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!