Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008. Love from the Taf family.

Things I never really appreciated

The meaning of the word 'engorged'.

Taf and I have wonderful parents.

Parenthood means you can go from euphoric to terrified in 1 small hour.

My husband is the best.

Nothing is more beautiful than your own child.

He's here!

Weighing in at a fine old 7lb 10oz, Baby Taf arrived kicking and screaming into the world. He spent a few of the most traumatic days of our lives in ICU due to a breathing problem, but is now home with Mum and Dad, having been given a clean bill of health.

3 days to go

It's so exciting. Baby is having a good whoosh around trying to get in the correct position. Unfortunately it's not possible, but I really enjoy the feeling. Can't believe it's nearly time. We're as ready as we'll ever be (hah!).

Phew!

Went for 36 week scan today. Baby moved from breech to transverse during the scan. What a wriggler. Placenta still covering exit, so C-section inevitable. Midwife thought that I might have to stay in hospital until next Friday. Luckily the consultant thought I coould stay at home as I am so near the hospital.
I would have gone demented if I'd had to stay in hospital that long - yeuh and think of the food.

DIY

OK, so we're having a baby a week on Friday. We both seem to have acquired the nesting instinct. Taf has pulled up all the tiles on the bathroom and kitchen floors. The new vinyl is being installed next Wednesday/Thursday. My craft room has been dismantled ready to become the nursery. I'm now getting quotes in for a new front door. You could buy a small town in NZ for the cost of a new door in the UK!

Cravings

I haven't really has any serious ones. However, now I'm craving ice cubes. Apparently it's quite common. it even has it's own name - pagophagia. It's not just pregnant women either - there's whole websites out there devoted to the subject! Glad I'm normal.

Little Taf

I'm now on maternity leave and I'm pretty tired. The baby will be born on November 30th by c-section. Seems that the placenta is blocking the exit. Oh well, at least I have a schedule.
We've had to get our as into g and get a few things in. We just got a lovely car seat so we can bring our baby home from hospital. It will even be fully dressed, maybe even with terry nappies.
must go - need another nap.

whingeing pom is back

I just wanted to know if anyone was still reading my blog. It seems you are still all out there - phew!

Hello?

Is there anybody out there?

Sweet Baby

A little too sweet maybe. I've got a lot of amniotic fluid and have to go for a diabetes test on Tuesday. We had another scan yesterday and the baby is fine - just the right size and weighing about 1.5kg. Seems like this excess fluid may lead to early labour, so Taf and I have decided we'd better get a few things in. 3 sleepsuits is a good start!
Can you please send me positive vibes for Tuesday?

Size of a House

I'm six months pregnant now and very large. Baby is an active little person - plenty of swooshes and kicks. It was hard to concentrate on programming yesterday as baby had hiccups. My whole tummy was jumping.

Found: One Mojo

I haven't been inspired to make cards for ages. On the weekend I had a few hours spare and, yes, my creativity came back. Inspiration was a couple of chocolate airplanes. Hope you like it.

September

Bloody hell, when did that happen?

Up North

We've been up north again to see the family. Baby J is coming along nicely, as per the piccy. Baby taf is in training for trampolining in the 2028 Olympics (for England).

Blog world

It's great having a blog. Especially now that I'm so far away from so many friends. I've just gone back through old entries and realised that a few people have left comments since I last looked. So hello, Desiree, Tigger and Paul-e-Paul. Lovely to hear from you all.
Just to put the record straight, Taf and I didn't plan to have children, but Mother Nature had other ideas. She's a smart cookie, as now it is happening, we're very pleased. I'm at the 5 month stage now and getting very nicely rounded. Baby Taf kicked Daddy the other day and he was thrilled.
Oh, and we've definitely dropped Zinzan as a name.

Balloons

It's Bristol Balloon Festival again. We can watch them from our bedroom window. It's a great sight. Here's a familiar friend as photographed by Derk.

