds of prey and I got him an afternoon flying one of the birds. He was supposed to do it in the spring, but as you know, events kind of overtook us.

He went out with the falconer (and his mad Pointer) and 3 other guys, plus myself and another lady as observers. If you know anything about birds of prey, you will know this is somewhat unusual, as they are all solitary hunters - except the Harris Hawks he got to fly, which hunt in large groups in a Matriachal heirachy (up the girls!). Each guy was given his own Hawk, 1 older male, 1 nearly mature female and 2 juvenile boys. It was really funny to see the looks of nervousness on all of their faces, with this huge looking bird on their fists!

We walked for a while and then let the birds free in a local field. They fly there regularly and know that there are extra tasty things in the hedgerows at the edge. The Hawks hunt the hedge in a sweep, leapfrogging down the trees. The young female was very observant of the older male, knowing that he has something to teach her. In time she will take the lead in the hunt. The 2 boys were a little more confused and kept landing in the field and waddling about like scary chickens.

Finally they did some flying to the hand (for meaty rewards, obviously). Each guy took his turn, his calling one bird, and then 2 at a time. I can't imagine having 2 birds flying at you at once. Did get a brilliant shot of one taking off though.

We went on holiday the week after, but I'll gloss over that as we had horrendous thunderstorms and torrential rain for 5 out of the 7 days!

Other than that it's been flat out making stuff and gathering the information to send out with the invitations. Who'd have thought that this wedding malarkey would be so time consuming!! Been going to Greenwich market fairly regularly, and I'm starting to get to know some of the regulars there, which is nice.

After making lots of promises, I'm going to *try* to do at least a weekly update, so at lest you'll have something fresh to read.................

And now the end is near.......

Well actually it's over!!! I'm officially a completely self employed Jeweller (sort of by default).

Last Thursday was my final day of work and I think for everyone it was kind of exciting and sad in equal measures. I had only worked on that site for three years but the guys I worked with were the best group of people ever. For other people it was the last day of 12 years on that site and many more at other locations. The company used to be a job for life. People grew up, married, had kids and retired all with one company, but after the announcements that came out in the last couple of weeks of our time there, I think most people were glad to be getting their redundancy when they were. Everyone was excited about life outside.

And not to rest on my laurels, the very next day I took a stall at the "world renouned" Greenwich Market. Greenwich is quite bohemian in some repects and the covered in market sits in the centre of town, between the Martime Museum and the Cutty Sark (and there's another story!!!), surrounded by trendy boutiques and bars.

This would be the second time I had done the market, but the first stall I had done entirely on my own (OH normally comes for moral support/heavy lifting purposes). When selling "luxury" items such as jewellery, you are very aware that people have less disposable cash right now, and my first time at the market had been pretty dismall. This time however, I did much better and recieved lots of nice comments, which really boosted my confidence. It made me feel like I was doing the right thing. So now it's full steam ahead - I'm doing the Pantiles Sunday Craft Market in Tunbridge Wells on the 5th October and intend to do Greenwich Market as many Fridays as possible. If you're around, come and have a chat!!