* * * The Birth Story * * *

For a while now I've been meaning to write down everything that happened with the birth of my darling girl, little Phoebe Ophelia, who is doing absolutely splendidly thank you. Otherwise I will no doubt forget parts of the story as the months go on. She is 6 weeks old today and we are both doing fine. So here we go, this cold be a long blog post... !

The fun all started at the 38 weeks scan. My pregnancy was text book simple, baby moving nicely and a very neat, on the small side bump. People kept saying to me they couldn't believe I was as far along as I was as the bump was so small but I wasn't worried about it. I was waking up a lot in the night with bladder alarms and leg cramps and that was about the only discomfort I had.

So the midwife was doing her usual prodding and firm poking of my tum as I was laid prostrate on the examining table when she started hmming a bit. "Your baby has rather a bony bottom." Oh? "In fact, that might just be the head. I'm not 100% sure. It probably is the bottom, I'm almost sure of it but we better send you for a scan just in case it is breech."

I really didn't think it was breech. But then, I was convinced it was a boy and at the start I was convinced I wasn't pregnant, so that shows my instincts for you. I saw my midwife on the Monday, and two days later we trotted to the hospital to have this scan. The day unit consists of the most miniscule cubicles where you are literally laid on a small bed about 3ft away from the next bed, separated by a lightweight screen. Poor Nick was constantly in the way of the scanning machine and was visibly trying to shrink himself out of the way whilst also getting a view of the grainy scan picture. After waiting an age we are scanned and yes, breech baby! Bony bottom indeed.

We then had to wait for a doctor to come along and explain the options. They are:
1 - hope the baby turns naturally, wait and have a natural birth. If you have a natural breech birth there are risks for the baby so no thanks, plus the midwives aren't that well trained in delivering breech babies.
2 - book a ceasarian.
3 - book an ECV which is a medical procedure where they try to turn the baby around externally to get it in the right position which has a 50% success rate. If it works you give birth as normal.

We went for the ECV option which was booked in for that Friday. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything that morning, as they have to prepare you for an emergency C section if the ECV goes wrong (of which there is a very tiny chance). So we turn up at the hospital at 1pm (hungry!) and are shown to a hospital room. I am scanned and the baby is indeed still breech. I am given a gown and told to strip to my pants. I leave my socks on and worry about my unsexy knickers. I feel completely well so it is weird being in a gown on a hospital bed. I feel exactly like an extra from Casualty.

Some nurses and aneasthetists wander in and out, ask me questions and it all seems a bit serious. A drip needle is prodded around in my right arm to no avail so they butcher my left arm instead, leaving a large purple bruise that doesn't fade for weeks. Whilst the canula is in my arm throbs a little as if it's been knocked. Blood is also taken for some reason. Eventually the nice Chinese looking doc from the other day comes in and announces we are ready. A pulse monitor thing is put on my free arm and about 7 people come into the room. I am feeling a bit of a VIP at this point, and also a bit nervous. There are trainee midwives, nurses, a second doctor with a lovely Canadian accent.

The Canadian doctor starts to manhandle my bump, sticking his fingers in deep and pushing the baby around. We get so far, then pause as I'm finding it quite painful. The baby pings back. He tries the other way to no avail. A more senior lady doctor also tries then gives up, this baby likes being head up. The people in the room gradually file out and a no nonsense looking midwife comes in with a schedule in her hand.
"So, we can book the ceasarian for either Monday or Wednesday of next week..."
Holy shit! Monday is only 3 days away! I can't possibly have a baby in 3 days time so I plump for Wednesday. Even that is a week before my due date. So much for thinking that this baby would arrive late. They give me a sandwich before I leave which is kind, I'm ravenous!

We spent the next few days sorting out boring domestic things like finally buying a tumble dryer (Thank God. I use it all the time now.).

So the big day came... 6th October 2010...

