Coffee Good, Morning Bad

4208 words

I've introduced my 3 master characters (although one of them we don't know recognise who he is yet), 2 major characters and 2 minors, as well as setup 3 main strands of plot and a sideplot.
It's all so rough it's embarrassing but I'm determined to get down as many different scenes as possible to create progression. I figure dialogue can always be smartened up later on.

So, yup, 4208. Just need to write another 800 tomorrow and Paul can't hold me to tidying the bedroom. Though I almost certainly will anyway cos my mum is visiting for the weekend and we all know what mums think about messy bedrooms, right?

Writing update.

First day of writing (there are 31 days in July, so I spent yesterday writing out my big ol' characters and scenes for future reference) and I've done 1658 today - one prologue and one half of a chapter.
I should probably point out that my book is for ages 9+ so it will be shorter than an average novel but I think children's fiction is much harder to get right than adult so I hope I'm up to the challenge.

So, yes, 1658.

50,000 words in a month

So, hello July.
I took a wee break from my blog as I was busy but now I'm back with an exciting project.
For 4 years I have planned to write a book. The trouble was no great idea for a book materialised. Now I have one, so I'm going to follow the NaNoWrMo plan and do my first draft in 30 days. Normally one does this in November but November is always full of making Christmas gifts for me.

I went to the my local library and picked up the 'no plot? no problem' kit by the author who started NaNoWrMo and it's full of fun motivational tips so hooray for that. I urge any of you to comment, twitter, email, text me to ask about how much I've written so I keep going.

I'll be posting regular updates and maybe even short excerpts of the least clunky bits so please cheer me along.

What's it about? Well, the more eagle-eyed among you here might have noticed some odd additions on my daily linkroll outside of our normal craft/art/Ace Attorney fangirl schedule ...

Here goes nothing.

Taking stock, making stock.

This year has been one of changes for me. Not massive life-changing changes - that was covered by last year and the year before that - but really finding out what is 'normal' now I'm a working mother with grown-up commitments.

I've gone back to the GTD program, with the help of Omnifocus, and thanks to Shimelle (who is by the way a wonderful papercrafter, cupcake baker, Kitchen Diaries fan and all round uber-girly) I have found Apartment Therapy. (Be warned, the book is great but their website - although full of sumptuous goodies - is a bit overcrammed, full of temptation and hard to follow. Irony, given the book is about the complete opposite)

Shimelle has been following the 'eight step cure' as prescribed in the book and gone great guns so I've decided to do the same, tying it in with my re-learning the GTD habit.

I'm cheating a wee bit (already?!!) and combining week one with some of week two - but only because they naturally fell together on my GTD list (week one i give everything a brisk hoovering and mop down but most of the room will have to wait til Monday). As a result, I think tonight will be spent cleaning the kitchen. Rock'n'Roll Friday night avec le Monsieur Muscle. At least I have my new hero Phoenix Wright to keep me company in the wee small hours.

Tomorrow I have a chicken carcass in my fridge so I think I'll make a stocky type soup for lunch. In fact, I'd like to solicit here. What is your favourite home made soup recipe?

one of these things does not belong

Toby and Paul have a cough
Toby and Paul sleep really well, once asleep
My brother is currently staying on our sofa
I am a light sleeper and I'm having trouble sleeping full stop.
It's currently 3.15am. Toby will wake me at 6.45am.
I could weep, in fact, I probably will.

But I'm finally updating my blog!!!11

*sniff*
*sob*

Ipswich Hospital - terrible bullying of elderly patient witnessed

Edit, Apr 13th 2008: my friend who witnessed this awful bullying reported it to the hospital once she was readmitted to another ward. The nurses on her new ward took her complaint very seriously and talked her through the procedure for launching a formal complaint. She has done so. The first step is for Ipswich Hospital to launch an 'internal investigation' and report their findings back to her. It has been over a month and she has not heard more than an acknowledgment of her complaint. I will ask her for a further update soon but it seems the hospital is in no hurry to check or change its procedures.

Original post follows:

This is an absolutely true story that my friend just posted:

Honestly, I have never witnessed anything so f*cking awful

I have got some sort of infection going from my throat, all down my neck, my glands are huge, my ear is agony. I was put on antibiotics yesterday but today I have literally not eaten and bearly drank a thing as swallowing is too painful. My face is so fat it is mad!! I am in agony, feel like my face is going to explode

Anyway, went back to my doc today who sent me up to an ENT ward this evening to be assessed as he is not very sure what is going on

I got in there and was greeted with a very unfriendly attitude and shown to my bed. I was sitting there waiting when this very frail old lady in the bed opposite started shouting for help. Absolutely no reaction from the student nurse or staff nurse in the room. She called again. Still no reaction. (they were not busy, they were chatting to each other). The old lady called again, crying. Then this little b*tch of a student nurse rolled her eyes at this poor lady and put her finger to her mouth and told her to shhh. I was like this: shock.This little old lady looked so uncomfortable, she had a thin sheet only just maintaining her dignity and was looking like she'd fall out of bed. She called again and the student nurse this time practically shouted at her to shhh. She then started talking to another patient, very loudly saying "I bet you didn't get a wink of sleep last night with that stupid woman": shock.The patient seemed to be lapping it up saying she didn't and it was awful blah blah. The SN was saying "she doesn't stop calling and shouting all day, she is doing everyones head in". I sat there is disbelief. This little old lady started calling for help again, she was clearly shivering and in alot of distress and the SN said to her "Look, you are fine. I'm not coming to you again" and walked out of the ward". Another SN came in and the lady called for help again and this stupid nurse said in a cruel voice "Daisy, you are alright". This old lady clearly was not. She started calling again and again saying she was so cold

She had just had an operation (not sure where) but her pillows looked like they were about to break her neck and there was a big thick blanket covering an arm. She called for help when the SN came in again and the old lady said "Please, just help me move this heavy blanket, it is hurting me". The SN pulled it off her roughly and went very close to her face and shouted "Will you be quiet", then she roughly gave her a pair of slippers and said "Just play with these".  She walked off, rolling her eyes again

Pathetic or not, I was almost in tears at this point.  I was sat up on my bed watching it, obviously horrified.

