Not exactly a shopaholic

Some women really love shopping. Whilst shopping can be fun sometimes, the thought of spending a day shopping would not be up there on the list of favourite things to do. In fact, I think Michael enjoys shopping more than I do! For me, it’s the crowds and the occasional overbearing sales assistant that puts me off shopping. I’m quite glad that I’ve managed to almost completely avoid bridal shops during the wedding planning – the few times I’ve been with friends choosing wedding dresses, I’ve found the whole experience somewhat overwhelming and it wasn’t even me trying on the dresses!

Things that make me British

I was so intrigued by the comment about my being “so British” that I thought I’d ask a friend who’s half-American for her thoughts. Was it just my accent (seeing as my addiction to cups of tea was not in evidence at that particular visit) or was there more to it than that? It turns out that it is my mannerisms that make me particularly British – the way I sit and stand (which she described as quite ladylike and ever so slightly prim and proper – I never realised!), my natural politeness, coming across as being slightly reserved and my gestures.

Being British

I was visiting an American client recently whose parents were over from the States. During the conversation, they commented that I was “so British!” before adding that they meant it as a compliment. It left me wondering what exactly it was that made me “so British”, other than a Home Counties accent. I wasn’t drinking tea (for once!), talking about the weather or listening to the Archers – I was just doing an antenatal visit and chatting about preparing for the baby’s arrival. I’m not even sure what kind of character traits would make someone appear “typically British” in any event.

The first tap wedding

It’s been such a rainy, miserable day today but fortunately yesterday was warm and sunny for our friends’ wedding. It was such a wonderful day – the bride and groom were both so happy and everything seemed to go well – we really enjoyed being able to share in their celebrations. The happy couple first met through tap dancing at the tap school that I attend. It was the first tap wedding and given that there’s only about three men who go to tap lessons, it doesn’t look all that likely that there will be another one so it was extra special.

Out with the hens

Had such a great night out. It started off with a joint hen and stag meal before we headed off to separate pubs. Once at the pub, we played the After Eight game (getting an After Eight mint from forehead to mouth without using hands) and discovered how many marshmallows we could stuff into our mouths and still say “cuddly bunnies” (the record was 10) – all this while we were still sober! We managed to persuade the band at the pub to wear hen party masks and play some backing whilst we sang “Get Me To The Church On Time”.

Start of the wedding season

The weekend ahead looks set to be a busy one! Working this morning, then off to see a house before going to church to prepare for tonight’s concert which we’re going to miss because it’s my best friend’s hen night (and her fiancé’s stag do). Then tomorrow, two more friends are getting married so we’re going to their wedding (and hoping the pager stays quiet because I’ll be back on call at 4pm!) This weekend marks the beginning of the wedding season for us (five weddings between now and the end of September) and I’m really looking forward to it.

The hunt for a marital home has begun

The search for a marital home has begun. Last week I wasn’t even thinking about houses, but Michael has been busy researching potential homes online and we are going to look at a house tomorrow. We’re looking at a small village several miles west of where we are currently living. The biggest appeal for me is the thought of getting away from suburbia and living more out in the countryside – much more like the area where I grew up. The disadvantages are a longer journey to work for me, and being much nearer to the in-laws! Oh well, nothing’s perfect!

Anger management

I’ve been having some counselling recently to help with my mood swings. It seems to have worked quite well – I still have the occasional mood swings, but they are much more manageable now. I think the biggest thing I learnt from it was understanding why I would get so angry about things, and instead of deciding whether my anger was reasonable or not, I would just label myself as “Ms Hyde” and blame myself. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and getting to know myself better as a result and realised that sometimes it is okay to be angry.

Hitting the high notes

Unlike many am-dram groups, we have very few sopranos, which means that there are fewer people who are able to sing harmony lines or solo lines which go much higher than an octave above middle C. In one number we are rehearsing for July’s concert, I’ve been given a solo line which is mostly on the G one and a half octaves above middle C and then goes up to the C two octaves above middle C. Singing a top C as part of a harmony is one thing, having to sing it completely on my own is somewhat nerve-racking!

The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la

My back garden is a mass of colour at the moment – the daffodils finally appeared and have been joined by bluebells and dandelions. It’s all a bit overgrown at the moment, but flowers provide a great excuse to put off the mowing for a while Not that I have any real intention of mowing the lawn at any point – I’m hoping that Michael will notice the overgrown garden once the flowers have gone and offer to mow it for me!! Inviting friends over for a barbecue often seems to bring on mowing offers so maybe I should plan one soon!

