26. At 11:00pm on 01 Sep 2010, L A Odicean wrote:

This kind of idle speculation makes me furious. It has forced Hague to bend over backwards to confirm his heterosexuality, and I believe he may have gone too far in this respect and it's done him no good.

It would have been better to say nothing. Talking about pregnancies as a way of confirming his sexual preferences may not have been what he intended, but some will read it that way and say it smacks of desperation.

There can be no doubt that William Hague is either gay or not. There can be no half measures. Unless, of course he is bisexual, which is sort of a half measure, I suppose.

It's all a disgrace.

From here. I have literally no idea if this is a clever pisstake, or just a huge knobber. Given the lack of obvious humour in the middle 2 paras, I suspect the latter.

14 days left at work! I am now doubly keen to get out of here, as a rat appears to have died under the floorboards over the weekend, and the stench resulting is vile. I have a neutrodol pot sat by my keyboard which is overcoming the worst of it, but it's still pretty grim.

Had a fairly quiet w/e - watched the first half of Hot Tub Time Machine before giving up (I would probably have stuck it out, but Ali wasn't enjoying it), and Clash of the Titans (better than I was expecting, although it would have be significantly improved by removing the couple of bits when the scriptwriter couldn't resist going all Hollywood on us. On going to take Medusa's head, did we really need a warning - "Don't look that bitch in the eye"?). Also continued with True Blood series 3, which has finally picked up after a pretty disappointing opening few episodes.

Other than that, we went to the park with Jess & Ellie, played in the garden, slept and generally took it easy. I've just found out that Love Film do games rental as well as films; I signed up to their £15 PAYG deal. Seems like a good way of checking out games I'm not bothered enough to take a financial punt on and actualy purchase - this way they cost me £2.50 to play through. So, I spent the w/e working through Mini Ninjas, which is rather better than my expectations were of it.

Ellie has become significantly more vocal over the past few days; great, except she's also taken to singing to herself during the night. She was at it at 1am when I came to bed last night, and was still doing it half an hour later or so; she started up again about 5.30 and went on until 7am. I have no idea why she's awake - she's not crying, just chatting when she should be asleep. Whatever the reason is, it's not condusive to sleep. Hopefully it'll just be a phase she's going through.

Also, people in the US - I gather Wonders of the Solar System has just started to be shown on TV over there. You should definitely make a point of watching it, it's fantastic.

Counting down the days until I get out of here now - work is drying up, meaning I seem to spending most of my days applying for jobs or generally horsing around on the internet. So far nothing has come up on the jobs front, but that's ok; I'm rather looking forward to a bit of time off if truth be told. We've only had three breaks in the last couple of years, one of which was to move house, one to go on holiday with my family (not terribly relaxing), and one in Norfolk on which we all came down with what we now think was swine flu. So, some time off is overdue.

I do have a lead on a job; unfortunately not over in the West Country, but round this way. Working in-house for a big pharmaceutical company, it's only a part time post, but that would suit me quite well. I get experience, time to hunt down the job I really want out west, and my CV gets stronger by the day by dint of having work. We'll see if it comes off, but it seems to be a good option.

I also got my results back from the PSC, which I sailed through - hopefully, that represents the last exam I will ever have to do.

Other than that, the kids are doing well, and life is pretty good. Also my hayfever seems to have finally lifted, woo. Nice to be able to get back into running without having to stop every 10 metres to get my breath.

Hmm, I think I'm looking forward to going home. Not that Al's parents' are ever less than 100% accommodating, but I have to say I'm missing having the space at home. It doesn't help that my horrendous couple of weeks of hayfever (the annual culmination of it where I end up wheezing like an emphysemic old man and having to pause halfway up stairs to get my breath) had been turned into a month long extravaganza. Whatever the pollen is I'm allergic to, it had just passed in Hitchin; out west it seems to come out later, and I've been thrown straight back into it.

Anyway, I have sat my exam (went ok I think, difficult to tell though) and now just have to stumble through a couple more days of mock trials and then 4 days of electives next week. Thankfully, we're going home this weekend for a couple of days, which will be good.

The kids are loving it here though; Jess is in his element. Playing with the dogs, running round the garden, and pestering Al's dad - he'd probably be happy staying for good. Ah well, soon enough we'll be back out this way.

Now just over a month away from qualification, I have to do what will hopefully be the last study/exam period of my life - the Professional Skills Course, a three week long block. I am doing this over in Bristol; back at UWE - back, in fact, in the same rooms I sat the LPC and CPE in. Which is a bit of time warp.