The student nurse walked out of the ward and the little old lady was crying. She was clearly very confused and very fragile. I actually was in tears and rightly or wrongly I went over to her and asked her what she wanted me to do to help. She didn't know who I was, but smiled at me, so relieved to see a kind face. I got her sat up in bed  and arranged her pillows, covered her up. In the corner of my eye I saw the SN come in and walk straight out, and with that a bitch staff nurse walked in and demanded to know what I was doing. I was in tears and said "I have worked in this hospital and I have never ever in my life here, or in my care work before, seen a patient treated so badly." I said "This lady is in obvious distress and she has been shouted at, roughly handled, teased, patronised and totally and utterly ignored by at least 3 members of staff when she is desperately crying for help." The staff nurse started raising her voice at me telling me I have no right to help another patient and I said that I am afraid I do when I have sat there for 20 minutes and witnessed all of this. She looked at the clock and said "You have only been here for 15 minutes." I can't rmemeber what else she said but she was giving me the most filthy looks, patronising me and basically not taking any account of what I saw. She then said "That lady is very confused, she has gone on and on all day". She said it like it was an excuse to treat the lady in that way. I said "That does not make what I have seen excusable. I have worked with elderly people many many times as a carer, and I would never treat someone like that, confused, demanding, hard work or not".
Then the staff nurse said "if you let me speak I will bleep the doctor to come and see you and i will come back with the student to do your BP and temp". She said "If you want to make a witness statement then do so but it won't get you anywhere, i am the registered nurse and i guarentee you won't be listened to, your word against ours."

I am afraid with that I got up and walked out on my way saying "I am definately not staying here to be treated by the likes of you".

Honestly, I have never seen anything like it but I probably look like a hormonal twat. That poor lady, she was so happy I helped her and looked so comfortable after I sorted her out and I just could not bear to see her be treated like that. I cannot bear to think of her going through the last of her dayslike that, I am crying my eyes out. She was obviously at deaths door and I can't bear it.

And now me, I have not had a drink since lunch time as I literally cannot swallow and my face is so swollen on the right side...I am in serious agony. I have just taken some codeine phosphate that I have left from after my caesarian

I can't go back in there, not on my life would I stay in that ward or in there

All those staff in there were in collusion at treating this lady so badly (and they were about to start on an old man was was calling for help too). It was honestly like it was a game to them and that these student nurses had total permission to treat her like that

I honestly feel sick thinking about her in there

ETA...I forgot to say when I first arrived, I saw the lady trying to ask for her sandwich to be passed, and one of those hospital tea ladys picked it up and threw it in the bin saying she had had ages to eat it. I was shocked butI'd just arrived and wasn't aware this was an obvious case of bullying at that point

Running scared

I suddenly had a dash of blinding inspiration yesterday and thought 'I'd like to be able to run a bit'. I used to hate running at school because it just seemed to be a way of the PE teachers getting rid of us for a whole lesson and always figured I couldn't do it.

So, anyway, before I could chicken out I bought a new shock absorber level 4 bra  and some actual running shoes (not very expensive but proper running shoes nonetheless)  and some training pants and a wickaway top  and I just ordered the 'running for beginners' book and, heaven help me, I'm going to start running.

I just want to be able to do a reasonable run for 30 minutes (building up to it of course) so I don't think it's out of my league but I certainly feel a bit WAAAAAAAAAAH!

My husband is being very supportive but I'm not sure I will be able to stick at it. I'm hoping that some lovely people will be able to encourage me a bit and give me tips and I might be able to manage a 30 minute run by the summer ( I really want to run along the seafront in the summer).

Now, tell me, am I a mentalist?

A somewhat unexpected result?

I'm flattered but I can only assume it's my quick-to-judge nature that has me picked out thus:

Take the Quiz here!

Split personality.

This blog is my blather blog.
I have a new blog for my craft stuff so people who enjoy a smorgasbord of craft attempts don't have to read about the hilarious last attempt of Toby to fill the DVD player with jam. That craft blog is Coffee Good, Morning Bad.
I also have a copywriting blog - which will be sporadically updated with articles, interviews and news - for my copywriting business Poppy Copy
I have a gaming blog which is purely about what I'm playing (or not) on my profile at weplaythis.com
I also have a flickr account, last fm account, twitter account, I'm somewhere on facebook, pownce, vimeo, seesmic and yahoo! live.
Feck it. I am the internet.

No, really, my brother jokingly accused me of having an internet double life he didn't realise about because Google will give you a million mentions of me. I will try and put some links in the sidebar here so you can find me all over the place if you so wish. Internet stalkers your life just got easier.

Visiting unchartered territory in the supermarket

Today I'm doing something I have never done before. I'm using an eating plan. This isn't a diet as such, as I have no major intention to lose weight, but a commitment to actually eating healthily. Since having Toby I have become incredibly lax about my own diet and health. The more hours I put into his wellbeing and appetite the less that seems to have gone into mine. For Paul it is much more of a slow and steady weightloss diet but I think it's nice that we can do this together and support each other.

Besides, I think we will each need to be a tower of strength for the other. The first clue was when Paul was at Sainsburys for over 2 hours trying to find the hitherto unknown articles - beanfeast, Quorn chicken strips, lower fat salad dressing - but now I've looked at this week's menu plan and it has at least 3 servings of houmous and all the cereal seems to include dried fruit. Bleurgh!

Independence Day

I always figured I'd know when my baby was no longer a baby. A couple of days ago he turned 18 months old which is the time most baby books say 'no longer our territory, you're on your own now soldier!'. He celebrated by being pretty stroppy, eating nothing but two yoghurts and catching us all on the hop by sleeping through for the first time in yonks. Standard small toddler fare.

But then. But then. It took me noodling about with new desktop pictures to come across this one again. Taken in early November, it actually made me catch my breath. Walking on reins?  Wearing a Bob the Builder hat selected by small self?  Heading towards the road in a different direction from Mummy?  This is toddler stuff all right.

