To Ikea and beyond

Back to Ikea again. I was there yesterday with MrsT and the LittleMissT (as well as the Count) but the simple storage unit I want was not in stock so back again today to check to see if it is there. And it was. Now, I wonder if it will be by the weekend. My parents are down this weekend because, as my mother puts it, MrV and I need an evening off. Nothing to do with the tickets she has for the Terracota Army at all! This time however it will be a little different as they are bringing a surprise guest with them. My neiceE is coming down for the weekend. She is 3 weeks younger than the FB and they are the bestest of friends. I can't wait to see his face when she walks through the front door.

I'm really glad you all liked the idea of putting a note inside the front of each book. I can't do the one I'm reading at present (Zorro by Isabelle Allende - very good read by the way) because it belongs to our teeny tiny library.

Booknotes

I'm considering writing a little note inside each new book I buy, sort of like this -

Bought this book on 21st April 2008 from Bolingbroke Bookshop on North Cote Road. We've taken the FB to get his hair cut at Sally's and while he was there I slipped out to the bookshop. It's a grey day today but as we are about to go to Wandsworth Common, fortunately it hasn't rained.

The idea behind this came about because I recently picked a book (30,000 mornings by Hiag Akmakjian) up off one of my bookshelves and could not remember when I bought it. I could swear that I bought it before MrV and I got together but as it was published after then I couldn't have, and because there is no LRT (Lothian Regional Transport) bus ticket tucked inside used as a bookmark from one of my journeys to and from work.

And I like the idea that in 20 years or so I'll open a book and see the little note and that day will come flooding back.

The downside to rain

I was going to write a post about how lovely it was to go for a walk this afternoon with just MrV's ipod for company. It didn't matter that it was to the supermarket , nor did it matter that it was raining until...

some bloody idiots in their cars drove straight through the puddles on the side of the road and soaked me from head to toe.

Now, I realise I am probably in a minority of one here, not owning a car at all, but tell me, is it really that hard to avoid the puddles? I'm sure it isn't because some lovely drivers on my walk home managed it. So please, people, if you see a person stomping through the rain, have a thought for them while you sit in your cosy warm car and don't drive at full speed through the puddles.

Clouds of Rain (and cake)

I might have guessed it would rain yesterday even without Louiz's weather forecast. Since moving house 8 months ago I would estimate there have been a mere handful of Fridays without rain and the majority of them fell during the period between my outdoor broom disappearing and MrV replacing it. "Que ¿" you say. One of my chores for Friday, you see, is to sweep the patio and it rarely gets done because it is raining, except when the broom went missing and then we had glorious sunshine.

So instead the FB and I baked a cake. A chocolate cloud cake. And it was delicious, very very delicious. I would offer you a slice, but we ate it all. Sorry.

(recipe from Nigella Bites, but with milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate)

Upon the weighty issues of babies

I took the Count to see the Health Visitor yesterday. We missed his 8 month checkup because the doctor was running 40 minutes late and I couldn't wait any longer and had to pick the FB up from nursery. But it doesn't seem to have mattered anyway. He is fine. Weight is a bit on the low side and he's tall for his age but he takes after his mother in that respect (or perhaps I've got that round the wrong way and his mother is on the small side and weight is a bit high...). Actually he weighs less than I thought he would considering how much the boy can put away.
But what the visit highlighted was the difference between the FB's health visitor and the Count's. The health visitor I saw yesterday knew that the charts they use to plot the baby's weight on are based on formula fed babies, that breast fed babies weight gain slows around 4 months and even knew about baby led weaning. In contrast the health visitor in Tooting was as useful as an icecream in the Arctic.
The winds, may I call them zephyrs, have blown themselves out. The sky is no longer full of racing clouds and sudden showers, and is now a gentle shade of blue with puffy white clouds. The tree on the backfield has stopped its dance and has returned to its dignified upright stance; and there is a ladybird climbing up my windowpane again.

Still standing

Well despite the strong breezes we've been experiencing over the past few days the house, miraculously, is still standing. The staircase has yet to collapse as I stomp upstairs carrying yet another pile of clean laundry and the front of the house has failed to peel off into the street (suspect that all that rain in the summer and the waterfall down the steps into our backyard undermined the foundations a little) so all well on the domestic front. The landlord still hasn't fixed the livingroom despite promises to have it sorted, and now the estate agents are making the same empty promises. Grr!