The day before we had to go back to collect some tablets and some serious looking shower gel that kills all known germs. I was instructed to wash with it before bed and then again in the morning and not to put anything on my skin afterwards, not even deodorant. The tablets were anti-nausea and anti-acid incase of any side effects to the drugs they were giving me, and I had to take them at 6am. It was strange, waking up and knowing that I was going to meet my baby today - incredibly exciting and also scary, what if something went wrong with the Op? What if there was something wrong with the baby? But it also felt like Christmas day morning when you're a kid, waking up and looking at all the presents and that feeling of intense, bubbling anticipation.

We were up at the Princess Anne (Of Channel 4's One Born Every Minute fame) Hospital by 7:30am. We were shown to what was to be my 'recovery room' - a large room with curtains cordoning off 2 bed areas. My bed was there waiting and I duly hopped on to it after putting on the rather attractive hospital gown, you know, the sort that leaves your bum flapping out the back. They told me to bring my own pillow and slippers so I got myself comfy. We were told just to hang fire, as we knew one lady was booked in before us and possibly one other as well. I was rescanned to check the baby was still breech which she was. Eventually they called me into the operating theatre around 11am. Eeeeeeeee!!

I walked in my bum-flappy gown to the theatre with my pillow tucked under my arm while Nick got changed into the rather sexy green overalls complete with hair net. After waiting outside for about 10 minutes I was shown in - it was a large, high ceilinged room with lots of natural light and a CD was playing gentle music in the background. Various people seemed to be milling around. The atmosphere was surprisingly calm and relaxed. I got up onto a slim bed and was told to perch on the side, hunched forward and to hug the pillow so that they could give me a spinal injection. First though another canula into the hand which that time didn't hurt at all.

So they first numbed a small patch at the base of my spine, then I had to keep still as the serious injection happened. I was told it would take 5/10 mins to work so I swung myself up onto the bed ready for the numbing action. In due course my legs got a bit warm, tingly and heavy feeling but I could still lift them off the bed and wriggle my toes. The very pretty lady aneasthetist who reminded my of my cousing Karen looked a bit perplexed. I was supposed to be numbed from the boobs down and she kept spraying an ice cold liquid down the side of my tummy to test my numbness... It kind of worked but clearly not properly as I could still wave my legs around a bit which isn't supposed to happen. Eventually she gave up with the liquid and decided to poke an epidural into me, that's another spinal injection that actually stays in, like a drip. This worked fine, although I had one horrific moment where it make me feel horrendously nauseous. Luckily she had warned me this might happen and she soon fixed it with some power drugs into my cannula.
Poor Nick had waited much longer than he was told he would have to and by this point he was bricking it! He still found the time to take some dashing photos of himself in his blue scrubs on his iPhone though... Anyway they called him through and he came and sat by my head, so I was looking up his nostrils, lovely. The blue screen was whipped up below my boobs and quick as a flash those surgeons started up, no messing about! I obviously couldn't see what was going on down there but the weirdest thing is that you can feel everything they do, just without pain. For example, I felt when they dragged the blade across my tummy to cut me open and it felt exactly like someone drawing a line on you with a brio through a pair of jeans. SO freaky. Then there was a lot of pushing and pulling about, quite a bit of pressure, then I remember the anaesthetist looking surprised and saying "Oh! You have a baby!".

Lo and behold, next thing a quite large looking, wet, reddish baby is lifted up from behind the curtain to greet me with the most perfect expression of utter shock and horror! I will never, ever forget that face! And arms and legs all out like a starfish. Eyes wide open, gulping in air and apparently doing a big wee as she came out, so I'm told. I was so busy looking at that face that I didn't clock the sex and neither did Nick, and they whipped her away for a quick apgar test and wrap up before we even knew it. It was while she was being weighed etc that they told us she was a girl and I really felt that all my Christmasses had come at once. My little Phoebe.

