LIfe Lesson 2 - Buying a house with 'Maintanece agreement'

Here is my tip.

If you are buying a house (not renting) with a communial area, that requires all residents to pay a management company a maintence fee, be very careful about who runs the management company. It is likely that is the developers are working with another company or running it themselves. In our case the developers are running it - Morningwood (Be very wary of these guys).The contract will state that after a period of time the mangement will be moved over to the residents but only (and here is the small print) after all properties have been sold.

What does all this mean. Well basically they will keep charging you £xxx with out doing anything or at least the bare minium. In our case we have 11 House in the commnity. Each apparently charged £500 for the pleasure of once (This year) and old lady and young lady (Probably Mum and Sister). However they are not charging the properties they haven't sold, but rented out and done nothing…. NOTHING. Best bit of all there is nothing we can do.

So Matador's tip of the day… find this shit out first and make sure that the communial area's are being maintained asked the residents that are there.

Are we learning yet - lesson 1

If your mortgage rate changes you will be given an effective date (eg 1st Novv). However it takes upto 14 days for that date for the new rate to be applied. So while I was quite happy that the mortgage had come down on 1st Nov (I thought) the next payment on the 6th will be at the higher rate……………… well of course it is…..

VC medal

Mrs H definitely desreves a medal. She has spent the last week looking after two kids at her inlaws. Added to the fact that Isa has been teething and parents being in their seventies are not all that mobile to help.

Anyone know at what age you lose your internal saftey catch? You know that little voice that says something in your head but stops you actually saying it out loud?

Testing times

Mrs H has her driving test on Friday. Unfortunately she had a shocker of lesson on Saturday, After doing really well. This has sent her confidence right down. Just hoping she is able to get it back before Friday.

Two thought for the weekend

1) 5K. that is the amount I think would sort me out nicely. I have reached the point where occasionally you can put a value on what would sort you out and I think mine is £5K. Doesn't sound a lot but when you are bleeding money. It is quite a lot. Thanks largely to the car being up the duff and a couple of other surprises.

2) Still feel like hammered shite. Viral infection does seem to be getting better and I fear another trip to the doctor. (although a blood test was done and was clear… apart from a rise in blood cells that fight infections)

A few questions

If these tell all prozzies are prozzies why are they not arrested? Pertty damning evidence with your name splashed all ove rhte covers of the local rags. Last time I looked prostitution was a crime (not that I have looked that hard).

Apparently if you were to fart in space the, force would cause you to travel FOR EVER.. So why in order to speed up space travel would you not create a rocket to fire in space with the same magnitude as one to get you off this rock? Surely that would get up to speed pretty quick…

What is the point of sending the contestants to the judges home when it is clear that they already know who they want. Cheryl Cole I am looking at you. 2/3 of her "team" totally blew the audition and yet got through. I would have to call her a hypocrite bearing in mind last year she denied a contestant for the very same reason. What twoodle….. and yet here I am watching it

GOOD EVENING VISTORS DINNING ROOM A

Played what I consider to be my first gig yesterday.

Three songs, crowd of about twenty to thirty people. Think we managed OK. There were four of us with John S at the front, since it was his retirement do. Feel quite pleased after it. No groupies ;-(

Happy talking.

Last night was the first time ever we have been able to have a proper conversation with Charlotte about her day. It has taken many many many many years to get her to this point. Not sure what changed but last night she told us all about her day. which consisted of, and I am glad to hear, lots of school word. seems her day went like this.

writing
reading a book….. about a guinea pig
Snack …. very important
Play outside on swings
Maths
Lunch … again very important where we think she had something with cheeese.
Play
Kitchen (home ecconics I guess) where she made toast which I imagine she aced as she has been doing for several years at ours.

In fact at my Mums she has always waited for them to sort her out but she got bored last time we were up and sorted herself out. including letting the master of the house (the cat) out.

FINALLY

Mrs H will not be deported. What a load of my very fragile mind.

There's a hole in my bucket

Do you ever feel like the hole in the money pot seems to be bigger than normal. I should be rather happy as in the next month or so the mortagage rate we are on goes down, which seems like a bit of extra cash at the end of the day. However looking forward it is already blown and starting to think a small part time job might be needed.

limbobo

Must thank Chad this morning for prompting for an update to the "Visa" situation. In all honest I spent most of last night arguing in a court of law about it… in my head.

