Last baby of the year

2008 is drawing to a close and I have just welcomed my last baby of the year into the world – a beautiful girl born into water. The last two days have been a little busy on the birth front with two of my December babies deciding to arrive in December after all!

2008 was a bit up and down at times, but overall has been a pretty good year – getting engaged has to be the highlight of the year, and I’m looking forward to 2009 which is looking set to be quite exciting (albeit somewhat busy on the wedding front).

Patronising advertising

I have just seen the most bizarre advert for cervical screening on the back of a bus. It has a picture of a man with the slogan “Be cervix savvy”. Being a midwife, I would say I’m quite cervix savvy but I wasn’t aware that men possessed them, so why the advert features a man is quite frankly beyond me. The website has also left me quite stunned. Its rather patronising implication seems to be that women need men to tell them to go for cervical screening which should be part of their “health and beauty regime.” Words fail me.

The calm before the storm

I was quite convinced that I would be spending Christmas Day or Boxing Day at a birth, but here we are three days after Christmas and I am still waiting for those babies that were due before Christmas. It has been lovely to have a few quiet days, but this means I now have three babies due very imminently and January is already set to be a busy month with five babies due (not counting any late December babies!) I’m making the most of having free time now as suspect it won’t be the case for the next few weeks!

Farewell to Woolies

Our local Woolworths closed today which was quite sad. It had always seemed to be the one thing that never changed in the High Street as I was growing up. As a child, it was the Pick ‘n’ Mix section that was the main attraction, and then during school days there was always a visit to Woolworths at the end of the summer holidays to stock up on stationery ready for school to start up again (although why I needed a brand new geometry set that never got used every year is a mystery). It’s the end of an era.

Relaxing on Boxing Day

Another lovely relaxing day which has been spent mostly watching old films and playing the piano. I love Boxing Day – all the stress of preparing for Christmas is over and it really is a chance to relax with no extra pressure to be ultra-cheerful and chirpy just because it is Christmas (which usually means that I’m less likely to be grouchy because I’m not feeling under pressure!) Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas itself but sometimes it just seems that it gets lost in a whirl of preparation and high expectations leaving everyone feeling just a little bit frazzled.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Day is drawing to a close and I have managed to go to church, open presents, have Christmas dinner and spend the day with Michael’s family without being called out to deliver any Christmas babies. I always miss being with my family when I am away from them over Christmas (despite spending three out of the last four Christmases with Michael’s family), and particularly seeing my nieces and nephews getting all excited about Christmas, but that said, it has been quite a nice Christmas and at least I got to enjoy it without having to work! Merry Christmas everyone.

Posada journal - the journey nears its end

Over the last few days, Mary and Joseph have been lodging in my flat. We have spent time together in prayer as they await the birth of a very special baby boy. I feel that the birth cannot be far away now and perhaps my midwifery skills will be required soon, but for now, I have made this young couple comfortable as they reach the end of a long and arduous journey. They tell me this child is God’s Christmas present to all mankind – a saviour to lead us out of the darkness. Could any Christmas present be more wonderful?

Nesting

There’s something about this time of year that leaves me with the urge to clean everything in sight. Michael keeps asking if I am nesting! Maybe to some extent, that’s exactly what I am doing, making my “nest” ready for the winter. I just can’t feel ready for Christmas to arrive unless my flat is spotless. It must be a female thing though as Michael’s mum is doing exactly the same (whereas my mum is extremely house proud so I never notice any change with the seasons) and I’ve yet to see much evidence of this particular phenomenon in men.

Finally feeling ready for Christmas

I’m finally starting to feel ready for Christmas. The decorations and tree are up, the presents are wrapped and I have been cleaning like mad (the clutter around the flat was being to irritate). I’m going home for the night tomorrow to visit family and do the remainder of the pre-Christmas visits, and then will hopefully manage another visit home between Christmas and New Year. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m on call over Christmas and it is looking increasingly likely that I will have a Christmas baby this year, I’d be feeling quite relaxed about Christmas now!

Posada

This Advent at church, we have had a Posada. Posada is a Mexican tradition where figurines of Mary and Joseph are given lodgings at various homes throughout Advent to represent their journey to Bethlehem. We have kept a diary with our Mary and Joseph to record their journey. On Christmas morning, they will be taken to church and then they will be placed in the Nativity scene in the window. From now until Christmas morning, they will be staying with me. It seems somehow appropriate that Mary should be lodging with a midwife on the final stage of the journey!

Christmas preparations

I have been a little lax in updating this blog over the last few days. The run up to Christmas has been a little hectic, leaving me wishing that a day could have 36 hours instead of 24 just so I can get everything done. However, most of the Christmas cards have now been sent, the presents have been bought (or made) and some of them have been wrapped and whilst the Christmas decorations are still gathering dust in the loft, there is some hope they might appear tomorrow. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, I’ll be feeling ready for Christmas!

Car repairs

I seem to be having a bit of an unlucky time with regards to the car at the moment. Having had the broken wing mirror replaced, I have now discovered that the wing mirror motor on that side is also broken and will only move the wing mirror from side to side (I have to adjust it manually if I want to move it up or down). I’ve decided this is going to be a repair job for the new year. I have also had to have a chip on the windscreen repaired after a stray stone hit it yesterday.

Pre-Christmas family visiting

I had a brief trip back home last night to do some of the pre-Christmas rounds of visiting the family. I managed to catch up with two brothers and two sisters, plus a few nieces and nephews (and great-nephew!) and had a lovely evening, even if it did feel somewhat hectic at times dashing from house to house trying to see as many family members as possible. I have one more trip home planned before Christmas so hopefully will see my other siblings then that I didn’t get to see yesterday. Fortunately they all live near each other which helps!

Christmas parties

We had our work Christmas lunch today in the pub near where our old office used to be. When I first joined the practice, we used to have our team meetings at the office and then go to the pub afterwards to chat over white wine spritzers. Being there again brought back some memories, although it feels very strange to be the only midwife left out of that particular group. Tonight is the tap studio’s Christmas party so I am heading off to another party this evening. I’m on call though so will have to stick to soft drinks only!

Minor disagreements with refuse trucks

It wasn’t a great start to the day. I was driving along on my way to my first visit (feeling quite calm as the traffic had been surprisingly good) when a refuse lorry in the nearside lane tried to squeeze past me and in doing so, broke my nearside wing mirror. Despite my attempts to signal him, he remained oblivious to the fact he’d damaged my car and proceeded on his journey. Unfortunately I couldn’t read his number plate properly so I will have to take my car into the garage tomorrow and pay for a new wing mirror myself.

Incorrect initial impressions

It can be easy sometimes to assume that your initial impression of somebody is an accurate one. Sometimes we start off on the wrong foot with others, harsh things are said and taken to heart and just being civil can then be a challenge. I find it difficult to forgive people who have bruised my feelings and can have a tendency to bear grudges. When something then happens to make me see the vulnerable person that can be hiding behind a tough exterior, it makes me realise that sometimes I am too willing to judge a book by its cover.

Non-existent nativities

I am finding it more and more difficult each year to buy Christmas cards which have any reflection on the real meaning of Christmas. This year, I visited about a dozen shops before I finally found some suitable cards. I didn’t want cards with Santa, reindeer or snowmen. What I wanted were angels, wise men or a Nativity scene (although preferably not fine art style as that’s not really my style either) but finding it proved almost impossible. In today’s consumer society, it seems the real reason for the season has become almost completely lost beneath the baubles and tinsel.

Wedding dress shopping (almost)

I have spent most of today going fabric shopping with my mum and one of my sisters, who will be making my wedding dress and my bridesmaid dresses. I have had to slightly rethink my bridesmaid dress design as we couldn’t find any suitable fabric to fit with my initial design, but we have managed to find something in the right shade and have also found the right material for my dress as well. Michael and I have one last potential reception venue to look at tomorrow so hopefully we will be making a decision on that soon as well.

False awakenings

I often have lucid dreams and recently have been dreaming about writing amazing stories (perhaps I should try to write things down as soon as I wake up – who knows what I could come up with!). This morning, I had the very odd experience of having several false awakenings, where I was convinced I was awake and getting up, only to repeat the experience. After several repeats, I was getting quite frightened that I wouldn’t wake up for real as I couldn’t seem to waken myself (unlike with lucid dreams). Of course, I did eventually, but it was very odd.

Customer service

Throughout my search for reception venues, I have been struck by how poor some places are at selling themselves to potential customers. One venue invited me to view their facilities whilst there was a wedding reception going on (not exactly the best time); at another the reception area was dingy and unwelcoming with no-one at the reception desk during the time I was waiting there. I have only received what I felt was a good level of customer service at two out of the five venues visited so far. Funnily enough, they are the only two to make the shortlist.

