Well well well... Look what the cat dragged in.

I cannot believe so many things have happened since my last blog, which was a shocking 6 months ago. How could I have left things so long, I ask myself...

Well, firstly, I discovered I was pregnant (yes, it was thankfully planned!) back in May 2008. Not wanting to jinx anything, Noggin and I decided to keep quiet about this for as long as we could, at least with the exception of our very nearest and dearest.

This was easy enough, until the morning sickness started kicking in. I was commuting two hours every day with black bin liners in the passenger seat of my ford focus, up and down the M3 every day, and then trying to keep sudden trips to the toilet and looking like death warmed up as much as a secret as I could at work, not wanting to share the news until we knew we were reasonably out of the danger zone of those first few months of pregnancy. It was pretty hilarious, thinking back, I couldn't even brush my teeth without being sick, god knows how I managed to attend meetings looking and feeling the way I did without people thinking I must have a disease or be on drugs...

Anyway, the news could eventually be released, and so the following months, with the loss of energy, busy job, long commute, and general lack of time, meant that the dear blog slipped out of view for rather a long time.

Noggin and I had always said we were happy to wait to get married. He'd wanted to wait no longer than two years after our engagement back in the summer of 2005 , but we were so contented just the way we were, that there seemed no real pressure to organise a wedding.

The one thing he really wanted was to start a family, which we finally agreed at the end of last year would be something we would try for. I had always thought I'd be at least 30 before considering kids (I'm 28 now folks) but he had some pretty compelling arguments, and well, the idea had been more and more appealing to me during the last couple of years, maybe because of the relationship and how we are together. Anyway, enough of trying to make you feel nauseous, the point is that with every month that passed in the pregnancy, I was feeling more and more uncomfortable with the idea that we would be waiting to marry a year or two after the baby.

Now don't get the wrong idea, I am in no way religious, or have ever really had a strong desire to conform to social pressures, so it surprised me more than anyone else that I was having a gradual build up of some kind of marital conscience... maybe it was some kind of emotional 'nesting' or whatever that crap is they reckon us preggers ladies go through when we're busy making a baby - whatever the reason, I wanted to be married to my fella, and to do it before the little squirt arrived into the world. So, we made the decision on the 9th Sept 2008 that I should go ahead an organise a wedding. In six weeks.

Preeeeeeeettttty mental. Yep, especially while rather pregnant and with a busy full time job 40 miles away from where I live. We had families based in both the UK and Norway to think about, what with Noggin being a viking and everything (or so I like to secretly think, I'm sure he has a horned helmet and a reindeer skin stashed away somewhere) and no idea whether we wanted to have the wedding in the UK, or abroad.

We decided on the Chelsea Registry Office, and booked the ceremony for Friday 24th October 2008. I started searching venues for the reception in London, looking at everything from pubs, restaurants, bars, art galleries, the odd museum, gardens, iconic buildings, rental homes, everything.... and then I found the London Bridge Hotel - what a relief. A massive thank you to Susan Clark for helping ensure that everything was as effortless as possible during the planning process.

We booked our friends and family into a mixture of cheaper local hotels and the London Bridge Hotel itself, to ensure different budgets were catered for. I found a local florist familar with the hotel, and explained I wanted a simple white rose bouquet and button holes. My maternity dress was a real lucky find (and risky!!) as I purchased it on a whim on the internet about 3 weeks before the wedding... that had to be the only really nerve wracking part of the planning process, as for a while I thought I'd be walking down the aisle in anything white and large enough to handle my huge bump and increased boobage (by this stage they had their own gravitational force, and were seriously competiting with the bump) - I was having nightmares of me being like a pregnant Waynetta Slob, in a white velour tracksuit and pumps, complete with swollen ankles and knackered expression on my face... bouncing up the aisle to a slightly petrified Noggin the Nog.

Thankfully, the dress turned up on time, and for a steal at £163 was a real life saver. Aside for some rather last minute alterations (can you believe it was actually a little too large) made kindly by a local dress maker I know, it was perfect. A grecian style ivory gown especially designed for someone with a big, big bump.