So the update is that we are in limbo. Just waiting now to find if it has been approved or not. I am still very unsure as to the result. On the one hand the money has been taken from the account. So we are off to a better start. On the other hand though we are applying in full with what is technically an invalid current visa.

There is so much at stake right now. If the application fails again. Mari will lose her job (FACT). She will then be in a position to be deported. What we need to do after that is decide our next course of action. Do we fight on appeal? Do we accept and re-apply in Venezuela? Either way it is going to mean some very tough choices and of course more expense.

Teenagers

Thirteen years ago today an event happened that has shaped and changed my life totally. It taught me who I was and the type of person I could be. It was day of mixed emotions and that started a rollercoaster ride. A day of deep joy, sadness but ultimately deep joy. Today I get to celebrate this event surrounded by the people I love and who love me and her deeply.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLOTTE NEVE

Visa debarcle continues

Well starting to face the what seems like the enivtable fact that Mari might be deported. Just got that feeling in my bones and the fact that in some other cases the home office have been pretty strict. It all really stems from some duff information we were given when we called to ask what we need to do after the first rejection failed. We were told to re-apply in full. However what the dumb bint on the phone failed to mention was that we needed to reference the old application with the new one. Otherwise it would be treated as a completely new application. Now since Mari's visa has expired this is likely to fail.

We are now trying to contact Uk border agency to link the two applications but as you can imagine that is proving difficult. Have fired of email to an address but you never know if it is the right address. This is being followed up by a letter.

We could all really do with out the stress especially Mari.

You orrible little man

A little over nineteen years ago. I subled wide eyed and fresh of a bus at RAF Swinderby. This would be the beginning of a new life for me and one that shaped many aspects of my life. Yep nineteen years seems so long ago and yet so fresh as the fist days of my RAF career started.

For me this was the first time away from home. The first time I would stand on my own two feet. I remember thinking I had a get of jail card if I didn't like it. As an Air traffic assistant you need perfect hearing. My plan was if I really hated I would fake the test and fail it those releasing me at no cost to myself. It never really happened as the training was not as hard as I expected. I was brought up with the threat of national service in South Africa and the horror stories. So the odd bit of shouting and marching wasn't really that bad. Although others had to learn a few lessons like keeping your head down and not drawing attention to yourself. You are never going to win and argument with the drill instructors so don't bother. "Yes Corporal", "No Corporal" and" Sorry Corporal" are all you need to know.

This also means that it has been ten years since I offically left, and how my life has changed.

Visa the return.

Well it is in the hands of the civil service now as we posted Mari's visa application again. We had to send internet accounts which need to be stamped by the back.

Me - " Good morning. Please could stamp my statements for me, so I cansend them off as part of a visa application"
Her - " ... are they Natwest statements"

WTF of course they are !!!! It's not like I have an HSBC account and though the queue was to long in there.

Anyway the app has gone but while we were there we got an application for Isa's passport. Should it all go pear shaped.

In other news she also had her first taste of food yesterday (Baby rice), which she bloody loved.

Battle of the Boob

The fog slowly lifted over the battle field. The two survivors, on opposite sides starred at each other. Who was going to blink first? Sweat trickling down the faces of the battle wary. This was the pivotal moment in the battle. It was in this moment the future would be decided. Our eyes were locked looking for a weakness, waiting for any sign of weakness. It was now that I took the initiative, lunged forward and thrust the bottle in her mouth.

Round three last night of operation" replace booby for bottle". I think I came out ahead but only just. Round one went to Isa, Who totally refused and screamed for Mummy. Round two was draw. I got 1oz down her until she screamed for Mummy. Although Mummy was not allowed to come until she had calmed down. So I am claiming round three as mine but we all know tonight the fight starts again.

200 up

The week from hell continued on friday afternoon. Two bits of news caused a lttle bit of stress and lot of thinking.

Point one we knew about but I didn't mention, bearing in mind my previous post is understandable. It seems that C's Mum will be accepting a contract to work overseas for at least three months which means she will be coming to stay with us for that period. This is not bad news but bearing in mind the week Mari had it was difficult to discuss, understandably it was very emotional.