The Christmas newsletter

Last year I came up with the bright(?) idea of writing our Christmas letter as a poem. Michael liked it so much that he thought we should do it again this year. Given that my preferred style of writing poetry is rhyming couplets, trying to fit in all the news that we want to include is always a bit of a challenge, but it is very satisfying when I finally manage to do it. I have spent most of this evening writing this year’s Christmas poem which means that I can now at last start sending out my Christmas cards.

2009 - the year of the weddings

I had some great news last night – my best friend is getting married as well next year and has asked me to be her maid of honour I’m quite excited that the two of us will be planning weddings together. It means that next year is going to be quite a busy one for me as far as weddings are concerned – three weddings definitely booked in the diary so far and I will be a bridesmaid at two and the bride(!) at the other! I have also heard rumours of two other family weddings which may take place next year.

Road rage

I spend lots of time driving around between visits and some days can spend several hours in the car, particularly if the traffic is bad. This evening I shocked myself with how aggressive my driving was becoming and the fact that it was accompanied by some very unchristian hand gestures. Realising a moment of calmness was needed, I tried praying for the safety of road users, and calmness and courtesy for myself (rather than my usual prayer that all the cars in front would evaporate) and perhaps unsurprisingly, my anger and frustration evaporated. I should try this approach more often!

Reasons to be cheerful

The news always seems to be quite depressing at the moment with recession, child abuse cases and terrorist attacks dominating the headlines at the moment, so I’ve decided to focus on cheerful things instead. Here are some of my reasons to be cheerful today:

* Petrol prices have come down – only 88.9p per litre when I filled my car earlier today (never thought they’d be this low again!)
* I’m finally managing to get the hang of the level 5 tap routines (having felt a few weeks ago that I was never going to be able to do them)
* Christmas is coming!

The advent of Advent

I can’t believe that we are already in December and I’ve only just started thinking about Christmas! Usually, I’m very organised and start writing my Christmas cards in November ready to send at the beginning of December, but I haven’t even got that far yet. The last two weeks of November seemed to disappear in a haze of wedding planning and Advent has crept up on me without my realising it. Still, having now realised that December is upon us, I’ve got into the Christmas spirit already and have been digging out my Christmas CDs to play in the car.

Properly engaged!

We went ice-skating with some friends at an outdoor rink this evening which was fun and I also managed to stay upright which was good! The best moment though was when Michael and I stopped for a break and he suddenly took a small box from his pocket and presented me with my engagement ring which had finally arrived! It was a very romantic moment and I have had a permanent smile on my face ever since! I finally feel properly engaged (for the last two weeks, people have been looking at my left hand expectantly whenever they see me!)

The (almost) alcoholic midwife

I’m feeling a bit like a zombie today after spending all night at a labour and not getting home until 11am. I had anticipated that I would be at a birth so had stocked up on Red Bull and another energy drink which came in a large dark-coloured can. Unfortunately, I didn’t realise how much it resembled a can of beer/cider until I pulled it out of my bag on arrival at the hospital and opened it. My client looked quite startled until she realised it was an energy drink – for a moment she thought she had an alcoholic midwife!!

Wedding planning is somewhat time-consuming!

I am discovering how easy it is to spend hours just browsing various wedding sites on the internet. I can lose so much time without really feeling like I am moving the planning any further forward! Still, on the plus side, we have now had our first meeting with the minister to discuss booking the church, the legal requirements and things like that, and I have started looking into photographers and wedding videos and things like that. The hunt for the reception venue still continues – there are two definite possibilities on the list, but Michael still needs to view them.

Wedding cars

I am amazed at how lovely people are. One of the guys at my church, on hearing that Michael and I had got engaged, came up and asked me if I had considered transport yet. I told him I was considering a black cab for the bridesmaids (Michael’s dad is hopefully sorting out my car) and it turns out he has a vintage black cab which he is willing to let me use at a very reduced price which is fantastic. He has also arranged for a second cab as my mum and bridesmaids won’t all fit in one car.

Busy weekend

It’s been a busy weekend. As well as investigating potential wedding reception venues, Michael and I also had a trip to IKEA and so most of today has been spent putting together furniture. I’m hoping that once we have got things organised, this will mean that the spare room becomes a lot less cluttered and might actually resemble a bedroom rather than a junk room. Having less clutter will also make it easier to see if the mouse is still around as at the moment there are lots of hiding places for it (although no obvious signs of mouse activity).

More on the search for a reception venue

Michael and I looked at another two potential reception venues this afternoon. The first would have been perfect if the room had been a little bigger (and available on the right date!) whereas the second helped me to think more about what I don’t want rather than what I would like. Whilst the three function rooms were rather lavishly decorated, the focus seemed more on quantity of decoration rather than overall appearance. Throughout the rest of the venue, the décor was tired and a little shabby, with lingering unpleasant cooking odours in the corridor. The search for a venue continues.

Unwanted guests

I cleared out the spare room back in the spring and discovered that we had a mouse. However, since then there had been no further evidence of mouse activity and I had hoped that our little furry guest had chosen to lodge elsewhere. However, this afternoon I moved the chocolate Advent calendars which I had put in the spare room and discovered a little pile of cardboard flakes from where a mouse had chewed the cardboard off the calendars so it looks like my furry friend has returned. I think another clear out of the spare room may be necessary.

In search of the perfect reception venue

I read recently that the national average cost of a wedding is £20,000 which I was utterly shocked by, but having started investigating possible reception venues, I’m now no longer surprised at all. It seems that some people feel they have a right to charge ridiculously inflated prices because the word “wedding” is mentioned. I’m hoping to put Michael’s skills at event management to good use in finding a good venue at a reasonable cost. I visited one potential option today, and have an appointment to view another place later in the week – fingers crossed we find somewhere reasonably nice.

Oklahoma rehearsals

We’ve started rehearsing the ballet scene in Oklahoma! which meant that yesterday’s rehearsal was quite physically demanding. During the number, I get lifted, pushed to the ground, dragged across the stage, thrown over Jud’s shoulder, and knocked back to the ground again. There is also a fight scene between Curly and Jud in the ballet. Fortunately I got used to being picked up and thrown about when doing acrobatic rock ‘n roll but it seems to be a close-run thing between Steve (Curly), Simon (Jud) and myself as to who ends up most bruised at the end of the number!

Preparations have started

The wedding plans are starting to come together surprisingly quickly. I have been engaged for just four days and already I have put together the designs for my wedding dress, bridesmaid dresses and flower girl dresses with my sister who will be making them all, organised getting a veil and tiara and have drafted a guest list with Michael. We went shopping for my engagement ring today which was very exciting – it will take a couple of weeks to arrive though. The biggest thing we need to focus on now is trying to find a suitable venue for the reception.

Disclaimer

WARNING: The writer of this blog has been infected with wedding fever. Symptoms may include walking around grinning from ear to ear, squealing loudly when in the presence of female friends and family, and being incapable of discussing anything that is not related in any way to weddings and getting married. This is a temporary condition, but is likely to last several months, during which time blog posts may show a distinct bias towards the subject of planning a wedding and anything related to matrimony. Normal service is unlikely to be resumed before summer 2009. Thank you for your understanding.

Engaged!!!!!

After eight years, Michael is finally going to make an honest woman of me! He proposed on the last night of our holiday. We had just finished dinner in the hotel restaurant and were holding hands across the table, when he suddenly asked “Will you marry me?” My first reaction was “What?! What did you say?!” followed by “Oh my goodness… yes!” We were surrounded by businessmen so it didn’t seem appropriate to dive across the table and kiss him so we sat looking at each other in a “what now?” kind of way! I am very happy and excited!

Lest We Forget

I stand amongst the stones of white
thinking of those men who went to fight in France:
Young men cut down in their prime;
names and faces lost in time.
This was “the war to end them all”
but as I watch the poppies fall
at the Remembrance Festival each November,
in the silence, I stop
and remember their sacrifice.
Time’s pages turn:
the world has changed yet we can’t learn
to live in peace.
So – on we fight and watch as lives are sacrificed
and war goes on.
But still we pray
that peace on Earth will come someday.

Armistice Day

90 years after the last shot was fired in World War 1, we stood at the Thiepval Memorial, a memorial to the missing of the Somme, and remembered those who fell. It was incredibly moving to stand in one of the battlefield sites, listening to the Last Post and then in the silence remembering those who fought in that very place, as well as others who are killed in defence of their country. We then moved to the Anglo-French cemetery behind the memorial where the children attending the remembrance ceremony placed French and British flags on some of the graves.

