Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone, we've had a nice evening at home with lots of food and a bottle of champagne, and a couple of fireworks.
Lara has been a bit fractious all day, but managed to be asleep for the big moment, as you can see.
It's been a real "normal" family day today - Dad's been at work, Mum's been looking after a striking baby, and even the little boy's been looking for attention - he cut his paw on something in the garden and had to receive some TLC.
Anyway, we've had a wonderful 2007, and are hoping for even better times in 2008; we hope the same for anyone reading this!

Ola's just made a very good point - it's now 12.40am and the kids are asleep and the parents are still up and partying - we're not that old yet!

Lara smashes the 3kg barrier

Olga's just had a visit from the Health Worker, and Lara now weighs in at a whopping 3.16kg (6lbs 15oz), which is a relief as it means that she is feeding properly. We've found over the last 72 hours that her feeding isn't as regular as we thought it was. That doesn't mean it's not frequent, it's just not regular, every three hours lasting 20 minutes or so. Olga's been feeding Lara every two hours for 10 minutes, or sometimes at night every hour for just a few minutes at a time, then Lara falls asleep for another hour. This has led to some very broken nights, and we're trying a few different things to make sure at least one of us gets enough sleep. Part of the problem seems to be the air in the bedroom is very dry, even when we have the central heating off at night. We reckon getting a humidifier in there might help, so we're off to find in the sales this weekend.
Anyway, Lara's growing at a healthy rate, which is the main thing.

One of Olga's Christmas presents from me was a copy of 24 Season One. She's been wanting to watch 24 for months, and I've got Seasons Two and Three at home, but I'd lent Season One to someone who shall remain nameless, and it's been passed around Marlow to the point at which no-one knows who's got it. Steve Redgrave might have it by now. Anyway, I bought another copy, and this morning Olga and Lara sat down and watched episode one. Once she gets into it, that should be the last I'll hear from Olga until she finishes Season Three. Anyone who's watched 24 will know what I mean!
It's all hands to the pump tonight and tomorrow for the first visit by Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow afternoon. Only kidding Mum, we'll leave something for you to tidy up or iron when you get here, I know you like to help!! :-)

Boxing Day relaxation

Once I'd got up at 10.30 we needed to take Lucy home, then we went for a pub lunch in Reading, which Lara slept though, as usual. I was toying with finishing the summer house when we got home, but Boxing Day is for relaxing, so we sat down and played with Lara, and learnt how Olga's new mobile phone works, and I've been messing around with the photos we took yesterday and today, like this one, which looks better in black & white.
Tonight is planned out for TV watching - The Terminal at 7pm, The Full Monty at 9pm, and Match of the Day after that (for me at least! Seems Liverpool snatched a late win against Derby, so it must mean Lara is only a good omen for Liverpool when we don't watch the match live on TV!)
Time now though to heat up a couple of left-over turkey dinners!

Merry Christmas!!

Here's one of the offical Armstrong family Christmas Day portraits - I've uploaded some other photos from the big day to the album.
It was one of the earliest Christmas Day mornings I've had since I was a kid, I took Lara downstairs at 7am to allow Olga some more sleep time, then I got started in the kitchen around 10.
I didn't poison anyone with Christmas Dinner, and we only used 1/3 of the turkey that we bought, which is fairly normal I reckon! We had to eat during the Queen's Speech, but that's just something to improve on for next year!
We had a webcam session with Grandma and Grandpa to start opening our presents, then it was time to settle down in front of the TV to make a start on the chocolate mountain we'd acquired. For the first Christmas in years I went the whole day without a powernap, then it was my turn to feed Lara during the night so Ola could have a full night's sleep - she'd been expressing like a trooper for days so she could enjoy a few drinks on Christmas Day. It worked quite well actually with me and Lara downstairs and me sleeping on the sofa between feeds, then I could retire back up to bed when the day shift turned up at 7am!

The IMI Desert Eagle

You might wonder why I have a photograph of the .44-calibre version of the IMI (Israeli Military Industries) Desert Eagle handgun. It's just to show how educational having a newborn baby can be!

I was watching a programme on the Discovery Channel at 6am this morning about pistols, and this was on it. In case you're interested, its big brother the .50-calibre AE version was the one that I remembered now - the most powerful handgun in the world. Having fired Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum on holiday with Anton and Becca 10 years ago, I can imagine what firing this cannon is like.
Anyway, that's besides the point. I was watching that programme because it was just about the most interesting thing on at that time of the morning, when I was trying to convince Lara that she should either pay full attention to the TV or go to sleep. She'd been awake for hours, and not because she was hungry, or needed winding (I mean burping, not winding like you do to a clock!) because we'd tried that. She might just have inherited her dad's fondness for not going to sleep at sleeping time, but whatever it was, Mr Desert Eagle seemed to do the trick eventually, and I was able to put her back in her cot and go back to sleep myself at 7.20. We'd gone to watch TV so Olga could get some undisturbed sleep as the poor girl had been up trying to work out why Lara wouldn't go to sleep, or eat very much.
Maybe it was just the excitement of having visitors over this weekend; as well as Anton & Becca and Cath & Nick, Lucy came over on Saturday and Chris & Cara came to visit on Sunday.
Luckily it's nice and quiet here in the office, I can get a few jobs done to clear the desks for a few days then it's time to head home and peel sprouts!

