Lord of the Rings

So, on Tuesday afternoon we went to see a jeweller in Bond Street.

Yes, Bond Street. And no, I'm not made of bleedin' money.

Anyway, one of Simmi's colleagues had recommended this bloke as someone who can get quality jewellery made and not break the bank in doing so. So she arranged an appointment and we both left work early to go see him.

His office is in a small cubby-hole at the rear of the basement level of the Bond Street Arcade and is strictly a one man operation. He's a very nice chap, and put us at our ease straight away. He had a funny cross of being quite the upper class absent-minded professor, mixed with a hearty dollop of professionalism - certainly more than enough of the latter to have confidence in him. Although, it would seem that he's a had a little brush with the law a few years ago.

He quickly decided that Simmi's wedding ring wouldn't be a problem, and spent more time discussing the intricacies of replacing my ring. The Celtic knotwork in white gold with the two thin rings of yellow gold flanking it (like a gold version of a Kimberley biscuit!) is a bit intricate, but he thought that it could be done. In fact, he thought it could probably done better than the example shown in the picture we'd given him of my ring that we got from the original jewellers' website. Which is good.

Apparently, the ringsmith (no Tolkienistas, not Celebrimbor or Sauron!) he'll be using to make them is the same one that made Prince Charles and Camilla's wedding rings for their recent shindig. Oh, what a rarefied world we are hob-nobbing about in!

Anyway, as you might expect, the cost of the rings is going to be a fair bit more than those made in Ireland, but not ruinously so. We were expecting to have to pay more to get them re-made in London, so that's not so bad. Also, we've avoided the shop-based horror of traipsing around all the jewellery houses of Hatton Garden, something that I know I wouldn't enjoy.

So currently Simmi's engagement ring is in the care of the Bond Street jeweller, so don't get any funny ideas lads!

9.25pm Update: The banker's draft from Ireland that Martins' sent to refund us arrived in the post today. So there's an end to that chapter of the "Rings Saga". Let's hope the next chapter is more successful, eh?

"I know you're not Indian, darling"

Yesterday we headed over to Southall to get Ant measured up - the last of the bridesmaids to be done. We also decided to have a look and see if we could get any collarless Indian shirts for the blokes to wear with their Nehru jackets. This was all very exciting for me, having never been to 'New New Delhi' before.

After having to turn back half-way down the A20 to pick up the material for Ant's dress that we'd managed to leave at home, we hit heavy traffic on the M25 and thus were fairly late for the rendezvous with Ant at a multi-storey car park just of the Broadway. Luckily, she'd got lost herself, so hadn't been waiting that long. Unluckily, there were no spaces at the car park, and things were getting rather heated in the car. Finally, we found a place to park near the station that not only didn't have yellow lines, also wasn't for permit holders only.

So, we trooped off up to the dressmakers and Ant got measured up. Interesting place, can't say I've been to too many Indian women's clothes shops before (make that a big fat none - no, not a big fat nun! Oh never mind...). Having done that, Ant headed off, and we took a break from the bright sun and heat of Southall in a pub that smelt of wee but had cold Magners on sale.

The search for appropriate shirts took us to a few men's clothing shops where we drew a few blank looks when we told them what we wanted. Most wanted to sell us the knee-length smock variety, which are fine but wouldn't go with the short jackets we'll be wearing.

Anyway, we got lucky when we wandered in a small clothes shop at the back of one of the many little bazaars off the Broadway (if you've not been to Southall, imagine a casbah with 1930's suburban English architecture). The lady in there told us she's recently made just the type of shirts we'd needed for a Jamaican bloke who'd wanted ten of them (plus jackets and trousers) for the men in his wedding party. She got one out and it was just the thing we were looking for - round collars with embroidery around the collar and down the front of the shirt.

So, we ordered the six we needed in cream with silver-threaded and red-beaded embroidery (I think - Simmi?) and the nice lady said she'd have them ready in two weeks. When she took our names for the order, she remarked on Simmi's Indian name, but had trouble spelling "Brian", which is a name she obviously doesn't come across on a day-to-day basis.