I have dreadful suspicions I might become one of those awful women who ruffle the hair of their 33 year old son, who is married with 2 kids, and say 'But he's still my baby!'. If anyone catches me doing that, please show me this picture again and remind me he grew out of babyhood and into his own little person a long time ago.

oh noes! Christmas illness

My annual Christmas illness has come to town and it won't bloody go :(
moar funny pictures

Visit my city and help me build a benign dictatorship on the web ;-)

http://annettbaker.myminicity.com/

Check out my city! I plan to rule on high. Mwahahahahaaaaaa!

They might be 'short but hardcore' but so am I!

23

Shamelessly stolen from the squeezypaws.com archives ...

I'm missing my cats who are on their jolly hols while we move but, I have to confess, perhaps not this aspect of cat ownership:

Facebook - your new creepy neighbour

Facebook. Wasn't convinced when my brother joined. Was persuaded to join. Joined. Discovered loads of old friends. Discovered loads of friends wanted to pelt me with snowballs, X me, give me my own solar system to nurture, compare taste in cheese. Discovered that Facebook is happily telling everyone what I buy and when. Switch off the Beacon alerts to my profile. Discover Facebook still knows but just isn't telling, like a creepy next door neighbour looking over the garden fence.

Here is my friend Jeremy who has a much more erudite and clever summary of it all than me, well worth reading if you are a Facebook user.

In Soviet Russia, Facebook partners climb over the walled garden to get YOU. Oh wait, and now here too.

Playing tag

Nic tagged me, so here is 8 random facts about me.
But first, the rules:

1: Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2: People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3: At the end of your blog, Chose people to get tagged and list their names.  Or don’t.  Who’s going to check?

Well, quite.

1) I used to be a chorister - complete with the daftie outfit and everything. I get all nostalgic at Christmas remembering the services I used to sing at over the Christmas period.

2) I'm a Nintendo fangirl. I have owned every console since the SNES and even borrowed my neighbour's NES for a while and discovered the joy of Super Mario Bros 3, when I was 9. I didn't have a Virtual Boy though. Although I'm not sure anyone did in the UK. However, I've never bought a console at release and rarely buy a game on release day.

3) Since having Toby I have become a tea addict and find it hard to function without a morning cuppa. I like English breakfast blend in the morning and Assam or Ceylon in the afternoon. However, at home I tend to stick to a fairtrade blend teabag because it tends to be just me drinking it.

4) I have an underactive thyroid. I take thyroxine to correct it and have done for the last year.

5) As has been documented here before, I am a big lover of the soft drink root beer. To most people here it tastes like TCP but to me it is just scrummy.

6) I am not a film watcher. I have to be really interested to bother to watch something - can't truly remember the last time I went to the cinema, probably Nov 2005? - but if I like it I will watch it on DVD repeatedly. I am a bit obsessive compulsive in my viewing. I don't watch a lot of stuff but I will devour things if I like them. I'd happily watch QI for hours and hours. The all-weekender things that lazy TV schedulers do? They're made for me.

7) I'm currently reading 'The Interpretation of Murder' for a book club I've set up. Review to follow.

8) I hardly listen to music anymore. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, podcasts and radio 4/7. My last audiobook purchase was Bill Bryson's short book on Shakespeare. I listen to stuff on the bus or just before I go to bed on my ipod.

Okay, so who to tag?

Paul
Nikki
Jessica
Karen
Steph

You're all 'it'.

I could whine on today but instead ...

I choose YOU Positivity. Well, I choose some of my favourite xkcd cartoons instead:

The last one is available as an awesome poster from the xkcd store

My latest lolcat

moar funny pictures

If you like it, please click through and vote for it :)

The agony and the ecstasy

I should say right from the start: This is not procrastinating. No, really. I have a craft show to turn up to in a week's time. I have produced naught but a handful of items but this isn't procrastinating. It's blogging. There is a distinct difference. Blogging is not ignoring the elephant in the room. Blogging is writing about ignoring the elephant in the room. Different, see.

So, yes:

You can buy these. Next Sunday, Hove Town Hall at the 'All Things Christmas Show'. Hopefully you'll be able to buy other things but right now I wouldn't necessarily put my life savings on it. Unless you are me, who has already put her life savings *into* it to buy stock. Ooops. My problem is I won't make shonky stuff - it has to be pretty near to perfect if I'm going to offer it up to anyone else. So everything takes an age.

Paul has been a rock of support and very very handy with a trimmer. Even now he is in his parents' front room, with a guillotine, making up altered note books for me. I am making more 'word' books and making my 12x12 commission album, that people can have a look through to see if they might want to order individual albums from me. I'm actually scrapbooking someone else's holiday photos which is a challenge, but pretty fun too. It took a long time to get started but I'm getting there. I'm happy with the pages which, as they are also going to be a gift, is a Good Thing.

Now, do I go to bed or scrap into the early hours? I must be getting old. I can hear my bed calling.

Trouble stew

I should be in bed asleep now. I'm going to pay for this tomorrow. But I'm not asleep, I'm awake and stewing over stupid negative things in my head. Isn't that dumb? Hooray for human idiocy.

I think tomorrow Toby and I will make a little video podcast for you all. Betcha can't wait.

Loading Ready Run recap the news

I love Loading Ready Run very much but this latest video tickled me a lot. If you go to the site check out 'Talk Like a Pirate', 'The future of Halo' and 'Rejected Wii games' too.

Random dispatches from the front line of Working Mother Monthly

I took the plunge last month and began my most excellent adventure as a Freelance Copywriter. It's something I've done on and off ever since leaving GWR way back nearly 5 years ago but I now have a name for the business - Poppy Copy and I am officially no longer one of those statistics the Daily Mail loves to quote. You know, unemployed mother. Not that I ever claimed benefits - more's the pity - so I guess I might be off the hook. At any rate, I'm a bona fide tax payer now. If you think you know someone who might want copy feel free to pass my details on. My work name (ha ha) is Cheryl Annett-Baker (if you didn't know or hadn't worked it out, my parents didn't christen me Relly: it's just a pet name from school/university) so please pass on my real name and my email, copy@poppycopy.co.uk

Other projects in the pipeline are Ummy Mummy: The smart mummy's personal shopper site, Effective Girl: The stylish chick's effective productivity tools and tips, and my scrapbooking blog, Stash Size Zero is going to get a bit of an overhaul and update too.

