Back Home

We're back home. I never thought I could call Hubby's Homeland "home" after only having lived here for a year, alas it has happened. I never ever thought I would love it more than I love my own country. I'm patriotic and I love my country, but the way of life here is so much easier; so laid back and... nice.

Anyway, we're settled again (although my suitcase doesn't seem to think so; it's been sitting in the bathroom doorway for the past 2 weeks awaiting an unpacking). The day after we returned, we had to baby proof the house, since Baby C is so mobile. When we were away, she started crawling and hanging onto things when put against them. She also started using a walker, and became pretty good at walking with help from adults.

Now though, she doesn't stop. She pulls herself up on things, makes her way around the room with them and is reaching every nook and cranny; our things are not safe! It's only a matter of time before she's walking unaided. I'm so proud of her!

Next week will be her first birthday. I know, it doesn't feel like it should be; where did the time go? I've been planning her birthday, and actually getting quite excited about the big day. We've invited our friends and family to the beach for the afternoon, and we've bought everything we need to make her birthday cake etc. Now we just need the horrible weather to clear up...

10 Days and Counting

First of all, let me apologise for not having updated in weeks. The trip back up to get our things went... interestingly. You would think that after the events of the trip here, we would have a problem free time going back, but that wouldn't be any fun, would it?

We broke down... again. It turns out there were a few problems with the borrowed van, the worst of which being a busted suspension, which we discovered on the second day. Luckily we found a garage that could fix it same day, so we were only delayed by 5 hours before we were back on our way. Other than that the trip was largely uneventful, and we made it back to Hubby's Homeland on the fifth day.

We have since unpacked a few things, although the majority of our things are still in boxes stacked up in the hallway:


We're having to ignore it for now though, because we have more things to deal with...

DIY

At almost 39 weeks pregnant, this is our sitting room:




You didn't think I would be that disorganised, did you? You see, unfortunately while the house we are living in is decent enough, the paint was peeling off in the lounge and bedroom, so we thought it more sensible to sort it out before the baby was born, opposed to having it breathing in the dust and paint fumes.

Well, that was the plan at least, but it's taking longer than we thought it would, because it's not simply a case of repainting, but removing the old plaster, replastering, sanding the walls to smooth them for painting, and finally repainting. We had hoped it would only be a small percentage of the room, but it seems to be around 60% of the room affected. We're halfway through sanding the walls, and I hope with all my might that it will be done by the time I bring the baby home.

The due date is 10 days away


It's lucky in some respects that Hubby still has no work, because he is making himself useful doing all of this DIY, so I can't complain much. In regards to his job; he had the maths and English tests, followed by the fitness and roleplay in March, and he finally had the interview yesterday. They have said it will be up to three weeks before we hear back, so for now we're stuck in limbo. The good news is that Hubby will have time at home with the baby once it's born; something many dads don't get, so I'm happy - even if our savings are dwindling.

I will update on the pregnancy in my next post, but for now, I just wanted to let you all know that we are doing well and manically trying to ready ourselves for parenthood.

All Moved, But... Where Are Our Things?

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted. I am still here; just. So much has happened, which I promise to update you on in the coming weeks. Life has been so busy with the move, but now I have more time to be able to post, so here goes. I will do it gradually...

I'm now 32 weeks pregnant. The time has gone so quickly already, so I dread to think how fast the last few weeks will go! I am now this big:


And I feel like if I get any bigger, I will explode. Looking at me, I still have plenty of space to grow, but the aches are coming thick and fast now, so I wonder what I will be feeling like in another 8 weeks! I have lots of stretchmarks, but luckily the majority are on the underside of my bump, so I am in blissful ignorance of their presence!

In regards to the move, I worked up until 12th February, and we spent the weekend packing our things. I kept out all the important things until the last minute, but Hubby decided to pack everything left in unmarked boxes, "boxes of crap" he called them, resulting in me losing my underwear, maternity clothes and toiletries.

Anyway, we officially moved out of our place on Monday 15th February, and moved in with my mum for the week while we tied up loose ends, met up with family etc. Hubby's parents came up to England to meet us and help share the load in their car. Hubby's mum is a retired midwife, and it was reassuring to have her on the journey with me; just in case something happened and I went into early labour.

We left England on 20th February, and made the journey to Homeland # 2 to see my grandmother, aunts and a few cousins, before continuing our journey through Europe and down to Hubby's Homeland. However we didn't get any further than Poitiers in France before the van broke down on us. We hadn't expected it, since we had taken it for a full service and had repairs done on it before leaving England, and everything seemed to be in working order. But now it seems the engine has gone. Completely.

The garage in France quoted us £5,000 for a new engine; a cost we couldn't afford. They then offered to scrap the van for us, but they couldn't do anything without the vehicle documentation; something we didn't have. The person we bought the van from was really lazy in submitting the form to the DVLA, and therefore we hadn't received copies of the documentation before we left England. Now we were in limbo. We promised to get the documents to them, but in the meantime we couldn't wait there in France, so we all crammed into Hubby's parents' car, and continued the journey to Hubby's Homeland with only the basics:

* Travel clothes (consisting of sweats and "Guinness" T-Shirts)
* Basic toiletries
* My medical notes
* Jewellery
* One laptop

To this day we are still surviving on these things alone. The van is still in France, but now we are debating whether to get a reconditioned engine sent from England to be fitted into the van, and for it to be given a new lease of life; or to scrap it as originally intended. The paperwork still hasn't reached us, but it is in the mail as we speak. We hope to receive it tomorrow.