Silence is golden

Silence is something that people often struggle with. We spend our lives surrounded by noise – listening to the radio in the car, having the TV on in the background at home. When we chat to people and there is a lull in a conversation, we can be uncomfortable with the silence and try to fill it. Sometimes though, I like just to sit quietly and not feel the need to have to talk. It doesn’t mean I’m sulking, or in a bad mood, or being uncommunicative. I’m just enjoying a moment of stillness away from all the hustle and bustle.

Concert rehearsals

Michael and I have started learning our numbers for the summer concert which will be the week after our honeymoon. We’ll hopefully be singing “When The Children Are Asleep” from Carousel and Michael is thinking about doing “Being Alive” from Company as a solo. I’m also planning to do “A Boy Like That/I Have A Love” from West Side Story with my friend Jenny. It will mean some hard work in singing lessons to try and get it just right, but since Oklahoma! Michael’s mum has been challenging me and we’ve starting focusing on operatic pieces to improve my technique.

Counting down the days

Michael has come home with a "present" – a countdown clock that he found lurking in the depths of the workshop which he has now set to count down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until our wedding. It’s been sat on the mantelpiece for the last two hours and its ridiculously bright LED display counting down the seconds is beginning to be somewhat irritating. Apparently it stores the details even when it’s switched off so I think it will be switched off most of the time and only turned on when I feel curious about how close the wedding is.

Tales from the tube

The tube in rush hour: crammed into the train like sardines in a can, everyone trying to pretend they’re oblivious to anyone else’s presence. Being short means that my face always ends up against someone’s armpit (why, oh why, does it always seem to be the sweatiest person on the train?). It’s a relief to arrive at my destination but getting off is akin to being in a rugby scrum (which possibly would be the more pleasant experience) – forcing my way off, I emerge feeling bruised and battered but relieved to be able to breathe fresh air and move again!

A day in the Sun

Michael recently played a game of Buzz as part of a team from Mensa competing against a team of Page 3 girls from the Sun as part of a publicity stunt to advertise a new game. He was originally working on the event, but one of the Mensa team failed to appear and Michael (who happens to be a member of Mensa anyway) stepped in. After playing several rounds of Buzz, the Page 3 team eventually managed to win a game and “beat” the Mensa team. There is a very short article and photo in today’s paper and the website.

Playing games

Having a games night with friends is one of the nicest ways to spend an evening. Michael and I have managed to accumulate quite a collection of board games over the last few years – old favourites such as Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and Cluedo as well as some more obscure games like Bohnanza, 221b Baker Street, Where Is Moldova? and Metro (all highly recommended!) The last week has been particularly great for spending time with friends – two games evenings over the weekend, champagne tasting and then the pub quiz last night. Tonight we’re off to visit friends for another games evening.

Birth stories

Storytelling is very much a part of my job – sharing birth stories with my colleagues and listening to client’s accounts of their births (and trying to capture key moments when I’m writing notes during a labour, trying to record a birth story as it unfolds). Some birth stories are very distressing to hear; when a woman has had a traumatic experience; but some are just awe-inspiring. I received this link from one of the midwifery email groups that I’m on – it’s a birth story complete with cartoons and is just such a beautiful way of expressing the magic of birth.

Champagne tasting

Two of our friends are getting married in early September and last night, they hosted a champagne tasting evening to try different options for their wedding reception. Fortunately I was on a night off and so could enjoy myself! Eight bottles of champagne/sparkling wine were opened (and finished off!) and we had to score each one out of 10 and comment on the taste. My favourite was a sparkling wine, followed closely by one with a very smooth taste which reminded of Irish whiskey. Perhaps not exactly the best thing to look for in a champagne but I liked it!

The darkest hour?

“It is always darkest just before dawn” That pre-dawn moment that first Easter must have been dark indeed. The empty tomb; Mary Magdalene’s cry of despair: “They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him!” And then, the realisation that the man standing nearby was Jesus himself! In our darkest moments, we can also feel alone. But just as Jesus rose from the dead, as he had promised, we know that God has promised us: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” May that promise comfort all of us this Easter.

Name dropping

It is very frustrating when you bump into someone that you haven’t seen for a long time, and you find that you just can’t remember their name. So you chat to them for a while, and hope that something comes up in the conversation to remind you and then sometimes you say goodbye still none the wiser. I once made the mistake of saying “I’m really sorry, I’ve forgotten your name” to someone I hadn’t seen for a few years only to receive a glare and the response “It’s Tessa, and you only lived with me for two years!” Oops!