Also, in that mysterious space known as Real Life, I'm going to have a stall selling my scrapbooking and altered book handicrafts at The All Things Christmas Show in Hove Town Hall on the December 2nd. Also there will be my friend Steph selling her really rather gorgeous Softies and hand crocheted scarves. (I'm still battling making my own right now).

With that all in mind I should really wrap up this post and go and make some stock. If you live in or around Brighton and you want to be my very best friend, download this pdf, print it out and place it somewhere prominent to encourage people to come and buy our stuff.

Download a5_xmas_flyer.pdf

December 2nd - put it in your diaries!

atchoooo

I have my 2nd cold in as many weeks.I don't want to go to bed because I know it will just be a litany of coughs and wheezes and randomly waking up. Toby has been very unsettled with a horrible cough for the last couple of weeks so it's just fun and games all round here.

I just wish for a week's peace and quiet - unlikely though!

And we still have a flea issue. Boo.

My post for Blog Action Day

So, today being Blog Action Day let me come in at, quite literally, the eleventh hour and say this.

Dear America, China and other generally environmentally damaging bodies and entities.

I recycle my jam jars and milk bottles.
I'm going to try to use less packaging this year.
I've begun crocheting plastic bags into a big reusable bag.
I'm making Christmas gifts instead of buying them.
I donate lots to charity shops to keep stuff out of landfill sites.

But there's still a lot I could be doing and I'm going to keep working at it, reassessing it, getting greener.

Equally I've heard you all make lots of noise about being greener, looking after the environment, doing more. This is very important. I have a little boy, 16 months old, and I'd like very much for there still to be a decent planet for him to live on when he is 60. I'd like animals on it. I'd like food for him to eat. I'd like their not to be wars and starvation and shortages for man and beast just because you allowed your peoples to build enormous power stations and buy 3 big cars per family.

So let's make a pact. You and me. I'll keep recycling my milk bottles. You actually do the big stuff that makes my efforts to recycle milk bottles worthwhile.

Thanks.

Plate Spinning for the over-committed

Today has been okay. Toby has been relatively well-behaved, if you ignore screeching in the photography section of the Library - which, to be fair, was out of boredom rather than a deliberate attempt to upset people (although some individuals do insist on acting like it is). I just completed some rather mundane tasks, returning librbary books, buying milk etc. TOTALLY FORGOT TO PAY A CHEQUE IN. Did you hear that noise? That was my palm meeting my face.

Tomorrow I am taking him to the Sealife centre to say 'fish' a lot, after two failed attempts as events have conspired against me.

Tonight I was meant to learn how to crochet but despite a very good video tutorial I'm not getting very far, very fast and just annoying myself in the process. Really i should go and tackle the crockery mountain in the kitchen but I am just too knackered. Instead I'm going to bed with a book on wildlife and landscape photography.

Paul won't be back from a conference in London until very late so the poor man will probably be knackered too. Honestly we are like two single parents at the moment - there tends to be a few hours on a Saturday where we are both with Toby and we all go and do something together but apart from that all 3 of us are busy trying to keep the plates spinning. Or in Toby's case, keep the contents of the plate spinning. Must go and put the washing on.

I'd like to go to the zoo on Saturday. I wonder if we can. I suppose it depends what time I get back from the filming at TVC I'm going to see. I've been warned to take snacks and a jumper. Might be a long stake-out.

Chillin' with my homeboy

Oh dear, did I just appropriate an African-American pop culture phrase for my own ends? How remiss of me.

Anyway, yesterday Toby was at nursery and produced two stonking nappies and reproduced most of his dinner in Technicolor form. A ha, said I, tooth number 6 is on its way. And lo and behold, tooth no.6 is with us this morning. The rules of childcare though is that if your child produces unexpected bodily fluids from either mouth or arse they can't return until 24 hours after it's stopped. This makes a lot of sense but is very irritating if your child throws up through teething (and let's face it, Toby is pretty trigger happy on the stomach contents front anyway) and they only go to nursery Monday and Tuesday.

So me and my little man are at home today - partly because if I'm proved to be wrong and it is a bug (a very odd one, as no further symptoms have been spotted) I don't want him spreading it to the wider community and also the buggy is in Daddy's car which is at work. I have a spare runaround buggy and the ergo but neither of them are great wet weather solutions.

I can't say I'm a great 'home' mummy. He barely eats at home, likes to watch a bit too much preschooler TV (I say TV, he likes dancing to theme tunes, picking out characters in his books and watching his 'Sing and Sign' DVD) and throws more tantrum fist throwing sessions here than out. Part of the trouble (only part but I'll come to that in a minute) is that this rental house is carpeted with horrible swirly thick carpet - nightmare for dough, etc - the sinks are too high up for water play, and we are suffering from too much stuff not enough adequate storage (as ever - I swear my dying wish will be cupboards)

The other problem is I'm convinced that many of the 'fun activities' suggested in books is great with one or two pre-schoolers leading and a toddler copying. Mummy doing it is just that. Toby will let me play with plasticine or crayons - he'll generally nibble at them and wander off bored to harass a cat. Whereas at nursery or his childminder he loves to join in with the other children.

I'm sure as he gets older this problem will be alleviated by better comprehension and ability but for now I can only  conclude Satre was wrong about Hell being stuck for eternity in a room with your friends. It's being stuck in on a rainy day with a small toddler whoneeds his nappy changing but wants to dance to the Postman Pat theme tune all afternoon while simultaneously trying to explain to you which book he wants off the shelf, as you offer each and every option and he just shouts at you. 

The ZSL picture archives

Being a bit of an animal photography fan and zoo geek, I am delighted by the treasures to be found in the restored archives of the Zoological Society Library
Some of the pics are touching, some magnificent and some plain crazy. If nothing else it shows us how far zoos have come in being homes for endangered animals and how much more we now understand about their needs.
You can buy prints from puny sums and it goes to support the London zoo and zoological society's works.