It's been an odd course; the first couple of days were the biggest waste of time I've ever had the misfortune to sit though - 2 whole days to (basically) prepare a 5 minute powerpoint presentation on Client Care. Tedious, but at the same time, hinted at 3 weeks of being able to switch off. Day 3, however, we got stuck into the financial aspect; 3 days on the trot of 6 hour lectures covering economics, finance, investment and other such things. Actually very interesting, but even my thirst for knowledge was definitely slaked after 3 or 4 hours.

Anyway, a couple of weeks left and then we're back to see out the rest of my training contract. No luck with the job search yet, but that's fine; I've got a recruitment consultant over in Bristol who I'm pretty impressed with; something will come up, and the worst case scenario is that I get a few months off between finishing and starting - financially we can survive that, and getting to spend time with Ali and the kids would be great.

What else? Hmm. We have tickets booked for Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People which I am excited about, anyone else going? We also have tickets booked for Tim Minchin (touring with a 55 piece orchestra!) which I am super-excited about. Other than that - no, nothing of note.

Jesus, my last update was when Ellie was born. That's now quite a while ago. Needless to say, much has changed. A potted version:

Ellie is doing well. She is the smiliest baby I have ever seen; constantly grinning from ear to ear. She's very relaxed and easy going as well. We've managed to get her sleeping from 8pm til around 5 or 6AM, which is pretty good going - she'll shortly be moving onto solids, which I'm hoping will herald the night sleep pushing through til 7ish.

Jess is also doing well; loves playing outside and is talking non-stop, even if a lot of it is incomprehensible (to us). His capacity for parroting words and phrases has very rapidly become terrifying; cleaning up my language around him has become somewhat urgent as a result.

I have recently found out that my firm will not be keeping me on come September. This was not a huge surprise, and not unwelcome either. I was explicitly told in my last seat by one of the major partners that I had ruined my chances by taking paternity leave, so I pretty much knew what to expect. Having been worn down by nearly 2 years of extraordinary internecine fighting between the partners and a constant background of racism, sexism and homophobia, the paternity leave thing was the straw that broke the camel's back; I'm looking forward to getting away. Weird how places confound your expectations - I thought that being near London would make the town quite cosmopolitan; quite the contrary. It appears that all the cosmopolitan people have actually moved to the capital, leaving behind some breathakingly ignorant people.

So, we are going to relocate back to the West Country. If I'm honest, this is a huge relief. The past two years have been hard for both us, but an especially huge struggle for Ali. Two kids (plus the pregnancy and complications thereof) without any nearby family support has been extremely difficult and tiring; to be close to her parents, brother & sister etc will make a huge difference. To know that that move is coming sooner rather than later is a relief.

So the plan is to hit the applications and sit out the wait here. Once something comes up we'll up sticks and move back over and get settled, hopefully for good.

I totted up that we've moved 8 times in the last 10 years; safe to say we're both pretty tired of it now. It is, therefore, a big relief to finally see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

And if the worst comes to the worst, I'll get a few months off between finishing this job and starting the next; time to spend with Ali and the kids. That really wouldn't be such a bad thing :)

Also, I should have more time to actually do some updates on here.

Well, I finally have a daughter. Elliot (Ellie), born 20 January 2010 at about midday. Via a c-section, which this time I actually got observe from the other side of the curtain. It was a bit weird watching someone root around in your wife's nether regions, but fascinating nonetheless. Anyway, here we are:



She weighs in at 6lb 3, which is smaller than we were expecting (she was a couple of weeks early), but is so far doing well. She's taken to breast feeding, which Jess never did, and Ali is recovering brilliantly. In fact, one of the things this time around has highlighted is just how ill Ali was last time. Two years ago she was in for a week after the c-sec, and looked like absolute shit. This time around she was straight on her mobile in the recovery room, i.e. about 20 seconds after the final stitch was made, chatting away to her parents about it. They let her go 48 hours later, and she was well enough to stop in for a pint on the way home to celebrate. I just hadn't appreciated how much of the state she was in was due to the pre-eclampsia. As it is it appears that something like 98% of it was. It's probably a blessing I had no idea how seriously ill she was.

Jess has taken her with mild disinterest; he was very sweet initially - stroking her, laying his head against hers and giving her a kiss. However, the appeal of something that doesn't light up or tickle him clearly wore thin after about 20 seconds and he galloped off to go and hide in a cupboard instead.

More pics here should anyone be a glutton for visual punishment.

I've now come back to work, leaving Ali, Jess and Ellie up at my parents' place for the week, which seems a bit odd. I also managed to get an hour down the M1 last night before realising I'd left my fucking house keys behind, so managed to turn a 2 hour drive into a 4 hour one. Clever.