Ideal Home Show

Went to Earls Court with Michael as he had to fix a faulty Playstation and ended up with complimentary tickets to the Ideal Homes Show which was great – ended up buying a few kitchen items which claim to have amazing superpowers of cleaning/peeling/chopping etc. Spending the afternoon there has obviously had a positive impact on Michael as once back at the flat he proceeded to clean the bathroom and then start on the hoovering (either that or Michael is still lost in the exhibition and I have come home with a cleaning robot bearing an amazing resemblance to my fiancé)

Let's face the music and dance

I used to do a lot of ballroom dancing – during competition season I was doing about ten hours a week which was great fun, although have hardly done any since leaving university. Michael and I have been going to lessons again recently – it’s been great to get back into it, even if I am a little rusty. Last night, I managed to catch up with my old competition partner at a dance lesson – we might not have been able to dance any of the old routines, but it was nice to have a spin around the floor all the same.

Back to work

Back at work today after a blissful three weeks of annual leave – my next block of leave will be for my wedding and honeymoon in July which is a very nice thought! My colleagues cheered when I walked into the team meeting this morning – it’s nice to know I have been missed! We have a new midwife in the team who seems really lovely, and the pilot scheme team has now merged back into the main team – it feels good to be one big group again. As always, the first couple of days will be busy catching up on visits.

Communication issues

I went back on the pager this evening only to discover that my work phone didn’t seem to work in the flat. The strange thing was it worked fine when I put the SIM card in my old handset. Michael’s phone is on the same network as my work phone and he has had the same problem recently. So I checked out some internet forums – turns out it’s a localised 3G problem – easy solution, just tweak the network settings. I have solved the problem which has perplexed Michael for days, but now am wondering if I’m turning into a geek?

Taking a chance

Sometimes taking a chance works out and sometimes it doesn’t. We booked a “Top Secret” hotel (unnamed hotel at a discounted price) for our honeymoon, which turned out to be the hotel we’d originally considered (which had good reviews). The experiment seemed to have worked well so we tried again when booking the first night hotel – this time it was one with mostly poor reviews (and fairly few positive ones) which is quite disappointing. It’s just somewhere to sleep for one night before heading off on honeymoon so why did I have to fight the urge to become Bridezilla again?

Getting away from the hustle and bustle

I love going for a walk somewhere nice, although unfortunately there is nowhere particularly nice within reasonable walking distance of the flat so I usually have to drive somewhere just so I can go for a walk! I usually prefer quiet places where I can forget all the noise and traffic of town – crowds just leave me feeling stressed. This weekend, I have discovered a couple of nice places for walking around – one of which was a local open air museum which was fairly interesting in itself, but was also a very nice place just for walking around and relaxing.

Furry friends

Leaving sweets in a bag and forgetting about them is really not a good idea in this flat. I really should have learned my lesson last year after leaving a bag of Julian Graves goodies in the spare room and later discovering I’d made a little mouse very happy for a while! It seems my furry friend has made a return visit after discovering a bag of Thornton’s toffees in a cluttered corner of the bedroom and then realised my linen drawer was a good place to find bedding. Sigh. Toffees removed and at least one only sheet was chewed.

Being unproductive

Despite having more free time available due to being on holiday, trying to put together this month’s church magazine seemed even more of a rush than usual! I can’t blame being busy at work and whilst I’ve been spending some time visiting my friends and family, there’s still been a lot of time spent at home doing very little. Why is it that the busier I am, the more productive I seem to manage to be? When I have no plans for the day, I seem to just fritter away the time browsing the internet and getting very little done!

Appreciating the beauty of spring

I went for a walk along the stream near my parents’ house earlier today and watched the butterflies darting about amongst the blossom and daffodils; the trees were full of birds and it was just so beautiful. Driving back home, I decided to take the scenic route away from the motorways and although it took an hour longer than usual, it was worth it to feel like I could take life at a slower pace for once and admire the world around me. Whilst the slower pace may well be achievable on the M25, there is very little to admire!

April Fool

It’s April Fool’s Day which has led me to wonder what the origins of April Fool’s Day are. There is a theory that it originated from the change of the new year (originally 25th March) to January, and those who continued to celebrate the new year between 25th March and 1st April were made fun of and sent on fool’s errands. However, as April Fool’s Day seems to have been already established in England by the time the calendar change occurred, this doesn’t seem very likely. The overall conclusion is that there is no definitive answer as to the origin.