A good quote for now

Mary Jean Iron : Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.

18 hours in the life of a newborn

Notes in notebook from July 10th, 2006. Toby was 2 weeks old.

- most naps are disturbed by hiccups, possetting and uncomfortable swallowing
- has infacol before feeds
- mother expressing breastmilk for feeds as baby refuses to latch

3.15am - bottle 4 1/2 ozs
6.45am - woke hungry, took 2ozs, wet nappy
11.30am - 3ozs
12.30pm - wet nappy
14.15pm - 3.5ozs
17.30 - 3.5ozs, wet nappy
21.30 -  4ozs
             sick 30 minutes later, kept upright for 30 mins, put in moses basket at an angle
23.50 - very dirty nappy, 3ozs
02.00 - fed 3ozs, dirty nappy, large bout of hiccuping
03.45 - fractured uncomfortable sleep
04.20 - frantic for food, 4ozs
04.40 - finished feed, straight back up
07.45 - fed 4ozs
08.10 - finished, held upright
08.45 - laid in basket, brought feed up

I will re-read this whenever the broody fairy comes to visit.

The banana tantrum

The banana tantrum occurred yesterday around 5pm. I took Toby in his buggy into  Bill's so I could get a cup of tea and a chocolate brownie and Toby could get some of his 5 a day into him as part of teatime. I ask the server if we could get some watermelon, as Toby had been rather keen on eating a little slice that was decorating a glass of juice when we had been there 2 days previously. This was instead of eating the potato, cheese and beans procured by his loving parents, but I digress.

What I didn't bet on was the finickiness of the one-year-old. What was greeted with joy and abandon two days previously was pretty much pooh-poohed 2 days hence. In fact, both literally and figuratively. But the point of the matter was that the watermelon was a non-starter. I can generally judge how successful an offering to the toddler gods has been by how much I end up wearing versus how much Toby is wearing. I was wearing a lot of melon and Toby had nary a pip on him.

Once he was done illustrating the displeasure of the gods, he started throwing his head back and arching his back squawking with the all-proprietorial  pointing that accompanies the state of wanting but not having. Oh lawks, I thought, he's spotted the Brownie. Duly, I slivered off a bit that didn't have nuts in and handed it over. He was kind enough to eat it and dribble a bit to demonstrate, this meal at least, he was willing to eat something but it didn't really cover what he wanted because as soon as he had eaten his sliver he began again with the squawking and pointing.

I turned to where his hand was indicating and behind me was a huge stack of bananas. I asked the server to add one to my bill and handed it to Toby, having loosened the peel. It was one of the biggest bananas I have ever seen and Toby demolished it in about 2 minutes, showing great displeasure when it was over, and even trying to eat the peel just in case.

The irony is not lost on me. There I was trying to feed my son melon, giving it up as a bad cause and placating him with chocolate brownie and all he wanted was a banana because he'd seen one and it wasn't something I actively offered him. Just like the melon 2 days previously.

So, next time we go to Bill's I'll order him several cakes, muffins and brownie slices and just make sure we sit near the counter with all the green vegetables. Then when he demands a plate of Savoy cabbage Mummy will just have to finish up the baked goodies.

things that indicate the sort of parenting you are acheiving #472

My son can mimic, and does frequently, the way I say 'oh dear!'. It's my catchall phrase when he falls over/bumps his head/breaks a bone/severs a limb.

But do you have any idea how annoying it is to be carrying 3 plates, 2 glasses and some cutlery back to the kitchen, trip over a cat, stand on some duplo and land dans le derriere and to hear 'oh dear!' coming from the other room?!!

28 things to do before I'm 28

So, I have a 11 months and 6 days to ...

1) Read 28 novels
2) Bake 28 cakes
3) Make fimo jewellery
4) Start and Stock and Etsy shop
5) Take driving lessons again
6) Get some photoshop-fu going on
7) Go abroad
8) Make 150 scrapbook pages
9) Use up 50% of my craft stash
10) Learn some new meal recipes
11) Eat my 5 a day (or at least attempt it!)
12) Make Christmas cards and gifts
13) Complete Zelda: Twilight Princess
14) Make 10 new friends
15) Complete one semi-large cross stitich project
16) Decorate my flea market furniture
17) Make regular blog entries
18) Find 28 new songs to love and share them around (no RIAA, calm down, not in *that* way)
19) Create a daily something
20) Take a photo everyday (whne my fecking camera comes back!)
21) Learn how to make 5 good cocktails
22) Decorate the bedrooms
23) Learn how to use my sewing machine properly
24) Write something for money
25) Earn some money and save up for something
26) Try new dishes or foods
27) try 28 new sweets from cybercandy
28) Go away in the UK.

Look, I even scrapbooked it ...

This was inspired by a blog post by Elsie Flannigan plus I remembered the lesson from my Heidi Swapp class - if you want to acheieve a goal or find an opportunity, tell everyone about it, write it down and shout it about. Then you have to do it :)

if my husband ever has an affair, it'll be with Youtube

I have come to loathe and resent Youtube to a degree that surely isn't natural for what is basically just a website. Sure, it's an excellent way of getting cool stuff out for people to watch, to find clips of kids shows you had long forgotten and to see otters holding hands.

But mostly it's a big time suck. And not for me, even. I resent how often these days I hear my husband say 'I'm just watching sumo wrestlers slip over / UFOs over brooklyn / someone imitate my magic trick / yadda yadda yadda / yawn yawn yawn ...' and then 10 minutes later 'I have no time free!'

If TV stopped families having conversations around the dinner table, then Youtube is set to stop people talking ever. Because there is Just.So.Much.Crap out there to watch.

Seriously, people. Put the Youtube down. Remember what you did before someone emailed you 5 videos of puppies on skateboards everyday? Go and do it.

video games and crafts = heaven

Looky looky, Wonderland has been doing an Etsy rummage and come up with some awesome hand crafted video games pieces. I especially like the Heart-container necklace. Go see!

