Hilary's Blog

Big day!

2008-03-07T16:54:00.002Z

Today was a big day; I got dressed! Well, it's not like I've been walking around the house naked or anything, but I put on clothes, rather than just wearing my pyjamas for the day.

I also went outside. (Actually, I went outside yesterday too. J's Dad took me to our house to pick upsome clothes. I don't really want to admit to this venture since I did it in old jogging bottoms and a pyjama top.) Today I went for a walk - with baby.

I put on a jacket and a hat on her and tucked her up in her pram; put on a big fleece on me and went for a walk. I walked for 30 minutes, but not sure I got very far. I'm walking alot slower than I used to, but it's a good start. Norah didn't even notice she'd left the house and is still sound asleep as I write this (hence I'm able to write this).

Not alot else going on in the land of Mummy and baby. We eat and sleep, and eat and sleep. On Monday we have to go to the doctor for her 2 week check - that will be exciting.

Positive Birth Stories

2008-03-01T12:25:00.004Z

As most of you will be aware I had my baby last Sunday, 24th February 2008. A little girl, Norah Mary. She is wonderful, and we are now both at home and doing well.

During my antenatal classes the teacher was very keen that we should be spreading positive birth stories. Western culture has given women a built-in fear of birth which does not exist in other parts of the world. She feels that by spreading our positive birth stories, rather than the horror stories that are so often told, we can overcome this fear and teach women to enjoy the experience of childbirth.

To this end I want to tell Norah's birth story but I have to give advance warning - many people may read this as a horror story. For me, because we had a happy ending and achieved the ultimate goal - a happy, healthy baby and Mum - I can only see positives. I also need to warn that it is long. What follows is a memory dump of my day, last Sunday.

I have gallstones and due to flare-ups of horrible pain, I was admitted to the maternity hospital for observation from Thursday. Each time the pain would flare up, I would need Pethidine and as a result they needed to keep me overnight to monitor the baby. On Sunday morning, I met a surgeon who was very positive in that, he agreed that the gallstones need to come and that he would be the man for the job, but none of that could happen until baby was born (due in 4.5 weeks from that day). I was told to stick to a strict NO FAT diet, continue to take the medication that had been prescribed and call him when baby was out for an appointment. I was about to be discharged.

As I had been fasting for an ultrasound scan of the gallbladder, which was now cancelled, they brought me tea and toast, so I wouldn't have a weakness :-) I ate the toast with no butter, just marmalade and within 30 minutes was doubled over in screaming agony (again)! Pethidine was administered and 30 minutes later the nice midwife came in to begin the trace of baby.

She couldn't find the heartbeat and I didn't worry cos as baby moves so does the heartbeat. It took a few minutes than longer but eventually there was baby's heartbeat. However, the heartbeat kept disappearing and going low! She called another midwife, who thought that for safety's sake they should call the doctors.

The doctors arrived and didn't like what they were hearing from the trace machine; Internal examintation, not dilated, no explanation to be had:
'Okay, Hilary,' said the nice blonde doctor, 'we're moving you downstairs to the labour ward, we need to break your waters and see what's going on in there.'
With that, me and my bed were gone from the room and I started to panic a little. I tried to console myself that it was all ok, and this was just a precaution. I didn't have the opportunity to ask any questions and I didn't want to seem like a silly billy.

In the labour ward my waters were broken; the heartbeat didn't improve and they were worried about leaving baby there. So, they started to prepare for an emergency ceasarean section. I was whisked into another room, given a spinal block and all this time ten different people came to explain things to me and ask different questions about allergies, or what could I feel here. To say at this point that panic had overtaken me bodily would be a gross understatement. I lay there silently hoping everything would be ok, but really not sure what was happening at all.
The aneasthetist was being helpful telling me what was going on:
'They're just making the incision now', she said
'Thanks', I said, 'you don't need to tell me everything', and I smiled weakly.

In a short few minutes someone said:
'you have a baby... girl!', and I heard a cry. I breathed a sigh of relief and they held up this little blue, mucky person above the screen so I could see her. Another few minutes and I was being wheeled back out of the room.