People are asking why we don't just scrap it and be donw with it, and I can only tell them it's because of the costs. We would have to pay to hire a van to take us back up to France, transfer all our things over, possibly pay to have the old van scrapped, drive back to Hubby's Homeland (all the time paying toll roads and hotels), only to have to give the hired van back and buy another vehicle here. Vehicles here come with a minimum price tag of £3,000. You can't seem to get an old banger over here like you can in England. It's for that reason that we're now considering paying to have the van fixed, and then at least we still have a vehicle at the end of all this.

The choice is obviously a gamble, and we're still liaising with both the seller of a reconditioned engine in England, and the garage that has our van in France, as to what the best option will be. I will keep you posted.

But on to today; we are going for our 4D scan in less than 3 hours. I need to get some lemonade to wake up the baby...

I'll update you more the next time I post.

In One Month Today...

We will be leaving the UK and moving abroad to start a new life in Hubby's Homeland. One month! I'm anxious, I'm scared... if I'm honest I don't really want to go, but I'm an adult and I'm about to be a parent. I have to get used to doing things I don't want to do.

Anyway, ignore me. I'm sure things will work out well in the end.

I've been back in the UK for 4 days already, but only just had an opportunity to update you all. The trip to Hubby's Homeland went well. We didn't manage to sort out all we had hoped, but we got the basics sorted.

First of all, it was great to see the in-laws. We hadn't seen them since the wedding in July, so we had a lot to catch up on, and I had a belly to show them. Hubby's Homeland is a place where everyone knows everyone, and good news travels fast, so it seems that wherever we went, someone was congratulating us.

The situation with the house is still not settled, but I don't think it will be for a while. We've probably got a temporary base in the one-bed flat, but it's so tiny it really isn't practical for 2 people with a baby. I think I measured the bedroom at 3m x 3.5m; it will fit a double bed if you have nothing else in the room. For that reason, we would need to swap the bedroom over with the lounge, which is slightly bigger, so we could get the cot into the room, and have a really small lounge. It will be okay for a few months, but certainly nothing long-term.

After that, we have the possiblity of Hubby's grandmother's house, which is a 2 bedroom flat near the town centre; but she would be living there too. That's not such a big problem until the baby needs its own room. Oh, and she doesn't speak English. And I only speak English.

Cue major awkwardness.

That's the only thing I'm worried about, but I know that it's the most likely eventuality, so I need to get used to the idea. Trouble is, while we would be buying the house from her, and paying the mortgage, I would feel like it wasn't our place, and would feel like I feel when I live with the in-laws - like I can't be myself. It's not ideal in that respect, so I'm not totally happy, but it's a house, and it's the baby that matters.

Hubby's Homeland is also a very hard place to get a house, so I am grateful we've been offered something. We know a couple who applied for housing when they got engaged. They've had 2 weddings, a long TTC journey, and their baby is now 5 months old, and they are still waiting for a house of their own. So I can't complain.

I've asked Hubby if we can stay in the tiny flat for at least a month after the baby's born. While it will be tight, I think it's important that we have time together as a family unit, without other relatives around. I know Hubby's grandmother would be really helpful to have around, but in the first month I will probably be going out of my mind with stress and exhaustion, so it's the worst time to have people around that you can't say goodbye to at the end of the day.

If we have a month alone with the baby, we can at least get to grips with being parents before thinking about living with someone else. I don't want her to have to walk around on eggshells for fear of upsetting me, and most of all, I don't want to unleash my hormones on her when she's only trying to help. I don't know if I'm explaining myself properly...

Hubby's heard of a few job opportunities. The one he's holding out for still haven't got around to releasing their applications yet, so he can't apply until February. We don't like that it's so uncertain, but it's a good opportunity, and because of Hubby's experience, he's very employable, so I'm sure he'll find something. The recession hasn't affected Hubby's Homeland, so there are no job shortages there, which makes things that little bit easier.

Hubby's mum took me to see her old colleagues in the maternity department of the hospital, and arranged for me to have a look around the ward etc. She also got me in with the community midwife who took a look at my notes and took my blood so she can get me processed before we move back over in February. I'm glad we went over this week, because when we go back in February, I will be thrown straight into appointments and checkups, so I won't miss out on anything.

They've already booked me in with a specialist to discuss the heart condition my grandmother has, which they ignored in England. I'm glad they're looking into it. They've also booked me in for what they call "parent craft", which I think is where they coach you through the labour process. I also have a dentist appointment booked (which I'm not especially excited about) and my 4D scan booked for the first week in April! I can't wait for that one!

On the return flight I got fantastic treatment! The lady at the check-in desk noticed I was pregnant and gave us priority boarding, which meant we got to sit right at the front with extra legroom. And we had great luck with our luggage; the second we got to the luggage belt, our bags were there for the taking. And they say Easyjet is crap; I beg to differ!

And on the baby front, it's spent the week kicking up a storm, but now I'm back at work I'm hardly feeling anything. It's moved now though, because up until 24 weeks, I only ever felt kicks up to the level of my belly button, but now I feel them just under my ribs. It's moved so much in a week, and the kicks are harder now.