I am going to sleep like no man has ever slept before tonight though.

So, we're done. I am absolutely delighted, needless to say. Now if I can just get my family back home, and we can get into the new place quickly, we can get on with our lives.

Am sat in the pub doing some work; I was in work doing some work, but there's a stench of decomposing rat coming up though the floorboards, so I took refuge here instead. I'm reading up on the Right To Buy on behalf of a client, and was amused to read this exchange from the House of Lords on the topic; welcoming a new Lord speaking for the first time on the topic:

Lord Skelmersdale: My Lords, it will come as a welcome surprise to many of us to hear the Minister say that any change in policy must be evidence-based. Given that he made that remark—it is, I hope, a view that he will sustain throughout his career in the Government—can the Minister say whether the Government have any evidence as to the time the original owners of right-to-buy properties remain in those dwellings?

Lord Evans of Temple Guiting: My Lords, my naive view is that any change of policy that is not evidence-based is probably a mistake.

A noble Lord: You won't last!

Marvellous - I just love that he's not so "noble" he could resist a heckle from the wings!

Anyway, other news in brief; we've made and had accepted an offer on the house; now we just need to get the purchase sorted. 3 days until the baby, argh, Ali has now gone up North ready; I will follow her on Tuesday night.

We have a date. Jan 20th (so nearly a cool date - 20/1/2010, just missing that extra zero - but it's probably a bit much to ask Ali to hold on another 9 months just to get to 20/10/2010). 8am we're booked in for, clearly they weren't thinking about daddy when this booking was made. I'm glad it's early though; otherwise we'd sit and worry all day - better to just get it done and out the way.

Suddenly everything seems a bit more real. We had another checkup scan yesterday, and it's all looking good; the midwife seemed to think she was a bit of a whopper. In fact, she reckoned she was c.7lbs, which (given we actually have 3 and half weeks until the proper due date, and in utero children are supposed to put on 1lb a week in the last month or so of pregnancy) means Ali is doubly thankful she plumped for the c-sec. The 20th is a Wednesday - I've taken until the end of the week off as holiday, and will save up my paternity to use once Ali comes home.

Anyway, it's good to have some idea of what's happening, at least on that front.

I've been out on the house trail; speaking to agents, looking round properties. As I feared, the move to 4 bed brings with it a huge bump in cost - both of the places I've looked at have been on £1600 a month, which is just silly money. I'm now pondering whether we might just not be better to buy; even if I don't get kept on in September, I'll still save 9 months rent - even at what we're paying here that's £10k. I get the conveyancing for free, so the only cost of buying is stamp duty, and on a place less than £250k that'll be less than £2.5k. So it seems like a no brainer, if it wasn't for fears over selling it. Hmm.

Fact of the day - apparently "T" in "T Minus" stands for "test", not "time":
When you are in the firing room on launch day, we hear the terms "t minus" a lot during the countdown. What does the "t" stand for? I joined the space program about 20 years ago and I asked this question of my, of my elders in the program when I did join, and it turns out that T stands for test. Because it's not always related to time. It could be the start of a particular test in our Orbiter Processing Facility that isindependent of the time of day
Link.

Things have been finally coming good over the past week or so; Ali's choleostasis is under control, and we used the few days we got to ourselves to get the house knocked into shape for arrival of the baby. It felt like we'd turned a bit of a corner.

So you can imagine how delighted I was to receive a phonecall from the agents we rent through to tell us that our landlords have decided to return to the UK and want their house back in 2 months time. Fucking magic; I was starting to think that juggling a newborn, a 2 year old, a wife recovering from choleostasis and a c-section, and a job that's currently spiralling out of control would be too easy. Thank goodness for now having to find a new place to live and move into it.

Rationally I know it's not the end of the world; this place was perfect for us 15 months ago, but our needs have somewhat changed in the interim, and are about to undergo a further seismic shift. But - y'know - couldn't they have waited a few more weeks? Gah.

Happy New Year, everybody.

We've had a very relaxed few days, and it's been bloody marvellous. The run up was a bit less relaxed - Ali, it transpires, has choleostasis; a pregnancy related blockage of the bile duct which means that instead of draining as it should, the bile gets dumped into the bloodstream. The most obvious symptom is mad, all-over itching which can't be assuaged. There's also the danger of it causing lasting damage to the liver and other organs.


So, she's been traipsing up and down the M1 to Derby quite a bit; because we're having the baby up there, our care is now all being handled by them. I'm sure having family support up there will be good when the baby arrives, but for the moment it's been a ballache having to get there and back constantly.