I was still in shock as all this happened so fast, but all I knew was that my baby was alive and healthy and I was a Mummy. Ten minutes later Jamie was wheeled into the room and our little family was together for the first time.

I forgot to say: The reason for the distress to Norah was a true knot in the umbilical cord and she had managed to get herself wrapped up in it. Afterwards the doctors tested the blood in the cord and said that Norah was not deprived of oxygen for long enough to cause any concern. Phew!

Not Long Now...

2008-01-14T12:03:00.000Z

Today I'm 30 weeks pregnant. This means that in 10 weeks I may have my baby! (I say 'may' cos my Mum went overdue with me and all my brothers, so I expect the same to happen to me so it might still be 12 weeks before we get to see Beanie in the flesh.)

The picture on the left is how I look now. I feel huge and awkward; I'm finding it hard to get up out of chairs. I walk slower; Jamie is often a few feet ahead of me before he realises I'm not there and I waddle a bit. It's all a sign that things are progressing.

Right now, our baby weighs about 2.5 pounds. Average birth weight for babies is 6 - 8 pounds or so. This means that our baby has to more than double in weight in the next 10 weeks. This puts the picture of my bump into perspective; I have ALOT of growing to do!

This also explains the constant tiredness - I've been feeling like a right lazy lump for the last week but now I think I'm going to start taking afternoon naps :-)

Some sort of review

2008-01-04T13:36:00.000Z

The start of a new year/era/episode should come with a review of the one gone previously. I saw this on another site (yes, I'm stealing ideas, there is no limit to how low I will stoop to appear interesting) and decided that a review of my travel would be the most interesting thing to do, since I spent most of my time travelling anyway. Here is my year by places visited:

Prague, Czech Republic (x2)
Hungary, Budapest (also x2)
Sczcecin, Poznan and Warsaw, Poland (1 day in each city so not as interesting as it first sounds)
Barcelona, Spain (and I even had spare time to visit a tourist attraction!)
Southampton, UK (x11)
Zagreb, Croatia (x2)
Hannover, Germany (as ever not interesting)
St. Petersburg, Russia
Zilina, Slovakia
Olathe, KA, USA
Athens, Greece
Ljubljana, Slovenia (x2, also visited briefly Izola and Lake Bled)
Roscommon, Ireland
Tobago, Caribbean
Moscow, Russia
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Actually, this year wasn't that boring since we moved from UK to Ireland (Cork), I managed to keep my job and work from home, settled into a new house, Jamie got a job, we bought lots of furniture for our new house, and we're having a baby.

2008 is going to be a good one. Happy New Year to all.

Christmas hospital trips and not alot else

2008-01-02T16:36:00.000Z

Well, I can definitely say that this Christmas was different.

While at J's parents place on Christmas day, killing time before the serving of the traditional turkey and trimmings, I was struck with a bout of (what I thought was) indigestion pain. J's Mum, being a clever nursey type, said that's not indigestion. It's apparently not supposed to be that bad. So following two calls to South Doc and one visit to South Doc, I found myself sitting in the A&E department of CUH.

After 3.5 hours, the nice American/Canadian doctor said 'I can't provide pain relief cos you're pregnant' and sent me on a wheelchair ride over to the maternity hospital.

After another round of poking, peeing into bottles and answering the same questions, they decided they liked the look of me and kept me for the night. So after missing my turkey and trimmings, I got a bed and tea & toast at 1:30am, 26th Dec. And why? It's most likely I have gallstones. I spent St Stephen's night in hospital too - as they were about to discharge me that morning, my body decided that bourbon creams with tea (recently consumed for elevenses) were a good reason to attack and the pain came back. I got Pethidine for that :-)

Since leaving hospital I have had 1 bout of the extremely severe and horrible pain from gallstones and as long as I stay away from chocolate and rich or fatty foods I should be fine (so far so good).

That's about the most interesting thing that happened over Xmas. I do have to thank J's mum who provided us with leftover turkey, so I got my seasonal fix. We didn't travel anywhere for fear of getting struck down in gallstone induced agony.

I have a scan booked so they can confirm the presence of gallstones, as long as Beanie keeps his big head out of the way. But even so, nothing can be done until Beanie has made his exit/entrance (really depends on your point of view there, doesn't it?). I have normal liver functions - how many of you can say that!