Point two was the real kick in the nuts as it would seem that Mari's visa application was refused. Not for any other reason it would seem but they could not get the payment. Which is weird. Now me, I would have contacted said applicant and said "Tried the details and it failed. can you confirm them please?" Make sense. Well no. we get a letter saying they couldn't get the payment due to either no funds or details wrong. Then don't actually send the details back so we can't confirm. Anyway called the bank to confirm they hadn't rejected it, which they hadn't. So now we have to go through the whole process again. Maybe because we got the details wrong or maybe because some fat fingered civil servant got it wrong……. who knows????

Ketch up

I think it is fair to say I am having one of those few weeks/ Month. It has really been two fold in all honesty. First of I can put it down to piss poor planning and to be honest rather nieve planning on the part of Mrs H and myself. Every year we have Charlotte for around 5 weeks when she is on various holidays. This year since Mari will be off with Isa we figured squandering parts of holiday would be ok because Mari would be off and able to look after Isa and Charlotte. So for the last two weeks she has basically had both to look after. This is due to in thanks to me taking the odd day during the snow and the difficult birth, I had very little holiday left. Of course be the week that Isa has decided that sleep is not high on her list of things to do.

Now Charlotte is not really hard work. She pretty much looks after herself in the morning. Breakfast, TV,Wii etc are all well with in her abilities. It is however the emotional investment. Mari can't really relax and concentrate on Isa or Charlotte she has to split her time. When she settles Isa, Charlotte needs something. When Charlotte is fed and watered Isa need looking after. I think you get the drift. I on the other hand have been here at work.

So it all started to unfold last week when Daddy's green car started to sound funny (second fold coming up). I had booked my final two days entitlement for Thursday and friday so that we could go up to Mums and Watch Oli in a show. Turns out car was proper broken and bit needed to be ordered. Supplier set wrong bit no chance of going Thursday then. OK should be Friday. Get car back head off and get 10 miles when she overheats. Back to garage then, get loan car. Bit late now to travel.

So I basically wasted my last two days holiday as we couldn't go anywhere. Car is costing me a fortune, and as I write still in garage. Isa is not sleeping. Charlotte is bored. Mari is at her wits end (lack of sleep).My back went. We also had another bit of news which I will go into later if it is confirmed.

All dressed up and nowhere to go.

Feels like I blinked and missed the weekend to be honest. Fairly busy one as well which made it fly by even quicker.

Saturday was town day. Mari new clothes and Haircut for Charlotte. Both in anticipation for a christening on Sunday. So Sunday morning we all got up dressed (Suited and booted) on to discover a nasty rash all over Isa. So we called the Hantsdoc service and were told to head down after 1pm. This meant we were unable to go the christening at that point incase what she had was contagious. As it turns out it wasn’t and as it turns out the Doctor who saw us was from Colombia. Which was create for Mari as she could talk to him without having to think first. Unfortunately by the time we had finished it was too late for the christening so we headed to ASDA, where I feel we were slightly over dressed.

In other news car is yet again not working well. How much it costs to fix depends on the next actions.

Mind the child !!

Well last night we started the painful task of trying to find childcare for Isa when Mum goes back to work in March. Last night it was very much hit and total miss.

We weren’t off to a good start when we pulled up to what looked like a rundown house. Luckily it wasn’t the childminders house. Although she did come out the house next to it. Whilst I am sure she is lovely person the house didn’t really say “Come in and your kids will be safe”. She did have all the paperwork but we were left the feeling of “NO WAY IN HELL”. I guess I am spoilt as Charlotte Old (now) childminder was very good. Anyway.........

Whilst out we thought we would have a look and see where the two nurseries are the first one was blinding very nice. Kind of on a farm in a barn. The other again really did say “F**K off and die”, but impressions are not all they seem. We did have a quick tour round the barn one and Mari is going back next week for the full tour.

Sometime I wish we were closer to family.

Man down

Chaiboy has gone off sick with bad ribs......... oooh dear.


Bad night last night. Isa had not gifted us with a nice runny nappy yesterday so I think she was feeling constipated. Which meant she wouldn’t settle at all. Fortunately that has resolved itself today and she seems much happier........ according to Mum.

Follow the Blue line.

Had a cracking weekend this past one. I took a long weekend to spend time with Mari and Isa. Bearing in mind I spent last Saturday at Fairford and Tuesday night beating up Chairboy. I thought it only fair.

