Disclaimer: A bit controversial and, of course, people don't have to agree with me and are entitled to their opinions, but it's some food for thought.It is commonly thought that we need family life for a good society, and that people should respect, stand by and love members of their families. I don't disagree with that at all, but my question concerns the definition of "family". In today's culture, "family" tends to mean the people we know we are related to (typically to within a few generat
well on saturday, myself and Mr Roo went to our partner's antenatal class, which was great fun. There were three other couples, all of whom were a giggle, and apart from Mr Roo embarassing himself as per usual (when asked who would like to cut the cord, he says yes, to be told that it might be harder than he thought and could sometimes be a little 'chewy'...to which he replies: 'I thought I could use scissors'......oh the shame! :blink: :o ) it was a good afternoon spent having a laugh and l
Not a very exciting weekend, lots of sorting out what we are taking with us and what we are not bothering with. Our new house is a bit smaller than our current one (but we plan to make it bigger) so we are rationalising what we are going to take. We will need to buy a fridge and a freezer as they are not built-in as we have at present so we thought we would go have a bit of a reckie at what was out there. Little fella loved just opening doors etc :blink: I just found it a bit boring, it's hard
Occasionally, there are perks to working for the NHS. The first (since I started working there in 1996) was watching 'The Tweenies - LIVE' earlier in the year for £2 per person at Docklands Arena. The 2nd perk in 9 years is watching the preview of 'Scrooge - The Musical' at the London Palladium on the evening of 31st October. £5 a ticket!! (usually £30-ish). So I purchased a ticket for myself and Mr R. (who it just so happens is his birthday on the 31st) So thats his birthday pressie sorted
well today has been one of those days....have got a low level bug of some sort, so am feeling a little under the weather (more tired than anything else) so after lying in bed till my bladder could stand it no more (any girl who's ever had a sprog knows exactly what I mean), I got up and pootled about for a little doing not very much.Then at lunchtime had to go and see midwife (all is well....and she doesn't want to see me again for another three weeks, which is great).Then came home to find a ca
I know that most of you aren't too bothered about mini-raven's achievements (or what goes on in the land of Raven, come to think of it!!), but thought I would blow her trumpet for her anyway (plus I am bursting with proudness!)She's been at school for just over 2 weeks, and can now read 15 words, and can write some of them on her own. It was lovely to see a positive comment from her teacher in her contact book today letting us know that she has written 'Sat, Fat and Cat' by herself today :o
Well as Shuggee was going on about trains on Saturday, we decided to go to the National Railway Museum on SundayLittle Fella really enjoyed it but give him massive steam trains, weighing 100's of tonnes, he preferred the little model railway :blink: We then braved Toys'r'us Little Fella was asking me if Father Christmas was back off his holidays yet. I told him that he was and he was working very hard getting ready for Christmas :o Oops, forgot to mention poor little fella discovering how
Well I haven't written about the swim for malaria for a bit, so I thought I'd bring you all up to speed....As of today they have around 200,000 people swimming all round the world, which is amazing! Swimmers range from a robot at MIT in the US to little mini-roo who will be doing a baby-triathlon..... :blink: :o Jonah Lomu is doing it, as is Grant Hackett and Michael Phelps amongst others...There are school kids, grannies, parents, students, you name it they've got it: it's fantastic to see so
Had to go to see the Specialist again today. They scanned my kidney to see how much it was dilated. Thankfully it's not too bad today but they are concerned about the amount of pain I am in. I have to go to see him again in 3 weeks time but if the pain gets bad they want to admit me and maybe put a stent in The plus side is that I got a piccie of Mervin p.s. Hubbie reckons he's playing the Playstation :blink: :o
Not been sleeping very well at the moment. I gave in last night and ended up taking a pain killer and sleeping on the sofa :blink: Mind you, the sofa is very comfy I don't have much energy for much at the moment, my cooking skills are suffering and we are resorting to quick and easy meals :o But I did make Dauphinious (sp) potatoes last night with a slight twist of adding Celariac in Off to the hospital to have my kidney scanned tomorrow and see the specialist. They are going to see how m
well I had my second Parent Craft class on monday, which was interesting. I also got to have a nose around the birth centre which was absolutely marvellous. It has five ensuite rooms, all decked out in peach and cream decor, with curtains, plants, TVs, etc....Although the place is obviously functional with lino floors, etc, it really felt very calm and relaxing and exactly the kind of non-medicalised place I want to give birth in. Mr Roo can stay in the room with me after the birth (they have sp
My modules for the course are mostly chosen now. It's shaping up to be a good one, with modules in Atmosphere and Ocean Dynamics, Coupled Ocean and Atmosphere Climate Change, Air Pollution, and Weather and Forecasting. Looks like there could potentially be a lot of scope for me to further 'refine' my ideas on issues such as climate change.On the discussions front, I may appear to be strong and opinionated to some at times, and my tendency to challenge accepted wisdom doesn't always go down wel
