26th November 2008

I’ve found a brand new way to waste away countless hours on the computer. I’ve joined an ‘on-line community’. Its called Netmums and is;

A unique local network for Mums or Dads, offering a wealth of information on both a national and local level.

- apparently, according to its home page! For the last few weeks I’ve spent ages reading through advice on things, tips on unruly children, things to make with your kids and places to go. Then last week I ventured into the Forums. Wow, there are a lot of cyber mums out there! I initially started by looking at some of the things in the Post Natal Depression section, but that was far too depressing. Made me feel quite normal. Then I got some great tips and tricks from the Kitchen & Household boards. Which has actually really helped, people post all kinds of things, right down to what household chores do people do every day and every week. As we’ve all established I am right royally rubbish at housework, so knowing what other people do every day is great insight into what I should be doing and what people actually fill their days with!

Most recently I joined in with a thread for ladies who are having babies in April 2009... oh that includes me! It’s very strange but quite lovely. There are about 20 or so ladies who write every day. We have nothing in common except the fact we’re all pregnant. We share all sorts of things, everyday pregnancy niggles, opinions on breast feeding, the names we’re thinking of, what we’ve got up to each day. It’s fascinating! At the moment everyone’s having their 20 weeks scans and are either finding out what their having or not. It’s quite a strange experience, but quite interesting!

One thing I’ve discovered with all this forum malarkey is the phenomenon of tickers.
These are little boxes that people put on their signatures, mainly they count things! I have some, which basically say how old my children are and one which counts how pregnant I am, I’ll show you:




Now these I feel are sweet, in their own uniquely tacky way and I don't mind that. Some I have seen, however defiantly say something about the people posting them. I’ll give you some examples....





Ok so I apologise to anyone who currently uses any of these, but I just think their hilarious, it's like having a big sign saying "I have porcelain spaniels on my mantle piece and 5 gold earrings in each ear what I bought from Argos."

God bless them! Also some people post in 'text speak' which I have to say I really don't understand. If you're sitting at a computer with a full keyboard in front of you, why not type in full sentences with grammar and punctuation?! I mean in some areas of the UK I worry that the written word is dying out and being replaced with this drivel - as if your paying by the letter!

Sorry, I will not get started on a full scale rant regarding the misuse of the English language. L8r ppl lol!

18th November 2008

I’m so tired. No the word tired doesn’t cover it, I’m going to have to look it up in a thesaurus...
Ok; Exhausted, drained, all-in, fatigued – they describe it a little better. To those of you who are male, or have never had a baby, I will try to describe it;

Imagine you’re woken up in the middle of the night, say 3am after going to bed around 12. The person who wakes you up then tells you that you must run a half marathon, then work a full day. After that someone drains you of all white blood cells. Then I think you’d possibly feel this tired.
My bones tingle, I can’t concentrate, I’ve a headache at the front of my skull. And I’m winging again! Must stop that. I love being pregnant, the miracle of life, a brand new existence growing inside me. Yadda yadda yadda. But why does it have to make me feel so damn tired all the time??

I was going to write this long and insightful post about the fact I just watched the 1989 Steve Martin film Parenthood for the first time in 8 years. How I loved it more than I did then and find it really relevant to my life currently. But I can’t be bothered and I’m going to bed. Sorry.

Just remembered....

Pictures entered in the photographer of the year competition.

Round one's theme was; Film Titles

The first picture, Cherry Falls, scored a 6

The second, Vertigo, scored a 7

Not a bad result for my first competition!

6th November 2008

I’ve decided I’ve had enough of November and it’s only the 6th. I’d quite like it to be over and December to be here. The more I think about it, the less I like it. I’ll try and explain.

In November the weather is rubbish, its gray and dull and rainy and getting cold. October is a lovely time for the weather, the trees are changing colour and it’s beautifully autumnal. But as autumn turns into winter it goes through the dank, damp, nose dripping stage. I’m a big fan of the seasons and generally love living in England and seeing the year change. I don’t, however, like grey days. Or drizzle, either rain or don’t rain goddamnit!!

Apart from the weather, November is about waiting. Halloween (or Samhain) and all its celebrations, is over, the pumpkins gone squishy and been put on the compost. All the Christmas things have started appearing in the shops – but if you mention it people tut and say it’s too early. I really love Christmas (and Yule) but if I start getting excited now my husband will have killed me by mid December!

On a more serious note, November is not a good month for my other half. November marks the anniversary of his dad’s death. His birthday was also in November. His dad died of cancer when he was nine years old and was obviously a dark time for him and his mum. So both of them spend the month being depressed, crabby and generally on edge.

He doesn’t even do it consciously. Last year we were having a lot of arguments, he was impossible to please or keep happy. Neither of us twigged what the problem was till half way through the month. This year I offered to mark the occasions somehow, visit a favourite place of his dads, or do something with his mum, have a meal – anything really that would give them something to focus their darkness onto and hopefully help them move on from it. But he didn’t want to, he wants to be left to his month of sadness.

So all in all I’ve decided we should be able to fast forward through November, straight to the first door on the advent calendar.

2nd November 2008

I have several things to say today.

I was rudely awoken this morning by the sound of hammering. I was having a lovely dream too. As I lay there to work out which of my children was the culprit and would get the telling off, I realised it was neither of them. The sound was coming from upstairs. We live in a maisonette, so although it’s a house with stairs, we have a bedsit above us. It is the most ridiculous 1970’s design I’ve ever seen, but there you go.

We recently had someone move in up there and so far they have been lovely and quite, we’ve never seen them and only hear their footsteps in the mornings. But today they decided, at 7.50 am, that it was the perfect time to put something on the wall.

Now I don’t care if you’re the most intellectually challenged, web toed, boss eyed “normal for Norfolk” person in Norwich, you must be able to work out that ten to eight on a Sunday morning is not the time to turn your hand to DIY. I mean, come on people, Use Your Brains! Needless to say the kids woke up straight away and I saw my potential lay-in slip off into the ‘what might have been’. Sigh.

After getting up and making our way downstairs gaily, I walked into the kitchen. Sigh. How is it, that even though my husband cleaned up in the kitchen yesterday afternoon, it still looks as if a family of Rhinos made a three course meal in there? So guess what I’ll be doing all afternoon.

Next is my nose. As a young child I found out I was allergic to most animals with fur. It’s never stopped me owning or having animals in the house (with the exception of rabbits and guinea pigs), my mum is a cat person and we’ve always had cats. As a general rule, as long as I don’t cuddle them too closely or let them sleep on my bed or clothes, everything is fine and we can all live in peace and harmony.

The first kitten my darling husband brought home gave me the sniffles for about a week, then I got used to her and it’s all been fine. Last Monday he bought home another bundle of fur (let’s not go into that!). This one is a boy and I’m not sure if it’s because of this, but he is really getting up my nose. No really, something about him is making me have a really bad reaction. Today I’ve been sneezing all morning, my eyes have been running, as has my nose. It’s like something is sitting up my nostrils with the taps on full. I’ve been forced to take an allergy tablet simply because I can’t see straight! Let’s hope it works or I may be forced to knock up some kind of home-made bubble helmet. Hmm that will be attractive.

Now to evict the Rhinos from the kitchen...