I had my first experience of proper Sat Nav at the weekend. In that I mean I wasn’t really sure where I was going so was relying on my phone to do the work for me. I have the nokia OVI maps app installed and to be honest it worked really well.

I need to work out how to set waypoints. The damn thing wanted to send me to junction 12 to pick up M4 when it is actually quicker to go to J11.
It coped really well with the A404 being closed at the junction with the M4.
You really need to follow the Blue line on the map rather than the vocal instructions.

I then got into a debate with the some of the guest at the house we were at. It was definitely a Male/female split. The guys wife was saying that he would not allow her to use Sat nav until she learnt to read a map. Having watched on various occasions Airplanes trying to land at the wrong the airfield (including a Russian transporter heading Farnborough) I would have to agree that in the first place you should always consult a map so that 1) you know where you are going 2) Know when it is going wrong 3) If it does go wrong you know how to fix it.

Spare ribs.

Seems that there are two casualties to Tuesday night’s game. In the red corner is Chairboy. It seems that the author of this blog maliciously damaged/Cracked/Broken one or possible two of Chairboy’s ribs in vicious challenge. I am feeling rather guilty about if I am honest but I have evidence to present in mitigation.

First off your honour, it was about ¾ of the way through the game. My knees had decided to pack up and go home about ten minutes before. Chairboy and I were challenging for a 50 / 50 ball. No Knees meant I had feck all chance of stopping or turning. Imagine a runaway train.

Secondly we were treated earlier to Mr Gurney “bouncing” of Chairboy in a similar challenge. It was true comedy moment as Dorothy met the unmoveable.

So with those two points in mind I decided to take the impact, dust myself off, laugh and get on with it. Unfortunately I think Chairboy was thinking about his Iphone4 and lack of signal because he didn’t read the script and didn’t brace himself.

Result = Chairboy going ouch. Me going ooooh.

I truly am sorry as it was his birthday yesterday and he spent on the sofa in pain.

The second causality was me.
Late football + unsettled Isa + hunger = Me in dog house. It is all totally fair and I can’t complain although I think I will need to wait until Isa settles more in the afternoons.

A tale of two stories.

First up had a bit of scary moment on Monday night. Mrs H was not feeling to grand. So after a visit to the Northhants doc they prescribed a some pills for an infection she has. The only place still open was Tesco complex , which had a boots. After getting the drugs she want chocolate so went to Tesco’s. Anyway there some teenagers hanging around. High class kids if you catch my drift. They type that should probably get used the layout of Tesco’s car park as I am sure the local knowledge will do them well when they are trolley collecting. Anyway, one of the little gits was hiding the bush and jumping out at unsuspecting passersby and giving them a bloody good scare. Anyway they did it some Lady:
Me “OI PACK IT IN”
Them “ WHA We just havin a laff init”
Me “Well it is not funny”
Them “yes it FUCKING is” and started getting a bit.................eerrr agressive

At this point I started to regret my bravado and ushered Mrs H towards the shop. Where I did the very brave thing and informed the security guard.

Secondly Footie last night were I seemed to have broken Chairboy..... Here is the excellent match report by the excellent Chadwick.

The Venue: Reading Uni Cage Fighting Arena, temporarily relocated in the middle of the Sahara

The Teams:
Whites
Adam "My Legs HUUURT" G
Graham "The Cat" T
Calvin "Lampard" M
Rich "Thwack!" W
Alex "The Other Alex"
Blues
Doug "Excuses" G
James "No Middle Name" D
Paul "Last ditch tackle" N
Gareth "Wheres My Finger?" H
Alex "Messi" G

The Score:
11-9 to the Whites (according to Gareth)

The Pre-Match Build-up:
(this was written BEFORE the match)
With everyone full of bravado prior to the big kick-off, you just know its going to be a major let down.
Doug "dorothy's red shoes" Gurney started getting in the excuses early, claiming to have "pulled a muscle". I'm sure by this he means that big burly chap he was talking to.
My own legs and feet are hurting from playing last night (monday), but i'm not telling anyone that. D'oh!
At least the weather is on our side, with the forecast "heatwave" turning out to be a blatant lie. Hmph. Scratch that. Having been out, its still darn hot.

My pre-match prediction is a narrow victory for the whites. But I'm biased, obviously.