I had my first bout of heartburn on Monday. This is going to be too much information, but throughout my life I've had those moments when you have a little sick come up, but then you have a swig of a drink, and it's gone. I thought that was heartburn.

Nope; heartburn is worse.


I went to see the midwife for my 25 week appointment yesterday, and she seems happy with how everything's going. She advised me to start counting the baby's movements, and if I have below 10 per day, I should get it checked out. She also advised me to take off my rings in the next few weeks. I was deliberating yesterday, and I've taken them off for good now. My jewellery isn't insured, and there's no way I'm having them cut off me!

Baby Update

Since the Christmas period got away with me, it occurred to me that I haven't updated anyone about the baby since our 21 week scan. As you know, the baby was kicking since I was 19 weeks and 6 days, but since then the baby has been visibly kicking in my belly. If I time it just right, I can see my belly moving with the baby, which is a very weird experience.

Since the 21 week scan, I have realised I'm actually glad we didn't ask the baby's gender. While I was going crazy with curiosity at the time, the moment has passed and I'm actually quite looking forward to the birth, because that's the first time I will know whether we have a son or daughter.

One New Year's Day we hit the sales; not for the usual things (clothes etc), but for the baby's buggy. We have been shopping around over the last couple of months, and finally found this one in Toys R Us. And even better, it was in the sale, costing £150 ($240). It's the Graco Excursion travel system, in black and champagne. The buggy comes with a car seat, which can be attached to the buggy for when the baby is small, and a footmuff for the colder days (not that we will be having many of them in Hubby's Homeland).

This is the basic buggy, with footmuff:


The car seat:


And the car seat attached to the buggy (I couldn't find any photos of it online, so you have to bear with me while I show you my skanky flat!):



I turn 24 weeks tomorrow, which is an important stage in any pregnancy, because it marks the point where, should the worst happen and I go into early labour, doctors will do everything in their power to help the baby. In a way it's a weight off my mind, because although the chances of survival are still low, at least you can be sure that every possible effort will be made for the baby. This is also the last point a loss is classed as a miscarriage, and from now on it would be classed as a still birth. I believe this means the baby would have the birth recorded.

I won't be online until 16th January now, as we're off to Hubby's Homeland to sort out a few things before the big move in February. We're hoping to get Hubby's job prospects more secured, meet with the midwives at the hospital, book a few birthing classes, inform healthcare etc that we are moving back (because I need to have medical support as soon as we arrive), and sort out where we will be living. It's going to be a busy week, but it will be good to get it all sorted.

White Britain

Don't get me wrong; I absolutely love the snow. I love the snow so much that when it comes, I dance around my living room hoping it will settle. Well, settle it did, all over the UK! I didn't know that at the time, and was just chuffed when they mentioned my town on every news channel. You see, Scotland is normally badly affected by snow, but here in the south it's rare we have any more than a light dusting. Alas, here we are surrounded by the white stuff.

They say that due to the low temperatures we are experiencing (last night it was -21c in Scotland), it could last another 3 weeks, which is causing chaos across the country. I'm normally pretty happy with a few days off work, but the trouble is, I can't enjoy it, because every time I venture out it seems my bum is magnetised to the ground, and all I want to do is skid around. That's fun, but not when you're five months pregnant, and hospitals are at full capacity.

But back to Wednesday - I woke up to a beautiful white covering of snow, 6 inches deep in our area. I spent about an hour trying to find warm clothes (that I could fit over my ever-expanding belly) and coaxing Hubby out of bed. It was time to find some breakfast. After breakfast we took a walk around the lake, where I took these photos:








This morning, two days later, I saw this on the news:


I heard our county was the worst affected area in the entire of the UK, but it's now apparent that snow has got everywhere. Through sheer guilt for not having worked in two days, I trudged to the train station this morning and made it into work, and it was a mammoth task. Taking 90 minutes and almost slipping about 10 times, I reached the office and breathed a sigh of relief. Just got to get home again this afternoon, and then I can relax for another day.

The big challenge comes on Sunday morning, when Hubby and I have to travel London-bound to catch our plane to Hubby's Homeland. Our flight leaves early on Sunday morning, when a second round of heavy snow has been predicted. I just hope the flight is still running, because I've heard it's a sunny 22c at our destination. If we can just get there...

Worried much? Haha, cross your crossables for me!

Random Thoughts

* I'm beginning to think getting pregnant before emigrating was a bad idea. If we move abroad in mid-February as we intend to, we only have 11 weeks, or 77 days left to tie up all of our loose ends. That may sound a lot, but there's Christmas in the middle, and we're taking a trip to Hubby's Homeland in January, so in reality we have far less time to sort everything out. I was actually lying awake last night wondering how it's all going to slot together in time; we just have so much to do!

* I can't wait until we go for our 21 week scan. 21 days and counting...

* We've seen a buggy we want already. Scary, huh? Well, not totally scary, because my mother-in-law popped into a couple of shops in Hubby's Homeland to ask how quickly items would arrive into stock after ordering them, and the result is 12-16 weeks.

It means that even if we shop for things when we go over in January, it still might not be there when the baby is born in May! Because of this, we're looking into buying at least the buggy in the UK and taking it over with us. This is the one we've found, and we think it's a bargain at £199:

I know it's blue, and we won't know whether we're having a boy or a girl... but since when have I been traditional? And I'm bored of shopping for gender neutral colours.