I will keep you posted, although, gallstones aren't that interesting.

100 days to go...

2007-12-17T12:06:00.000Z

Well there are (at least) 100 days to go until the appearance of Beanie, so what's happening....

I'm larger! To be expected really. I am more awkward in my movements, slower to get out of bed, need to sit down to put my trousers on (sorry TMI), etc. However, many people (mainly women who know about these things) keep telling me I'm tiny, or the classic 'you're very tidy'. One women did approach me in Dunnes last week and was surprised to learn I still have 3 months to go. She seemed to think I was massive. For a moment I felt vindicated (I am big, who do those people think they are telling me I'm small), then I panicked. If I'm big with 3 months to go, how big can I expect to get? I'm not really seeking answers to this one, thanks. I will carry on blissfully unaware, until I get stuck in a doorway.

There is something stuck in my rib cage. I'm convinced there is a leg/hand/head right under my right ribcage. It is very uncomfortable when sitting down, especially if I laugh. That's gonna get annoying

Chronic indigestion. A couple of weeks ago I experienced my first bout of heart burn. I was mildly amused by this as I knew it was another symptom of pregnancy and it wasn't too severe. Yesterday, however, for 6 hours I had the joy of experiencing the worst indigestion pain ever! I kid you not (Jamie thought I was in labour). I had this horrible pain coming from my back, right through my chest. I couldn't sit or lie down as that made it worse, so I basically paced the floor. Not good. I had visions of being part of an alien movie, where I would be killed off early for a dramatic shot of an alien exploding from my chest. sadly such relief was not to mine. But Jamie's mum provided Zantac and 45 minutes later there was no pain. All hail Zantac!!

Baby kicks. These are funny. They usually come when I'm lying down going to sleep. Much to the annoyance of many people around me who would like to feel a kick. I have decided that this is better than any DNA test for proving this is Jamie's child - champion sleeper, rarely awake :-) It took me ages to realise they were baby kicks but now they are getting stronger I'm sure what they are - when they do come!

Not alot else happens pregnancy. I had high blood pressure for a while, but this has gone back to normal. I've stopped travelling for work now - which is great as planes and airports are not fun places to be when you're pregnant.

I'll try to keep you posted better and if I get over my laziness will eventually get around to putting up photos of Beanie - in bump form of course!

There or not?

2007-10-12T11:44:00.000+01:00

I think this is something all pregnant women go through. At that phase where there are no outward signs of pregnancy and things like morning sickness have eased, you start to doubt if it's really happening. could you possibly be pregnant without any tangible evidence to support it. Complete strangers can look at me and they won't know I'm pregnant - I haven't got a bump. This has lead to severe cases of bump envy - all other pregnant women have better bumps than me.

And so, the debate has raged in our house as to whether I have a baby bump or not. J says I obviously do, but I think I just look like I ate a large lunch and may have wind!

This morning, however, I remembered the Test! When I first found out I was pregnant, I asked Jamie to measure the 'inny-ness' of my belly button (many women's belly buttons pop out when they're pregnant and I wanted to be able to check if mine would do that). Anyway at that stage Jamie was able to up to the first knickle of his index finger into my belly button (I've realised, just now, how seedy this sounds and yes I have a VERY inny belly button).
Last night I insisted the Test was repeated. This time J was only able to get half-way to the first knuckle on his index finger in. This means that whether you can visbily see the bump or not there is something in there putting pressure on my belly button in an outward direction!
I am less inny than before ==> therefore I must be pregnant!
QED

Goggle Box

2007-10-08T11:32:00.000+01:00

Well, after 4 years of being without a TV we have succumbed and purchased one this weekend. We picked it up on Saturday and unpacked it yesterday.
The strange thing is, in the shop it looked like a normal sized TV (see left). Probably because it was surrounded by similar sized or larger TVs; but sitting alone in our living room it looks huge. It's actually a little scary so I've taken to avoiding the living room at the moment (I haven't even drawn the blinds today).

