PhD Hiatus September 30, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: PhD write up
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Sadly I have had to put my PhD write up onto hiatus. I met up with my supervisor today and discussed things with her. I was honestly ready to throw in the towel as I can’t find the time to properly dedicate myself to writing up what with a 9wk old baby to look after. I find myself running back and forth all day long and I get the odd 30 min glimpses of quietness while Evie naps. Unfortunately I need those times to make tea, have shower, sterilise stuff and tidy up the house. When I have managed to get time to look at PhD I’ve only got to the point of opening the file and reading the last paragraph I wrote before squeaky-face (as Evie has recently been called) nurdled and wanted attention. So now I need to write a To Do list so I know the state of the PhD and give myself till next year to have a break from it and hopefully come back more renewed in Jan (also my parents are staying with us for Jan/Feb so that should give me the opportunity to get a couple of hrs done a day).
Reusables September 27, 2008
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Started Evie using her reusable nappies today. We bought some of the Boots All-In-One nappies (but they actually came from The Baby Catalogue who were selling them at £3 each reduced from £8.99 on clearance because Boots are changing the print patterns on the outside). They look quite bulky and a bit plasticcy but I figured we’d try some anyway. Also Leicestershire does a £30 rebate so that’s a useful incentive. We went into the market today and bought some microfleece of the materials stall. Came home and cut out some liners – looking on the net it seems that fleece liners are best as they keep the wetness off baby’s skin. I’d already washed the nappies 3 times and dried them all ready for first use.
Poor little Evie had a massive butt once I put the nappies on. She was looking very Beyonce!! Not sure how well they will work, but am giving them a good go. If they are OK I will order some more and then ship them all to Oz to use once we get there.
House Survey September 26, 2008
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The surveyor finally came round to survey/value the house for our buyer’s mortage company. It’s been 25 days since they put the offer in. I do hope that the house value hasn’t dropped too much further in that time. It’s all a bit worrying and doom and gloom with the banking sector and I worry quite a bit that our house sale might fall through. It’s amazing to think that the whole thing rests on that one man who came to look at our house for 10 mins. Well here’s hoping and praying it’ll all go smoothly.
Happy Birthday Husband! September 25, 2008
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It’s my hubby’s birthday today. He opened his presents last night before bed. Usually we do breakfast in bed and open presents then, but as he had to get up so early in the morning for work I decided it would be more fun to open them in the evening. He got the model railway items he wanted (oh dear, the words rod and back spring to mind here) and a couple of new pairs of trousers (one pair of dark denim jeans and nice pair of khaki/greeny/browny coloured slacks) me. Evie and Mocha clubbed together and got him a bar of white chocolate with hazelnuts in. Evie used her pocket money and Mocha traded in some doggy biscuits cos they love their Daddy so much 
So – Happy Birthday Hubby. You make us the happiest family in the world!
Reusable Nappies & Going Out September 24, 2008
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No, not a post about going out using reusable nappies!! he he. I got Evie’s first set of reusable nappies (Boots All-in-Ones). I actually got them from the Baby Catalogue rather than Boots as they were 66% off (yes down from £8.99 to £3) – bargainous. The nappies themselves were fine, but I was surprised to find some unorthodox packaging materials in the postage box – at the bottom the cardboard was all greasy and there were stripped chicken bones at the bottom. It was as if someone had thrown their finished KFC into the box before sealing it up! Yuck. I sent them an email to complain and was extremely surprised to find 10 minutes later to get a phone call from one of their directors to apologise. Also I got a full refund as a goodwill gesture which was good (wish I’d ordered something of greater value). Wow that’s some customer service – admittedly I rather not have got the bones in the first place, but hey they are def on the ball with trying to ensure good follow up service. Got them all washed this morning (washed 3 times to ensure maximum absorbency, or so it says on the back of the packet). Need to go get some fleece from the market on Saturday morning to use as liners and then we will be ready to start becoming more eco-friendly. If they work out well for us I will buy some more and send them in the container to Oz in November.
As it’s hubby’s birthday tomorrow we went out for a nice romantic dinner. We went to Moomba (Oz style restaurant) as hubby said once we move to Australia there won’t be any Oz themed restaurants. My friends Rach and Lou baby sat for us. It was the first time we’ve left Evie to be baby sat. It wasn’t at all bad or worrying. In the movies the new parents are ringing up every 10 mins. I found it quite nice to just put Evie to the back of my mind for a while and just enjoy some adult conversation, and more importantly being able to both eat with both hands for a change (usually one of us is holding her and eating one handed with a fork! I had a Roo burger with beetroot and feta and hubby had a fabulously rare Ostrich burger (not rare like hard to get hold of, but rare as in just about plucked and stopped flapping).
Running Errands with the Baby September 23, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: out and about with baby
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Today I decided to get organised and seeing as I needed to get out of the house for the baby weighing clinic I thought I would get a number of things done. So off I went in the car with Evie to the weighing clinic – wow she’s 8weeks old and 9lb 14.5oz now. Scary to think some people give birth to babies that large. I decided that as I needed to be in and out of the car lots and as I can’t really leave Evie in the car by herself that I would just take her out of the seat, rather than take the whole seat out (TBH it’s getting to be quite heavy and cumbersome with Evie in it). Went to the Post Office depot to pick up a parcel – gosh the car parking spaces are ridiculously tight in the PO yard. I ended up having to climb across the front seat to get out as I had to park with driver side v close to the other car (so I would have enough space to get Evie out of the other side). Thankfully the PO lady took pity of me and carried my parcel to the car for me. Next stop the med centre to drop off my prescription. I was a bit naughty and just abandoned my car outside the front door as I was only popping in for a minute at most. Penultimate stop was the library to drop off my library books. Grr so I was carrying the baby, trousers trying to become lower than hipsters and a pile of books under my arm that seemed to get heavier and slippier as I walked. Finally got into the library and the Issue Desk had gone to be replaced by machines. As I’d renewed my books for about a year they hadn’t got the new RFID tags in and hence the stupid machines wouldn’t register them. So there I was with the baby in one arm steadily getting frustrated at the machines. Eventually a library person went past and helped me by taking the books away (it was probably me grumping at the machine and slamming the books in frantically). The final stop of the day was the petrol station as I heard that the prices might be going up again and I had a 5p/l voucher.