* And finally, I paid a whopping £900 ($1,400) onto my credit cards today. I know, what was I thinking? I can't really afford to part with that kind of money, but I found a crazy balance of £1000 on a card I thought I'd cleared, so the debts I need to clear before we move have doubled. I would cut up the cards, but with a baby on the way I'm sensing it could be wise to keep hold of them...

17 Weeks and Counting

My hope of posting more often didn't really work out, but I hope now things will be different. At 12 weeks I was still in the throes of morning sickness, which I didn't really see an end to until I was 15 weeks. In early November I had a three week long bout of migraines which made my sickness worse, and resulted in me being signed off work for a week. The doctor gave me a course of an anti-nausea pill which worked wonders.

But the good news is that I am doing well. I have now given up on caffeine completely (and I mean completely - I haven't touched a drop in 2 weeks). I'm not really feeling any different, but my migraines haven't made an appearance so I like to think it's linked.

My energy levels are slowly creeping up, and I'm now able to wait up for Hubby to get home from work (most of the time at midnight) about 4 nights a week, which is an achievement in itself, because at one stage I was going to bed at 7pm every night!

The baby is doing well too. I can't be sure, but I think I felt my first 'flutters' on 11/11, at 15 weeks, though I don't know why they call them flutters because to me it just felt like a rush of bubbles popping. Very weird. I know they say many women mistake it for wind, but I've never had wind there! I've since mentioned it to my midwife, and Hubby's mum (a retired midwife) and they both said it probably was the baby. I haven't felt anything since, but it's not unusual to feel something and then have nothing for a few weeks.

A week ago we went to see the midwife (my Hubby and I, not the baby and I - I'm not that crazy yet!), and we heard the heartbeat again. It took her a while to find it, mind you, because the baby kept swimming around trying to avoid the doppler. It seems the baby thinks it's on a stealth mission...

Right now I'm 17 weeks. I'd like to say I have a big pregnant belly, but I don't. When I took my 16 week belly photo I was ecstatic to see the beginnings of a belly, but over the course of the week it deflated somewhat, and I'm back to looking as if I've been eating all the pies. I have, but that's not the point...


Now I'm over the chaos of the first trimester, I'm thinking forward to the coming months. We have pretty much decided that we're moving to Hubby's Homeland in mid February, so we have to give the notice on our flat lease, we have to get quotes for shipping companies to take our stuff over, we have to buy a van to drive down (and to have space for the things we need immediately, like clothes etc), we have to pack, I have to sort out my maternity leave, Hubby has to sell his cars (one of which has no engine), and we have to get rid of whatever we're not taking.

Anyone want a bed?

I've had a busy couple of days, gluing and sending out our thank you cards, picking up our honeymoon tickets and ironing on fabulously blinging "Mrs X" transfers onto my honeymoon clothes:


Don't be alarmed, I've only got the one, and I've only ironed it onto one black T-Shirt, which I plan to wear on the plane.

I am getting more excited by the day, and I can hardly contain myself. And we still have over two weeks to wait! I'm slowly starting to pull a few things together that I know I will need to pack; like travel detergent, shorts, dresses, sun cream, books... I'm only packing these things because the Great British summer has, once again, been a total washout this year, and I doubt I'll be needing many of my summer clothes before we leave.

But there's always hope, and I would love to be able to top up my tan before we leave - there's nothing worse than being pasty on the first day of your holiday; trying to disguise your milk bottle legs. I'm not as pale as they come; I generally classify myself as having a European colour - perhaps like those in the south of France - opposed to pale colour of my fellow English roses. Having said that; I'm well versed in holidaying with Hubby's family, who are lucky enough to live on the Med and soak up the summer sunshine from April through to October.

I'm also breaking in my white flip flops; the first of 2009, and I stepped in bubble gum already. Sad but true!

And on a final, rather sour note, my laptop has decided to re-acquire the virus it had on 11th July, and therefore is out of action again until Hubby can work out how to get rid of it. Pfft. I'm seriously unimpressed, because all of our wedding photos are on it, and I hadn't managed to get around to burning them yet! Nevertheless, I knew the signs this time, and as soon as it started happening again, I came offline and started a series of gruelling virus scans, which have continued through to this morning when I had to leave for work.

I just hope it's sorted before Saturday, because I'm not spending my birthday without an internet connection...

Wedding Presents...

Our lounge, though tidier than usual, seems smaller than usual. But that's because we had our wedding gifts delivered on Saturday morning!!

I then had to wait until midnight for Hubby to get home so that we could open them together. As you probably know, we're looking at moving back to Hubby's Homeland in 2010, so we only opened everything to check nothing was broken or incorrect. It's a good thing we did too, because our burgundy pillow cases arrived looking suspiciously cream...

We also received £220 of vouchers from various family members, which we are hoping to spend on Sunday 16th August when we go to the store in person. We got a number of things we absolutely loved but didn't really need:









I spent Sunday boxing everything back up and tidying the lounge again. In such a small flat, one delivery seems to take over! The rest of my day was spent writing our thank yous; to which Hubby only contributed a signature, and complained at having to do that. Nevertheless, we're almost there. They're all written (except for the Spanish lot, which I have to get Hubby to write), the envelopes are all stamped and addresses - all I need to do now is spray mount the photos to the front of the cards without gluing myself in the process.