The Report:
After a short 5(?) year break in playing, the usual suspects returned (minus Michael "The Scud" Biggs who was the subject of a big money transfer abroad to Melaka United) bringing with them some new signings. These new signings included top flight shot-stopper, Graham "The Cat" Tucker who was signed for a record-breaking fee of 5 coke bottle tops (3 normal coke, 2 coke zero) and a dairylea triangle, and Alex "Messi" Gibson nicknamed not cos of his silky Argentinian skills but because of his unkempt 1970's hairstyle.
The first test of the day was to find the changing rooms, with the blokes having been replaced by the birds in the 5 years since the last game. They turned out to be along a first world war trench that led back to the Shinfield Park sub-sub-sub basement. Many good players were lost on the journey.
Calvin was the first to the pitch and promptly started jogging around, showing his intent on taking the match seriously whilst Adam and Graham ambled across feeling knackered just watching him. That soon changed, during the pre-match warm-up when Adam and Graham tired themselves out in the extreme Iraqi heat whilst Calvin watched on from the sidelines before coming along to launch a Frank Lampard "did it cross the line" ballistic missile of a shot. Next game will be £500 each as we need to fund the goal-line technology we quite clearly require.
Before the match could start, there was much discussion of which ball to use. Gareth took on the role of goldilocks (from the much loved children's story, Goldilocks and the Three Balls - you can make up your own jokes about that):
"this ball is too light"
"this ball is too hard"
"this ball is also too hard, but i'll shut up now or they'll think i'm a wimp"
With the arrival of Alex G, the match started with the Whites 4 taking on the Blues 5. This unbalance in the sides was laughed off by the Whites who's mantra was "we can take these with 4". All I can say is, thank flip the other Alex appeared shortly after or it could've been a cricket score (although I think Gareth thought he was playing Rugby with the number of conversions he made).
All the media focus before the game was on who was going to score first. All of the sensible money was on Calvin, and he failed to disappoint, slotting home the opening goal within the first couple of minutes. But it wasn't long before the Blues hit back with a well worked equaliser.
At some point during the first half, someone managed to hit Rich smack in the side of his head with the ball... it made one of the most painful sounding "thwack!" noises I've heard in a long time. Quite how he managed to stay on his feet is anyones guess.. Not long after this, Gareth almost left his finger behind in the fence following a good side of the pitch battle with Graham. He'd have lost more than a finger if Graham had caught him.
Graham himself was a victim of the fence later in the second half, taking a blow to the ribs after clattering into the fence.
With 10 minutes remaining, the weather decided to cloud over and cool down, much to the relief of everyone, especially a totally knackered Adam who them promptly found his scoring boots (they were under Doug's bag). Shame he kept falling over, like Bambi on ice.

After Thoughts:
We must pay the extra for ball boys next time..
To those who asked "how much did it cost to rent the pitch for an hour?"... £50, hence me asking for £5 from each of the 10 of us.
Don't those little rubber pellets get everywhere? (including my desk, thanks Graham!)

Quote of the Game / Unwanted Mental Image of the Week:
Calvin: "I'm going to be pulling little black bits out of my bum for weeks"

Raptor man

What a cracking weekend.

First the IAT at Fairford was incredible. Had a real MasterCard moment.

Tickets to Air show £90
Fuel £50
Queue to get in 2hour
Seeing your Dad cry as the Vulcan took off – Priceless.

To be honest they were both like big kids when she taxed from the dispersal. Great fun. For me the Raptor was by far the best. I also enjoyed the mighty Wokka and the tornado Gr4 display mainly because I have worked with both.

Sunday was a family which involved playing Wii with Charlotte. Singing with Isa (Charlotte taking the English lead and Mari the Spanish). Then Golf for Mum and Dad. Finally Chinese food which also a guest appearance by Brunx

Dream on...

Today’s early alarm was sponsored by the sound of silence.

I got the nudge at 4am this morning.