The next half an hour is a bit of a blur, I was sewn up again but all I can remember is Pheebs being put into me arms and just being completely and utterly fascinated by her. Nick was quite emotional, it was all just lovely. After that I had to go through the indignitys of being moved onto a trolley whilst being all floppy and useless, quite funny as I felt I was going to fall off and knowing I couldn't stop myself! Don't worry reader, I was in good hands. Back down the hallway with Phoebe nestled on my chest and into the recovery room with Nick for some peace and quiet. P was a bit on the chilly side so our midwife popped her into an incubator for a hour or two. She zonked out for a kip as soon as the lovely warmth of the chamber hit her, it was like lying on a sunny beach! I took some time out to have a bed bath (completely undignified, but really couldn't give a crap by that point. I had a tablet up my bumholio as well to add insult to injury, felt the need to giggle inappropriately when the nurse inserted it and say something witty, but I resisted the urge, thank God) and also clock a good look at the placenta, which was put into a kidney dish for me. Very bright red and large and bloody, say no more. I got a photo of it.

Well, I recovered fine, two nights in the clink (oops, I mean hospital) and I was desperate to get home, although the car ride home was terrifying for me. Being outside the cosy protection of the hospital is extremely daunting at first and I sat in the back next to the carseat with an expression of wide eyed terror the whole way. My first experience of being an overprotective mother!!

That is the longest blog post for, well, ever... and I finally finished it after a year and a half. It didn't take me that long to write it, may I add. I just have a lot on it seems, constantly, and there is always something else to do rather than blog. Hopefully the next post will arrive a bit quicker. Got a lot to catch up on! Thanks for reading it.

Big Tum!

So guys I am going to be having a baby in October 2010! The due date is the 12th, I was hoping for Halloween but I can deal with the 12th. If it's 2 days early it's birthday will be 10-10-10 which would be awesome... will have to eat lots of hot curry etc on the 9th to try and self induce labour! Only kidding.

So I found out in January and had to keep quiet about it for a good couple of months which was quite torturous... having to make up excuses as to why I wasn't drinking and blah blah but in April the word went out and we could finally let people know after the 12 week scan. I am now 21 weeks and counting... I have a definite bump and bigger boobs but my body still feels like my own. I am enjoying it so far, I've been very lucky in having no morning sickness at all, I have had the most chronic indigestion but I will take that over puking, definitely.

During the first 3 months I started and ended a 7 week temping position at a fancy Landrover dealership then started a permanent job working for British Gas whilst battling extreme tiredness and awful wind/stomach aches. I was going to bet at 9pm and just sleeping for England plus sloping off to the toilet all the time, not pleasant! Anyway I sound like a real moaner, it was quite hard work though. I'm half way through the pregnancy now and I've just finished 7 weeks of training at B Gas so I'm doing the job officially now. They do know, I told them a few weeks ago which was quite nerve wracking - I'm only on a 6 month probation and I thought they might just show me the door. So far they have been really good about it though which is such a relief.

Nick is still setting up his business which is going quite well. Really want to get some business now but he's done a few jobs and the website is now set up: www.waitefilms.com - there are a few videos in the gallery as examples of his work.

I've obviously quit drinking and smoking, neither of which I really miss. I have the occasional half of lager/guinness/small glass of wine so not totally abstaining. No shellfish, soft or blue cheese, runny eggs, or pate for me at the moment though. No weird cravings really to speak of - in the first month I had a bit of a thing for raw carrots and I've gone off chocolate slightly but I still eat it, just don't go mad for it like I used to. At the moment I keep getting leg cramps at night, sometimes they wake me up and I have to jump out of bed and perform a crazy sort of Irish jig to get rid of them which is quite irritating, especially for Nick. That and numb fingers at night, both of which are common so my pregnancy book tells me.

The other day I thought I had a mosquito bite on my ankle - I had a small, itchy bite mark with what I thought was a little scab on the top of it but then I took a closer look and it was a tick!! Oh my GOD so disgusting I cannot begin to describe. It came out, head and all, fairly easily and I gave it a quick and painless death but I have been totally grossed out ever since.