Baby update

We had our 20 week anomally scan and baby Taf looks lovely. We didn't find out what sex it was. It's been very fluttery recently which does wonders for my state of mind. My tummy is already massive and I'm only just over half way.
I've had a shocking time trying to find maternity wear. Good old eBay came to my rescue.
We have found a really nice alcohol-free beer. I wonder if we could persuade Montana to make an alcohol free Lindauer?

Britain

Looks like we've got Foot and Mouth again. Hopefully it won't be so bad this time. It's heartbreaking to see the farmers lose their livelihood.
There isn't enough money to fix up all the damage caused by the floods. Gloucester country council reckons it will take them decades to get it all done because they simply can't afford it.
It's about time our greedy government put the backbreaking taxes to good use and helped the people of this country.
I know income tax is reasonably low here, but they sting you every other way. We had to pay 8,000 pounds stamp duty (tax) just to buy a small house.
Oh well, at least the health service is free - HUH!

wet wet wet

Taf and I drove up north on Friday to see our new baby niece. We could have done with a boat to get there. We had to drive through a fair few floods. It was a bit scary. Never mind, here is a pic of our little niece. I had a few cuddles with her, but declined to learn nappy changing. My time will come! I can feel my baby moving now and I'm thrilled.

Terror Alert

Britain's terror alert footing has been raised to 'critical'. This is a bit scary and makes you want to stay away from busy places. I don't really understand what terrorism is supposed to achieve. Whatever it is, I don't think it's working.
On the bright side, it's the start of the smoking ban today. So all you asthmatics, allergy sufferers, pregnant women and clear air enthusiasts - go to the pub! (Preferably in some small village).

What's in a name?

Taf and I really like the idea of Zinzan as a boy's name. However it's caused uproar and hilarity here. I guess if it's a boy and we call it Zinzan, we'll have to move back to NZ where people are more civilised about these things.

Pregnancy

This is all very interesting to me. I never expected it to happen, but now it has, Taf and I couldn't be more thrilled. Mum is already knitting a cardigan. I'm feeling a bit yucky at the moment. I want to cry every time I think about food. As you know, this is a very unusual turn of events for me as I've always been partial to a little snackerel of something. Apparently this will pass soon and the next 3 months should be a lot better. Good.
What are the chances of the scientists inventing a matter transporter by December?

The miracle

Say hello to Baby Taf.

Smoke Free

Yahoo! England is going smoke free on July 1st. This means it will be illegal to smoke in any enclosed workplace. This includes pubs, clubs, taxis, company cars, etc. All very good, however the government has to go overboard. By law every enclosed workplace will have to display a prominent no smoking sign on every entrance way. Won't that just look lovely on churches, schools, museums and Buckingham Palace?
It's all just a bit over the top.

Greece too

I haven't done anything interesting since coming back from Greece, so here is another photo. The red line is pointing to our hotel room.

Greece

Taf and I just got back from 2 weeks in Greece. We stayed in 'The Retreat' Syvota. It was absolutely beautiful. The picture is the view from our hotel room. It was a great place for us as Taf had lots of boats and windsurfers to play with whilst I found a nice sunbed by the pool. The weather was great and I've turned dark white. We both learned to sail a yacht. So if we ever win the lottery, we shall buy one.

Email

Most companies have guidelines about inappropriate use of email. The one I work for is no exception. I'm perfectly happy with it as I hate junk email and spams. However, my boss emailed us this week to tell us one of our colleagues had died. This was such a shocking way to find out. I didn't work with him, but he was there every day sitting in the office with the most amazing smile. And now he's gone - aged 28.
Am I wrong or is email a totally inappropriate way to communicate this sort of news?

Fashion

I'm off to a 40th birthday party on Sunday. The hostesses are twins. They are both dainty and elegant and I know they've bought beautiful (matching) dresses for the event. Not to let the side down, I thought I'd go shopping for something stylish. I knew what I was looking for - my s-i-l had a lovely black and white tunic top and I wanted something similar. I found it after a lot of searching, only to discover that is looked a lot better on her size 12 frame than it did on my size 20. All the current fashions make me look like a barrage balloon or as if I'm 20 months pregnant. Most of them are in patterns that I'd have been ashamed to wear back in the 60s when they were first fashionable. Even M&S have let me down. They've gone all trendy. When Twiggy is one of their models, you can be fairly sure that the clothes won't look good on the fuller figure.
So I'm going to wear the good old fashioned top I bought in Farmers last year and a pair of Millers trouser. Yay, go me!