I helpfully added that my name wasn't Indian, at which she looked at me in the particular way that kindly primary school teachers look at one of their charges when they ask if it's true that if you swallow chewing gum, it winds around your guts and stays there for seven years, and said, "I already know you're not Indian, darling!"

We rounded the trip off with a visit to Quality Foods Indian supermarket to buy some pukka Punjabi tucker - and a pint bottle of Lea & Perrins! A successful day all round.

"Apparently, there's a place in London called 'Hatton Garden'"

That's right Simmi, there is such a place. And that's probably going to be where we're headed at some time soon because the rings still haven't arrived.

It looks like they've got lost in the cracks between An Post and the Royal Mail. The An Post website has them being dispatched from Dublin, but the Royal Mail has no record of them at all.

According to the nice lady that Simmi spoke to at the sorting office, the An Post tracking service should have a record that it was received in England, and then the Royal Mail would have entered it on their system and so allowed us to track the package's progress to our address. That hasn't happened. God knows why, but I have my suspicions. Let's just say that posties don't have the greatest reputation for honesty in the world now, do they?

Anyway, we've all decided the only thing to do is to cut our losses. In order to remake the rings, the Jewellers need to take another mould of Simmi's engagement ring, but we can't get to Wexford at any time before the wedding and there's no way on this earth that we're trusting the engagement ring to the post (or to any couriers for that matter). So, they've agreed to refund us, and we're going to have to get another pair of rings made over here.

No reflection on the jewellers, mind. Brian & Kevin Martin have been very understanding and have done their level best to help us with this. I would still recommend them to anyone buying jewellery when in Wexford. Kevin has told me that this is the first time he's ever lost anything they've sent to customers by post and that he'll be using FedEx from now on.

But, it's all such a bloody big pain in the arse. It really is. Still, here's hoping that this is the biggest crisis we've got to face in the run-up to the Big Day, eh?

As long as the booze gets delivered safely, I'm sure everyone will be happy!

Fixtures and Fittings

So, last weekend we had some costume-related fun.

On Friday, Simmi and Chris went to get fitted for their dresses at the dressmakers in Southall on Friday. The lady doing the measuring commented that Simmi had lost a whopping 15 inches since she'd had preliminary measurements taken in February. Which is great news. They also picked up Gis' dress, as she'd been fitted for it some weeks ago and it was ready.

Simmi and Chris' day then degenerated into a boozy session, brought on by the juxtapostion of Dev's birthday and Kiran getting a First in his Maths degree! One good find of the evening was the posh Irish pub that Simmi, Ant and myself ended up eating at late on. Mulligan's of Mayfair is well worth a visit if you like Guinness, oysters and/or Magners and find yourself in the upmarket end of Tahn.

On Saturday we herded Rod and Tony (along with Mel and Natalia) onto the Tube system and trekked over to Pitshanger Lane in Ealing so the chaps could be fitted for their suits. This was not made easy by the Central Line being shut down for the weekend! We also met Dev and Kiran in the pub next door to the suit hire place (it was called Duffy's so I couldn't not go in could I?).

All four blokes got their measurements done with the minimum of fuss (apparently Tony's neck size is the same as Mel's waist size - and there was me thinking she was quite slim!), although the camp tailors were having fun with bantering with the boys and girls.

Having done that, and it being a particularly warm day on Saturday, the rest of the afternoon and evening deteriorated into a prolonged Magners-fest. Quelle surprise!

Our Postie Must be Gollum

It's the only thing I think of as to why our wedding rings (posted in Wexford on 25th May) haven't arrived yet.

Spoken to the jewellers and they've checked with An Post. The package was sent to England on 26th May. That's over a week and a half ago.

It's never nice waiting for something, particularly something as important as your wedding rings. We're trying to chase it up with the Royal Mail, but it's being a bit hard to track down anything. If it's not shown up by Friday, the jewellers are going to make a claim on the postal insurance (it was sent resitered and insured) and make a start on replacement rings.

We're obviously somewhat concerned at this turn of events. Ho-hum, fingers crossed it'll make an appearance tomorrow or Friday morning.

Makes you wonder if they employ Gollum in the Royal Mail nowadays...