Well I'm a bit sunburnt after a day at Highcliff beach plus a trip around West Quay shopping centre for pregnancy bras and pretty tops which have plenty of room up the front with my lovely mother in law.

Dark Crystal Dreams

So I had the most vivid dream the other night, it was basically the whole imagined sequel to the film 'The Dark Crystal' which has been one of my favourite films since I was 6 years old. I have no idea what brought it into my subconcious mind but it was quite good, although I remember being slightly vexed that they had chosen Keira Knightley to play the part of Kira and not a puppet. The details are fading now but she was sat in a large, gladitorial style stadium which a guy next to her who I presume was supposed to be Jen and there were definitely landstriders in it although they had horses heads and six legs, I think because I have watched Avatar too many times and I was getting confused in my dreams!

Well it's my last day tomorrow in this temping position, I like the people but OH MY GOD there is nothing to do every day. I am melting into a slack jawed puddle of boredom and can't wait to be outta here. Just thinking of the money clocking up hour by hour is what has got me through. I don't know how anyone could do this job full time, it is moronic. I am starting a permanent job on Monday which is for a well done energy supplier - good money and after my training period I will be working a 4 day week, Thursdays off, Woohoo! Although it's long hours the other days so I won't be able to go to my normal yoga class anymore on a Tuesday night, but luckily Perminder does a class on Thursdays so I'm going to change to that. Bit of a shame as it's at a College further away from where I live but I can't live without my yoga now, it's so good.

I've been up to London town for the weekend. Which was a belated birthday treat for my mother in law. We took her for afternoon tea at Browns hotel which was all finger sandwiches, mini scones and cakes (an infinite supply) and lovely, lovely teas to drink. Then after a mooch around Soho we went to Ronnie Scotts in the evening for dinner and jazz, baby! We saw the James Tayler Quartet which was really funky, Starsky & Hutch type music with much audience participation, although I didn't do too much dancing as I had eaten a massive house burger and fries and was feeling rather distended, belly wise. Still I sang a lot, he divided the crowd and each side had to bellow out 'In the Ghetto' or 'We're talking 'bout the Ghetto' really loudly in a sing off stylee, something I haven't experience literally since Primary school! Loved it. So a great night, and then on the Sunday we went to Colombia Road flower market and Spitalfields market.

And someone has actually given me a small amount of work to do!! Wow. Better sign off.

Living the Temping Dream...

So the job search continues and in the meantime I've found a 6 week temping placement which is at a big car dealership conveniently close to where I live. It's long hours, 8-6 but then I get paid hourly and I'm able to get home for lunch so I figure it beats doing a long commute in busy traffic each morning. The people are really nice, it's a bit of a joke because I literally know nothing about cars, especially very large, modern ones.

I'm still looking for permanant work but it's been pretty hard to find anything and quite demoralising. I've slacked off over the last few weeks as well as I knew that I had myself sorted for a while with this temp job. Wages are basically shit in Southampton and there are hundreds of people all looking for work. A bad combination!

Nick is taking the bull by the horns and is setting up his own business. So far he has registered the Company name, designed a wicked logo, bought a Smart car and is currently getting it sign written, been to see a solicitor for legal advice, oh, and bought a fancy pants video camera with a load of kit to go with it. He's going to be making videos, for weddings, companies, that sort of thing. I won't go into any more detail until it's a bit more fully formed. He's been really busy the last few weeks, plus I've turned him into a house husband as well because I've hardly been around. He's doing most of the cooking and cleaning as I simply don't have the hours in the day to do it and our weekends have been horrendously packed full of stuff. Fun stuff but all the same, leaves you with no time!

The kittens are just completely awesome and lovely. They are super affectionate and love company. They jump around all over the place like utter loons and are strangely fascinated by running water. If you're running a bath they fall in, if you're brushing your teeth they try to get in the sink and if you're on the loo they jump up on your lap which is a bit disconcerting. Max loves climbing the curtains up to ceiling height, but then he can't get back down again so gets ridiculously stuck. They have destroyed most of our house plants and I basically can't wait to get them outside in the garden where they can let off some steam!! We are just waiting for them, especially little Millie, to recover from their neutering operations which they had about a week ago. So about another week. She has a big shaved patch which feels like a shammy leather on her side. They seem completely unfazed by the experience which is a relief.