All in all I managed OK with Evie in tow. Must remember to wear normal trousers, or tighten my maternity ones again (surely there are no more button holes left now) next time. Rather disturbingly what would usually have taken me maybe 45 mins took me 2.5 hrs!! I have no idea why it took so long as getting Evie in and out only added say 20 mins (added up) at most.
Family Visit September 22, 2008
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My brother who lives in Australia came to the UK to visit and he along with my sister and parents came up to Loughborough to visit and meet little Evie. It was great seeing my family and especially my brother as he emigrated to Oz in 1990 (when I was 10) and I’ve only seen him a handful of times siince then. Of course when we move to Sydney in December we’ll see him every day as we’re staying at his house for the first few months. He got to cuddle Evie – who was on her best behaviour all through the visit (even though she kept farting on everyone). We went out to The Basin again, but something strange had happened there and they had water leaking through the roof (I suspect it was probably the students above had left their bath running) and the gas was off, so after an hr of waiting and still no gas we wandered off to the Thai Grand for their express lunch.
Also went to Tescos to pick up some cakes to have with tea in the afternoon. My brother was most entertained by Evie’s car seat and how it went in the trolley and he even tried putting it back in the car a few times (hmm not quite right though) and kept talking in dollars instead of pounds (everything must seem v cheap if it’s in numerical terms only).
First Trip to the Park September 21, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: abbey park
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We took Evie to the Park for the first time. We went down to Abbey Park in Leicester. In the 11 years that I’ve been in Loughborough and driven down the A6 to Leicester I never even knew Abbey Park existed. I googled things to do in Leics and found it there. Saw that the weather was going to be fab today and decided to go out on a family day trip. Also hubby loves model railways and I saw that there was a miniature railway there and also a boating pond. Sadly there were no boats out today but the miniature railway was running and hubby and Evie got to ride on it. Think hubby was more excited than baby!
Saturday Night TV September 20, 2008
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The autumn/winter line up started tonight on BBC 1. There were 3 new shows on tonight.
Hole in the Wall – WTF was that about? It was awful stuff. Zelebs dressed in silver lycra (yikes My Hairy Biker – just, NO!!) trying to pose in various positions to fit through a hole in a moving wall, else get knocked into a swimming pool. Where/Who originated this idea? Was it some kind of Japanese import as it really felt a bit like something out of Takeshi’s Castle (great middle of the night insomnia/looking after insomniac baby TV glob). Will I watch it again next week – I hope not, I’d rather change Evie’s stinky nappies.
Merlin – Absolutely loved it. Was a nice first in the series show that introduced the way they were taking their spin on the Merlin folklore. It will be good to see how the characters develop. Richard Wilson was quite funny in his medieval version of Victor Meldrew (actually it wasn’t too moan and groan, but def lots of his sarcastic tonings). Gwen oops, must remember this is not Torchwood, I mean Lady Helen/Witch was creepy. Wonder why they all fell asleep and got covered in cobwebs (I thought they were getting frozen and it was frost/snow at first). I hope that Merlin gets more types of powers too – lots of telekinesis in this episode, but I guess as he’s now got a book of magic he’ll learn some more (that bit where he got the book really reminded me of Charmed).
Strictly Come Dancing – hmm somehow I always seem to end up watching this even though I’m not really into ballroom dancing. Hubby and I joined the dancing society when we were students and gave up after a couple of tries. My conclusion = hubby has no rhythm and it’s hard for me to let him lead when he dances to something other than the music. Also not helped when he tried to spin me by pressing his hand into my face (hmmm).
10 Things that God has Enabled for Our Move September 18, 2008
Posted by graciek in 10 Things..., Life in General.Tags: God's plan
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We’re emigrating to Australia in December. For some time hubby and I have been thinking about moving there and we finally bit the bullet in late 2006 and started to get all the paperwork together. It’s pretty daunting giving up everything here and starting again. We prayed a lot about it and I couldn’t explain what it was that was really drawing us to Oz (well, other than the slower pace of life and a hopefully better life for our future kids). I really think that God is taking us there for a reason – he has some grand masterplan, but I don’t know what it is yet. So this week’s 10 things are 10 things that God has put in place for us to move.
1. Getting PR visas
2. Blessing us with Evie (well, this isn’t part of moving, but has worked out to be better as we will have a little more financial ease as I get maternity pay and leave)
3. Providing Hubby with a job before we get there
4. Sending us buyers for our house and not only that, ones who will wait till December for completion
5. Getting Evie’s passport and visa in place
6. Unexpected financial gifts
7. Providing us with accommodation in Sydney
8. Getting flights easily
9. Perfect timing, everything seems to have suddenly fallen into place for us
10. A feeling of calm and reassurance for us
Sometimes at night I can’t sleep and I worry about how things will be when we move to Oz. I sometimes think we must be absolutely mad giving up a comfortable existence here (good jobs, good house, everything sorted out for us) and exploring the new. It feels so risky. However God calms me and He reminds me about the bible verse Matthew 6:25-34. It’s such a wonderful verse and snaps me back into thinking about how good God is and not being so materialistic. God has planted a seed in us and we must follow His will.