Daddies' Little Girls

We had a full house on for a few minutes on Saturday, when Anton, Becca and Eve, and Cath, Nick and Lizzie all popped round to see Lara. We couldn't miss the opportunity for a "Dads & Daughters" photograph! I know I'm holding Lara in a non-NCT authorised manner but I was caught by surpise and didn't have time to pose!
(and Mum, don't be alarmed by my haircut, I'm just trying out a low-maintenance style!)
I've uploaded this and some other photos from Saturday to the WebAlbum

The Caterpillar Look Is In

After a couple of troubled nights earlier this week, when Lara just wouldn't settle when we put her down in crib at night after a feed, we might have worked out a solution. On Tuesday night we ended up bringing the cot up from downstairs at 4am, as we knew Lara sleeps OK in that during the day, and we tilted it slightly at the head end, the way she was tilted in the bassinet in hospital. Lara dropped off straight away until her next feeding time at 7am.
Bearing this in mind, I checked the crib, and found that it was ever-so-slightly tilted the wrong way, and when we tucked her blankets under her mattress to keep her snug, this just accentuated it, so her head was slightly lower than her hips. So I've put something under the head-end of the crib to raise it up so she tilts the right way now.
We also decided that we'd try to wake her up more during the day so that she might be more tired at night, and finally Olga also thought she'd swaddle Lara up using some blankets Luda brought over in September precisely for that job. She does look like a white caterpillar though!

Anyway, whether it was one of those things, or a combination of them, she slept almost perfectly last night, waking only for feeds and even then they were three hours apart and lasting for a reasonable length of time (including a personal best of 27 minutes) rather than waking every 30-60 minutes for 5 minutes of feeding like on Monday & Tuesday nights.
So, we learn something again - each day there's something else that experience teaches us.

Lara had a visit from the midwife this morning, and she has regained the weight she lost last week, she's now upto 2.82kg, only 0.02kg under her birth weight. We seem to be doing well enough that the midwife has officially dismissed us from midwifery care now. We have a health visitor coming tomorrow morning, but this afternoon's big adventure is our first trip to our NCT Post Natal meeting with the other people from our NCT group. I've not heard that any other babies have been born other than Lara, Alfie and the twins, but we'll catch up on gossip today.

Bet I'm the only Dad there.....

Oh, the football last night - the less said the better, but Lara's reputation as a lucky mascot for Liverpool is in danger. And as for the cricket, well, I'll not even mention it. OK, just a little. 81 all out! I confidently expect to be playing against some of those England players next summer in the Morrants Chiltern League Second XI Second Division!

Gotta love Picasa

Picasa is a great tool for organising photos, and this "Collage" option is pretty good too. As soon as they allow you to move each photo around within the collage, it'll be perfect.

We went to the supermarket at 10.30 last night - there seemed to be a lot of invisible children in there, given the number of cars parked in the Parent & Child spaces. Actually, there were more toddlers around than I expected - Lara doesn't know what time it is (we've not bought her a watch yet) but it must have been way past these kid's bedtime. Now I sound like a judgemental parent, oops!
Anyway, we did get a Parent & Child space, and we got the carseat fixed on to the right flavour of trolley, and it was all quite civilised in Asda at that time.
The trouble is that we only got home at midnight, and by the time I'd put the shopping away and Olga had fed Lara, who was a calmer in the supermarket than she was at home, it was well after 1am before we could try to get some sleep. Between Lara's grumbling and Olga possibly coming down with a mixture of overtiredness and a cold, it was the most disturbed night we'd had so far.
I went back to work this morning, but not before I'd stuck photos of Lara up around the house to surprise Olga and put a smile on her face. By 9.30 she'd found the two in the bathroom (I was particularly pleased with the one stuck to the underside of the toilet seat lid) and as I write now, before I go home again, I presume she's found the 6 others (one on the cans of Guiness in the fridge, another on the back of the cupboard door under the sink, and so on).

An experiment with Skype and a webcam worked last night, as Grandma and Grandpa were able to cooo over Lara; hopefully by the New Year we'll be able to get a video-conference going between Wycombe, Radcliffe and Bristol for family gatherings!

