That freaky weirdo

6 weird things about me huh? Well I asked MrV who is usually very good at coming up with my faults and he couldn't think of anything except for the whole shark thing which has been pretty well documented and we don't really need to go into that again do we.

1. Accent
Today someone asked me what part of Canada I am from. This happens more often than you would imagine, except if the questioner is Australian, New Zealander or South African and then they ask what part of their country I'm from. Oh yes and except if I'm in Chelsea then I have an incredibly posh accent. None of this is put on it just happens. Curiously when I'm taped speaking I think I sound Dutch. I have, however, never had a Scottish accent.

2. Words
I hate certain words. They fill me with a certain feeling of revulsion sort of like touching a very cheap polyester material. Ugh. Words are "fleece", "snack" and the phrases "winning hearts and minds" and "princess of hearts". There are probably others, I just can't think of them.

3. Colour
I have a compulsion to collect art and craft stuff in lots of different colours. Last year when I started doing grown-up (instead of cross stitching pictures of baby elephants, Winnie the Pooh etc) cross stitch I went out and collected samples of all the colours available in Anchor thread. I now have boxes full of them, most of which probably will never be used, but they look gorgeous. Same thing with quilting material - I have loads of squares of the stuff and I love putting them together to see which combinations work the best but I just can't bear the idea of actually using them.

4. Time
I don't wear a watch. I own wrist watches, and an old fashioned pocket watch on a chain (can't remember the proper name for it) but I never use them. It was really hard when I first stopped wearing a watch. I felt naked and was constantly worried I would be late for appointments but 10 years on, and with the advent of mobile phones that come with clocks I am fine and now if I do wear one I find it gets in the way.

5. Food
MrV holds firm that I am rather a picky eater and I disagree. OK I don't like oranges but the smell of them gives me splitting headaches so I think that to not like them is ok. I don't like fennel and nor do I like Brussels sprouts but I think I'm ok with all other veggies. Especially carrots. I love Abel and Cole carrots. I think I am picky when it comes to meat. I hate meat with fat on. Really hate it. Especially when it comes in a thick wedge such as on chops. And I don't eat pork (except sausages but only because beef sausages are not so tasty). So we live mostly on a vegetarian diet with occasional meals of chicken or fish.

6 Last one......my dream job - Air crash investigator. I don't think I need to say any more

OK I tag....Angelfeet and MrsT

How do you explain that?

It's been pretty quiet around here. We've all come down with this lovely cold which kicks the feet out from under you for a few days so we've mostly been holed up at home watching non-stop Charlie and Lola DVDs. MrV and the FB did venture out on Saturday to visit MrV's brother in North London giving me a few hours peace and quiet.

The FB and I were back off to nursery this morning, back along the route where the weird thing happened last week (still no police signs up, still nothing in the local press) when the FB looked up at the church at the end of the road and asked "Mummy, why is there a picture of an aeroplane taking off on the side of the church?" I looked up and saw what he meant; the aeroplane as he called it is actually a cross. So of course he wanted to know what a cross was (predominantly a symbol of Christianity he was told, and wisely he left it at that.)

After nursery was over we started off back down the hill to pay a visit to the library. Got towards the bottom and I saw a pink, long thing lying on the pavement in front of me which looked, I thought, like the handgrip off a kid's bike, until the FB started kicking it and standing on it and asking what it was.... And then I took a closer look and realised it wasn't a handgrip but a giant, pink dildo. How do you explain what that is to a three year old?

Library books for this week are

Colour (Travels through the Paintbox) by Victoria Finlay. It looks like she goes through each colour and looks at how they were made in the past, and any interesting historical info she could find for that particular colour. I read her book about precious gems in the summer and loved it.

My Father's Notebook - Kader Abdolah. Another random from the "A" shelf. The title captured me; anything to do with stationary has me hooked!

The Kaminsky Cure - Christopher New. I'm not sure why I picked this one up but I did and will have to see how it goes. The story of a German man and his love of Nazism which is understandably not shared by his Jewish wife.

And finally

Thursday at Eight - Debbie Macomber. This week's chicklit.

The "tomb" went back today but I have my own copy which is slowly getting worked through.

Am off to think of 6 weird things about myself as have been tagged by Kirsty

Let it snow

This was supposed to be a sweetness and light post about how it snowed here in South London, about how much the FB enjoyed putting on his wellies and stomping through the last few patches left as before it all melted; and how he loved making snowballs and throwing them a metre in front of him and then stomping on them on the pavement but..

On the way back from picking him up from nursery two men ran past us. One of them shouted something and the other, well the other had been seriously injured. The whole of his neck was bright red with blood. Behind them blue lights were flashing and crowds had formed to gawp at whatever had happened. What had happened I have no idea. I didn't want to hang about with the FB. I feel awful that he saw the injured man and that I didn't realise what was going on until they were too close to us for me to hide the FB's eyes.
When we came out of the supermarket 20 minutes later an ambulance was parked at the side of the High Street. I think they must have picked up the injured runner.