The Somme - Mon 10 Nov

Michael and I spent today looking around some of the battlefield sites in the Somme. We went to the Sheffield Memorial Park which was one of the starting points of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916. Some of the trenches are still visible, and looking out across the fields, you could see where the German front line would have been. It is hard to imagine the horror of the battlefield on a peaceful autumn afternoon but the sheer numbers of military cemeteries give some idea of how many men were killed in the fighting in this area.

Paris

Paris is one of my favourite places to visit, although I had only really visited the main touristy areas before. This time, Michael and I were visiting a friend who lives in Paris, so we got to see the city from a different perspective. Paris has a system known as Velib, where there are rental bikes available all over the city – you just pick up a bike locally, cycle to another part of the city and park the bike at a rental point there. We ended up cycling around some of the city which was a little scary but fun.

Ieper - Sat 8 Nov

Today’s excursion took us to the area around Ieper. We visited New Irish Farm Cemetery, a WW1 cemetery where a distant cousin of mine (the known relative who died in WW1) is buried. It was very sobering to stand amongst hundreds of white headstones, over half of which simply read “A soldier of the Great War. Known unto to God” and think that most of the men there were younger than I am now, and that this particular cemetery is one of hundreds along the Western Front. We also visited the Menin Gate in Ieper before heading off to Paris.

Amsterdam day 3

Having spent the last two days exploring Amsterdam pretty thoroughly by foot, Michael and I rented a canal bike (like a pedalo) and spent a couple of hours seeing Amsterdam from the canals. I was very glad that I hadn’t decided to go canal-biking alone – having rather short legs meant assuming a somewhat interesting semi-recumbent position to have any hope of operating the pedals (not comfortable!). This afternoon was spent in Zannse Schans, an area where several windmills have been preserved and we got to explore a working sawmill. It was quite pretty in a kitsch postcard kind of way.

Amsterdam day 2

My attempts at speaking Dutch when ordering breakfast this morning resulted in much more friendly service (not that it was unfriendly yesterday). Today’s walk around Amsterdam took in the Old Centre and the Jewish Quarter. One of the best places visited today was the Museum Het Rembrandthuis – a house where Rembrandt lived between 1639 and 1658 which has been reconstructed to look just how it would have done back then. I also visited the memorial to the Auschwitz victims in Wertheim Park – broken mirrors covering the buried urn containing the ashes of the dead from the concentration camp – very thought-provoking.

Wed 5th Nov - Amsterdam day 1

Amsterdam is quite a compact city and I decided that the best way to explore it was by foot so having donned my new comfortable (but decidedly ugly) shoes, I set off on a long walk around the canals. I discovered a tiny hidden garden behind a ordinary looking door amongst the canal houses which I would never have discovered without the guide book, visited the Theatermuseum (very odd), the Bijbels Museum (Biblical museum), had coffee in a red light district coffee shop and explored the Anne Frankhuis, which was much more interesting that I had expected it to be.

Arrival in Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam this evening. Rod and Jamie (who are working with Michael) arrived about an hour before we did, having taken almost the same time to get there by plane as Michael and I did by car. The drive from Calais to Amsterdam was very dull – particularly as nearly the whole journey was in thick fog so we didn’t even have any nice scenery to look at. Still, the hotel is nice and I am looking forward to exploring Amsterdam tomorrow – hopefully Michael will have some free time over the next couple of days to come sightseeing too.

Catching up with friends and family

It’s been a lovely few days of catching up with friends and family. I had a couple of days back home seeing my parents and as many of my siblings, nieces and nephews (and one great-nephew!) as I could manage to fit in. Being part of a large family is lovely, but when visits home are usually brief, it is impossible to see everyone! Michael and I have just returned from seeing my friend Gillian up in Scotland – a lovely relaxing weekend, visiting Loch Lomond and Glasgow. We’re off to Amsterdam tomorrow so blog posts may continue to be intermittent.

Confused seasons

It was quite bizarre to see thick flakes of snow falling against a backdrop of autumn trees on Tuesday evening – such a shame I didn’t have my camera to hand as it would have made a beautiful picture. Having had a white Easter earlier this year, I was beginning to wonder if we would have a white Hallowe’en – but today’s weather is lovely and sunny and so this doesn’t look like it will be the case. I couldn’t ever recall it snowing in October before – not too surprisingly though as the last October snowfall happened sometime before I was born!

Hooray for annual leave!

Being on call 24 hours a day, 6 days a week can be incredibly draining, particularly when there is a long gap between holidays. My last holiday was back in June so it came as quite a relief to be able to turn the pager off this evening and look forward to three weeks without being on call! Over the last couple of weeks, I have been feeling quite exhausted so it will be good to finally be able to recharge my batteries again. I’ve got quite a lot planned, but at least knowing I can sleep undisturbed will help!

Musical challenges

I’ve only had my flute for about five months and have barely reached Grade 1 standard so playing for worship during the weekend was a bit of a baptism of fire for me! Fortunately most of the time, it was to accompany Michael on the piano, but yesterday’s service was held in the room without a piano and being the only person who had brought a musical instrument on the weekend, I was asked to play. I think I managed reasonably well after a somewhat shaky start and on the plus side, I got a lot of extra practice in!

Church weekend

I’ve had a great time at the church weekend. It has been refreshing to spend the time focusing on what Christmas is really all about. Even though the story of the Nativity is so familiar, somehow by focusing so much on it, new things have jumped out. There was a manger at one of the prayer stations, with a card saying that for one night, a stable became “God’s throne room”. The reality of God loving us so much that he came to be amongst us and save us hit me anew at that point. It’s such an amazing thought.

The three Wise Men

We've been thinking about the three Wise Men in our Bible study this morning. One of the things that came up during the discussion was about how their visit to Herod indirectly caused the massacre of the baby boys in Bethlehem, which is something I never considered before. We also discussed that sometimes by trying to be clever and complicated, we miss the obvious and make things more difficult for ourselves. Of course, it has to be said that if there had been three Wise Women, they'd have arrived on time, delivered the baby, brought food and cleaned the stable!

Off to the church weekend

Michael and I are off to the church weekend this evening. Neither of us have been before and I’m really looking forward to it, particularly as I’m starting to feel a little frazzled work-wise and in need of some time out, The theme for the weekend is “Journey to Bethlehem” – looking at faith-filled preparations for Christmas. There’ll be some Bible study, craft workshops and a new carols workshop. Michael and I are leading morning prayer tomorrow and helping out with teaching new carols tomorrow evening. I think there is a piano available but I’ve packed my flute just in case.

Perhaps I should stick to the day job...

I have come to the conclusion that public speaking really isn’t my forte. The talk last night went reasonably well, in terms of content at least, although I wasn’t very good at speaking to the whole room and didn’t realise that I was directing my talk more to one corner until one old lady pointed it out mid-talk. Things got a bit better once we got to the questions, although it always seems to be the men that ask all the questions! Still, I survived the experience, but I think on the whole I would prefer not to repeat it.

Talking shop - again!

I’m due to be giving a talk on midwifery at church this evening. Despite being able to talk about my job with people almost endlessly, I find the thought of getting up and doing so to a roomful of people (even though I know them all fairly well and they are very friendly) quite nerve-racking. However, I think I am better prepared than I was last time I talked about midwifery at church which makes me feel a little better, but still I find myself wondering how I manage to get talked into doing these things in the first place!

The Dads' Birthday

Today is the Dads' Birthday (both my dad, who is 75, and Michael's, who is 61). Despite still being on call, I managed to get home for a couple of hours (all the while praying that I wouldn't get called!) to see my dad, and most of my siblings who had also popped in. I don't get to see my family as often as I would like (whereas Michael's family live locally) so it was great to see them. We are out tonight for Michael's dad's birthday as the blues band they do technical support for is doing a gig.

Reasons to be thankful for men...

I discovered yesterday that I have been trying to mow the lawn all summer with a lawnmower that has no blades! No wonder it was such hard work!! To be honest, I had noticed it had no blades but had thought maybe it didn’t need them as it was still managing to cut the grass somehow. Michael noticed it when he went to mow the lawn and has ordered new parts to repair it. He also mended the fence and gate and found out why half the sockets in my flat aren’t earthed (they are now!). Aren’t men great sometimes!

Insomnia and sleep deprivation

I still feel like I am a little sleep-deprived from last week’s marathon labours so having had insomnia for two nights in a row has been really quite frustrating and has left me somewhat grouchy. I can blame Tuesday’s sleeplessness on the ridiculous amounts of caffeine consumed at the coffee afternoon but despite staying off the caffeine yesterday, I still seemed to spend more of the night awake than asleep. Fingers crossed that I managed to get a good night’s sleep tonight – might just have to resort to a cup of hot milk (and Nytol if I get really desperate).