Don't, however, expect comments on the current set of TV programs as we still don't have TV channels. Living in a valley we can't get good reception on terrestrial channels. So we rely on Sky to provide those, along with some more interesting channels. It could take two weeks for Sky to turn up and install everything but that's ok we were prepared for that. We have recently received a shipment from those wonderful people at Amazon containing Season 3: Battlestar Galactica and Series 6: 24. We will put our TV to good use!!

News

2007-09-20T11:11:00.000+01:00

Well after weeks of waiting we can now tell you - although I'm fairly certain most of you know already. Jamie and me are expecting our first baby; due 26th March 2008. We are very excited. We're also very excited to finally be able to tell people. We had our 13 week scan yesterday and all is well.

We are hoping for a girl, but really if we get a boy we won't mind - although some quarters are now taking bets on this!
Copy of the scan will be added later. See above for the ticker tape that will keep track of progress for the coming months.

Do you feel like Dancin'?

2007-08-02T12:45:00.000+01:00

Inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre in the Philippines perform dance routines as part of their morning exericse. Below is the video of them dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller. They have done many other routines including the Village People's YMCA. The dancing is part of their exercise because it apparently helps to control behaviour. So successful is this form of exercise that two former inmates have gone on to become professional dancers.

Felicitations!

2007-08-01T09:41:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday to Jamie, he is 30 today!

Feeling a little left out!

2007-07-23T15:30:00.000+01:00

I was feeling pretty clever when I pre-ordered it on Amazon. Afterall, that's what I did for the previous book in the series. Of course, I forgot that when you live in England you get post on Saturday mornings, so you have your much-awaited book to read over the weekend.

I live in Ireland now. We don't get post on Saturday. Not only that, but it seems I didn't pre-order early enough since my copy was only dispatched yesterday!!! Come on people!

It was all made worse by walking into eason's yesterday where there are endless copies piled high. Taunting me.

Friends who relied on local bookstores for their copy have not only got it but finished reading it and I haven't even received my very own copy! I feel silly and left out now.

Being optimistic the earliest I can expect my copy would be tomorrow - that's being optimistic!!! And I work from home. How will I control myself? How will I focus on my job, when the book is sitting on the hall table, calling to me.

I should have bought it in easons on Saturday. would it really have been that silly - at least I'd know what happens and wouldn't feel so tortured.

Lovely evening

2007-07-11T09:45:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was a lovely sunny evening, and Jay and I maximised it.

After work I went for a swim at Castlepark beach. To say it was refreshing would be an understatement; that water was cold, but I'm still glad I went for the swim. After sitting on the beach for a while, we got freshly picked gooseberries from Jay's Mum. Then we went home and had a BBQ.

After the BBQ I staked my sunflowers. They have all now been replanted; some to a bed in the garden, others to various boxes and pots. They are doing really well after early wories that I may have killed tham following weeks of torture in pots far too small. I think I even spotted a flower bud on one this morning! I have also replanted the redcurrant plant which is thriving in its new home.
I do feel that my mini trailing petunias are suffering in their pot - they just don't look as healthy as they used to and the leaves look all bitten but I can't find what's eating them. To give everything a boost I sprayed them all with Miracle grow last night. Let's see what happens.

I definitely think we need a few more sunny days and sunny evenings!

Update: It is with some embarrassment that I admit that the 'flower bud' I saw this morning on one of my sunflowers, was in fact a spider, making a little nest for herself. I sorted her out, though.
I also sorted out that giant bloody slug that thought he was moving into my window box of sunflowers too - over the wall with him!

Well done!

2007-07-04T13:41:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Jamie, who's entry to the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind Calendar Competition has been selected for the 2008 calendar.
This will be Jamie's first published photograph and it is well deserved. Well done, babe!

Holiday, Celebrate!

2007-06-22T13:46:00.000+01:00

We have booked a holiday for the summer. It is very exciting as this will be our first foreign holiday in 4 years :-)

We are not counting trips from england to Ireland as foreign, or holidays; since it's not that far and we were coming home to see family, friends and organise a wedding. This is a proper holiday - you know, a getting-away-from-it-all type holiday.