Little Miss Popularity

Not having a blog with hundreds of subscribers or commentators it's been very sweet to have my little bunny chatter messages from lots of my friends all morning. If I'm not in the room when he talks I can go to the nabaztag site (for that is what he is, a nabaztag bunny) and check for them there.

Toby sits up and does the baby sign for 'rabbit' every time the bunny talks, so he's very happy. Apart from when he's screaming. So keep the messages coming if only to relieve me of the incredible SHRIEKING child.

bunneh bunneh bunneh

I has bunneh, bunneh can talk. Make bunneh talk.
Type in bunneh box

<-----------------

bunneh at home, he speak ur message to me.

No abuse, hav sml childs herr, kthxbai!

this is the news

so.

We moved house to a rented place.
Toby turned 1 yesterday.
I'm in love with a rabbit

Any questions?

No, seriously, I'm being a lame blogger but as soon as I've unpacked the last box I'm going to recommit to the life of a blogger and, y'know, blog and stuff.

Happy Thursdays

Thursdays have long been my favourite day of the working week. When I was at work it was the day when projects used to come together before the decompression of Friday debriefing and beer. Now, it's the day Toby is at his childminder all day and I get to go round clear up the house in readiness for the weekend, do some of my own stuff and generally have R&R from my lovely but very demanding little friend.

Thursday is the day my new class sheets arrive from Big Picture Scrapbooking, Thursday is the day I can bake  cakes, Thursday is the day I can go shopping without a buggy and therefore get round all the difficult rails and into places with steps.

Speaking of shopping, go and have a peek at http://stylesnacks.typepad.com/
It's written by a friend of mine, who is  simply the most stylish person I know. Trust me, this lady knows her stuff.  She hunts down things I'd never know existed otherwise and then they become the most worn thing in my wardrobe. I'm very pleased she's back doing her thing .

the view from the bottom of the heap

As a SAHM (stay at home mummy), you'd think it would be pretty hard to fall behind on a to-do list. My life is a general rota of rinse, lather, repeat - the child, the dishes, the bottles, the clothes, the house - but oh my does it all come tumbling down when the Gastro Fairy come to town.

Toby got a bug, then his childminder and her little boy got a bug, then Paul got the bug (baaaaaaad - I'm sure my bedroom carpet will never be the same colour again) and then I got the bug. I'm sure everyone knows how yukky it is to be sick but it's a whole other league with a small child. They go downhill really fast. It starts with a roar and an exorcist scene recreated before your eyes and goes on from there. But, once they are over it they BOUNCE back. Leaving the small person's parents still feeling grotty but having to take care of a crawling dynamo who has all the energy and evangelism of a born-again, well, baby.

Paul and I are both back on our feet today. Hopefully if neither of us are ill again in the next 12 hours we can go out into the wider community without fear of spreading the Gastro Fairy's good works. Or, in my case, I can double the output of the rinse, lather, repeat and try to reconstruct my house into something passable. And tackle the bedroom carpet.

baa the sheep

So, I finished this to frame for Toby's room.
It's not perfect but its the first stitching I've done in a while and I enjoyed it. I've got some beading projects and a felted nano pocket to finish off.

It is nice to have something other baby stuff to occupy my head.

I might just have quite a lot more to occupy my head very soon so I better finish another couple of projects while I can.

Rounding up

So, I've been away for a month. I stayed at my mum and dad's while Paul was at SxSW and since then things have been all over the place while we have the work done on the house. The house sold on first viewing, yay, and we have found somewhere to move to. Double yay. I got a nano and an imac. And some new projects on the boil. But enough of that shizzle. Let's get down to some serious business.

New mac = obligatory photobooth pictures, right?

 

Things that become near impossible once mother of baby #328

... getting house clean and tidy enough to go on house market.

Bother.

ETA: I mean it's one of at least 328 things that become near impossible, not that it's a breeze when you have child 327 and suddenly becomes a nightmare at 328.

Anyway, can't stay here and clarify my wooly grammar, I have a bathroom to scrub dammit. Don't delay me anymore!

Gratitude Attitude

So, today, prompted by Heidi Swapp 's class with BPS. I've been thinking about gratitude. Things I should count my blessings for. I originally posted this as a comment on Ali E's blog but as we were instructed by Heidi to make our own lists for journalling, I figured I'd expand it here.

I'm grateful for the Heidi Swapp class and Library of Memories at BPS too, to brighten my Thursday. (Thursdays are my favourite day but today it's been raining and miserable and my little boy is teething, so not so good)
I'm grateful to my childminder for being so great with my little boy that I don't feel anything but 100% happy to take some time away from him and work.
I'm grateful for my husband who is just the most loving, supportive guy I've ever known.
I'm grateful for the company of my cats and the love and play they bring to my house.
I'm grateful to my parents for all they have done and continue to do for me and my brother, and I'm grateful to have my brother because he has become an inspirational young man of late.
I'm grateful to innocent smoothies for helping me get me 5 a day, even when I'm super-stressed and busy.
I'm grateful for the bbc radio player because it has saved my sanity on many a long evening or weekend on my own
I'm grateful for scrapbooking and all the delicious supplies I own and am yet to own
I'm grateful for my friends across the globe
I'm grateful for TV series on DVD so I can watch in whole gorged chunks, rather than weekly dribbles
I'm grateful to Lush for making bath products to make me smoother of body and calmer in mind
I'm grateful for digital photography so I can take as many crappy pictures as I want and capture the details of my baby boy's life
I'm grateful for the internet and all it has given people in the 21st century
I'm grateful for the the roof over my head, the peace around my home, the treasures within it and the fact that - despite all my gripes with the taxes, social care system, society in general and the government's foreigh policy - I live in a free and developed country.

I think too often I let stuff anger me or get me down or stress me out. I want most of all to remember that I can wake up each morning and make my own decisions, including what mood I am in and how things affect me. That's something many people elsewhere don't have and I should be grateful for it.

So, enough waffling. But go forth and be humbled by all the things you are grateful for. You won't be so bothered by the last biscuit being eaten (apparently).