Feeling loved and appreciated

Sometimes, it is really nice to know that you are appreciated. We had our team meeting today and it was a really lovely surprise in the tea break when my boss walked in with a cake and thank you cards because I have been working for the practice for three years now. Admittedly this is something of a record (I’m now the longest serving midwife in the team other than my boss) but it was still very nice all the same. Plus I also had a very nice thank you card from a client which added to the feel-good feeling.

Coffee, chat and cuddles

I’ve spent a lovely afternoon drinking tea, chatting and cuddling lots of babies again as we had another coffee afternoon at work for mums and mums-to-be. I bumped into one of my previous clients whose birth was one of the first I attended as a fully-fledged midwife – unfortunately her little boy was at nursery so I didn’t get to see him, but it was still nice to catch up. It was a complete coincidence that she was there – she wasn’t actually there for the coffee afternoon, but just happened to be at the same café having lunch with a friend.

Sightseeing

I’ve been enjoying a much-needed day off today doing some sightseeing. I went to the Tower of London this morning and spent a few hours there, going on a guided tour led by one of the Beefeaters and then having a lovely leisurely wander around the various towers on my own. I then visited the Museum of Childhood, which I last went to as a very little girl. Have to say I felt quite old, and perhaps I should have borrowed a child to give me an excuse to be there as I seemed to be the only unaccompanied adult!

Relaxing weekend

I’ve been a bit lazy on the blogging front over the weekend. It has been great to finally spend some time with Michael without either of us feeling guilty about taking away time from the PhD. Today is our “anniversary” (8 years since we started dating) so we went out for dinner last night which was lovely. We also spent a lovely afternoon in London catching up with friends – my friend Rob, who has been living in America for the last five years, was over so it was great to catch up with him and some other friends from university.

Another step closer to the end of the PhD

It’s been a somewhat exhausting 48 hours with another marathon labour so am keeping my fingers very firmly crossed that none of my clients will have a baby tonight. Michael has finally handed in his PhD thesis – at the moment, both of us are almost too tired to even feel relieved about this. Hopefully we can forget about it for a little while and be able to enjoy spending some time together again for a while. I’m also hoping that the corrections and amendments will be fairly minor so that the PhD will be completely over sooner rather than later!

Craziness on the roads

On my travels into work, I often seem to see quite a few people doing crazy things. People talking on their mobile phones whilst driving is one of my pet peeves but yesterday I saw a crazy cyclist (without a cycle helmet) on a busy road who was listening to his iPod and texting on his phone, which made me think that perhaps he had a death wish. I’ve also seen somebody drive around a roundabout the wrong way, although, given most other countries drive on the right, perhaps that could just be due to a momentary lapse of concentration.

Christmas lights

It’s the beginning of October and already I have seen a couple of houses covered in Christmas lights which is quite surprising given the huge increase in energy bills (even my brother-in-law who normally goes mad with the external lights is giving it a rest this year) and the fact that Christmas is still well over two months away!. It seems crazy to be starting the Christmas countdown in early October. Still, I’ve yet to have any other reminders of how many days until Christmas and if the shops have started their Christmas displays already I’ve managed to remain oblivious.

Sleepy day

I’m having a sleepy day after another marathon stint (really must stop trying to beat my record of longest time spent at a labour!) so haven’t really done very much today other than sleep. Michael and I seem to be competing on who can manage the longest without sleep at the moment (current plan is to hand in the thesis tomorrow or perhaps Wednesday) which means that our conversations are becoming less and less coherent! Fortunately we have three weekends away coming up from the end of this month which I am finding myself looking forward to more and more.

Through the dreaded double doors

As a midwife, there are times when I look after women in labour and everything they wished to avoid in their birth plan ends up happening. We end up in a cascade of intervention which ultimately leads through the double doors into theatre. Sometimes I feel that I have somehow failed a labouring woman when the labour ends in a caesarean section. The reality is that whilst I’d love everyone to have the most beautiful birth experience possible; there are times when caesareans are needed and it is nothing to do with failure, it is just one of those things.

Learning classical guitar

My guitar has been mostly gathering dust in the corner of my bedroom for the last three years, so I thought it was about time I dusted it off, and started playing again. It was my substitute instrument at university when I didn’t have regular access to a piano but other than being able to play a few chords and read a bit of tab, I never really learnt to play properly. So I’ve gone back to basics, dug out a beginner book for classical guitar and started again. All I need to do now is remember to practice regularly…

Concert in the church

I’ve been singing in a concert this evening at a local church with some other people in my am-dram group. It was a bit disconcerting singing in a very brightly lit room with the audience very visible and very close (some of them were sitting about a foot away) on a stage about the size of a stamp but somehow we managed it! We had to change in the main church building which was absolutely freezing. Still, it was a fun evening and I was very thankful that the phone stayed quiet given that I was still on call throughout!

Bingo

My mum loves her bingo nights. For several years now, she has gone twice a week – Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s her chance to socialise, see her twin sister and have a night out. My dad also goes on Friday but can’t keep up with the numbers any more so doesn’t play. They don’t often get lucky, but my mum seems to be having a very lucky streak at the moment – having won three weeks in a row. Last night she won the regional prize on the national bingo game so came home feeling very chuffed and about £3500 better off.

Musings on music

Music can be very evocative. Certain songs can bring up vivid memories, good or bad; well-chosen music on certain occasions can move people to tears. Some memories attached to music are funny (one piece of music for a scene change in the show “Crazy For You” always reminds me of being on the revolving stage in a costume trunk waiting to play a practical joke on a cast member); others may be painful, or very mixed (whilst the memory of my niece’s birth is beautiful, the memory of the 6 hours of Celine Dion playing in the background is not!!).

One week more...

Today was the deadline day for Michael’s PhD. After working almost solidly for 48 hours, he came to the conclusion this morning that there were three possible options:

(a) Hand in the thesis today with new data added and mistakes ironed out but not enough discussion which was a major flaw last time.
(b) Not hand it in at all to save wasting the examiners’ time and therefore walk away with nothing
(c) Ask for an extension until Friday.

Fortunately option (c) worked out and the final deadline is now Monday. Fingers crossed that this time he will finally finish!

Ode to Michael's PhD: One Day More

A shortened version inspired by “Les Miserables”

One day more
Another day wrestling with Chemistry
Tomorrow I’ll hand in my PhD
And then perhaps a little wait;
Examiners will seal my fate
One day more
I’ve hardly slept for several days
Red Bull and caffeine are my friends now
One day more!
Exhaustion’s left me in a daze
But at least I can see the end now!

Tomorrow is the judgement day
I pray that it will be okay
Please let me get this doctorate that I’ve worked so hard for
One more dawn!
One more day!
One day more!

Indian summer

Having Indian summer weather at the moment has led me wondering as to where the phrase originates. Unseasonably warm autumn weather in England, used to be called St Martin’s summer (it usually ended by St Martin’s day – 11th November) before the American phrase “Indian summer” gained popularity early in the 20th century. Suggested reasons for the origins of the phrase are:

• It was the period when Native Americans first harvested their crops
• The haziness during this time was caused by prairie fires in the autumn
• Raids on European colonies by Native American war parties tended to end in the autumn.

Church concerts

Every other month, we host concerts at church for local musicians and tonight’s concert featured a male voice choir. I was rushing around organising things so didn’t get to sit and listen much, but what I did hear sounded good. Michael usually controls sound and lighting at the concerts, but as he has been working frantically on his PhD, his dad stepped in (just as well really - it would have been quite basic if I’d had do it!) It’s nice to see the church so full on these occasions – now if we could just manage it on a Sunday…

Sleep pod

I spent some time today at a spa which offers treatments aimed at new mums and mums-to-be. One of the things I got to try out was called a sleep pod. Basically, it’s a vibrating massage chair enclosed in a pod. You can choose different types of relaxation music, choose aromatherapy and oxygen enhanced air if you wish and when the door of the pod closes, the chair tilts back and you spent 15 minutes relaxing in the pod. It was very relaxing, but unfortunately was followed by driving home in rush hour so the effects wore off very quickly!

Church unity

There are times when we spend lots of energy arguing about what we think God wants us to do, instead of taking the time to listen to what God actually wants us to do. For the last year, our local churches together group has felt like we spent so much time arguing amongst ourselves that we were becoming churches apart instead of together. Tonight we spent so much time praying and focusing on God instead of politics, that suddenly God’s presence became much more apparent and now it finally feels like being churches together is no longer an impossible dream.

New faces

Having attended a couple of church meetings in the last three years where concerns have been raised about aging congregations and dwindling membership; it is refreshing to be discussing the fact that there are quite a few new people coming to share worship with us. The challenge now is to be welcoming and friendly, without being off-putting! I have attended services at churches where I felt “pounced on” at the end of the service because I was a new face. Sometimes we are so glad to see new people that we can be a little too enthusiastic with our friendliness!