I had a bad night last night with my kidney and ended up taking the day off to recharge my batteries a bit :blink: As MiniLoo (Mervin) gets bigger, it means that more pressure is being put on my poor kidney, so I am suffering a bit more at the moment.I'm having another scan on my kidney on Friday to see how it is changing, I hope that it can be controlled without them having to have an early c-section :o But I am trying to be positive and work on the priciple that it's better that they know wh
well, as some of you who frequent General Banter will know, I have been hooked up to a 24 hour BP machine.What joy its been as well..... not! The only good thing about it, is it has put my mind at rest with regards to my BP - the highest reading so far has been 143/92 (when I got back from the hospital after driving the car) it stayed at that level for about 2 hours, then gradually came down. The lowest reading (so far - that I am aware of) was 119/69. All the other readings have been in betw
So, I can now safely say that I'm officially an MRes student at Leeds doing Physics of the Earth and Atmosphere- after getting the 2:2 I thought there was no way I'd end up here, but nonetheless, it happened!The course encourages students to specialise in a particular area, including Geology, Geophysics, and Atmospheric Science/Meteorology. There can be no surprises for guessing which area I will be specialising in, with general choice of modules with large amounts of meteorological content.I d
Well it's that time of year again.....the first day of term at college....The whole place is teeming with nervous looking 18 year olds (and cocky looking 19 years olds who have miraculously forgotten what it was like to be a newbie far away from home, and are strutting their stuff and trying to look bohemian and worldly wise in the foyer of the building, even as we speak).It suddenly dawned on me today that it is 16 years since I first went to university: so that makes me officially old enough t
Well dragged myself out of bed then set off to see my Grandma with little fella, leaving hubbie to do some work stuff/empty the loft/put the washing out/watch the Grand Prix. I think he did most of the latter :blink: Got to Grandma's to find out that she had suffered a bit of a calmity My aunt (who lives with her) had managed to flush her bottom set of false teeth down the toilet She has not been to the dentist in years and her dentist has ceased working. As she is 90+ (not sure how old) a
Well what did we get up to todayHubbie and little fella went for a long overdue haircut, I should also have one but find lots of excuses to get out of it. We ended up have a Barber shop conversation about children's TV programs You had to be their but I was crying with laughter at the older Barber's comments about drug enduced kiddies programs in the 70's (to which I had to agree) We then went to the Designer Outlet on the outskirts of York. A safe place to take a pregnant woman as they do not
well I finally managed to get hold of my friend Helena yesterday. She works as a geologist for Shell in Houston, and has been forced to evacuate. They were trying to convince them all to stay in their house until today, but Helena took one look at the huge electrical plant with all its huge electricity pylons close to her house, and decided that maybe it would be a good idea to get a long way away from them.Anyways, after spending 2 hours trying to get petrol and a further 8 hours trying to get
Oh my life is either too boring to comment about or too ******* that I can't comment about.Things are a bit stressful at the moment, on top of trying to handover my tasks, trying to move house, my kidney being a total pain (literally) I have other "things" which are doing my head in Sorry, this is getting very kriptic but hopefully things will improve when there is space between me and other people :blink: But it seems that everythings is progressing on the house front. I'm looking forward to
Well I've been deglecting my blog recently :blink: I've had a lot on my mind and have not always been in the best of moods to post an entry for fear falling foul of the lible laws re my boss Things are all go on the house front, we are aiming to move at the beginning of November, work permitting (see above) We went to see the bank on Saturday re mortgage, which is really a formality due to actually reducing our mortgage but it still took over 2 hours :o I got a bit shirty with the woman who
Well, it's now getting towards the final countdown for mini-Roo's appearance and so myself and Mr Roo thought it was about time we actually got our posteriors in gear and starting thinking about getting some baby things.....After spending 45 minutes in the country's largest Mothercare we both started to regret the decision.....I mean, how many different types of plastic bath and changing mat can you need for heaven's sake.... if it's plastic and does the job then who needs more??? I was amazed t
well, I only discovered the blogs section on NW a few months ago (well, around 3 or 4 months ago, I think :blink: ) and started my own up in July.Tonight, I have spent the evening reading some old blogs - (the blogs that I hadnt read as they are months and months old.) :o I personally feel like I have got to know a lot of personalities on here properly in the last few months (even though I have been a member for 9 months) and its lovely to catch up on everyones old blogs, and what has gone o