Holy crap, batman, look at the calendar

I don't care what anyone else says, to me, spring is in the air. Spring is always really busy for me. Not for any particular reason but I think once I'm done hibernating for the winter (and I really hibernate, I've been known not to go out for weeks as I hate the dark and I'm not organised enough to get out when it's still light) I go a bit mental organising activities to do and accepting invitations.

This year spring cleaning is going to take on a whole new meaning as the house is being replastered and painted next week, so essentially I have a week to pack up our living room, bathroom, loo, front room and allow proper access through our hallway. As ever I'm faced with the packer's quandry. Do I pack it up properly and assume we won't need it until we move (which is the ultimate aim here) and store in the loft/wardrobes/under the bed - or do I just make a big pile somewhere?

I also need to strip the wallpaper in the kitchen, give everywhere a proper clean, hang all our clothes that are dotted about, finish the nursery decoration - and do all the normal spring cleaning stuff of cleaning curtains, carpets and repairing bits of damage here and there. Also, I have a ton of baby stuff to ebay that's clogging up the storage places.

And, of course, here's the kicker. The valuation is on the 1st March. The house will go on the market probably the same day. Paul and I leave the house (me to my parents, him to Texas) for a week, 4 days later. So that's a lot to do in not much time.

Suppose the first answer is to stop blogging about hor much I've got to do ... although I do love that procrastination in the Age of the Internet is so much more convincingly an 'important task' than the playing SNES of my teenage years.

Did tvghome have a hand in this?

From the bbc one schedules ...

"Steal - A group of young and imaginative bank robbers pull off a series of heists using extreme sport skills to escape the clutches of the police. .."

... I was really expecting to see 'Screenwriter: Charlie Brooker'.

All the things I know about the internet in 9 easy-to-digest bullet points

All the things I know about the internet in 9 easy-to-digest bullet points

1. If it's spelled funny it's probably meant to be really hip and cool.

2. ...unless it's 'Goatse' anything.

3. Myspace is not really the internet. It's the 21st century version of the penpal/fanclub section in smash hits magazine.

4. On Youtube 'entertainment' has a much lower given value than in real life. Even guys crushing their nuts with a hammer becomes an acceptable thing to spend time on, even though if it was shown on cable you'd pass it by in favour of a repeat of Dynasty.

5. It's probably not possible to spen more than 10 minutes on ebay without finding something you never knew existed.

6. We are now mere days away from someone putting an ebay auction up for a template for 'an hilarious spoof auction guarenteed to get you minor press attention and 300 people in anyone lunchtime hanging on your every Q&A'.

7. Google is better than Yahoo! is better than Alta Vista is better than MSN is better than AOL. Anything is better than Google knowing everything about you. Google already knows everything about you.

8. Yahoo buys. Google makes. Microsoft wins by making sure Internet Explorer doesn't work with either.

9. Anyone who spends a *lot* of time writing content for Amazon/IMDB/Wikipedia/Digg/YouTube probably shouldn't form an opinion without medical help. Celebrations of the 'top 100 commentators' sort should probably be copied to the appropriate authorities as 'backup material' for the files.

You Foolish Fool!

There are very few sites on the t'interwebs that I go back to for advice over and over but the Motley Fool is one of them. Back in the day, oh okay about circa 2000, I actually set up the Foolish Students board discussing ways of spending, investing, scabbing more cash and working part time as a student (a hot topic as grants had been abolished back in 1998). I'm delighted to see it still thrives.

Anyway, I get the weekly email from the Fool - although mostly it involves stuff that doesn't interest me - and I always look through the articles on homeowning, debt etc. Today's new article was about British Gas's hidden tarrifs for existing customers and about the ease of switching suppliers. Right now, I'm all about the jumping to new suppliers as our BT business contract is coming to an end and we are looking to save some cash on the phone/broadband/tv stuff. I figure in for a penny in for a pound and have been using uswitch and the Fool to find new suppliers of everything so this article was quite timely.

The Fool used to be about investing in the stock market but in recent years they have diversified a lot. Well worth checking out before making any decision involving money - from property, remortaging, shares purchase right through to shopping coupons and best deals on everyday groceries. The best bit I think is that the boards feature 'real' people. Not just geeks, hardened internet users or newbie baiters that seem to be on most other forums but everyday people who are pleased to have found a good deal or want to warn about bad customer service.

Go on, do something Foolish today.

Free The iPhoto 10000

DSCF0029, originally uploaded by RellyAB.

Can you spot Paul and I? This was the day we met properly. Previous to this we had spoken online and been to a few of the same gigs but not really met. My birthday party at Ashton Court Festival, 2002.

I've been going through my photos recently. I'm not a very good photographer (although this one above isn't actually mine, cos I'm in it!) but I am a modestly reputable scrapbooker and I've always loved taking snapshots and giving them captions (related or not, to be honest). Can you believe since I was 16 or so, so the last decade, I've taken nearly 10,000 photos? I'm pretty good at throwing things out and decluttering but I find it very hard to sort through and admit I don't need 100 pictures of the same thing or event. I used to never get prints done (pre-scrapbooking) but I have just shackloads of pictures. I have used flickr for quite some time, I believe I'm termed 'old skool' at any rate, and merrily put almost every digital picture I've ever taken (nearly 7,000) up there. They used to all be public unless I had a specfic reason not to, but recently I've decided I can't be responsible for any of my friends from Uni getting in trouble for a party we had back in 2001 and made most of them private.

Recently, I've started a course with Big Picture Scrapbooking to address this specfic issue. The main thing that I have noticed is that people who are wholly digital have tons of photos on their laptops that might never be seen, bar someone quickly flicking through them online. I've started a campaign to free mine. Through a combination of cheap acid-free albums and photobox photobooks I'm going to offer coffee-table and bookcase amnesty to my best photos and (shock horror) delete my blurry or repeated shots. There are so many cool ways to display photos - from full-blown photo decor projects to a cute photo book - that it's a shame to have them tucked away.