Reverting to childhood

Autumn is a time when I think it would be great to be able to revert to being a child again – just for a few moments. There’s something about piles of fallen leaves that makes me want to kick them about; and sometimes when it’s raining, I still have an urge to put on wellies and jump in the puddles. The trouble is, people give you very odd looks if you give into these urges as an adult (particularly if you don’t have any children with you to give you an excuse!) Sometimes it is very boring being a grown-up!

Renewed hope

It’s funny how much better things seem in the morning. After being in the depths of despair about his PhD last night, Michael has been much calmer today and has just focused on doing what he can before next Tuesday. Even though nothing has changed in terms of how much work he still has to do, somehow a good night’s sleep makes everything seem much better. Fingers crossed that Michael will manage to do enough work to get his PhD. Whilst neither of us are completely confident that he has managed to do enough, we’re still trying to be optimistic.

Impending deadlines

With nine days to go until Michael’s PhD deadline, things are getting very stressful. It’s been a series of delays and hiccups since he first submitted two years ago. It took nine months for him to actually get a viva, during which time he was busy trying to run a business and had completely got out of the mindset. In the months since then with deadline after deadline being extended, work problems have made it more and more difficult for him to spend time on his thesis. I feel that all I can do now is pray for a miracle.

Domestic Goddess - c. 600BC

A wife of good character, where can you find
such a virtuous woman – noble and kind?
Just before dawn, while the family’s in bed,
she’s down in the kitchen: baking the bread.
She’s planted a vineyard – see all that is growing!
She busies herself with weaving and sewing,
making clothes for her family, quilts for her bed,
Ensuring the poor and the needy are fed.
Her manner is gentle; her words always wise;
she’s blesséd and praised in her family’s eyes.
A wonderful woman who has earned her reward,
but her strength only comes through her love of the Lord

Sleepiness...

When I was in my teens, I always thought a Friday night indoors was a Friday night wasted. Now here I am, at 7pm on a Friday evening already in my pyjamas and falling asleep on the sofa. It’s not because I’m getting older (honestly!) – it’s just that attending lovely births in the wee hours and then trying to do a day of antenatal and postnatal visits has left me feeling somewhat exhausted and in need of sleep. Fingers crossed no-one else decides to go into labour tonight. Whilst attending a birth is lovely, sleep takes preference tonight. Night, night.

Focus on food

One of the biggest benefits of having a veggie box delivered is that I now eat a wider variety of foods, and try out a lot more new recipes. The BBC Food website is particularly useful for finding new recipes, and also allows you to search by ingredient (very useful when you have no idea what to do with what’s left in the cupboard). I’ve rediscovered a love of cooking as a result! I also eat a lot more vegetarian food (those extra veggies need to get used up somehow!) which is probably healthier, and better for the environment too!

University Challenge

I was watching University Challenge on BBC iplayer earlier and saw that Southampton (which was where I went to university) was one of the teams. One of the guys in our pub quiz team was commenting last week how people on University Challenge were probably all brainy nerds with no life or friends. He was a bit embarrassed when I pointed out to him that Michael had been on University Challenge back in 2000. I’m pretty certain that was the last time we managed to get a team on television. We didn’t get to the second round back then either.

Musings on chart music

I was reading on BBC News today that despite selling more CD singles than the rest of the top 75 put together, Cliff Richard still only managed to get to number three with his new single. It just goes to show how strong the download market is in deciding chart positions these days. What was also interesting was that 95% of his total were CD singles which also indicates that he doesn’t appeal to people who tend to download music. I can’t say I liked the song, but making the top 10 in six decades is an impressive achievement, nonetheless.

PhD

The next couple of weeks are likely to be fairly stressful as Michael is trying to finally finish his PhD. He has been “almost finished” for a couple of years now, and had submitted but discovered during his viva that he needed to do quite a lot more work on his thesis. The end of this month is the final deadline for him to submit his amended thesis and I am torn between wishing that September had 60 days so that he had a little more time, and wishing that I could wake up and find that it is October.

Cooking for 35

Sunday lunch for 35 people today went well – I had a team of volunteers from the local Catholic church, who were marvellous, plus Michael’s mum came to help out as well. Fortunately I had been pre-warned that everything takes about three times longer to cook than you would normally expect it to – without that particular piece of advice, nothing would have been ready on time! The shepherd’s pie seemed to go down well with everyone, much to my relief. I suddenly have a lot more admiration for those who work in the catering industry – doing it once was hard enough!

Genealogy online

The internet is such an amazing resource when it comes to researching family history. I can access huge numbers of records just with a click of the mouse – baptism records; census returns; birth, marriage and death registration details; wills etc. It makes tracing family trees relatively easy – at least for records from 1837 onwards (when registration began). It also means that it can be very easy to spend hours on the computer surfing genealogy sites! Once you’re into parish records though, the information on the internet becomes much more hit and miss and trips to the record office become necessary.

Cooking up a storm

On the second Sunday of every month at church, we do a meal for people living on their own. This month, I have volunteered to cook the lunch which I’m quite apprehensive about it as there will be about 35 people there on Sunday and the most I’ve ever cooked for is 8. I have spent most of today cooking shepherd’s pie ready for Sunday. I’m also on call on Sunday which is a little worrying, but Michael and his mum are willing to help, as are some other people from local churches so fingers crossed it all goes well!

Learning lines

Still feeling really excited about Oklahoma and have started looking through the script. Michael had a read-through of Act I with me this evening (my American accent needs a lot more work!). My friend Jenny recorded the read-through of the last show we did onto CD which really helped with learning the lines – I kept the CD in the car and listened to it when I was stuck in traffic jams which meant that by the time acting rehearsals started six weeks into rehearsals, I’d learnt most of Act I (clearly I spend a lot of time in traffic jams!!).

Leading lady!!!!

Today’s Bible reading focused on being thankful. This evening I found myself with a huge thing to be thankful for – I have been cast as Laurey in Oklahoma! Rehearsals started this evening working through the title song and then the director came up to me afterwards and told me she would like me to play the female lead. I was so thrilled, as part of me had been really wishing I could play that part, and another part of me was trying not to build my hopes up. We have a read-through next week and then rehearsals start in earnest!

Tap

It’s amazing how much information the brain stores without you being aware of it. This evening was the first tap class after a two month break and I couldn’t recall any of the steps before the class started. I was convinced that I’d forgotten them all, but as soon as the music started and we started practising the routines, my feet seemed to do most of the steps automatically. We’re still at the stage of learning short sections which then will become routines and it is hard to believe that we’ll ever know them well enough to do the exam.

First day at school

September means that it is back to school time, and today was the very first day of school for my twin sister’s oldest daughter. It really doesn’t seem that long ago that I was there watching her come into the world and now here we are, four and half years later and she has started school. She’s only doing mornings this week, but will be full time from next week. So far she seems to have enjoyed it and has made a new friend already. I think today has been harder for my sister than it has been for her!

Musings on midwifery

The way I work as a midwife involves having a caseload of women whom I get to know throughout the pregnancy, birth and postnatal period. I am on-call 24 hours a day, six days a week. On the whole, I enjoy working this way. Being on-call and in control of my own diary is great in some respects, as it means I have more control over my work-life balance. The down-side is not being able to visit friends when I am on call unless they live reasonably close by, and the level of sleep-deprivation that sometimes occurs during busy periods.

Family trees

I’ve been spending a little more time working on my family tree this evening. I received a copy of a marriage certificate through the post this morning which has also meant that I have managed to go back another generation on one branch of the family tree. I’ve got back to around 1700 on one branch of my dad’s family and 1689 on one branch of my mum’s family. So far I’ve not found any links to the nobility, but I have discovered French/Belgium ancestry on my mum’s side and a few unsavoury characters with interesting stories on both sides.

Musings on self-help books

One of the writers in my creative writing group published a book a couple of years ago on how to be happy, and I have found some of her tips quite useful. I’m not particularly into self-help books, although a quick glance around my bookshelves revealed a few more books in this genre than I’d realised – including titles like “When You Live With A Messie” (bought when I was a student sharing a house with someone who was very untidy) and “How To Make Anyone Like You” (still looking pristine which perhaps accounts for why I’m still not a people-magnet).

