Off to Glasgow

Spent most of today sleeping after a very busy night last night with a somewhat dramatic birth but all was well in the end fortunately and I finally got home at 10am having been up for 28 hours. I’ve just finished my packing ready to fly off to Glasgow for the ICM – looking forward to seeing my friend Gillian who I will be staying with and catching up with her. I’m feeling reasonably relaxed about flying on my own – hopefully it will be okay, and I won’t be too panicky during take-off! I’ve packed the Rescue Remedy just in case.

Busy births-day

Another busy day today. One of my clients gave birth earlier this morning to a gorgeous baby boy and another is being induced at the moment so I suspect it may be a busy night. We had another birth within the team in the early hours of the morning and I’m hoping that my client who is being induced will make it a hat-trick for today although I suspect the baby may end up being born tomorrow. Tomorrow evening I will be flying to Glasgow for the ICM as I am singing with the RCM choir in the Opening Ceremony.

Retail therapy

Retail therapy is a good cure for stress. It’s even better when it’s not an expensive cure for stress. I managed to buy myself a new outfit today for the grand sum of £6.10 thanks to charity shops and Primark. Whilst charity shop shopping is good from a recycling point of view, shopping at Primark leaves me feeling that my shopping habits could be more ethical. Which makes me feel guilty, and feeling guilty makes me stressed. Maybe retail therapy on the cheap is not such a great cure for stress after all. Perhaps a spa day is the answer…

Stress

Stress seems to be the prevailing feeling in the flat at the moment. Michael is stressed trying to finish off his PhD and I’m stressed due to a very busy week (just with visits at the moment, although have a few babies due). I’ve been pretty grouchy over the last couple of days – Michael tries to help around the house and then gets grumbled at for not doing it right (i.e. not how I do it). The poor man can’t win at the moment! Fortunately I’ll be on annual leave from Tuesday so should become easier to live with again.

The death knell for the CD single

I heard on the news today that Woolworths are going to stop selling CD singles as sales are now in “terminal decline”. The first CD single I ever bought was Bad Boys Inc’s “Take Me Away (I’ll Follow You)” back in the early 90s. I’m not sure whether that is something I should admit to, but there you go. I haven’t bought a single in about 10 years – it seems pointless when albums aren’t much more expensive. I’ve yet to get into downloads – possibly because I still seem to be one of the few people who don’t own an iPod.

Hypnotherapy

Had my last hypnotherapy session today to help me with my flying phobia ready for my first solo flight to Glasgow for the International Congress of Midwives (ICM) on Saturday. Today’s session focused more on take-off and landing as these are still the two areas that I tend to be most panicky about. I was much calmer overall with the flights to and from Moscow last week, but still got quite panicky during take-off and landing (Michael had to peel off my fingers where I was gripping his hand so hard during landing!). Hopefully Saturday’s flight will be much better.

Eurovision

I’m not a Eurovision fan but I was a little stunned that this year’s contest was won by Peter Andre’s slightly-less-talented Russian doppelganger. Even Terry Wogan seems to be jaded by the political voting this year and is talking of quitting. Whilst voting in Eurovision has always been about politics rather than music, the large numbers of countries in the eastern bloc mean that western European countries are unlikely to win in the future. Whether you care about Eurovision or not, it seems a shame that the countries who have contributed most historically no longer have a chance of winning.

Adelaide's Lament

I was being slightly grumpy this morning due to the flat being messy so Michael asked me to write a list of things he needed to do to make me happy. It read:

1. Tidy up your stuff in the lounge.
2. Tidy up your stuff in the bedroom.
3. Unpack your things and put the suitcase away.
4. Propose before I find my first grey hair
5. Make lots of money and buy us a bigger house
6. Fix the toilet roll holder in the bathroom

Something tells me 4 and 5 won’t happen before the day is out.

Back to work

Just got home after a fairly long day of visits. I think I’ve still not quite recovered from the last couple of days and am in need of some more sleep! Hopefully no-one will go into labour tonight so I can have a good night’s sleep. I’m working all over the Bank Holiday weekend and it has just dawned on me that it is my parents’ wedding anniversary on Monday. I was planning to post the card tomorrow so that it would arrive Monday but of course as it is a Bank Holiday, it won’t actually arrive until Tuesday. Oops.