We're heading to Tobago in September. Don't ask me how we chose Tobago out of all the places in the Caribbean; I leave these things to Jamie as there's usually more he wants to get out of a trip than me. It would be unfair to say he's picky, but all I'm looking for a is a beach for swimming and sitting on while reading, which is convienently located for the bar. Jamie, on the other hand, likes activities. We will be snorkelling, maybe a sailing trip or two and getting photos of all the tropical birds on the Island - and apparently it is quite unspoilt.

We booked it through these guys, as they are apparently the experts on the caribbean in Ireland. What a cushty job that is. The on-hold recording tells you that all of their advisors have personally inspected all of the destinations and accomodations they offer. By the time I got through I wanted to apply for a job, not boko a holiday.

No doubt there will be blog posts and phtotos on our return. Wahoo!

2007-06-12T22:36:00.000+01:00

When writing a blog post I often find myself searching for related articles, you know, things that might help the understanding of the story or add credence to something a little strange.

While writing one post earlier today, unbelievable as this may sound, I searched for related articles and I came across this forum.

AppleInsider is apparently a forum area for MAC users. So here's a bunch of (I gathered from references) male MAC users talking about poo! Regularity, consistency, timing, you name it!! I do have to admit that there were parts I was reading and I was just crying with laughter but almost the funniest thing is that these grown men continually referred to it as poo and at one stage some guy called it #2's.

Does this make me a hypocrite now? Aren't girls supposed to use the politer terms for these things, but men are rough, hardy souls whose terminology is also on the rougher/cruder side?

I'm not going to worry about it, I'm going back to my sofa.

House & Garden - Update

2007-06-12T21:23:00.000+01:00

I feel like a BBC 2 programme with these sorts of posts, which is not a good thing for a woman of my young years. But I am very excited about our new house (and the garden).

We've rented in apartment-land for so long that it's great to have the extra space and comfort of a whole house. We've also rented the new place unfurnished so we now own some nice bits of furniture, and will continue to add to our collection over time. Despite the fact that there are only two of us in a three-bedroom house, we've managed to fill up all the spaces - mainly with junk and boxes we are too lazy to unpack. Most of those unpacked boxes are filled with books and we have no bookcases. Although, I imagine to store our collection we would require a room of wall-to-wall book cases (MGB knows where I'm coming from). To date we have bought a bed from Swan Beds, a kitchen table and chairs from Whites on North Main Street and 2 sofas from Caseys on Oliver Plunkett Street. I'm hoping that this shameless plugging of local businesses will earn me a discount the next time I go in (note for locals and Limerick people: Caseys are beginning their Summer Sales this Thursday, June 14th).
A thumbnail of one of our sofas is to the left, more photos of the interior of the house can be found here.

The other joy about our new abode is the garden! Especially on sunny days when you have a private space to sit and enjoy the sunsine, with a glass of wine and some BBQ! As an update to a previous post about gardening I have some pictures of the plants I've been ~~killing~~growing.

This (left) is my 'Money' plant (known as Jade plant. I get pretty impatient about these things and in the last 7 days have not witness nay progress so believe that the thing is dying. Although there are no obvious signs of death on this plant, so I'm trying to be positive.
These (right) are my Giant Sunflowers. They have reacted very well to the rain the last few days, so I must now be the only person in Ireland who is happy that it's forecasted to rain for the rest of the week. The rain is doing good for my plants, it takes the pressure off me when I can blame external forces for any potential failures here. I also have some Evening Sun sunflowers, Teddy Bear sunflowers and some kind of dwarf sunflower. At this stage they all look the same except, as might be expected, the Giant sunflowers are somewhat taller and bigger.

I have been informed that the large bush in this pot is an 'ornamental' redcurrent plant. The most disappointing thing about this piece of news is that I am not going to get nice red berries which will make the plant look even prettier. It may not be clear in the photo but the leaves at the top have a nice redish tinge to them. And here is a close-up of the pretty mini trailing petunias that I bought in B&Q.
There are also some herbs but I'm fairly certain that the chives are going to die soon (they and the parsley got severly water-logged before I managed to get them repotted) and only 2 small bits of parsely have survived so far, so I'm not holding out great hope for them. It's kind of embarrassing since chives and parsley are some of the easiest herbs to grow and herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow.