Thorts abowt langwidge

I’ve been reading an article on the BBC News website about grammar misuse. This seems to be a fairly popular topic for grumblers at the moment, and is something that I occasionally grumble about. However, some of the emails and MSN messages I receive from some of my teenage nephews and nieces distort the English language to the point of being almost indecipherable. Examples are “relli” (really), “yuii” (you), “yuir” (your or you’re), “beyye” (bye), “okeii” (okay), “newho” (anyhow) and “lo anti loiuse wubu2?” (Hello, Auntie Louise, what have you been up to?). Grammatical errors seem very minor in comparison…

Expensive "U"s

Journeyman’s recent post about the New Living Translation reminded me of various discussions at church over new pew bibles recently. The new bibles will probably be Today’s New International Version. The American versions are printed in a font which is much easier to read than the English version and are about a third of the cost. The main (albeit minor) irritation is with differing spellings. In all the bibles we have looked at, the American version is much cheaper – which begs the question: are all the extra “u”s in words like neighbour and Saviour really much more expensive to print…?

Blue... no, pink...

I’ve been at several births over the last few weeks, and the last few have been waterbirths which has been lovely. There was some confusion over the gender of the baby after one birth recently with the proud mum announcing: “It’s a boy!” before realising a few minutes later that she’d confused the umbilical cord with a certain part of the male anatomy and announcing that baby was actually a little girl “but we love you just as much either way!”. I’d always thought confusing the cord was a bit of an urban myth until I saw it actually happen.

Back to ballet

September means the return of dance classes and show rehearsals. Tonight, I was back at ballet classes for the first time since May and no doubt my leg muscles will remind me of how long it has been when I wake up tomorrow morning! We’ve started learning a new routine which is set to the music for Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, which so far seems quite tricky and there are lots of little jumpy steps in the routine. Given that I am quite petite, why does it still sound like an elephant jumping when I practice the steps?

Noah and floods in general

With today’s weather being rain and thunder, it seemed somehow appropriate that the sermon at church today focused on Noah. The story about Noah, the ark and the flood is so familiar, it brings to mind images of toy arks with cute model animals, and somehow I have become anaesthetised against the part of the story which involves most of the world being wiped out, and the devastation that floods can bring. Hearing on the news about the people of New Orleans being told to leave the city due to Hurricane Gustav made me think a bit more about this.

Barbecues - Brit-style

It has been great to finally have a day that actually feels like summer, and so in true British-style, we seized the moment and decided to have a barbecue this evening. Unfortunately, we invited friends over for 7pm (forgetting that the nights are starting to draw in again) and ended up sitting out in the dark. Still, it has been a great evening, and during a discussion about short people, Michael made us all laugh by talking about “Galliver and the Liverpudlians”. I will never be able to read Gulliver’s Travels again without imaging the Lilliputians with a Scouse accent.

Repeat clients

One of the nicest things about having worked for the same midwifery practice for nearly three years is that I’ve started to look after clients for a second time. It is lovely to be a part of someone’s birth experience once, but being involved in their care for a second time is extra-special. It is lovely to see that the baby you welcomed into the world has now grown into a cheeky toddler and now you are looking forward to welcoming the next addition to the family. It has helped remind me once again of why I love my job.

General grumpiness

The cold has now eased off quite a bit so I’m not feeling quite so lousy, but it is now at the stage where it just leaves me feeling tired and very grumpy. Poor Michael has been a bit on the receiving end of my grumpiness which has taken the form of general grumbling about men. Even watching the lovely Colin Firth in Bridget Jones which was on TV last night failed to raise my opinion of the male race which is never a good sign! Fingers crossed that I’ll be back to being a little ray of sunshine tomorrow…

Warning: may cause drowsinesszzzz...

Michael came back from Germany with a rotten cold, which he has now shared with me. Colds don’t tend to last very long with me – they hit me hard for a couple of days and then go. I was feeling pretty lousy last night so took a couple of Night Nurse before bedtime. They certainly helped me sleep, but left me feeling very drowsy and fuzzy-headed all day which was not ideal as I was driving around doing postnatal visits, feeling like a zombie. I think I will be sticking to plain paracetamol and hot lemon and honey in future!

Unusual dishes

Went out for a Chinese meal to celebrate Michael’s birthday. The food was reasonably good, but the menu had some fairly unusual dishes. I never thought that my first experience of eating frogs’ legs would be in a Chinese restaurant! I was quite disappointed to find that they really did taste just like chicken. Other unusual choices included kangaroo and ostrich (fortunately no dog). Still the prize for most unusual dish should be this dish at our local Chinese restaurant – Lamb with Greeks and Green Pepper in BBQ Sauce. I think perhaps they meant leeks, but I’m not entirely sure…

Yay for Team GB

So Team GB has now arrived back home after doing spectacularly well at the Olympics. 19 gold medals and 47 medals in total is pretty amazing (and best of all, we finished above the Aussies in the medal table!!) I’m not especially into sport (other than keeping up with the results, I didn’t watch very much of the Olympics on television) but it has made a nice change to hear about Britain being successful on the sporting front (and to see football given just a brief mention in the sports news!) Hopefully we’ll manage to do as well in 2012.

More on websites

Today has been mostly spent updating and creating websites. The new church website is now completely up and running, as is the new website for the concerts which are hosted at the church. Hopefully both websites should now be much easier to maintain and best of all, there are no more ads on either of the sites! Overall, I’m quite happy with the redesign, particularly as I’m working on publicity and branding for the church. We have a new logo, a new notice board which is being ordered and now a new website which has a much more contemporary feel.

Michael's birthday

Michael flew back this evening after spending all of last week working at the Leipzig Games Convention. It is his birthday today, so it has been nice to at least see him for some of his birthday (last year the games convention was during his birthday so I didn’t get to see him on the day). I made him a birthday cake yesterday evening (coffee and walnut) – not quite as creative as the last time I made him a birthday cake when I made the “bikini cake”. Surprisingly the cat seemed to enjoy eating the leftover cake on the plate.

Not exactly Mozart

I’ve been sorting through photos this evening and found a couple of photos of my twin sister’s two daughters “playing” the piano with me. Ebony, the four year old, always had to have a book on the stand next to mine and copy me every time I turned a page, and if I was singing, she’d sing too. I have a video clip somewhere of her singing “Milly Molly Mandy” with a very discordant piano accompaniment. Erin, the two year old, tended to sit and bash the keys for a few minutes before being distracted by something else more interesting.

New website

I’ve now started work on the new church website. Fortunately our minister (who put together our website originally) had some information from the old website backed up and has emailed this to me so I have managed to start getting the information back up again. I had been intending to redesign the website for some time so losing the old site has at least forced me to start working on this. The other good thing is that I can add Google Analytics to the new site which will mean I’ll get a better idea of which pages are most useful.

Lost webpages

Went to update the church website this evening and found that it had completely disappeared. We have been using a free web hosting service (not ideal but was a temporary measure whilst other options were investigated) and it seems they have changed their system. The website address now redirects to their website maker page, and logging in using the previous details results in an error message. I’ve produced a very basic page in the meantime with church information. There may be some way of retrieving the pages, but it looks like I will be redesigning the website sooner than anticipated!

Thank you for the music...

When I was growing up, I used to love listening to my dad, who was a very good jazz pianist, play the piano. In recent years, he has suffered from Parkinson’s disease and it has become harder and harder for him to play and when my parents moved house, lack of space meant having to lose the piano. I wondered if I would ever hear my dad play the piano again. Tonight when I answered the phone to my mum, she simply said “Listen.” In the background, I heard the sound of their new keyboard – and my dad playing it.

Hospitality

My Bible reading this morning focused on hospitality – “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). It reminded me of the times I’ve grumbled about entertaining friends for an evening because of the pressure I’ve put on myself for the flat to be spotless. I thought about one of my sisters, a busy working mum with five children, whose house is rarely tidy but who is always a pleasure to visit because she is so warm and welcoming. Do my worries about the look of my home diminish the welcome my friends find there? Definitely food for thought.

Down to earth with a bump - literally

Productive days are all very well, but it is also nice to be able to spend a day relaxing and doing very little, which is how I spent most of today (plus missing Michael who flew off to Germany this morning to spend a week there working on an event). This evening saw a little more drama though due to a trip to A & E with Michael’s mum who had fallen down the steps in the herb garden and thought she might have broken her thumb and possibly cracked a rib. Fortunately nothing is broken, just lots of bruising.

Being productive

It has been a nice productive day. I have done a postnatal visit, practised the flute, piano and singing (not all at the same time!), practised some French and started learning Portuguese, done the ironing and mending, tried out a new recipe and managed to have some quality time with Michael. I love days like this when everything seems to slot nicely into place – shame they don’t happen a little more often! Tomorrow I’ll probably be busier with work things and get very little done outside of work, but today I’m enjoying feeling a little bit like a domestic goddess

Getting a reputation

It seems I have developed a reputation after stripping down to a bra and skirt on stage for the concert. Michael’s mum emailed out a video clip of an act to several people on the committee with the comment “How about this for the next concert?!!”. Basically it involved a disappearing hanky which reappeared in articles of clothing which got removed until the performer was naked on stage. Someone suggested that I was a suitable candidate to perform this! Whilst I know how to do the disappearing hanky trick, being naked on stage is a bit extreme even for me…

Babblings about babies

I can hardly believe that it is Thursday evening already! After starting this week with a marathon stint attending a labour (left home late Sunday evening, got back on Tuesday morning!), I have lost track of the days. It has been quite a busy week and I still have a couple of babies due imminently. However, despite a busy day of visits, I managed to spend some time this afternoon socialising with clients and getting to cuddle lots of very lovely babies. Broodiness is definitely an occupational hazard with my job – even marathon labours don’t seem to be an antidote!