It's my Dad's birthday today, must give him a ring. And it was my mother in laws 60th yesterday, we went around for dinner and drinks last night. At the weekend, for her birthday, we went to the most amazing hotel - http://www.limewood.co.uk/ which is in the New Forest. We stayed overnight and had the most incredible meal of my life. It was cooked by Alex Aitkin who has 2 Michelin Stars no less! And it was at the 'Chef's Table', literally a big oak table actually in the huge, bustling kitchen of the hotel and you get to watch all the cooks bustling about like something out of Hell's Kitchen (but without the swearing and they all looked quite calm). Anyway there were 9 courses, it was a taster menu, and with each course we had a Sommelier come and match up the wine to go with it, there was so much interesting wine and even vintage pink champagne with the scallops course!

OK now because I want to remember it for all time and this is my blog, this is what we had to eat. I know it's boring! It's more for me.

1) Pre dinner nibbles of chicken liver fois gras and aubergine caviar with little toasts.

2) An amuse bouche of little espresso cup of what tasted like very rich cauliflower cheese topped with fois gras and reduced balsamic vinegar

3) A sealed jam jar that they popped the lid off for you at the table, filled with wild mushroom risotto, a bantam poached egg on top and slivers of truffles. Possibly my favourite course, this one.

4) Scallops in a sort of salady vinegrette with the pink champers to drink. Yum.

5) Monkfish chunks with a sort of olive tapenade on top and a triangle of something like hallumi cheese underneath which was very nice

6) Slowed cooked venison with poached pear and walnuts and a small individual haggis on the side. nice but weird with the haggis!

7) Lump of some British Brie type cheese with a 'deconstructed' waldorf salad next to it! So funny, just all the ingredients laid out prettily rather than all mixed together. Very nice though.

8) Basically a shot glass with a basil froth at the top, sweet coconut mush underneath with lumps of lime jelly. The only course I didn't really like if I'm honest.

9) Passionfruit souffle which they pop the top of with a spoon in front of you and pour into it a rich passionfruit sauce. It also came with a little cornetto thing on the side which was very tasty.

10) Coffees and little homemade chocolate truffles in the bar afterwards.

Oh my God! I was so bloated! I actually couldn't sleep afterwards. The hotel is so posh as well, but feels very relaxed so you don't feel too self conscious which is good. My sister in law works there and got us a very good deal, to say the least.

Anyway I know that was so, so boring to list al the food but I really want to remember what a fantastic evening we had there. We're also taking the mother in law to London for the weekend which will be the weekend after next. We're going to do afternoon tea at Browns then a night a Ronnie Scott's Jazz club, hurrah! That will be amazing too, I'm sure.

Job Seeking... Kittens...

So it's coming towards the end of January now and we are finally done with the renovations. December was a complete mother of a month, it was the most tiring and un-Christmassy run up to Christmas I have ever had in my life, which sucked because I flipping LOVE Christmas and all of the festive stuff that comes with it. We did buy a tree from B&Q back in November which sat out in the back garden for several weeks waiting for the lounge to be done. We brought it inside just a few days before Christmas day and managed to get the baubles on just in time.

Christmas day itself was lovely, however, and so was the following week. We had my Dad and his partner come to stay with us, and also her daughter and daughter's husband so not only did we have to have finished all the DIY but I also had to be organised and do a bunch of shopping/cooking. Maggie was a sweetie though and turned up with an entire hamper of food which included fresh coffee, twiglets and a Christmas pudding. I think they were worried that we wouldn't have any food in the house at all.