Mrs H – “ Bebe...... BEbe.......BEBE!!”
Me – “ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ The cow just robbed brazil in pyjamas’.... WTF?”
Mrs H – “ Isa has been a sleep for 8 hours it is not like her can you check”
Me – “Where am I ???? Huh ??? WHAT?”
Mrs H – “ Isa has been a sleep for 8 hours it is not like her can you check”
Me – “ Mumble mumble”, 'kicks toe on bed', “Shite”
Creeps to Isa’s room avoiding creaky boards. Slowly opens door.
Isa – “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”

So I was basically woken last night for no noise. To be honest though the love has been feeding every 2-3 hours during the night. I of course then struggled to go back to sleep while all around slumbered sweetly.......................... nice

and in the Blue corner......

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHH !!!

So yesterday I took part in the Boxercise demo for a promotion of the gym. Originally there were supposed to be eight of us taking part but once the “too much work” and the “I don’t want to do it in front of people” volunteers pulled it left two of us. Which meant we had to work double as a hard. Bearing in mind you didn’t want to look a twat while people watched you, meant we both probably pushed ourselves a lot more. Add the no AC and warm lights. So today I am feeling it.

Second night of random alarms going off but this time it wasn’t ours, unless you count the four month old talking alarm. Who by the way has decided to get up every two hours. Anyway not sure where it was but not really appreciated at 3am.

Finally this weekend we are off to Fairford in the hope that Mum and Dad can see XH558 fly. Dad actually worked on this bugger when it was proper low level bomber. They have tried for some years to see it fly and have contributed a large amount of money to the restore.. so wish us luck.

Fire, Fire, Fire

Holy hell and all the saints of doom I am knackered. Very short of sleep last night. Some of it is self inflicted whilst some just bloody annoying. For some reason the smoke alarms in the house went off last night at about 3am. So after jumping out of bed first checking for fire and then checking I had turned them off from the mains I went back to bed. Only this morning I was starting to think it was a dream until I went downstairs and found the fuse box open. You see I had to turn them off from the mains as they had been going of spuriously during the night. I thought this had solved the problem but seems not.

So I am on my second cuppa of the morning and might need to borrow some coffee of someone this afternoon.

now with wings

Couple of points from the weekend.

1. Isa now seems to recognize her Dad. Keeps smiling when I come in the room and cries when I leave.
2. Always takes some adjusting having CN after a break. Kind of like adjusting to our house.
3. Red Bull must employ the same PR guy as the Iraq’s in GW2. “There are no Tanks in Bagdad”, as a US tank rolled past behind him. “There is no favouritism in Red Bull”, as they nick Mark Webber’s font wing for their number one..... umm sorry other driver.
4. Holland ... SHUT UP about the ref. If anything you should thank him for not sending of at least two of your players. Prehaps have a word with Moaner Robben, who missed the easiest chance of the final.

Friiiiday Baby

.. and it is much needed.

Yesterday was a long day. I didn't get home until 8.30ish and was totally knackered. Bit of soup, bit of Two and Half men and bed for me. Didn't get to spend any quality time with Isa as she had just gone up and didn't want to distrurb her. Did poke my head in later.

Plans for weekend involve British GP, World cup final and maybe a trip to see Shrek.

How Long???

Could be a long night. Reinstall of software going ahead tonight.

In other news.

Isa had her 3rd set of jabs on Tuesday and is feeling a little bit under the weather.
Diet, can't really call it a diet just less eating, is going OK. Tis the weekends that cause the most fuss.

It continues

My nightmare continues with the bloody software. We are now in the process of re-installing the core software in the hope that it will resolve our issue. Which means a late night at work today but a later one for Dev in India.

Now it bleedin wont install.......... grrrreeeeeeat

Barrel of a gun

Addiction runs deep in my family. I think I mentioned before my Uncles unfortunate demise. However I probably didn’t mention my Mothers addiction to the drink as well. She has been sober now for nearly 25 years and I have massive respect for that. I always thought my Farther was probably borderline but he has gotten his act together over the last few years.

So what is my addiction. Well having avoided alcohol, drugs and smoking I am starting to think it is food. No seriously. Sometimes the urge to eat is so over whelming it consumes my every thought. The hung pains kick in even though I have just eaten and should be full. The only thing saving me right now is the gym as I think this keeping the weight down. I feel guilty when I stuff myself and can’t shake the feeling.

What am I going to do about it? Well for start I have stopped snacking in between meals, which is incredibly hard. I have cut down on the potions and started to try and eat healthy. IF I need to eat I try some fruit or veg.

I appreciate that this sounds a bit stupid but I can’t help but feel this my ‘thing’.