Stress

When things are stressful and tempers short, we sometimes take it out on others. I know that I can be as guilty of this as anyone else, but at the moment I seem to be finding myself on the receiving end a little too often for my liking. There are days when it almost feels like I am being used as a human stress ball. I know that I am not personally responsible for their frustration but it can be very difficult at times to remember this and refrain from very unchristian responses. Loving thy neighbour seems almost impossible sometimes.

Family time

Managed to go home to visit family today which was lovely as I haven’t been home since June. I ended up looking after my twin sister’s two daughters whilst she went shopping and had a great time painting and getting out the Play-Doh with them, and running around the flat pretending to be a big scary monster. My mum bought them both a toy from the shop. When I gave two-year-old Erin her toy, I tried to prompt her to say thank you by saying “What to do you say?” Her response was “Open it!” accompanied by a cheeky smile.

Games night

Had a lovely games evening yesterday with some friends. We dug out a couple of less well-known games – “Kill Doctor Lucky” (similar to Cluedo but instead of moving around rooms trying to solve a murder, you move around rooms trying to commit a murder) and “Where is Moldova?” which involves having to try to control a chain of adjoining countries. I thought initially that it would be like Risk (which I loathe) but it’s completely different – you gain countries by moving around the board and answering questions or rolling the dice. Definitely recommended if you want to try something new.

Technically inept again...

It was my turn today to help out with sound and projection at church. I arrived early to find the equipment set up but no image on the screen and spent about twenty minutes before the service trying to solve the problem and trying to convince a helpful church member that it had nothing to do with a new file icon on the desktop screen. I’d called Michael to see if he had any ideas, when our minister wandered over and calmly pointed out the empty VGA socket on the wall. Funnily enough, it worked after we’d plugged it in…

The joys of the e-grapevine

Social networking sites are great in some ways for catching up with people, but often it seems that instead of talking to friends and family about what’s happening in their lives, you find out via the news feed on Facebook. I found out recently that my brother and his family are moving to a new house via my sister-in-law’s updated status on Facebook. It seems a little odd to hear family news this way and makes me feel somehow disconnected from it all. It might be an easier way of updating people, but I think I prefer old-fashioned phone calls.

Things that go bump in the night

Got woken up in the early hours of this morning by a client in early labour. After reassuring her and her husband, was just settling down to sleep again when I was woken a second time by a rather unearthly noise which sounded like a cross between a baby crying and cats yowling. It turned out to be a couple of foxes fighting in the back garden who seemed quite determined to continue their confrontation with each other for another twenty minutes before finally leaving and allowing me to go back to sleep. Fortunately the phone stayed quiet until morning!

Concert review

The concert that I was in recently received a glowing review from the local paper this week who commented that it was our “best show yet” and described my duet with Jenny as “top-notch” which was very encouraging. Overall, I enjoyed doing the show, although suspect that Michael and I will be giving up on the acrobatic moves in future as it has resulted in a trip to the chiropractor for him and a few bruises for me after being dropped a few more times than I used to be! Being six years older made more difference than we anticipated.

Home grown

I’ve been trying to grow a few salad vegetables, herbs and plants on my balcony. The trouble is, I go through periods of forgetting to water the plants and as a result most of the plants on the balcony are more brown than green and look to be in terminal decline. In spite of this I have managed to successfully grow spring onions and a few herbs. There is something very satisfying about eating food that you have grown yourself, and it also tastes so much better. If only I could remember to water the plants on a regular basis…

A timely reminder

Glanced down at my to do list this afternoon to find that Michael had added the following: “Tell Michael how much you love him” which first made me smile, and then made me think. We’ve both been pretty busy lately and haven’t seen very much of each other. I’d been feeling a little like he was taking me for granted, but the note on the to do list made me wonder if perhaps I was guilty of the same. Making time for loved ones is perhaps something else that slips off the list sometimes so that’s a priority for today.

Learning to slow down

I’m somebody who likes to be organised. Most of the time when I’m trying to juggle work, dancing, shows and social life, I need to be organised just to fit it all in. I’ve started writing to do lists lately to make sure I get all the things done that I need to during the day. The trouble is when I get really busy, the things on the list that get missed off are things like “eat lunch” and “stop for a cup of tea.” I like to be busy but also need to make time to stop and relax!

Summer break

It’s been nice to have a quiet Sunday for the first time in ages. For the last few months, Sundays have generally been a mad rush – church in the morning, followed by a show rehearsal, followed by dinner with the in-laws. Now that rehearsals are finished for the summer, Sundays will be a lot quieter. It was nice to be able to sit and have coffee after this morning’s service and then be able to come home and relax rather than dashing off to a rehearsal. I love doing shows but it’s good to have a break from it all.

Quality time

There’s a well-known poem which begins:

“I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish, that I didn't have time to pray.”

Often I find that the days where everything seems to go wrong, and life seems difficult are the ones where I’ve rushed out of the house in the morning without making time for breakfast, let alone prayer. It is amazing how much difference it makes when I take the time to focus on God first. Sometimes I waste too much time on unimportant things and forget what really matters.

Predicting the unpredictable

One of the questions I frequently get asked at antenatal visits (particularly in late pregnancy) is “”When do you think the baby will arrive?” My response is usually “When the baby is ready to arrive.” It would be great if I could accurately predict when a woman would go into labour, how long it would be and when the baby would be born because (a) I could organise my diary around it and never have to reschedule visits again, and (b) I’d probably become very rich as a result. Unfortunately, psychic powers are not something I have been blessed with.

101 uses for a scarf...

We recently had some rebozo training at work. A rebozo is a traditional Mexican scarf, very similar to a pashmina. Apparently they can be used during labours to help ease backache, encourage babies to move from a posterior position, help support the woman in different birthing positions and aid pushing. It was quite interesting, and once again Michael was the guinea-pig for me trying out some of the techniques (particularly those which help ease backache). I never realised there was so much that could be done with a cotton scarf – hopefully some of the techniques will be useful for labours.

Just four little words...

Michael and I had one of our occasional talks about the big “M” word this morning (or more accurately, I had one of my occasional moments of dropping another rather unsubtle hint). He told me that he was a little too busy with work at the moment to propose to me (two events in the next two days, plus still trying to finish his PhD) so I pointed out that it took about two minutes to get down on one knee and say four little words. Unfortunately, I didn’t anticipate that those four words would be “Ow, my knee hurts.”

Creative writing group

Went to my creative writing group this evening for the first time in ages. Our writing exercise was firstly to write down everything we could think of related to the sea, and then we listened to a piece of music with wave sounds in the background and had to write something inspired by the music. It made me think of being seventeen again and holiday romances and so I wrote a short story about that. I’m quite out of practice with my writing though – the others in the group are so good that I’m a little in awe of them

Language barrier

We had a visiting Methodist minister taking Sunday’s service who asked if anyone could speak any languages other than English. A couple of the children said French so he asked what they could say (Bonjour and excusez-moi). He then asked the rest of the congregation so I raised my hand as I can speak a little Spanish, German and Italian as well as French. Fortunately he didn’t ask me what I could say – una bottiglia di vino rosso della casa (a bottle of house red wine) would probably not have been the best phrase to use to a Methodist minister!

Race for Life

The show was over, but there was no opportunity to rest today as I was doing Race for Life with my friend Lindsay. It was far too hot to run properly so we ended up “power-walking” the 5km instead and finished in 59 minutes. However, we ended up having to park near the 2km marker so by the time we had walked to the start line and then back to the car afterwards it was more like 9km! We were running in pink tutus as usual, and have managed to raise over £500 between us for Cancer Research this year.

Last night

The last night went really well. Inspired by a suggestion by my friend Phil, I changed my costume for my number. I start wearing a turquoise robe which is removed to reveal a green top and a black skirt which gets unravelled, Bucks-Fizz style to reveal a 1920’s style fringe dress. The chorus then surround me and I emerge in a black and silver sparkly leotard and skirt. Tonight I changed the leotard for a black sparkly velcroed top and finished off in the skirt and a black and silver sparkly bra which got a great reaction from the audience.