Another minor miracle happened yesterday too - a mere 9 months (or more!) after we inherited a wardrobe from a colleague at work, I was able to put it together in the right place. It's been in 6 pieces in various sheds and rooms since we brought it home, and has been taunting me everytime I've stubbed a toe on it or had to move it from one room to another to get at whatever it was leaning against.

OK, off for a haircut then home to the girls. Olga better not have done the washing up, ironing, or hoovering, she's under strict orders that the most energetic thing she had to do this morning was channel surf during the adverts in Jeremy Kyle's programme (I love that!).
On second thoughts, I'll let her off if she's done one of those three...

Monday morning and all's well

We had a visit from the midwife this morning, and she's very happy with Lara's and Olga's progress, and was very pleasantly surprised with how soon Lara could come home considering she was premature.
We're thinking of having our first trip round the supermarket this afternoon, making sure Olga's got enough food in the house for when I go back to work tomorrow, albeit I'm only going to do half-days in the office for the next few weeks. It's all complicated because of Christmas Week next week (when I'll probably go in for full days but Ola and Lara will come in too), so I'll do half-days for the first week of the new year. Which shopping trolley to use?! We're looking forward to using the parent and toddler parking spaces with clear consciences, and annoying those selfish gits who use them unnecessarily.

Weekend catch up - Sunday

OK, ok, so Liverpool lost, I really must wake Lara up next time to bring us luck. The sooner she grows into her LFC baby grow, the better.
I was back in the study after the football, again trying to finish it off so we can empty the storage boxes that are in there and make it into a usable room.
Lara had no social engagments today, it was a quiet day in, apart from perfecting her projectile poo-ing over Olga's lovely white fluffy dressing gown. She had been wondering why she had so many bathrobes - now she knows!
Olga did take some photos of Lara, as it had been a day or two since we'd taken any!:

Weekend catch up - Saturday

We had an appointment at the drop-in clinic at the hospital on Saturday morning. Lara had some blood taken for testing - her reaction to the midwife pricking Lara's heel was to fart forcefully in the midwife's direction.
Everything was OK, Lara had lost some weight, down to 2.66kg, which is fine.
After that it was off to Wycombe town centre for a shopping adventure around Mothercare & Woolworths. Given that I was driving the pram with the carrycot for the first time, 2 Saturdays before Christmas, I only clipped one shopper with the pram, and that was out in the street and not in the crowded aisles of Woolies.
Lara had her second social engagement on Saturday night, when we took her to the Prince of Wales in Marlow so I could meet up with the football lads, who were on their Christmas Night Out. Of course the real reason was just to show Lara off!

We started getting Christmassy today too, we put the tree and some decorations up. I did expect Mishka to either pull the tree down or mark it as "his" tree by the time we got back from the pub, but he'd behaved himself. We'll have our family portrait taken by the tree as soon as all four of us are looking presentable at the same time!

Lara's still being good during the night, Olga is sensing when Lara needs a feed before the tears start, so I'm getting reasonable sleep, and Olga's getting a little more than she was expecting, I think. On Saturday night Lara was particularly good, having a feed around midnight, then again around 3.30am then again around 7am.

Weekend catch up - Friday

As you might guess from the lack of posts, it was a busy weekend Chez Armstrong.
On Friday afternoon we ended up attending the Tigress Christmas Meal in the nice Italian restaurant next to the office. Lara was asleep in the car seat, and the staff gave us a table for two, next to the big Tigress table, where we could put her on the floor, next to the table, safely out of the way of passing waiters. She only began to stir as we were having our dessert, and Olga took her off to the office for a feed.
In the evening I popped back to Marlow for a Christmas & Baby-Head-Wetting drink with the guys. Arriva buses stole half an hour off my time with Lara because the bus I wanted to catch was early. It's more frustrating that buses are early than late, at least there's probably a good excuse for being late! Anyway, enough of the Victor Meldrews.

A good night and our first bath

Lara (and Olga!) had a very good night last night. Lara was fed at 11pm till 11.45, then slept through till 2.30am before waking for her next feed, but she didn't wake up screaming, it was just some gurgling and whimpering. She then slept till her next feed at 5.30am, which was only a brief one, but again she didn't cry at all, even when she had her nappy changed, which has been guaranteed to get her lungs working so far. In fact she didn't cry at all through the night - until Dad left the room to go and walk Mishka at 7.45! I reckon it means Ola's been doing really well to react to Lara's needs, and that feeding is going well too. Even the pooing and the peeing is what we've been led to expect, so we're really happy that everything is going OK.
We've worked out it's better to have the central heating on "constant" at 19 degrees rather than trying to blast the temperature up to 21 degrees then having the radiators turn off, that made it cold in the night for both Ola and Lara, which probably contributed to her crying on Wednesday night (Lara's, not Ola's!). Ah, yeah, I'd not said about Wednesday night, Ola was up almost every hour, checking on Lara whenever there was a snuffle or a gurgle. She still got more sleep than when she was in the hospital though, but Lara was more teary on Wednesday night than last night, but we reckon that might be down to the central heating.