My sister and bestfriends, hearing that our budget was too tight for bridesmaids, were amazing - insisting that they would be bridesmaids and that they would find some suitable dresses to wear themselves.

Without going into too many more details, the day was absolutely brilliant. Even now, if we had twice the budget, I don't think I would repeat it any differently. We had an amazing ceremony in Chelsea (our super intendant was a chap named Bill, seriously Bill, you should be on the stage) were we got to choose things like music, readings if wanted, and the wording for vows. We were sent off with a large bottle of champagne and our wedding license, and took a wedding car back to the London Bridge Hotel. The room was decorated on a budget, but it is amazing just what a scene you can create with 40 or so mixed church candles and a bunch of tealights from Ikea, it was so simple, but so effective. Then, armed with an Ipod, some very personal playlists, and the best food I'd had all year, we throw a big bash at the Londinium Restaurant, which is hidden away under the London Bridge Hotel.

The bridesmaids were AMAZING, sneeking off after the speeches to decorate our hotel suite with roses and masses of petals, arranging candles, the remains of our wedding cake, champagne (great for Noggin, all the more for him) wedding gifts and chocolates. We were seriously impressed with the sheer amount of effort my sister and bestfriends went to in making sure it was as memorable a day, and night, as possible.

I'll get some photos up here asap.

The other reason I've been so pre-occupied, is that shortly after the wedding, Noggin and I decided that we wanted to make the most of the opportunities my impending maternity leave presented to us both. He had been thinking of working on his own terms for some years, and so took the momentus decision to leave the company he had been with for 10 years, and set up new opportunities for himself in both the UK and Norway. With neither of us due to be tied to the South Coast from December onwards, we made the decision to travel across to Norway, to join his family and spend some well earned time surrounded by some of the most beautiful nature of the south west coast of Norway, on an island called Bømlo. We were renting a house in Southampton which although quirky and interesting, with direct water access, was no place suitable to raise a newborn in the depths of winter.

It had only just had central heating installed and was still suffering badly from damp, among other things. It was also pretty poorly renovated with poorly covered problems such as rotten floors, leaking pipes and broken stairs. Sounds awful, and in all truth it was actually 'patched over' so to the untrained eye appeared a little old and disjointed, but essentially ok. However, to both of us, having been living there and having to deal with the problems on an almost month by month basis, we knew the mess that was hiding under the cheap laminate flooring, behind the bathroom and kitchen units, and upstairs under the 'interesting' blue carpets...

With barely a week to spare before airlines would be forced to refuse me a ticket, we decided that we would go and spend some quality time together with Noggin's family over in Norway, sharing his large open plan childhood home with his mum, W. We can stay here for up to a year, and potentially longer if we decide during the course of that permitted year that this is what we both want long term.

So, I am writing this now from a large timber framed house, staring out at the moonlight reflecting on the sea, with dark and distant mountains across the other side of the fjord. A fire is burning in the wood burner, and in the kitchen across from me the radio is tuned in to a local radio station, allowing me to smile at the sing song dialect of the Norwegian language - it's actually amazing how many simularities there are between Norwegian and German, and also English. Although I can barely string a sentence together, it is surprising how many things I am able to understand, though not always completely free from hilarious misunderstandings, of course.

It all sounds - and is - rather romantic, I'm really grateful that we are able to do something like this in our lives without being pinned down to particular locations in the UK due to work. So we've grabbed the chance with both hands, and taken the somewhat (to me anyway) risky decision to have the baby over here. My friends and family are all up for cheap holidays to see us through the course of the year, and it's great to see Noggin back in his element for the first time in what is about 12 or 13 years. We're also spending more time together than we've ever been able to in the UK, what with my maternity leave and his new working arrangements. It is also an island with no traffic lights (not one) and the brown goats cheese with jam takes some getting used to...

Anyway, must sign off now as this is turning into a monster of a post, even if it has been 6 months.

Photos and updates from Norway will be added, together with a pick up on movie news and stories... I'll have to see how just how different life is with the little squirt, who is due on 30th January (and estimated to be between 8 and 9lbs if she manages to go full term... YIKES) before I promise daily posts, but I will certainly be improving on the time between the last post and this one.

Cheers,

Lulu M