Unexpected retail therapy

My car went in for its MOT this morning which meant waiting in town for three hours (the garage being too far away to make it worth going home). I managed to fill some of the time usefully by popping into church to practise the hymns for Sunday (I’m playing piano for the service) but then wandered around the shops for a while. I wasn’t intending to buy anything but there were sales on and the clothes on the mannequins in the windows looked fabulous (and surprisingly equally fabulous when I tried them on) - what was a girl to do?

Opening night

Unfortunately, the technical hitches continued into opening night - the worst one being the final number of Act 1 where halfway through the final chorus there was a blackout and we finished singing the number in darkness! The number before also seemed to have a blackout before the song had finished so the lighting crew were clearly still sorting out a few minor hiccups. Still, performance-wise things seemed to go pretty well. The audience seemed to enjoy it, and we even had the mayor popping backstage after the show to congratulate us on our performances which was very nice of him.

Dress rehearsal

The dress rehearsal for the concert this evening went about as well as a dress rehearsal should go. It seemed to be a bit of a tech rehearsal as well so the lighting was constantly being adjusted during numbers which meant a few disconcerting moments when the lighting suddenly went from blinding spot lights to blackout and back again. There were a few technical hitches, a few panics with costume changes and more than a few mistakes but as they say a poor dress rehearsal means a good first night so fingers crossed that that will prove true for tomorrow.

Pretending to be a techie...

Tonight was the band call for the summer concert and the first night in the theatre. Once again I seem to have a huge number of costumes – I felt the need to draw up a costume plot so I can keep track of all the costume changes! Michael taught me how to use the PAT tester so when I wasn’t needed for singing, I was testing all the electrical appliances which made me feel like one of the techies. It is always nice to feel useful – usually I feel like a spare part when we first arrive in the theatre.

Catching up

One of the best things for me about the way I work is getting to know my clients through the antenatal period, supporting them at their birth and during the first few weeks of parenthood. It is always a little sad to say goodbye when I do the final postnatal visit so it is nice when people stay in touch. Gillian and I had a lovely day today catching up with a previous client today (we were both her midwives back when we worked together) and her little girl who is now a rather lively and chatty two year old.

Mood swings

Sometimes I have days where my moods decide to take a rollercoaster trip all by themselves. I have been happy, hyper, grumpy, angry, cheerful, miserable, tearful and calm all within the space of a few hours which is somewhat exhausting. It’s not been one of my better days I have to admit, but has been made a lot better by being able to spend time with Gillian and have one of those lovely reassuring chats that you can only have with a close friend. Now if I can just manage to eliminate the mood swings, life would be just great…

More musings on friendship

Looking forward this evening to catching up with my friend Gillian who will be staying with me for a couple of days. Most of my close friends and my family live quite some distance away from me and so I don’t get to see them anywhere near as often as I would like to (especially given that being on call means that anywhere that is more than an hour’s drive from work is too far unless I am on holiday or on a day off). I miss being able to see the people I care about on a regular basis.

Musings on friendship

Friendship is incredibly important. Since leaving university, I have discovered how much harder it is to make new friends in the “real world”. Despite joining a local am-dram group, taking up dance classes and becoming involved in my local church, friendship has been something that has been quite elusive. There may be a lot of people in my social circle but very few that I would describe as friends. Whilst some of my closest friendships have sprung up very quickly, others take a lot of time to grow and tonight has been a very pleasant evening cultivating a budding friendship.

Church newsletter

Trying to produce a monthly church newsletter/magazine often means having to encourage church members to send articles and occasionally having to write something myself to fill the space. In previous years we have produced a summer edition rather than separate ones for July and August and I decided to do the same this year, particularly as there was plenty of material to fill a summer newsletter. I thought it would be harder to get articles over the summer, but in the last week have had several articles emailed to me. Looks like the September magazine will be a bumper issue!

The importance of smiling

A plug for next week’s concert has appeared in this week’s local paper. Whilst the article about the concert is quite good, the photo that accompanies it is pretty terrible. The photographer wanted to get a photo of us sitting around the piano singing. Unfortunately, whilst we are all singing, very few people are smiling and so it looks awful. As a result, the director has spent most of tonight’s rehearsal shouting “Smile!” about 10 times during each song. We’re usually fine once we’ve got an audience but it has made us all realise how important it is to smile.

Cuddles and cakes

Every couple of months we have a coffee afternoon at work for our mums-to-be as well as mums and babies so I have had a lovely afternoon drinking tea, eating cake and having lots of cuddles with lovely chubby babies and getting paid for doing so, which is even better! The coffee afternoons are another thing I love about my job – it is so nice to catch up with previous clients and see the babies growing up. The women all chat to each other, swap advice about sleepless nights and feeding and sometimes exchange contact details which is also good.

Leading Worship

Had the final session of the leading worship course this evening. We were split into two groups, with each group leading a short worship session. It was interesting to see how each group approached things differently. Neither group had any quiet moments of reflection, we both seemed quite anxious to fill in the time with talking, praying and singing. I think if we’d had more time to prepare we might have done things a little differently but it was a useful learning process and hopefully has helped prepare me for when the Bible study group starts up in the autumn.

A little sleep-deprived

It’s been a very busy 24 hours. I was up all night welcoming a lovely baby into the world and then today was the first rehearsal running through all the numbers for the concert. Having had just over an hour’s sleep since 8am yesterday morning, I was running on pure determination (with the assistance of a large can of Red Bull) – still not quite sure how I managed it. I did have a few hours’ sleep this evening at Michael’s parents before dinner so am not quite so exhausted now, but definitely feel like I will sleep very well tonight!

Social ineptness

There are days when I feel like my social skills could be vastly improved and today was definitely one of them. It was the annual barbecue for the am-dram group which I’m involved in, and was one of those social situations where I’m not entirely at ease. Unfortunately, when I’m feeling uncomfortable, I have a tendency to turn into Ms Hyde, put up the barriers and keep everyone at arm’s length. I did relax after a while and enjoyed the barbecue overall but definitely could have been less prickly at the beginning. Sigh. I really must try harder next time.

The antithesis of fast food

Getting a veggie box delivered means that I get to try all sorts of vegetables that I wouldn’t normally buy. This week’s box came with beetroot, and included a recipe for beetroot ravioli which I thought I would have a go at making. It meant making fresh egg pasta from scratch but didn’t sound too complicated. Whilst it was fairly straightforward, it took absolutely ages and I ended up spending three hours preparing dinner! It was very yummy, but not worth the three hours of preparation. I think I will be buying fresh pasta from the supermarket in the future…

Another addition to the family

My family has increased in size again with the arrival of my new great-nephew Eli earlier today who weighed in at a very healthy 9lb 12oz. He is my nephew Jamie’s first child with his girlfriend Kayleigh. His birth brings the total of great-nieces and great-nephews to three of each (current total of nephews and nieces is 17 nephews and 7 nieces) and also means that four of my siblings are now grandparents which feels a bit odd really, especially as I’ve not even started on the parenting front. Still, always nice to have a new baby in the family.

Multi-tasking at its best

It’s been a very productive day. By midday, I had done some Bible study, practised the flute and piano, practised my French, sewed some trim on my costume, tidied the flat and was on the way to work for a meeting followed by an antenatal visit. After my visit, I managed to find time for some creative writing and then headed off to rehearsal. I’m not usually quite this productive but most of these activities fitted into 10 minute gaps in the day, and the French practice was due to listening to a CD whilst stuck in a traffic jam.

Mini costume crisis

I was getting a bit stressed about costumes earlier as it suddenly dawned on me that I had two free days (including today) at the most to do any sewing, so I finally managed to find some time today to sort out my costumes for the show. I have made a wrap-around skirt, jazzed up my leotard and ballet skirt and now just have a 1920’s style dress to finish. Most of my other costumes for the show have been borrowed from Michael’s mum’s costume hire business. I’m feeling much better now that most of my costumes are sorted out.

Only by grace

Next week is the final session in the leading worship course where we each have to lead a short service (30 minutes) in our small groups. Tonight’s session has been spent discussing the allocated readings, which hymns to use, finding and writing prayers and deciding what our message is going to be. We’ve decided to discuss how we shouldn’t beat ourselves up with guilt when we don’t tick all the required boxes for “being a good Christian” because we can’t be saved by our deeds, we are only saved through grace. Just as well really, otherwise we’d all be doomed.

Acrobatics and costumes

There are now just over two weeks to go before the summer concert, and things are coming together. Michael and I managed to get the acrobatic moves right in my number this afternoon which was reassuring – last week he dropped me twice so I was a little more nervous about rehearsing the number today. I also still need to make my costume as several layers get removed throughout the number (I finish the number in fishnets and leotard) so I have to make it so the changes will work. I’m beginning to wish that I’d decided to do something simpler!