I don't want to live here any more. We'll be moving in the summer

PS more snow due tonight so cross fingers for a happier, fluffier post

Reasons to be Grumpy; one..two..three

I am grumpy. I have been for several days now and it's not shifting. Why? Well...

1. My bra straps keep falling down. They are on the tightest they can possibly be and yet every few minutes I have to pull them back up. And because I had to tighten the straps the underwired bit keeps jabbing me in the armpit (yes I know you aren't supposed to wear underwired bras during pregnancy - that's the subject of a grump at a later date).

2. It is winter so guess how easy it is to find maternity jumpers.... Apparently pregnant women become invincible to cold, sleet and wind. As I can no longer do up my coat the rain/sleet rapidly makes my top become just slightly more see-through than it was intended to be, flashing the annoying bra (above) at all the passersby - poor people.

3. On Saturday I realised that two of the cross-stitch symbols for the humungous picture I am doing, when printed out, look identical. All of the work done on those symbols has had to be unpicked and restitched. And now the bloody needle's gone missing and I can't find it anywhere.

4. Our local supermarket shut their toilets for months to redecorate them. I presume they spent this time painting a small (1mm x 1mm) square on the ceiling as there is absolutely no visible improvement in the squalor. They have shut them again for repairs.


On a lighter and happier note as one must always look for the silver lining on the grey wintery cloud (even if the cloud stretches from one side of the horizon to the other)...

1. MrV looked after the FB all weekend, did the shopping, cooking, changed the litter tray, took the rubbish out, vacuumed, mopped and fixed the wonky toilet seat. I sat around and grumped.

2. The Peanut has stopped sitting on my bladder and using it as a space hopper, and has found a more comfy place to relax and do what ever fetuses do. I can now get dressed without grimacing in pain.

3. Despite being a grumpy cow I am also quite calm and stress free!

Rain

It was a beautiful sunny day in South London when I stomped up the hill with the FB in tow on our way to nursery. Ahh so many untruths in that one sentence...rained today but unusually the raincover on the pushchair actually managed to keep the rain off and not attempt to smother my son; staggered up the hill is probably closer to the truth than stomp, mostly because the FB was sitting in his pushchair safe from the elements whilst I, his poor mama, got wet and cold.

It rained yesterday as well which, as MrV had the day off, was rather annoying. Yesterday was also scan #5 (hopefully the last one) day and we got to see the Peanut again. He's grown a tad since our last viewing and become a little less bashful about showing off his bits, indeed we have a photo of them for embarrassing him with later in life. But he's fine and there wasn't any sign of anything that could have caused the increase in neuchal fluid that was there previously. Oh and Ann they warmed the gel up!

Was meant to be A Meme for Monday

A - Available/Single? – Neither, been with MrV for centuries now.

B - Best Friend? – Following a very furious email exchange in October I am currently bestfriendless.

C - Cake or Pie? Cake definitely. Chocolate sponge cake with chocolate icing and lots of whipped cream.

D - Drink Of Choice? Diet coke closely followed by chocolate milkshakes.

E – Essential Item You Use Everyday? My diary Snobbery Personified.

F - Favourite Colour? Don’t have one but I prefer bright colours

G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? Gummi bears.

H - Hometown? – Edinburgh, Scotland

I – Indulgence – MrV says chocolate, I think it’s a necessity.


J - January Or February? February – because it has Pancake day in it.

K - Kids & Their Names? A big problem in our house as the Peanut still hasn’t got a name. All the names I like MrV hates and vice versa. The FB thinks we should call him Postman Pat George, both parents vetoed this one.

L - Life Is Incomplete Without? Chocolate

M - Marriage date? 2003 and was very heavily pregnant at the time. Never ever get married when pregnant.

N - Number Of Siblings? 1

O - Oranges Or Apples? Apples. The smell of oranges makes my head hurt.

P - Phobias/Fears – Great White Sharks in swimmng pools, ponds, rivers, streams, lakes……

Q - Favourite Quote? Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

R - Reason to Smile? There is a cream cake in the fridge all for me, hurrah!

S - Season? Autumn. Not too hot, not too cold. All the leaves changing and falling, and a autumnal smell in the air.

T - Tag people? Aunty Evil

U - Unknown Fact About Me? I was an arms smuggler when I was 12. We (me, my sister and some local expat kids) found some bullets in the desert in the UAE and I took them back to Qatar in my handluggage

V - Vegetable you don’t like? Kale, brussels sprouts, fennel

W - Worst Habit? You mean apart from my chocolate compulsion?

X - X-rays You’ve Had? Right knee, right hand, teeth, and chest. Have broken my right big toe, 3 fingers on my right hand and a bone in my right hand. Hmmm right side does not have much luck!