Bristol

Here is a gratuitous picture of Bristol. I am really getting to like living here, although it will never be quite the same as Wellington. It's a shame you can't windsurf in the harbour - we'd be here for life if you could!

Anzac Biscuits

They went down a treat. Well, I did only make them for my team and they are all far too polite to criticise my cooking (yeah, right). I thought they tasted something like oaty cardboard, but as I haven't had a sense of taste for a few months, I couldn't be sure.
Anyway it was just a tiny memorial to those great men and women who fought to keep us safe.

St. Georges Day

Now that I've rediscovered my Englishness, I thought it would be nice to celebrate St. Georges Day (April 23rd). So I bought a load of English cakes - Chelsea Buns, Yorkshire Tea Loaf and scones with jam & cream - to share with my colleagues. Didn't go down all that well. People ate them eventually, but no-one seemed bothered. Oh well, I like to celebrate being English.
To commemorate my other nationality, I have baked Anzac cookies for tomorrow. If no-one wants them, I'll eat them myself!

Eden Project

Just before Easter, Taf and I went down to Cornwall with my bruv, s-i-l and JJ. We stayed in a beautiful thatched cottage in Bosinver. Cornwall is so pretty with its rugged coastlines. On the Sunday we went to the Eden Project. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately I had a bad cold so didn't appreciate it as much as I should. The biodomes were amazing with plants you wouldn't normally see in England, like bananas and mangoes. As it was spring there were also thousands of daffodils, hyacinths and tulips - a spectacular show. I spent a lot of time chasing JJ who thought it was completely boring (well, she is only 19 months old) and wanted to go her own way.

Airbus

I was walking across the Downs today when I spotted a massive airplane in the sky (obviously). They are building the new Airbus here and I guess it was on a test flight. Big bugger, but boring to look at.

Spring

boing boing boing.

It's the first day of spring today and it's been an absolute cracker. Loads of sun, but still quite cold. We had a frog or toad in our garden. Isn't he lovely?

Brean Down

I don't know why they are called Downs when they are definitely Ups. Taf and I went for a wonderful explore of Brean Down. It was as windy as Wellington. The Down pokes out into the sea and at the end is an abandoned fort. It was never used much in the defense of these shores, but a soldier did manage to blow himself up there.

Fairy Godmother

Years ago I was asked to be godmother to my eldest niece. I'm not in the slightest bit religious, but felt I couldn't say no. I have to say I made a really bad job of it and now I don't have any contact with said niece.
Luckily, I have been given the chance to redeem myself. Gerbera has asked me to be LJs fairy godmother. I feel I can cope a lot more with this. No religious connotations at all, just a fun thing to do. I hope it doesn't make him scared of fairies!

Say 'Cheese'

Taf and I went for a lovely walk in the Mendips, near Cheddar. It's one of the walks we used to do when we lived here before. There was a lot of mud and a fair few hills, but it was a lovely day. We sat in a hollow to eat our lunch and were joined by 3 guests. The weather was amazing although we could see that it was raining in Devon and Wiltshire. We ended up in Cheddar where they make the world's yummiest cheese. We had a bit of a taste, but were too tight to buy any!