I anticipate to have them sent out first class tomorrow. that will be a weight off my mind, because then I'll know the wedding is pretty much done and dusted. THEN it's only our honeymoon to wait for, which by the way is in four weeks today!

One Month to Go!

I woke up this morning with a spring in my step, because as of today; our honeymoon is only a month away!

I'm so excited. This will be the first time I've ever been to the United States, and it will mark the furthest I've been from home. It also means I finally get to spend three interrupted weeks with my new husband. I can't wait!

We normally go back to Hubby's Homeland for a week here and there, or we go on holiday with his family. Hubby and I have only been on one "couple" holiday in the entire time we've been together; and it was complete shambles.

We were in the middle of a heat wave, and Hubby and I went down to the west coast, to a town called Newquay. If you aren't familiar with it; Newquay is the place you go when you finish school (a bit like Tijuana I suppose).

But despite the reputation, we weren't going to mingle with the underage drinkers, because Newquay is also famous for its clean beaches, and it's possibly the best surfing location in the UK. And for anyone who's seen Roald Dahl's "The Witches", the hotel it's filmed in is located here:

I'd been to Newquay twice before, but Hubby had never managed to go, so we thought we'd go camping in Newquay for a week; soaking up the sun, chilling out. We had originally been considering going to the Dominican Republic for a week, but in the end the price was just out of our reach, so we settled on a "staycation".

Well, at the end of the week, we'd spent more than we would have done staying at an all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic, so we've since decided that staycations are very pricey!

Unfortunately it was wet and stormy all week, but still lovely and sunny back home (grr...). Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun. We walked along the cliffs, and you can even walk along a strip of coves that lead straight to the town centre. It's a beautiful place; even when it's raining!

On the way back we stopped off at the Eden Project (the world's largest greenhouse):

After leaving, we were on the home straight; or so we thought. The car broke down twice, and the second time we were still 100 miles from home, and Hubby's breakdown cover will drive you home, or to a hotel within 10 miles of the breakdown location.

Unfortunately that left only one option; find a hotel. The mechanic took us to the repair garage, where I put the £800 ($1,400) bill on my credit card. The bank subsequently blocked my account, leaving us penniless in the process. It then meant we had to rely on the goodwill of a nearby hotel to give us a room for a knock down price, and no dinner!

Anyway, enough of my trip through Memory Lane. Hawaii will be our second "couple" holiday, and the best by far. This time next month, I will be on a plane to San Francisco with hubby asleep on my shoulder :)

Good News!

I have two bits of good news to share today.

I mentioned in May that there may have been an offer for a house in Hubby's Homeland, but that we wouldn't know for certain for a few weeks. Well, weeks turned to months, and we had almost given up on the idea until yesterday. The house is ours whenever we're ready to move over there. The conditions are different to what they were, in that we won't be buying the house, but renting it from my father-in-law. It's only a one badroom apartment though, so we would only need it while our first child is young enough to sleep in with us; and afterwards, we can look for something else.

It's such a weight off my mind. I don't know about you, but I've spent my adult years struggling just to make it through to the next pay day. I see friends buying houses and I wish I could be like them, but the reality is we've never made enough money to be able to put anything into savings, and the money we spend on rent is effectively money down the drain. But even before the recession it was near impossible for us to get a mortgage, even though the payments would be less than our rent.

Anyway, I'm not the only person in this situation, and I'm sure that if you're not in the boat; you know someone who is. But we're now lucky enough to have been offered a get-out clause, and it pretty much changes everything, and it means we can start thinking about the family we want to start so much.

Which leads me onto my next piece of news...

I don't know what the etiquette is on this one, but Hubby and I have agreed to start trying for a baby on our honeymoon. I'm so excited! I've been broody for so long now, and it finally seems that things are working in our favour.

Now that we're married, and now that the house is agreed; it just seems like the right time to be thinking about children. So we've set the start of our Hawaiian honeymoon as the point at which we start trying to conceive.

I know I'm jumping the gun here, but if it happens straight away, we could be parents in June. I'm not naïve, I know it might take a while, and I know we may face problems - My mother had trouble conceiving, and went through lengths just to have my brother; so she's always made it known that I might have trouble too. But they never did tests on me, so I won't know until we start actively trying to conceive. I think that's part of the reason we're not holding out much longer to have children... that and the fact that Hubby wants them before he's 30 (in 2011).

So we have six weeks to go, and I'm going to take this opportunity to get my body into shape for then. I'm going to concentrate on my diet and getting to my goal weight, and then it will just be a case of toning up and eating healthily. I've been taking pre-natal vitamins for about a month already. I just need to start reading up on the science of it all...

Phew - getting married, travelling further than I've ever been before, getting a house and trying for a baby... 2009's turning into a great year for us.

The Best Weekend EVER!

Where to start?! I haven't posted in 6 days, so I guess in order to update you; I'm going to need to start at the beginning.

Thursday and Friday were spent in a bit of a blur. I caught an awful cough and cold, and was like the living dead towards the end of the working week. I was sitting at my desk like a zombie, but unable to take time off sick. But my runny nose was more or less gone by Saturday (that's the kind of sickness I like!), leaving only a silly throaty cough behind, which I'm still trying to fight off. I suppose the good thing though is that I now have a husky voice, haha!