Y - Your Favourite Food? Leaving aside chocolate as one must occasionally, my favourite savoury food is Pollo con Fungi from Strada

Z – Zodiac Sign? Virgo

Books for a blustery day

Very windy day today with lots of rain chucked in for good luck. The FB and I stopped in at the library on our way back from nursery and got some rather good books

• Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb. Found this on DomesticAli's blog and thought that it sounded rather good. All about a Belgian girl working for a year in Japan. I read Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan by Will Ferguson during the Summer and loved it. Japan is somewhere that has always intrigued me so am looking forward to reading this one.
• Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alistair McCall Smith. During my pregnancy with the FB I lost my ability to concentrate but found that I could read Smith's books and loved them.
• Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. Part of my plan to read books I wouldn't ordinarily pick up - I pick up a book at random from a shelf in the library. Currently I'm on A. Have found some real gems this way, and of course some utter crap.
• 1001 Books you must read before you die by Peter Boxall. The other part of my plan to get out of my chicklit reading rut. Will take a few hundred years or so but I would like to read most of the books listing in this tomb.
• Cents and Sensibility by Maggie Alderson. With so many worthy books I needed something trashy to balance them out and Alderson does the trick perfectly.
• Arthur and George by Julian Barnes. Next month's book for the library reading group. My future brother-in-law read it and really enjoyed it.

Normality resumed.

Everything is back to normal again today. The FB has reinstated his constant request for the tv to be on, and worries that he will miss some vitally interesting programme, so I know he is his usual self. He tried to convince me that he still had a headache this afternoon but as he was grinning at me at the time I think he was trying to pull a fast one.
Fabulous brother-in-law sent me a copy of the Beiderbeck cd down. The original one, that I listened to weeks ago was actually for my father for Christmas - I was listening to it just to check it worked ok as it was bought second hand off Ebay. BiL has copied it just for me and now I have some fantastic music to listen to, and for the FB to boogie around the living room to. Yippee!

The House of Pain (and Puking)

Flylady and all my other plans for the day had to take a breather. The FB has a migraine. As I type he is lying on the couch asleep which I hope (cross your fingers) that that will get rid of it. He had magic yogurt (yogurt mixed with calprofen) at 10.30 but promptly threw it back up again. Poor little guy. I feel so sorry for him. He threw up in the supermarket all over himself and his pushchair and then had to ride home in the vile pushchair but sitting on his coat. And he's been so brave despite the pain and the vomiting.


many hours later....he woke up, looked about him and then complained that he had already seen whatever programme that was showing on CBeebies aka he was feeling much better. One day we will work out what exactly triggers his migraines and avoid it but nothing at present leaps out as an obvious candidate.

A series of unconnected thoughts (part one of many)

I think I may have been slightly over-ambitious with the cross stitch and hoping to have it done by the time the Peanut makes his appearance. It is hard going. I think the problem is is that there is so much detail that I am changing thread colour every few stitches which is slowing me down no end. So don't be surprised if you see that one on my to-do list for next year.


Yesterday bliss of bliss, AuntyH and SuperUncleG took the FB away on an excursion. They were meant to visit a children's petting zoo but it rained and so instead they went to our local gym so the FB could play in the soft play area. We (being MrV, the FB and myself) were all a little nervous about him going away so it was good that it turned out they only went down the road; and as it was the FB missed us not a jot. In fact he refused to come home until it was dark so he could see all the street lights. I believe that SuperUncleG had to accompany the FB and his favourite teddy Cedric the lion to see what a gym looked like, with G carrying the lion....a sight I wish I had been there to see.


Over Christmas the Peanut stopped kicking. He's been at it since the evening of the day after the CVS, well more a squirming feeling rather than a kick but it has been a regular occurance, and then just before Christmas Day it stopped. Don't panic, he started back up again about 3 days later but it's been pretty irregular until 2 days ago when instead of the wriggling, squirming feeling there have been some pretty violent boots to my tummy, diaphragm and bladder. I guess he was just lazing about, taking in the whole Christmas vibe and going through a massive growth spurt. Only 9 days until the next scan and we get to see him and see how much he has grown etc.

To resolve or not to resolve, that is the question.

I'd rather not if it's alright by you, instead I'm compiling a list of things to do this year.

• To get some sort of housekeeping routine in place before the Peanut is born. I rather like the Flylady and when I don't get sidetracked, her system works. What doesn't work for me is having a Control Journal but writing a list every day in my diary does, so I'll do that instead.


• Get the finances under control and get saving. After all the Peanut needs a trendy expensive pushchair you know (and I found out yesterday that you can use the carrycot as an overnight cot for weekend aways MrV so very useful for the Stripy Twins' wedding.)


• Because I am going to have so much free time on my hands this year I've stupidly begun a new cross stitch picture. This one is a monster - 600 x 400 (stitches, about a 1 metre by 70 cm landscape) and is taken from a photo I took in August in one of the Commons near here. The FB liked to spend hours standing on the bridge throwning acorns into the pond and in August MrV was on his sabbatical, so the picture has meaning for us.

• To log all the books that I've read this year. Don't expect to see that much worthy literature or indeed that many books read after June.
• To learn how my sewing machine works and make something with it. My problem is is that I tend to leap in at the deep end; rather than start with something simple like making a hanky, I'd rather make a baby's changing bag complete with adorable picture thingy on the front.
• And finally, develop patience and a more calm disposition to life.

too much do you think or doable? We shall have to wait and see!