Then everyone got the flu apart from me, and we were planning to have some friends round on New Years Eve but it ended up being just 6 of us so I cooked a big fancy meal and we all just got drunk and played a bit of Cranium. I love Cranium! Nick bought me the new version for Christmas, it rocks. You need at least 6 people to play it properly though I would say. For Christmas I also got some lovely sheepskin gloves from my mother in law which are so snuggly and warm for my poor zombie dead hands. And what else... Nick bought me both Iko and Shadow of the Colossus PS2 games which is awesome, I haven't really had time to play them yet but I knw they are there waiting for me...

Then we just spent a couple of weeks doing nothing at all - really chilling out and enjoying having our own space around us again and our amazing new home. Getting our stuff out of storage was such a great day for me, opening up all those boxes and discovering all the stuff we have that I'd forgotten completely about. All my books! They are stupidly precious, I am such a nerd. And old keepsakes and photo albums - I spent ages just going through them all.

Then last week we went to the RSPCA and the Blue Cross rescue centres to look for cats. I was totally up for getting a smelly old, unwanted 3 legged one with bad breath but in the end we were enchanted by a pair of kittens that a lady had hand reared. It was so traumatic walking around all those cages with cats in, at the RSPCA they had around 150 cats all waiting for a new home and some TLC. I just wanted to adopt them all. Nick really had his heart set on kittens though so when this lady mentioned about them I caved in totally! The Mum had been found in a shed with them when they were really little and when they brought her in she got so stressed that she stopped producing milk so the kittens had to be taken away from her and reared by hand. There were just the 2 of them, they are brother and sister and we've had them 5 days now. They are both white with small beige/pale ginger patches and the girl is tiny. We're calling them Max & Millie - the rescue centre were calling them the Mingmongs/Tango and Fanta which were shit names. Actually I quite like the Mongmongs as a collective name for them but Ming and Mong are rubbish.

So I am trying to find a job in Southampton right now and I've applied for quite a few. I had one interview yesterday and the job sounds great but they didn't mention salary... I'm worried it might be rubbish. I don't want to jinx anything I've applied for by going into it here in great detail cos then I'm bound to not get it.

Max and Millie are great, really playful and crazy. They sleep quite a lot, eat and poo loads and are lovely to be around. Millie is currently watching me type and when I move the mouse she tries to attack it. She keeps walking on the keyboard and pressing the caps lock button, she seems especially fond of capital letters. Max is the boss and Millie follows him around, she miows pathetically if he leaves the room for too long. He is the one trying to get into the dishwasher/up onto the worktops and generally knocking over everything. They are both so small and around 3 1/2 months old right now - I don't think they're going to be massive cats, she is quite runty like our old cat Molly. Anyway they are great, I love them already.

Ola!

Hi dudes, tis me with another quarterly update...

So it's now November the 4th, Bonfire Night tomorrow. We've just had Halloween which involved a house party in Winchester with a bunch of Nick's Southampton mates. Mostly old toots from his Days of Yore whose friendships have been rekindled since we moved to the big smoke. A really very nice bunch too if I do say so. It started with a night out at the Hobbit pub, a studenty dive of a place with dodgy booze and since then we have been hanging out most Friday nights. So we went to a great Halloween party where everyone made a massive effort costume wise. I was a black cat, as facebook pics prove, and Nick was a most authentic Ghostbuster with his homemade Proton Pack.

I am still mostly knackered with all this DIY malarky. Still, the house is looking better and better with the downstairs pretty much complete now. I spent this morning painting the woodwork in our shower room and then this afternoon tiling the bathroom. It all takes a long time but we're getting a really good finish, better than our last place in Guernsey as we're more practised now and have definitely learnt from our mistakes. Another month and we should be in.....