Anyway, the last test & liver scan showed that they seem to have got it under control, which is good. Previously they'd been intimating that the baby would have to come out very shortly. We're now looking at the end of the month, or thereabouts. Phew.

Xmas was over in Bath; fun, except I got ill again. It was rather nice though - early nights, not too boozey. Jess was brilliant; not interested in presents, but so well behaved around Al's parents' house, especially the large, open fire. Apart from the moment when he nonchalantly strolled over to it, picked up a log and then put it on the embers, said "yay!", gave himself a clap well done and wandered off whilst Ali & I looked on in horror.

Anyway, my family offered to look after Jess for us over NY; he's still up there. We've had a fantastic few days - done very little. New Year was seen in with us watching Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee, which I really enjoyed. Other than that, I've been reading, playing games, and, erm that's about it. Out for dinner with some friends tonight, and then it's back to the grind come Monday.

Last week students of Shorecrest High School (Shoreline, WA) posted a video of their 'one-take' lip dub of Outkast's hit "Hey Ya"



and then challenged their crosstown rival, Shorewood High School, to beat their video. Shorewood accepted the challenge and posted their 'one take' lip dub -- filmed in reverse -- to the Hall and Oates hit "You Make My Dreams Come True" :

Quite amazing. A school orchestra tackles Sprack Zarathrusra, perhaps better known as the theme to 2001:

Well, I'm feeling marginally better. Ali has gone to stay with my parents; given the continued concern over her/the baby it seemed a good idea. Thankfully the bleeding seems to have stopped, which suggests it was just the being sick that caused it. She's still very under the weather, but Jess at least seems to have picked up. I took today off work, as I was still feeling pretty grim, but I'll have to go back tomorrow, so probably best she's up there where she'll get help with him as opposed to being here where I won't be around.

I have therefore spent the entirety of the past 3 days playing Assassins Creed II. And I mean the entirety; a good 10 hours a day. I can't remember the last time I was able to submerge myself like that. It's not even as though it's an amazing game, but the pace, setting and difficulty of it lends itself very well to long, recuperative playtimes. I did very much enjoy it, although it does have its faults. A huge improvement on the first. I've also just played through the first levels of Pixeljunk Shooter, which is lovely.

And now I'm off to bed. Woo.

Urgh. Whinge ahead, I'm afraid.

I've been off work/on holiday over the past 10 days or so. We were booked to go to Norfolk; a really nice place out in the countryside, self catering, beautiful views, a well equipped gym & pool, a couple of bars etc etc. Perfect. Except we got there, and Jess promptly started being sick everywhere. Not just little sicks either, but huge great projectile numbers. I'd never witnessed genuine projectile vomiting before, so it was quite the eye opener - arcs of puke a good 5 feet in length. This went on for days - constant waking up at night, no food or milk staying down. We ended up spending much of the time we were away either in the laundry room or scrubbing sick of the soft furnishings.

Then Ali started being sick as well, and we decided to just give it up as a bad job. So we came home early and sacked off the rest of the holiday.

A good job too, as all three of us then came down with variations on a theme of whatever it is. I've got a raw sore throat and hacking cough, Jess has thankfully stopped being sick but is not well, and Ali is being sick and has a dodgy tum. To cap it all we had to do an emergency dash to the hospital delivery suite last night when Ali started bleeding and having cramps. Turns out it's all ok; probably a side effect of the being sick, but not really what we needed.

So, not such a great holiday all told. Boo. I have also watched far, far more CBeebies than is good for a grown man's sanity. You know when you start wondering which you fancy more out of Mrs Wottinger or Mrs Pontipine that you're approaching meltdown.

What a load of toss. /moan

I am currently sat in the pub, trying to code for (amazingly) the first time in nearly 5 years. Where the hell did all that time go? At least I still have my programming head. I've also forgotten a lot of VB terminology, but VB was never my first language. The actual mechanics of putting the the program together are still there, pleasingly.

Still on my own at home, still bored. Ali's back is slowly improving, but there's no point in rushing her back here before it's properly recovered. Looking at pics she's taken of Jess since they've been away, he looks so much older already. God knows that he's doing here for example. I miss he and Ali terribly, TBH.

Inevitably I've been playing a lot of games to fill my time. Modern Warfare 2 (ok), Ratchet & Clank (great), Left 4 Dead 2 (so far so fun, although not sure how well it'll work in single player). Surprisingly, I've also gone back to Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 after being frustrated by the lack of a cover mechanic in MW2. If only someone would marry up Infinity Ward's ability to show spectacle with Ubisoft's game mechanic, the result would be incredible.

Right, just finished my third pint, which puts me over the limit for coding. Time to go home I think.