Discoloured P**

2007-06-12T17:42:00.000+01:00

This is one of those things that Jamie won't allow me to tell him so, inappropriate and all as it may be, I am putting it here. I'm sure others have had similar experiences and may want to share; this could even turn ito a little online support group!

For those of you with a sensitive disposition, I am giving you fair warning, turn away now!

About a week or so ago I threw together this little salad. It was one of those really hot days and it was a nice, light meal for the evening; something just a little different. Anyway about two days later during my regular morning visit to the toilet (my father refers to this room as 'The House of Horrors'; that has always amused me), something was amiss. I was startled to find a purple colour staining in the loo!!! I know, this is shocking - there wasn't that much beetroot in the salad. Ok, I did have beetroot in my sandwich for lunch the next day but I thought it took copious quantities for it to change the colour of your p**. And anyway, doesn't it change the colour of your #1's not your #2's?

I have looked this up - there are no definitive articles by healthcare professionals but it is widely known that beetroot can effect either #1's or #2's!

Jamie finds it distrubing that I noticed this at all, because he can't understand why I would look into the loo after doing anything. I have explained to him that it's a basic healthcheck thing. Apparently, he never does this; I find this worrying!

Kiss me quick

2007-06-11T13:13:00.000+01:00

I am not sure if this is sweet and romantic on a very laarge scale or just plain weird....?

Discoloured fingers

2007-06-07T11:20:00.000+01:00

Our new house has a small lawn out front and small garden at the back. This has encouraged us to try some gardening. First steps in this direction were for me to plant some sunflowers and some herbs in seed trays and see what happened.

J's mum helped with repotting them last week. I didn't realise they would need repotting so soon and didn't have pots and generally wasn't prepared. The next step will be to plant them in the garden, so J mowed the lawn the other night (very domesticated isn't he :-) and next we will have to find the perfect spot in the garden for the sunflowers. For now I think I will keep the herbs in a pot so I can move them indoors in the winter; so I will need a bigger pot.

I also have a large flower pot on our front porch - a present for my last birthday. It came with a red currant plant in it, which is growing quite fast (I'm proud of this fact). So in a few weeks it will be too big for the pot, and I will need to find a spot for it in the garden!

In the meantime though I have added some mini trailing petunias to the pot to give it some nice colour (bedding plants rock, you just plant them, and you have instant flowers, all the hard bit is done).

My brothers girlfriend gave me a cutting from a money plant - I've always loved these. I have put it in a nice pot (thanks to J's mum, again). So we are working on developing green fingers, although I am sure I will have to tell you of all the disasters that will be fall us (andmore importantly our plants) soon.

Working from new home

2007-06-05T16:09:00.000+01:00

We moved house about 4 weeks ago; we are now renting a lovely 3-bed in Riverstick, Co. Cork. We do like our new house, but more on that later.
For various reasons (getting eircom to connect broadband, travelling) today is my first day working from our new home, in the little dedicated office in the box room. It's quiet here and I've been settling in and getting on with work. I've just discovered, though, that this is the time of the day our next door neighbour likes to start up her sewing machine. It sounds like she might come through the wall. I'll let you know!

Happy Anniversary

2007-03-12T13:15:00.000Z

I was reading a blog this morning and the owner had recently posted about how his blog was about to be 1 year old and what should he do to mark the occasion. Well this got me thinking about how old my blog is.... 4 yrs, 1 wk and 2 days since the first post.

I remember what started it. Jamie had been blogging for a while and was constantly trying to convince me that I should do it too. I couldn't see a reason for this, what would I write about? I mean Jamie has his techie thing and he spends his life on the internet so he always finds weird and interesting articles to show people. I don't really do that; and as soon as I start to think about writing about anything that's happened to me, it suddenly doesn't look/sound interesting enough to put out there. Also, I thought it was just for geeks (am i wrong?). Anyway for my 26th birthday Jamie got me a digital camera (he's great, really!) and told me that I could take pictures wherever I went and then blog about the pictures. As it turned out I don't take much pictures, hence you haven't seen alot of them. Plus the 'Photos' section is down (Jamie!) so I can't point out any of the few pictures I did take. But still, here we are!