Champions League Final

Got back from Moscow earlier this evening. I had such a great time – nearly lost my voice cheering on Manchester United last night, and thoroughly enjoyed my first ever football match (although it was such a shame that it ended up going to penalties). We had tickets for the hospitality village where the free beer was flowing, and the cup itself was on display so I got a photo taken of myself holding the Champions League cup – fantastic! We also managed to go to Red Square yesterday afternoon and see a little of Moscow. All in all, a great trip!

Tap, babies and flying

A very busy day today. I had my tap exam this afternoon which went reasonably well, although my mind went blank on the first routine and I forgot what I was doing – hopefully I picked it back up again without the examiner noticing!. I then had to scoot off to a client in labour so have only just arrived home. We are leaving tomorrow at 4.30am to head off to Moscow for the Champions League final so I won’t be getting very much sleep tonight. I’m hoping the hypnotherapy I’ve had recently will help me to deal with the flight.

Banner ads

We had our new banner up on the church gates this morning for the first time, and had 4 new people at the service. I’m not sure whether it was due to the banner or just coincidental but it was encouraging nonetheless. Hopefully they will come back next week! I was back on the sound desk – fortunately managing much better than last week although one of our more elderly church members commented that he had trouble hearing the sermon, so there is still room for improvement. At least I didn’t have the projector to deal with as well this week.

Church Quiz

Our team won the church quiz (in aid of Christian Aid week) this evening. Unfortunately another local church had a concert tonight so there weren’t many people at the quiz. First prize was some lovely Fair-Trade chocolate, yum! We did get a little distracted in the middle of the quiz by the animal shaped tape measures on the Fair-Trade stall and ended up measuring our heights (me and Michael plus two of my junior church group) and plotting them using different coloured drawing pins in the notice board (was quite relieved to find that I was not quite the shortest!)

Web spinning

One of my jobs as church publicity co-ordinator is to maintain and update the website. I had a free ticket to the Christian Resources Exhibition today and one of the seminars was on church websites with some useful tips for creating a good church website (plus a plug for the web design software from the company presenting the seminar!). It’s given me a few more ideas about where to go with our website in the future, although at the moment I don’t have a lot of time to do anything about it other than just keep it up to date.

Learning Russian

Michael and I are trying to learn a few key Russian phrases for our trip to Moscow for the Champions League final next week but pronunciation seems to be very tricky! So far we have mastered a couple of basics: hello (dras-witch-ah according to BBC languages or pree-vyet according to our useful phrase sheet), goodbye (dos-vi-dan-ya), please (po-zha-lu-ees-ta), thank you (spah-see-bah) and the all important “I would like an alcoholic beverage” (vohd-ka). Unfortunately, there won’t be much time for sight-seeing as we are only there for 3 days and most of Tuesday and Thursday will be taken up with travelling.

Change for the sake of change?

Things look to be changing at work. We have some new midwives who have joined us from another team who are keen to encourage us to implement their way of working. I’m not against change when it is beneficial, but the current structure seems to be working fine, and the proposed methods at first glance (a) don’t appear to solve the current problems we experience, and (b) seem to disadvantage some of the team. What works in one area doesn’t necessarily translate well to another area. I think I need to write down my concerns, and perhaps suggest some alternatives.

Tap dancing

Had a tap class tonight practising for the level 4 exam on Monday. We have been rehearsing several exercises and a dance for the exam. The dance is set to “Hernando’s Hideaway” and the prop is a fan – it is a Spanish-style number and I’m really enjoying it, mainly because it’s very dramatic. I might not be brilliant on getting all the tap sounds in but I can definitely be a drama queen if needed!! We have one more practice on Sunday - just need a little more work on cramp rolls and pullbacks and hopefully I will be there.

Ballet lessons

Today was my last ballet lesson until September. My ballet teacher goes on maternity leave next week. She has kept going until 39 weeks which is quite impressive and still goes through all the routines with us (and manages to put us all to shame!!) Having missed quite a few classes this year, it has been a struggle to keep up with the rest of the class. We have some lovely routines – I just wish I could actually dance them! I seem to have difficulty co-ordinating both arms and feet – if I concentrate on one, I forget about the other.

