Well the visitors have left and the FB is missing his cousin dreadfully. They had a great time together charging about the house, arresting their grandfather and attempting to drag him off to jail, and by the end of their time together had declared everlasting love and decided to get married to one another when they are older. Very sweet! The visit did the FB the world of good too, he watched his beloved cousin intently and consequently both his running and his colouring in have improved no end.

The Terracotta Army was good, in that you could get within a meter of the statues which is apparently closer than you get at the official museum in China; but there were only a few statues, understandable I know, but I was rather expecting it to be bigger. The really interesting bit was about the First Emperor's burial mound which has not been excavated and there is a lot of speculation about what will be found in there when it is dug into. Apparently he was trying to build a miniature version of the universe so he could rule forever, and rivers of mercury and stars of pearls are amongst what is thought to be down there. But they don't think it will be excavated any time soon alas. Children behaved reasonably well, by which I mean that they are allowed back to the British Museum but aren't allowed to touch anything again or jump up and down as they kept setting the alarms off.

Night out was fun. It was a very windy, rainy evening so by the time MrV and I reached our destination we were a little windswept and damp. Restaurant wasn't bad and after the meal we did as most normal people do and went for a wander round Ikea.

Oh and yes I got the storage unit hurrah! Now all my art/craft stuff is in one place.

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!

That shouldn't really happen should it?

Do you remember many months ago, in November, I wrote about how the staircase was coming away from the wall? Well that seems to have halted, possibly because I got freaked out at 3am one night and shifted around 100 books; but now the centre of the shelf that runs along the side of the staircase as it reaches the loft, has sunken in...

If I was a landlord there is no way I'd rent a property to me, not unless it was being flattened afterwards.

(Taxes filed and paid. Hurrah!)

Not sharing with you Mr Darling*

I know no man is an island, but could they be a taxhaven I wonder; and if so, how do you claim such a status? It's the end of the tax year here in the sunny UK and I am rapidly losing patience with the Inland Revenue and their complete inability to write their "helpful" notes in anything close to understandable English. As far as I can make out it is a competition between them and us; they want to get as much money from us as they can to spend on little luxuries - starting wars for instance, and we want to keep as much money from them to spend on our little luxuries like electricity, gas and rent. They use babble as their tool to confuse and bewilder the poor layman into paying more, and we lie, I mean claim deductables, to pay less. And so, year after year the battle rages on.

*Alistair Darling is the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Gordon Brown's old job)

Our house seems to be full of these little flies at present. They appeared after the ceiling came down and are everywhere. They're like little black versions of greenfly, but I've no idea what they are. Don't seem to bite nor leap so I'm assuming they're not fleas.
Time just seems to be flying past and I'm sure that it was only yesterday that I posted last but I guess not, and it is not like our lives are full of exciting things either. Really the only exciting thing that has happened recently is the constant speculation if the people next door are our new neighbours or builders & decorators. Yup our lives are that dull!

Hello

Wow that was almost a sabbatical! My break wasn't meant to be that long but a series of stomach bugs (yup more), the flu which knocked the stuffing out of all of us, and then a leak in our livingroom ceiling over New Year has made it harder than normal to get to a computer. However we are looking at the bright side of all this (is there one you ask?) well the bug and flu caused me to lose weight and keep most of it off over Christmas, and frankly anything that shifts the stubborn fat off me can only be a good thing in my opinion.

What else? Oh oh oh the noisy neighbour with the creepy 12 year old has moved out. Hurrah!

Happy New Year to you all

xx

The End

Well we made it through 30 posts and 30 days once again to the end of NaBloPoMo, so, I think, a break is in order.

Back soon.

Tag, you're it.

The Count has slept through the past two nights, the FB on the otherhand has not. I feel like I'm in the middle of a tag wresting team. Look at them trying to look innocent and that they weren't discussing strategies until I walked back into the room!
Why, by the way, can I click on and enlarge some of my photos and not others. Is it random?


Learnt a very valuable lesson today. Always make 1oo% sure that there is not a disposable nappy hiding in your dirty laundry just waiting to go into the washing machine. Otherwise it looks like a blizzard has blown up all over your clean, wet clothes.