But the weekend is the thing I wanted to update you on the most. I've been so busy, but had such a nice time, and we received some incredible news - which I shall keep until the end.

I took the train to my dad’s house on Saturday morning, in time for a second hair consultation with a second stylist. This guy has been recommended to me, and he's been a stylist for over 30 years; so I had more faith in this consultation than I had in the first. He was running late, so he had to see to me in between his other clients, meaning it took over two hours to get the consultation.

He started off by suggesting hot rollers in a bid to get some nice curls going in my hair. My hair is naturally curly, but they’re quite small curls, and not very pronounced. So I was sat under one of those helmet-like blow dryers (and actually my head was being burned to a crisp, leaving me with a burnt forehead for a couple of hours!), only to find that the curls didn’t take. In the end he blew dry it straight and tonged curls into it, pinning it up into what was the spitting image of the example I’d shown him.

He didn’t put any mousse or hairspray in it, but assured me he would put so much in it on the day; it wouldn’t come free. That’s what I like to hear! Unfortunately there was no time to get any photos, as he took the pins out straight away. I also didn’t have time to quibble, because now I was running late myself, and my poor dad had already been waiting for me for two hours. Anyway, I’m confident he can do it, and have booked him to do my hair on the wedding day.

On Saturday afternoon, I went into town with my dad to run an errand, and ended up spending four hours wandering around with him, which was really nice. We stopped for coffee, and he showed me a few hidden gems where we might be able to have wedding photos done. I loved being able to spend time with my dad; as it’s rarely possible these days. I actually remembered how alike we are, so it was really nice.

On Sunday I spent the day with him, my stepmum and little brother, and went back home that evening. The weather over the weekend was incredible; not a single cloud in the sky and sooo warm. The only negative was that when I’d packed my bag to go to my dad’s, I hadn’t packed any skirts/shorts, so I was going around in black trousers for two days: ouch!

When I got back on Sunday night, Hubby had the night off. He greeted me with huge enthusiasm to have a picnic the following day (a national holiday, during which he had also managed to get a day off). So we spent the evening talking about where we could go, what we could take, etc.

On Monday morning I woke to see that it was dreary and wet outside. Hmmm. Unfortunately one thing about living in England is that you can NEVER plan ahead on the weather. So we went for breakfast at a "greasy spoon" (if ever you visit England, you have to visit one).


Hubby and I seem to go for breakfast here whenever we have a day off together. Before you question this, we've only had about 3 days off together in the past year, so it's not often enough to increase anyone's cholesterol!

Then went into town and went to the cinema. We saw “Night at the Museum 2” and I thought it was even funnier than the first. However when we got back to the car, we found we’d been lumbered with a parking ticket! £25 lighter, and somewhat deflated; we headed home.

Nearly done, I promise…

When we got home, we received a call from Hubby’s mother in Hubby’s Homeland. Hubby’s step-grandmother (you following?) has been offered the chance to buy her flat from the government for an incredible £35,000 (about US$55,000). However, she doesn’t want it, so Hubby’s stepdad has offered to buy it initially, and sign the mortgage over to us afterwards (since we’re not blood related, we can’t buy it straight out ourselves).


Which means, if all goes to plan (i.e. if nobody blood-related wants the flat) we have a house ready for when we move over!!! The mortgage would be so low (about £180/US$280 per month), we could even afford to pay our current renting costs in the UK as well as the mortgage on the flat in Hubby’s Homeland.

The reason we can't go immediately is because we're already signed up to a leasing agreement, the wedding, the honeymoon, our jobs and my annual leave year, which finishes in January. If I leave before January, I have to pay money back to them to make up for the leave I'm taking for the honeymoon = not worth leaving until 2010. I also wanted to give my family a heads up and not leave straight away.

The flat is on the ground floor, and has only one bedroom, but it will be fine for the first couple of years at least. Even when we have a baby, it will be okay for the first year or so while the baby can sleep in our room, and then we can look into getting another place.

Eek, how exciting! It’s beyond belief. This stuff just doesn’t happen to us! We normally have such bad luck with everything house-related (being chucked out of numerous houses - not our fault I hasten to add, and having flatmates who stab us in the back); but here we are being offered such a good deal. It’s our key to having a family, and it seems to be coming together. I’m sooo happy :)

And one part of final news; I have my first dress fitting this afternoon. To save the dress from sitting in the car crumpled for seven hours, I’ve had to bring it to work with me today! Something I never thought I’d have to do, but I managed to sneak it through without many people seeing it, into a very rarely used little storage room.

Cue the music from "Mission: Impossible"...

The Hippo and the Tortoise

Last night I went to Weight Watchers - the first time in two weeks. When I go on holiday, I forget about my diet and I eat what I want to eat (within reason). When I was in Hubby's Homeland, I got a little carried away with the lovely foods, and of course having a Burger King in such close proximity; and let’s just say, I ate too much.

So all through work yesterday I was dreading stepping on the scales, and I actually had butterflies in my stomach when I was about to go on them; but I was pleasantly surprised. I’d lost half a pound. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s going to stay that way; I suspect my body is going to go stealth on me and pile on the pounds for next week instead. But for now, I’m basking in my success!