And how has it been? Well it can't have been much fun for you. I've read some old entries, no I have never checked my spelling before I publish! Plus what can be of interest in the life of a woman whose most interesting coversation of the day is with the two border collies she walked at lunch time? You know probably the most interesting thing to happen here is that some crazy kids kept mistaking me for Hilary Duff. And that could only be becuase the photo section is down!

I always say I will blog more/better but it never happens. So i'm not even going to try to say that now. What I can promise is that entries will continue to be irregular and of little interest to anyone. That way, no pressure on me to write it and no pressure on you to read it. See we're all happy with the status quo!

Manic Monday

2007-03-12T11:41:00.000Z

It's not really a Manic Monday but I saw the Bangles song listed on a naff 80's compilation album in Virgin at the weekend and now I have it in my head. It is actually quite a dull Monday.

Jamie headed off for his first day of his new job this morning, understandably a little nervous. Since PhDs don't count as work (sorry to all the PhD people I know) Jamie hasn't held a real job in 3 and half years. Actually, because Jamie doesn't consider his time in MLE a real job, he's counting it as 5 and a half years. It's going to be tough for him to settle into the routine but I'm sure he'll soon come to hate it as much of the rest of us .

Work for me is quiet today (watch: I've just jinxed myself and I'm going to be up to my neck in it in about 4 minutes). This is the first time I've been in the house totally alone since I started working from home. It's weird, I always work better when there is background noise - total silence distracts me. I am forcing myself to stay in my office, and occassionally actually sit at my desk ;-)

Feelin' Blue

2007-03-06T12:04:00.000Z

As many of you will now be aware we have moved to Ireland. This was about 7 weeks so it is really old news.

However, in the last 7 weeks Jamie has found a job and found a place for us to live. This is great news, but unforunately I was not present for either occurence. I was out of the country when Jamie got his job and away again when he found our new place. I find it a little depressing to have missed out on some of the major changes in our life but I was lucky enough to keep my job when we left England.

It's a bit of a mixed blessing. On the one hand we still have one salary while Jamie was looking fora job and we set ourselves up. On the other hand the travelling part of the job keeps me away alot and I am missing out on all the good stuff that is happening.

I guess it's cos we're newly married that I feel it's more important that we do these things together. But I don't think that anyone (except Jamie) sees that it is so hard to be away so much, when there is so much changing at home.

Review

2007-01-16T20:11:00.000Z

I have just been criticised for the poor quality of my blog! No surprise there, but it should be noted that I come from a long line of people who believe constructive criticism was just an excuse to start a flight - usually at the end of a wedding/funeral when someone says to the bridesmaid/widow: "did you not take a look in the mirror before you came out?" And there will always be one gentlemanly soul to jump to her defense, thereby starting a classic punch-up which brings the whole event in question to an end.

But the criticism is doubly cruel because it comes from one of those young, hip people (basically anyone at the other end of their 20's is young and hip to me - as I draw closer to the 'age that cannot be mentioned' I find myself referring to everyone under the age of 28 in this way). These young people (phht - I spit when I say it) surf the net with the attention span of a retarded gnat and can decide in milliseconds if your site is cool or shite and then they're gone. These are the people whose opinions inform marketing companies of what we all want to buy/see on our telly/listen to on the radio/wear next season - god help me but 3/4 length tousers, mini-skirts and yellow have never and never will look good on me but thanks to the young, hip people (phht!) they're the choices I've had for the last 3 seasons!!! Screw you, whatever happened to jeans and a T-shirt? Spandau ballet? Refresher bars?

This blog was Jamie's bloody idea anyway, to draw me into the world of geekdom. And I fell for it; anything for a pretty face. I mean I don't have a life to speak of and no one would be interested anyway. Every once in a while I surf the net and find other peoples blogs and I think "hey I'm more interesting than that!".
However, I have been reading this blog - to try to understand where the criticism came from. Mother of divine sorrows, I cannot believe I wrote about counting and re-boxing my prescription medication (it obviously wasn't having the necessary effect). What total weirdo thinks that's interesting to anyone.

It is plainly clear that there is no one left reading this blog at this stage, the insanity has gone too far. So I can say what I want. Stay tuned, it's not about to get any more interesting!