Lots of interesting wildlife going on at the house, with loads of bluetits and wood pigeons in the garden. I hung a few bird feeders in the little magnolia tree we have and this grey squirrel keeps coming along, grabbing the feeders and shaking them up and down like a lunatic. Brilliant! I have a fascination of squirrels as we don't have them in Guernsey so they can eat the nuts, I don't mind. In our loft we have found heaps of old wasps nests which are so beautiful and delicate, like little paper lanterns that fall apart when you touch them. A couple of days ago Nick found a most peculiar thing which looked like this up behind the felt which turned out to be a bumble bees nest. It looked incredibly alien and I don't know why but I had to have a good sniff up close and it smelt like a cross between honey and bitter mould. Then our next door neighbours have a very cute little chocolate brown cat called Coco who comes to visit us every day which is nice. She's a bit of a madam but generally cute.

I've started doing Hatha Yoga which is very lovely although the chanting gets a bit of getting used to. Lots of Ommmmmm shanti shanti's and such like. I love it though, am going to try to keep up with it.

Well its Trinity and True Blood night on the TV tonight, two excellent shows. I'm sleepy so hope I manage to keep my eyes open. Just getting over a cold which has lasted about a week so I'm ready for it to be over.

Laaaaaaaaaame

Shit I almost forgot what my username and password were, I haven't blogged for so long. Well I evidently haven't died or had a horrible accident. No I have been here lurking for quite a while, thinking to myself... "I really should try and summon the energy and brainpower to write a blog update.... oh bugger it nevermind, to bed it is. Zzzzzzzzzzz."

It's been a bit like that. It's been a totally like that. I have been tiring myself out with lots of DIY, which is both physically exhausting and also not all that interesting to write about. It's very monotonous and I keep getting what I am think is RSI in my right wrist, which leaves it all clawed up like a dying spider at the end of each day, so no typing. We are making progress with the house which is the good news, although there is still a SHITLOAD to do. We've had Fernando the plumber in to do the pipes and rads, he didn't have swine flu like the last guy Toby did. At the moment I am reconditioning the old sash windows which all have lots of little panes and are a total bugger to sand/prime/undercoat/paint. Arrrrrrrgh!! I'm also getting through tubs of easifill, sacks of bonding and pots of wood filler like you wouldn't believe. See, I said it was boring.

We did have a lovely few days in Guernsey last month, and then we also had a roadtrip to Plauen in East Germany for a friend's wedding which was totally awesome. We took a week there and back so saw lots of scenery and stopped off for a day in Brussels on the way back. East Germany was very beautiful with lush countryside and ruined castles on hilltops. Our mates John & Kristin had a really beautiful wedding in this green wooded valley that had a river running through it. Just breathtaking. We took our rather large people carrier that we have bought for all the DIY and just slept in the back of it which was surprisingly comfortable.

My sister, her hubby and their two little rascals are in Bournemouth on holiday at the mo' so tomorrow we're going to pop down and see them for the afternoon. Then on Wednesday we're off to Guernsey again for a longer break and also for SJ & Mike's wedding which is this coming weekend. So some time off from the house to look forward to.

Hopefully Nick will be with me on the flight but he's thinking of changing it to later in the week so he can be around for his little sister Holly who is poorly at the moment. The poor girl has a nasty condition which flares up every now and then, called Ulcerative Colitus. Right now she's having a bad flare up and is basically bed ridden. She's been off work for a few weeks and is living with us at Nick's parents until she gets better. It's so hard for her as it's quite painful and she has to deal with it for the rest of her life, I can't imagine how difficult that must be. It's not life threatening, just very uncomfortable and luckily it's been 2 years since the last flare up. Nick is really good at cheering her up with all his antics and distractions.

Apart from the DIY I am still trying to practise my cello although I haven't done much recently cos of the old spider claw of doom. I've been reading Wuthering Heights, which is impossible to do without humming the Kate Bush song in your head the whole time. And I've been watching Jam & Jerusalem which is the best thing on TV at the moment and pretty much the only thing I watch these days, I can't get enough of it and it's chintzy English loveliness. I'm looking forward to the Guern and seeing all our mates and of course going to a wedding! I love weddings so much and I know what a stylish girl that SJ is, I bet it's going to be super stylish and amazing.