I wanted to share something with you all though, because I thought it was heart-warming. And we all need a little pick-me-up every now and again, so here’s what greeted me in my inbox this morning:

“Much of life can never be explained but only witnessed”

A young hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing 650lbs, was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on 26th December 2004, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

Owen has since formed a strong bond with a male giant tortoise. The tortoise, thought to be 100 years old, has adopted this young hippo, and seems to be very happy acting as a surrogate father.

'After Owen was swept away and lost his mother, he was traumatised. Fortunately, he and the tortoise have established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together,' Mr Kahumbu, a local ecologist said. 'The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it would follow its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother.'

'The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years,' he explained.

This story shows that our differences don't matter much when we need the comfort of another. We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures. Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.

If you would like to see this story in a short video, click here.

Hooray for Hubby!

I'm continuously surprised how fast a weekend can pass; and this weekend was one of those that you just don't seem to feel you've had. I'm back at work on this rainy Monday afternoon and wishing I was tucked up in bed watching reruns of "Friends".

Hubby has found himself a Sous Chef, so much to our relief, he will begin to have days off again in the next month or so. He's really worn out at the moment, so I'm glad he'll finally be able to relax a little, and have some time to himself.

We celebrated with a glass of Pimms (which, if you haven't tried yet; I strongly recommend). Anyway, it's been about 10 months since I made my last Pimms, and I accidentally made it too strong, meaning Hubby went off it completely. I'm hardly one to waste a good drink, so I revelled in being able to drink both, ha ha!

I emailed my stepmum yesterday, giving her the details of our wedding guest list. She's very intricate in the organisation, because we're having the reception at their house, so she wants to be able to sort everything out. She's asked to know final numbers, as well as approximate ages of everyone so that we can plan entertainment etc. It's all go, it seems. I've got to discuss flowers with my colleague, who has offered to help us, and I've got to go for a hair trail on 9th May.

This weekend I'm taking advantage of the bank holiday (Saturday-Monday) and going to Homeland #2. To aid you here; and for the sake of protecting identities:

* Homeland #1 is where I was born and raised (1/2 my heritage)
* Homeland #2 is where my mother was raised (1/4 of my heritage)
* Homeland #3 is where my grandmother grew up (1/4 of my heritage)

It's safe to say I'm a bit of a mongrel, but I'm proud of it. I have family in each country, so they will be mentioned a fair few times, which is why I thought I'd explain them now. We're going to meet up with family, and it will be my last trip abroad before the wedding; so when I get back I will need to surrender my current passport while I apply for a new one in my married name (very exciting!). However, it also means that I can't go to Hubby's Homeland until after the wedding, so if Hubby's grandfather doesn't make it, I won't be able to attend the funeral. It's funny how they penalise you for getting married...

Anyway; here's to another week. It's set to be a busy one, which is good, but it means there's less time to daydream!

Happy St George's Day!

A happy St George's day to you all! I don't care if you're not English, or not descended from English stock; have a cup of tea (or a glass of Pimms) and a scone and sit back and enjoy the sunshine. It's sunny here today; apparently the warmest April in 30 years! Despite landing at 1:30pm yesterday, by the time I went to bed last night I was still in holiday mode, and so when I woke up this morning and turned on GMTV (morning television) to learn that it was St George's Day, I actually groaned. Don't get me wrong; I absolutely love this day, but it meant I had to root around for something red and white to wear to work; despite having chaos all around me from unpacking our suitcase!


Anyway, find some clothes I did, and I'm now at work wearing a white top, a red skirt that is now too big for me (the joys of losing weight!), and white ballerina pumps - beautiful!

As I made my way in to work today, I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that I didn't see anyone else wearing the national colours, or waving a flag or anything. Not that that wouldn't have been weird. It's a pity more English people don't celebrate our patron saint day. Everyone's happy to celebrate St Patrick's day, but nobody even cares when it's St George's day. This is what it's come down to: A couple of events in London, followed by haters yelling at them because they're offending the non-English members of our communities.

I don't want to seem rude, but if immigrants come to England, surely they are expecting to be thrown into an English society; all stiff upper lipped, non church-going, non saying hello in the street style. If I go to China I don't expect them to greet me with a cup of tea and a shortbread biscuit. Last year the government were actually telling people not to wear or display the flag of St George for fear of making foreigners feel unwelcome. My own mother is foreign, and even she thinks the country has become too obsessed with keeping her sweet. Political correctness gone mad.

Anyway; my mini rant out of the way - My trip to Hubby's Homeland went better than I expected. Hubby's grandfather, though not well, was better than we thought he would be. He's getting radiotherapy, so hopefully it will help him a little. While we were the weather was amazing; not a single cloud in the sky for the duration of our stay. We went fishing, went to the new casino, ate out, and caught up with Hubby's Best Man and his wife, as well as other friends.

One of our friends is taking part in the local version of "Strictly Come Dancing" or "Dancing With The Stars" for those of you in the US. We went to see the opening night while they were filming it for TV, and we had a great time. The six couples danced either the Waltz or the Cha Cha Cha. Although we can't see the televised shows here in the UK, we're asking them to keep us updated on our friend's progress in the contest.

I ate so much while I was there though, and I feel like such a porker, so as of today, I'm back on Weight Watchers with a vengeance. We went for breakfast, and Hubby had toast with garlic and olive oil (yum!). We also took the opportunity to have lots of fried food, a Burger King, a KFC and a whole bag of Jelly Babies...