Free The iPhoto 10,000! (or at least the best ones)

Oh, and as for the photo above. We are on the far right of the frame. You can see Paul's head and you can just see me in the blue tshirt and pink fairy wings (it WAS my birthday!) turning round to take a picture. Paul says he fell in love with me on this day, bless his heart.

ETA: ah, suddenly I feel quite virtuous. Someone on my twitter stream has just admitted to taking 7000 photos since Christmas Day (!).

A price freeze

I'm all for reducing energy used watonly. I try and make sure I don't leave appliances on standby unnecessarily and unplug laptops and so on at night or when I'm going out.

But I think things have reached a pretty sad point when Electricity and Gas are so expensive that when Toby is out with the childminder, and therefore not in to suffer, I feel obliged to turn down all the radiators to conserve heating and thus our pockets.

I don't mind us paying for services used but it gets a bit sad when I'm sat here looking like the Michelin man in 3 jumpers but with blue hands and feet (thyroid problems affecting my circulation I think) just so we can afford for Toby to go to the childminder so I can get an afternoon off, which I then have to spend freezing.

I can see why pensioners end up freezing to death in winter trying to save money for council tax.

And while I'm moaning, can someone please explain to whoever the hell it is that keeps filling our bin with rubbish and leaving the lid off in the rain that we are paying lots of money for a rubbish rubbish service that doesn't include taking other people's stray rubbish in off the street (or the flat downstairs I suspect).

Grrrr.

Right, as you were.

The Motherlode

Today is one of The Days Everyone Alludes To And Then Quickly Says 'But I Love My Children To Pieces, Obviously'.

The sort of day where you would sell them off, give them away, eat them, anything but hear the continious waaah waaah waaah. I understand it takes several forms. Newborn is mewlish crying that physically hurts (if you're mummy, anyway), next is teething and developmental head battering sort of whinging (which was today) then come tantrums, then 'whhhhhhhhhhhhy can't I have an Xbox, Mummy?' (I believe in males this just continues until the parent gives in or a student loan comes in, whichever happens first) or 'whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy can't I stay over at my boyfriend's house?'.

So anyway, to summarise today. waaah waaah aaah waaah waaah WAAAH WAAAAAAAAH WAAAAAAH (sniff sniff)WAAAAAH (throw food on floor) waaaah waaah aaaah (short nap) ... and so on. 

Right now, I Love Toby To Pieces, Obviously. But I might *like* him a bit more in pieces. We've gone for the midway route - I've put him to bed earlier and called home the cavalry so I can wash my hair and scrapbook in peace for an evening without the constant 'but what if he wakes?' that usually continues until Nice Boy is home at 8.30pm (by which time, I'm sod all good to anyone).

I know a variety of ladies in various states of gestation. If I see any of you, I might laugh, sorry about that.

Apparently, I'm the illogical one

I have recently had Strong Words (the sort that come with parental guidance if released as a single) with Nice Boy over picking up after himself. He agreed he will Try Harder.

So, in a way I'm grateful that he insists that the baby formula goes away. The baby formula I use 3 times a day. And the washing liquid. Used twice a day.

But why is he so blind to not see the box of teethers and spare dummies (used once a fortnight on average), the grocery shopping that doesn't belong in the fridge (bought yesterday, left on counter) and the butter (used this morning ... I hope!)??!

I won't mention the goose fat.

Or the other thing.

I know by now he's peeping at this through his fingers in his office.

I can't believe I'm re-posting.

My apologies f you've already seen this, but Paul reminded me of one of my favourite posts from last year, from my old blog before something weird happened and I said 'no more' to movable type ...

Prompted by Cathy Zielske's truly Awesome kitchen bin liner experience (you'll have to use your google-fu as she no longer blogs for me to link to) , my hubby and I have recently been discussing the merits of different marketing. Take, for example, my find from yesterday. It's possibly the most unlikely title for a book ever ...

'I Can't Believe I'm Quilling!'

There are only two reasons you could use that sentence:

1) someone forced quilling paper and a metal implement into your hand while you were deep in sleep and you awoke to find yourself back in infant school and making sheep for a nativity scene.

2)You are genuinely excited that, although seemingly beyond your ken, you are actually a grown adult with the ability to quill sheep which you were never capable of doing while back in infant school and had to resort to the cotton wool. Because, dude, its Quilling!. If you're going to do a papercraft, scrap already.

A possible third option was mooted, and that was if you were the author of 'I Can't Believe I'm Quilling!' you may have a moment of disparing clarity before finishing your manuscript. Surely this was a book written on commission, not a labour of love. The title must have been as a direct result of this. Perhaps there was a board room meeting and several commission writers drew lots. 'Oh, great, I got painting porcelain for dummies!'

Anyway, having just recovered from this idea, Hubby and I were driving between Herstmonceux and Hailsham when we spied a nursery. Its sign simply said 'usual and unusual plants'. We both did a double take ... before Paul slowly said 'why don't they just say 'PLANTS'?'

The mind boggles.

journals, diaries and blogs

I have a calendar. Up until I had Toby I also kept a handbag diary (now I'm not out enough to make it worth my while, I tend to go out for doctor's appointments, not cocktails as 6 followed by meeting for dinner at 7). I've had a blog in one form or another since 2001 (man, that's quite long?!! I hadn't realised before).

This year, I'm going to have a journal. Pen-and-paper, like when I was 14, stylee. I'm going to write out all the miserable depressingly angsty things. I'm going to say 'yippee, I bought pink nail polish'. I shall write out who I have a crush on. I'll be me between those pages. Not 'Mummy' or 'Wifey'. Relly :)

I'm excited already.

I might even cut out pictures from magazines and stick them on and cover it with sticky back plastic.

Oh alright, I'll probably just go for nice scrapbook supplies :D

In the beginning there was the word ...

... and the word was 'waaaaah!'. Well, from Toby at least. And I suspect most of us.

I've never really bothered to write out my birth story and handily Nice Husband has now written my birth story out for me on his blog. He's got it mostly right.

Hypnobirthing rocks though, it was great to have something to focus on. Cut out the blind terror of not knowing what to do, anyway.