Honeymoon... Sand Banks and Money Banks..

Booked the honeymoon today, or at least tried to!! Bank of Scotland not withstanding.

We have finally settled on the Maldivian Island of Meeru, and we are having a jacuzzi water villa! That will keep us both happy! So we headed to Thomas Cook and spoke to a really nice lady who helped us out no end, even phoning up the island resort itself to make sure we would be getting exactly what we wanted!! It was going to be expensive but we wanted to celebrate with a once in a lifetime trip! The holiday includes a dive, a night fishing and a session on the golf driving range(!) We are taking a speed boat from Male to the island which is an hours trip, but should give us an opportunity to see all the sights of the Maldives!!

The title suggests that we had bank problems, and we did! Thank you Bank of Scotland for making life difficult! We had money in my account to cover the deposit, but then we decided that we would pay the full amount when we booked the holiday so we moved the rest of the funds into our joint account, we'd need to make two payments but that'd be fine...

..no it wouldn't. We started with the deposit amount and all went through fine, no problem at all. Then we said can we just pay the rest of the amount due, sure. We hand over our card and she starts the banking process. The amount is high so, of course, so she had to contact the bank for a permission code (or something) so she used the telephone banking system, putting it on speaker phone so we could hear what was going on. After a few typings of various numbers and codes the automated voice announces to the entire travel agency "Card Declined". She quickly turns off speaker phone to save us the embarrassment that has already occurred. She tries again but with the same result.
What!? Where has al our miney gone!!! Who has our money!!!?
The bank is of course closed when we go in to try and sort it out.

**Addition** After contacting the bank today (Monday) we have found that they have put out account on suspension. Why? Because we have two cards for our joint account, one is mine one is Dave's, however Dave never uses his card, whereas I use mine all the time. But becuase one of the cards is 'idle' they suspended the account!! But of course for security reasons they can't send you any paperwork to tell you they have suspended the account! We can't sort it over the phone we have to go into the bank.

**Second Addition** We went into the bank to re-activate our account, armed with as much prrof of identity as we can find!
"We've come to re-activate our account"
"Okay, that's it re-activated"
"What we don't need to prove who we are?"
"Nope"

Fair enough. We want to pay for the rest of the honeymoon today..

"Will we be able to use the account?
"No it'll take a day to re-activate fully"
"Oh. Can we transfer the money over into my account and use it from there?"
"Yes."
"Still without proving who we are?
"Yes"

Loving the security!

Anyhow, the honeymoon is paid for and we are all set to go! BIt worried about the whole name change thing but have been assured that as long as my password is in the same name as the tickets there won't be a problem....

We Are Going To The Maldives...No....Yes.. Are We?... What?

So,

Trying to book the Honeymoon, we are pretty sure that the Maldives is the place for us, two weeks with sun, sea, surf and just us! That's the kind of thing we like, we aren't party animals and history or relaxation, then we are happy! But trying to eplain that to a travel agent is not the easiest thing in the world!! They see two 20 somethings walking into the shop and immediately think 18 - 30's holiday, Spain, job's a good-un!

Travel Agent One:
We asked for a holiday to the Maldives, two weeks please. Theere was a slight uneasy look spreading across the face of the travel agent
"Is that a problem?"
Well, its apparently a great place but that people who had been there before for two weeks have found that it can get a bit boring as there is nothing extra, just the island. Did we want to consider a two centre holiday? Hadn't thought about that, where did they suggest? Well, how about Dubai? You are stopping there to chnage planes anyway, why not stay for a coupe of days before going on?
Okay..
Well, if we were to stay for five days in Dubai and 9 in the Maldives (instead of 14 in the Maldives) we could look at adding another £2000ish on to the price!! Ummm... no.. we are already way over budget as it is.
We will go away and discuss more.

Travel Agent Two:
Same, 'Why not Spain?' questions then the same 'Two weeks? In the Maldives?' look, had we considered a two centred holiday? Not until today... What did they suggest?
How about Thailand? Thailand, I quite like the sound of that, they have some beautiful resorts in the North, very relaxing. Prices don't look much different to the Maldives so our already over-blown budget shouldn't change much! Ok, lets do that, really quite excited about the prospect of seeing the temples and things...
"Sorry we don't do twin centre holidays North Thailand/Maldives."
"Pardon me?"
"We'll try and see if we can just put it together from flights and direct hotel bookings."
Yes, you do that!! What is it with travel agents and only wanting to sell you package holidays? Tailor-made holidays my foot, its "you can go anywhere as long as you go where we tell you!!"
It is going to involve loads of flights and changes and single nights, okay maybe for a normal holiday but not a honeymoon, as little stress as possible please.

This is not going to be easy... why can't we just go to the Maldives.. that's where we want to go....

Mmmmmm - Cake

We went to sort out the cake today. Spoke to the man. We are getting our cake from the somewhat dubiously named 'Pie Bob's' in Arbroath. I thought that David was joking when we pulled up outside! I have to admit I dis say
"There is no way I am geting my cake from a place called 'Pie Bob's'!!"
However, there is apparently little in a name, the company was called Angel Cakes (much more suitable) and was a subsiduary of Pie Bob's. The guy was great and really knew his cakes and what would be best without making it his cake rather than ours! We are going for three layers, bottom layer chocolate fudge!!!!! second layer which is directly on top of the bottom layer will be straight sponge and then the third layer is a light fruit cake (me and david don't like the dark stuff) but this layer is perched on some little columns. The icing is going to be cream, as this was closest to the the ivory of my dress and he is going to try and match the ribbon that goes around the cake board to my burgandy on my dress. The decoration is going to be fresh flowers, the roses from my bouquet, which are Black Baccara and Cream. More on the flowers in a flowers post, have yet to speak to the florist.

Snap!!

At the wedding fair in Guthrie I spotted and talked to the photographer that i wanted. However, not everyone agreed. Dad was very keen a a gentleman whose photos, no doubt, were very good, but this lady's stuff just attracted me to it. She seemed to offer so much. Also she was a very nice person and I think that in terms of a photographer who is going to be with you for a large part of the day, taking, what I feel to be, the most important parts of the wedding, the photos you need to get on with her/him. Afterall you don't want the fact that you were irritated by the photographer to show up on the lasting record of the day!!

So in the end the bride prevailed and Ally Stuart was booked for the 14th August. We have to visit her to have a proper talk about what we want and to confirm the booking with her but that isn't for a few weeks.

*This entry is in the total wrong place but I have just realised that it didn't feature and I can't remember the date so I am sticking it here!!*