The importance of today is three-fold for me though; because my little brother celebrates his birthday on 23rd April, and my grandfather also died on this day. So as well as celebrating being English (not British), I give my brother a call to wish him a happy birthday, and take a moment to think of my grandfather.

In other news, and possibly the most important of all; Hubby and I have agreed that it's time to think about getting on the housing ladder in his home country. So I've said that once 2010 comes around, he can scout around for a job there, and if he finds one with a decent salary; he'll accept it and we'll be emigrating.

Now, for those of you who don't know; Hubby grew up abroad, and I moved back there with him in 2004, but moved back to the UK when I was offered double bubble as a store manager. He has always wanted his children to have the same upbringing as he did, and Hubby's Homeland is the safest, friendliest place we know. So once we married we would try for kids, and move abroad once we found out we were expecting.

BUT things never really work as easily as you think they will. There is a housing list you need to go on for government housing, and you can only go on it once you've been living there for a year. But we can't live with his parents with a screaming newborn, so we've realised we're going to have to plan things a little better.

So here's the deal; if Hubby can find a decent job over there, we can get a mortgage (stupidly affordable over there), I can then focus on finding a job that doesn't need any fluency of Spanish (even though the official language is English, this is harder than you'd think). We can then try for a family, I will be able to raise the kids, learn Spanish, and we'll live happily ever after. I'm not sure about the last part, but that's the plan at least!

Cajun Squirrel?!

Hubby and I are flying out to Hubby's Homeland tonight. I should probably explain that we go there at least twice a year, as he grew up there, and he still has family and friends there, which we make a point of visiting as much as possible. Fo him it's a catch up session with everyone he loves, and for me it's a cheap holiday in the sun.


Now, ordinarily this would be a really exciting day, but we're not visiting for the usual reasons; we're going to see Hubby's grandfather, who was diagnosed with having the late stages of cancer last month. We're going to visit him for the last time before the wedding; but maybe even the last time ever.

So while Hubby is working the Sunday lunch service, I am at home packing the suitcase and making sure all the housework is done before we go. We get back on Wednesday afternoon, and I'm back to work on Thursday. I hope we get to have some free time too, not because I want it, but because I want Hubby to have time to digest what's happening during our visit. Neither of us know what to expect, so it's difficult to know what to prepare for.

Now onto a more mundane subject; but I can't leave you on a sad note...

Billions of people around the world are fans of crisps (AKA chips). One of the major brands in the UK is Walkers (AKA Lays). They wanted to come up with an exciting new flavour, but thought, why not ask the Great British public for their ideas? They'll be the ones buying them.

So they rallied the help of gastronomic marvel Heston Blumenthal; owner of the Fat Duck in Bray; voted the best restaurant in the world. If you haven't heard of Heston, he's famous for his rather peculiar concoctions, such as snail porridge and egg & bacon ice cream; so who better to try to match the flavours suggested by the now rather weird British public?

They had thousands of suggestions, and they shortlisted them to the final six:

* Duck & Hoi Sin
* Fish & Chips
* Builders Breakfast
* Chili & Chocolate
* Cajun Squirrel
* Onion Bhaji


- which are currently available to buy (though admittedly, quite hard to track down) across the UK. Once you try the six flavours, you can cast your vote. Once the votes have been cast, only one will stay! But they're all so gooooood! It's like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey, only to take it away again. It reminds me when they brought out Vanilla Coke for a year, and suddenly it was gone. I was lucky enough to find it in Hong Kong when I went out there in December 2008. Honestly, once I found it, I was trying to invent ways I could smuggle a ton of it back to the UK.

But I don't know if I'll ever be able to decide on my favourite crisp flavour. Perhaps I should leave it up to everyone else to decide. But then again, if you consider their suggestions, we might end up with something worse; like dustbin favour...

EDIT: The winning flavour was "Builders Breakfast", which is a little disappointing, because it just tasted like eggs and tomato ketchup. Bring back the Cajun Squirrel!!

Easter Holiday!

I'm always glad for some time off work, but time off AND an excuse to eat chocolate? Well, that's just heaven!

Today is my last day of work before I have four days off. Days off this year are hard to find, since I have the wedding and honeymoon later this year. So I'm making the most of my time off by spring cleaning. I know, not very exciting, right? But the truth is I've lost my passport, my diary, my memory cards for my camera; and I'm going to Hubby's Homeland on 19th April. Eek!

So I shall be spending tomorrow being a clean freak as I go around my one bedroom flat in a bid to tidy everything, and hopefully find my missing possessions. I swear, my flat is like a vacuum for anything remotely useful! If I get enough accomplished tomorrow, then I can spend Saturday, Sunday and Monday doing bugger all; a past-time which I secretly love.


I had my weekly weigh-in last night, as part of my slimming down for the wedding, and I'd put on a pound, argh! As a result, I've only allowed myself one Cadbury's Creme Egg this Sunday... although I might have some on Saturday...

During the long weekend I also plan to go through my wardrobe and try on all my skinny clothes in the hope of finding something I can wear to my cousin's wedding on 25th April. Normally I would be happy wearing a sleek skirt with a pretty top, but my aunt seems to have brought up her kids to wear really fancy gowns to weddings, so I'm thinking I should probably try to match. I'm hoping I can squeeze into my red silk dress from 2003...