Back at yer

I decided to try and get back into updating this on regular basis. Reading back through some of the older posts I remember now why I started it. It was never as an award winning advert for my writing talents but rather a diary. It was great reading some of the old posts and remembering the events around them. Guess I lost sight of that.

It’s been a bit of strange week to be honest. I have had this feeling of uselessness all week. Mainly brought on by work and not really being able to support Mari in the evenings with Isabel. In practice this is not true since I am taking care of the house while Mari feeds and then settles her in the evenings. I get to bath and prepare her for bed but since she is going to Boobarella’s to feed I can’t really do more there. I guess once we go to bottles and weaning that will change. This feeling was doubley compounded this weekend by lack of cash (end of the month and all that) and leaving Mari’s very nice changing mat, that went with her bag, in the baby changing in the Oracle. It may seem small but it was the only think I was asked to do and managed to screw it up.

Sunday was grand with a nice picnic with the NCT gang even though it was a little cold. Guys ended up doing laps of the pond with babies while the women (and Phil) chatted. It was a bit like a full scale squadron alert as each time we picked up one more Dad and Buggy.

groundhog day

I keep having this nightmare where I come into work and I still have the same problem with the system I look after. We test it and can't replicate the problem................ oh no wait that really is happening.

Carppy week so far.

Wake up and smell the camera

Yes FIFA it really is time to take your head out your arse and embrace the future (or past according to every other major sport). We are not asking for much here. Like rugby the Video ref could only be called in when the ref is not 100% sure. It has not taken anything away from the ref in rugby. That would at least be a start.

You could also go with the cricket option of 3 queries a game. 3 in attack and 3 in defence. If you think about it would stop all the needless shouts of "OFFSIDE" when clearily not.

Tis been a while

It sure has and not really had the time or energy to post. So here is quick round up.

Baby Isa is here.
Fit and healthy. (eventually although she has conjunctivitis )
Mum is doing well especially after the long labour.
Trying to get her into a sleep routine.
Colic is crap !!

B day - 7 weeks ish.

NCT classes going well. Seem like a really nice bunch and everyone seems to be getting on well.
Nursery is coming on fine. Had the furniture arrive on Saturday. Have to say John Lewis Do it Myself is much, much, much better than argos. However the front panel to the blanket box was damaged so that needs to go back. I rattled up the Cot on Saturday before treating the Mrs to Avatar. Well we treated each other. Bloody good it was too.
Sunday was more DIM and I started on the wardrobe. Again it went together well. Run out of time to finish it as we had NCT/Pub meeting. So finished it last night all went well except for the doors... decided I don't do doors.

So what's left.
Blanket box and shelf.
Baby proofing - No great rush. We are very much in the Baby proof as minium as possible and hopeful teach baby to respect everything else. (easier said than done me thinks ) However the Kitchen will be isolated and the cupboard with all the nasty stuff will be locked. I will tidy and hide cables as best I can.
Clean car - It is in a shite state and need a bloody clean inside.
Fix BT line - Been noisy since the day we moved in. Finally got someone looking at it and thankful looks like a BT and not ours.

Charlotte has been great and loves babies new room. Not sure how she will be when baby is crying in the middle of the night.

I am getting well excited but still trying to keep my feet on the ground.

No response from bus company.............bastards.

Bus wankers - Stagecoach jazz 2

Copy of letter sent today.

I wish to enquire if it is your company’s standard policy to leave pregnant women stranded at bus stops with buses not stopping for them? Naturally I can appreciate that they may circumstances where the bus may be full (on a couple separate occasions over the last few weeks) but that was not the case this morning.

I am totally mortified and shocked that your bus driver left my 7 month pregnant wife at the bus stop. This would have been at 08.53 on the inbound journey to Basingstoke. She approached the bus stop (Manse Road) and signalled in plenty of time for the driver to safely stop, but the driver seemed intent to speed by.

Bearing in mind her condition combined with the snow and freezing weather I find this totally unacceptable. I now have heavily pregnant wife in floods of tears, distressed and standing in the cold snow, all this so that the driver can grab an extra minute on their break time.

Please advise why the driver failed to stop and if this is typical of your company’s treatment towards pregnant women?

Round 2

So round 2 of the NCT course last night focussing on the actual act of childbirth and all I can say is ........................ Ouch