Ikea

Now don't get me wrong, this is a great store. It has some lovely products at reasonable prices.
Taf and I had heard horror stories about shopping there, but didn't really believe it. Anyway, we needed a desk, so off we set to Ikea one Sunday morning. Bad move. The off-ramp from the M32 was chocca - all going to Ikea. The car park had a queue to get in. Once in, there is a travellator to take you to the shopping. I'm not joking, half of Bristol had decided to have an Ikea experience. It was a nightmare - wall-to-wall people. The shop is larger than 4 Warehouse Stores combined and it has 2 floors. You have no choice but to follow the allocated path round. If you are mad enough to want to look at something, it is a fight to get to it. When you've decided what you want, you then have to go and find it in the warehouse part of the store. Big problem - we couldn't find the way out. By this time, I'm on the verge of a panic attack, so Taf did what he always does at times of max stress - went for a pee. So I'm left at the top of the travellator, (incoming only) which is spewing forth more of the Bristol population, trying to remember to breathe. After we found our desk in the warehouse (last one, slightly damaged box, but dammit, we are NOT going home empty handed), we joined the queue. By golly, my compatriots know how to queue. Half an hour standing in the line gives you a good chance to look at what everyone else is buying. We were really amazed at the crap people buy - we couldn't even tell what some of it was. Well, we eventually got out intact with our purchase precariously perched on the trolley - can't get down the down travellator - purchase is too wide. So we do battle for the lift. Had to be sneaky and devious, but finally made it.
The moral of the story? Go to Ikea at 8pm on a Monday. Have a list of what you want to purchase. Take sandwiches and an oxygen bottle.
I haven't the heart to tell Taf that I've seen some bookcases there that I really must have...

Demented, not scary

We've got a quiz night on Friday and it's fancy dress. The theme is TV and my team is going as Dr. Who. I'm a bit of a Who fan and I love David Tennant. He's the best Doctor ever (sorry Tom). I'm going dressed elegantly and with style as befits a woman of my age. It's amazing what you can do with papier mache and a bit of silver paint. I wonder if the BBC are looking for any costume designers?

Where the heart is..

It's valentines day today and I have really enjoyed watching men and women running around with bunches of flowers and boxes of chocs. It's all very romantic. Except for our local radio station, GWR who gave away a divorce as a Valentine gift. Taf and I exchanged cards. The photo is of the one he gave me. Can you spot the (not deliberate) mistake. We had such a laugh when he realised. I LOVE that man. Wouldn't change him for the world. In fact I may well be the only woman in the world who couldn't care less if the toilet seat is up.

We're going to cook ourselves a lovely meal following one of Delia's recipes. If our marriage can survive that, it can survive anything.

crafty stuff

There's a new craft magazine out here (much to Taf's delight). It's called 'Let's Make Cards' and includes all the stuff you need to make the cards. Of course, I don't really need any more craft stuff, but I couldn't resist it. Here's a picture of a card I made for my sister-in-law.

seasons

I don't know about global warming, but my garden doesn't know what season it is. I've got winter berries and snowdrops at the same time. It's pretty though:

Yikes!

The guy at the petrol station insisted that I had an Australian accent. It doesn't get much worse than that. Thing is, I've lived in so many places, I can't remember what my accent is. It certainly isn't bloody Australian though.

Why I came home

I don't have much to report today, so I thought I'd post the picture that brought be back to England.

HOUSEY

Yay, On December 20th we finally completed on the purchase of our lovely little house. Unfortunately we didn't have time to move in until this weekend.

It's a cute little place with scrumptious central heating. There are 3 bedrooms, one of which is just an oversized cupboard. We also have an enormous garage.

The main bedroom had been painted with shiny blue paint and had an awful built in wardrobe. So we dismantled the wardrobe and painted the walls magnolia (definite sign of middle age).

The window is munted so we've just got a quote to replace it - 1750 pounds. Wow!

We are still getting sorted out, but here is a picture of the lounge. The far end is an integral conservatory.

Iron Men

It's Taf's birthday on New Year's day. We went for a walk in Crosby to see Gormley's Iron Men. They were amazing. 100 iron statues gazing out to sea. Some were actually in the sea and some were half buried in the sand. It was an awesome sight.

Happy New Year

I know it's a bit late, but we've not had internet for a while, so I haven't been able to blog. Not to worry, I'm back now.

We spent New Years Eve in Formby with Taf's family. It was really brilliant. At midnight we went out into the street. There were heaps of people and a person playing bagpipes. Unfortunately we had just been playing 'ibble dibble', so we had cork marks on our faces.