The Countdown begins

Three more posts to go. It has been very hard over the past week to write anything and the temptation to jack the whole thing in, blog and NoBloPoMo has been quite strong. The FB has had yet another cold and the Count is still not sleeping, so by yesterday I was so shattered I could barely string a sentence together. Today, fortunately, things are much better. Still I'm really looking forward to the end of November.
My parents' visit was a great success. The meal out, as I posted briefly was fantastic. MrV's company had ordered him to take me out for a meal to thank him for all his hard work, and he was allowed to spend up to £100. After a great deal of selfsacrifice on our part, having to order course after course as well as rather a lot of booze (including a lovely rosè wine) we managed it.
Of course the best thing was being able to go out for a meal by ourselves and converse. The FB is rather hyper at preset so talking is practically impossible while he is awake.
Monday was the Tutankhamon exhibition at the Dome. The Count slept his way around it, and the FB? He was so happy to be able to wear headphones (we had an audio tour) and listen to someone talking, that he was fabulous the whole way round. Perhaps this is the way forward? Maybe if I need to get him to tidy his toys away I should tape record myself asking him to do, and invest in a walkman.
And yesterday they went home again. My mother has since been on the phone trying to book tickets to the other massive exhibition currently in London - The Terracotta Army, but alas it seems as if all the tickets have gone. Ah well

Day out (with the Egyptians)

The reason for yesterday's trip into town was to visit here

The Millenium Dome, or as it is now called The O2.

And the reason for our trip?

Alas no photos from within the Exhibition as understandably considering the age of the exhibits, photography is banned. But wow! Well worth the convoluted trip home.

Back tomorrow

Stupid me. I forgot to look at the train times before going into town today and arrived at the trainstation 20 minutes after the last train to the nearest station had left (not that this stopped them from selling me a ticket for it). After a long circular journey round most of South London we got home. Shattered.
Back tomorrow

On the tiles

Night out last night to a restaurant in Wimbledon Village. Lovely meal, excellent wine, fabulous company. So nice to be able to have a meal with adult conversation and without having to ensure that a certain little bottom remains on its seat and not slide off under the table.
The Count slept through for the third time in the last 6 weeks but his big brother was up instead with a sore throat.
Today, walks in the park as the weather moves slowly but surely out of autumn and onto winter.

Isabelle's bookmeme

Hardcover or paperback, and why?
Paperback – they fit easier into my bag although admittedly this was only a consideration when I was working and needed a book to read during the commute to Canary Wharf. Cookbooks though should always be hardback.

If I were to own a book shop , I would call it….
I don’t want to own a bookshop. I just want people to give me books for free.

My favourite quote from a book (mention the title) is…
Every time a favourite quote question appears in a meme I forget my favourite quote. So this one will have to do “ The sky above the port was the color of television tuned to a dead channel” (Neuromancer, William Gibson).

The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be… Alexander McCall Smith.

If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SASsurvival guide, it would be…
It would have to be something that would survive rereading over and over so perhaps The Encyclopaedia Britannica in all x volumes. The sections not currently being read could be put to use as some sort of shelter.

I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…
would let me read a book while feeding the Count. I suppose growing an extra pair of arms would do the job but that seems like such hard work.

The smell of an old book reminds me of… the cupboard under the window in the spare room at my grandparents’ home. My grandmother had filled it with all sorts of old hardback children’s books and I spent entire weekends at my grandparents as a teenager reading for there was nought else to do there.

The most overestimated book of all times is… I have to go with Isabelle here and say Ulysees, White Teeth and all of DH Lawrence’s scribblings. I hate it when a book … is predictable. When I was recovering from an operation back in March 2006 I went through a bit of a Katie Fforde phase; after reading a few of her novels I realised that they were all the same – girl is single, girl runs into boy, boy and girl disagree on life, argue constantly but really are falling in love with each other……

If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), I would be…. Thursday Next in “The Eyre Affair”

Friday

It all got done in time. The housework, laundry, etc etc. Parents arrived safely. Father has already examined the livingroom ceiling and agrees with you MrsT that the leakstain is an old one, he's also pointed out the other stains on the ceiling and believes that the room above flooded at one point. Oh and apparently the staircase is coming away from the wall in the loft and this may or may not have been caused by the weight of our bookcases. Bother!

What I should have done today

• clean and tidy the house as my parents are arriving tomorrow for a long weekend
• booked a restaurant for Saturday night - my parents are babysitting the boys so MrV and I can go out for a meal
• write a letter to Santa on behalf of the FB emphasising his longing for a marble shoot (series of tunnels you can put together to roll marbles down)
• played music with jars and water

What I did do today

• did some more of that cross stitch
• read my book

Guess how flustered and panicked I'll be tomorrow doing all the housework!