Inept and in charge of a sound desk...

Got asked to do the sound and projector at church this morning. Despite having done it before, everything went wrong. I forgot to turn the mic up at the start forcing the minister to repeat her “Good morning” before I realised! I was slow changing words on the first hymn, accidentally skipped a slide during the responses and then completely lost the plot on the third hymn, losing the words all together and forcing everyone to resort to their hymn books. The minister introduced the fourth hymn with a “hopefully we’ll be able to sing the next hymn…” - very embarrassing!

Not such a party animal...

Had a lovely evening last night out with my sister and then went to a friend’s 30^th birthday party tonight so it has been a good weekend. I’m seriously out of practice with dancing though, particularly anything with a fast tempo. After a five-minute jive (albeit a pretty fast one), I was out of breath and felt the need to sit out for quite a while, whereas a few years ago I would have probably kept going for most of the night without stopping. Maybe it’s time to start going to ceroc classes regularly to try and keep in practice.

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my 29^th birthday so only one year to go until the big 3-0! I’m looking forward to going back home for the evening and going out with my twin sister and her family. We always try to celebrate our birthdays together as much as possible. Michael’s mum was telling me that she spent her 29^th birthday getting very drunk and then getting tearful about the fact that she was nearly 30 and I’m definitely not planning on doing that. I but I can’t say that it particularly bothers me – after all, getting older is better than the alternative!!

Traffic

Traffic was absolutely hideous this morning which meant I was 20 minutes late for a booking appointment. I hate being late and it is even worse when you are booking someone (particularly when it is not their first baby) because they worry about whether you will make it to their birth. I think I managed to reassure the client (pointing out that her other midwife lives closer) but if I hadn’t been late in the first place, she would never have worried about it. Whilst I do allow for traffic, there are times when it is just impossible to predict.

Crazy hours

I’m a bit concerned at the moment about the number of hours Michael is working. Last week he worked over 110 hours which is crazy, and then was working an event today having been up all day and all night at an event yesterday. Opting out of the European Working Time Directive is one thing, but hours like that just aren’t safe. Whilst last week’s hours aren’t the norm (although 60+ hour weeks happen fairly regularly) it’s still worrying. On top of this, he is trying to finish his PhD which is due in at the end of the month.

Goodbye Claes

It was Claes’s funeral today so not the happiest of days. Claes was a work colleague of Michael’s who died very suddenly and unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately Michael had a big event that he had to work on today and was unable to attend the funeral so I went on his behalf, although I didn’t know Claes very well. It dawned on me after the service that I have attended more funerals in the last two years than weddings which is quite depressing really. Hopefully that won’t continue to be the case over the next two years.

Veggie Tales

I’ve started to get an organic veggie box delivered rather than buying fruit and veg from the supermarket. My main reasons for doing this were to support British farmers, reduce the food miles (trying to be environmentally conscious!) and to try and eat fruit and veg in season as much as possible. It should also encourage me to try out unfamiliar foods and new recipes. The first box arrived today – not only did the contents look more appetising that usual, they also tasted better. Maybe it will encourage me to finally manage my 5 a day on a regular basis!

Sunday School Sharing

At Junior Church today, we carried out a Dragon’s Den style exercise where the children were the disciples asking for funding to spread the word worldwide (based solely on what the disciples knew at the time covered in Acts 1:6-14) and I was the dragon. I was amused by the flip-chart they presented – particularly their costings which ended “Love – priceless (for everything else there’s Jesuscard) although it makes you realise the subliminal power of advertising. Funding was ultimately refused (because the disciples knew so little) but the spirited discussion it generated made settling the group for prayer afterwards somewhat difficult!

Heavy Plant Crossing

It was such a lovely spring afternoon that I decided to take a more scenic route home and go for a bit of a drive. Whilst driving down one of the country lanes, I saw a warning sign which read “Heavy Plant Crossing” (which always leaves me with visions of Audrey II’s crossing the road). About 50 yards further down the road, lo and behold, there was a plant pot in the road. Unfortunately it must have been a plant who didn’t know his Green Cross Code as the pot was empty and there was no sign of the plant.