Lara's had her first bath this morning, ready to get fussed over in the office...

Our first trip to the park

Yesterday we had our first visit from the midwife, everything is OK, Lara has a slight touch of jaundice but nothing to worry about, and we should just give her some sunlight for a little time. Bearing this in mind, and that there wasn't a cloud in the sky yesterday, we dressed Lara up in her best warm clothes (at least, those that fit her at the moment, she's still "petite"!) and took her and Mishka to our local park. I've uploaded some photos to the web album, but I'll put a couple here:

The Quinny Buzz pram worked a treat, and we'll give it another go today when we take Lara to the office to meet the Tigress people - it's the highlight of the Tigress year today, (not just meeting Lara), the office Christmas Party; this will be the first one I've missed in 10 years - I even flew back from Houston specially for my first one in 1997.

Home Sweet Home

Olga & Lara were allowed home late this morning, I'd not made as much progress in getting the place ready as I'd have liked, but I was able to work out the car seat (which wasn't as tricky as I thought it might be). We had some flowers delivered from work just 30 minutes after we got home, as you can see above.
Ola and Lara had an afternoon nap while I popped out to get some more supplies in, then it was my turn for a powernap with Lara - this parenting lark has started well!

I'm cooking roast beef, yorkshire puds, roast potatoes and veg, with melting chocolate cake for desert tonight, as a welcome home treat for Mum; Lara should also get the benefit of it later on too! We'll open a bottle of champagne too, and Mum certainly can have a glass and a half, but we'll time it right so Lara doesn't feel the effects of that!

We've got all the forms for child benefit, and registering Lara, I'll go and do that in a day or two. Ola's now worried that I will add the names Stephenie Gerrarda to Larissa Jane.

It's a thought..... ;-)

Some photos from Tuesday

I've put a slideshow of some photos I took yesterday with my better camera, it's easier to put them there than here inside a blog posting. I'll keep updating them. Just click on the photos to see bigger versions, and use the left and right arrows above the photo to move on to the next one.
Don't worry - there's only 8 pictures at the moment!!

Hiccups

I thought I'd try loading up a video - Lara with hiccups seems as good a subject as any! It's only a few seconds long.

Ohhh What A beeaautiful Morrrrning...

After sending out the necessary emails and and unwinding a little, it was 1am before I went to bed, and once I woke up at 6.30 I couldn't get back to sleep, too excited about getting my jobs done before going back to the hospital at 10.30. I'd even had a dream about seeing my friends for a few drinks but having to leave early to get home for Lara!
So I got up to walk Mishka (who, by the way, deserves a medal for coping home alone yesterday, he didn't trash anything, or even leave me a little smelly or watery present when I got home, the little trooper. In fact, he deserves to have a recent photo put on here, so here you go, from 2 weeks ago):


Anyway, as if to signify that today really is a new dawn for me, and to celebrate that, it was a lovely, crisp, clear morning, one of those where you're glad you've got a dog to walk to give you a reason to be out in it. Then, just before we got back home, as if the lovely dawn wasn't enough, for the first time in this build-up to Christmas, I heard my favourite Christmas song, Fairytale of New York. I know, it's not an original choice, and it is pushed very close by Little Drummer Boy and Driving Home For Christmas, but it just made my morning even better. Then I come on here to share all this and of course the first thing I see are photos of Lara :-)

All this was only spoiled when I checked on the cricket score! Sri Lanka have put about a million on for their third wicket. Just to rub it in, as I typed that sentence Vandort hit the first six of the match. Typical!
Ah, a couple of minutes later Ryan Sidebottom has just dismissed Vandort for a measly 138. Cue a Sri Lankan collapse, I reckon.

OK, OK , A close up!

Here's Lara at 45 minutes old :-) A bit mucky (in the nicest of ways!) but it's all in the eyes.

Today's the Big Day!!

Yep, December 10th is the big day - Larissa Jane Armstrong arrived at 17.12, in quite a rush, weighing in at 6lbs 4.5oz (2.84 kilos). She's 24 days early, but as strong as her mum and better looking than her dad.
Dad did get her first nappy on properly though!
More details to follow, but here are some photos for starters.

It's Not a Tickling Contest, Is It?

I caved in to Sky's marketing and bought the Hatton v Mayweather fight. I'm no expert but Mayweather certainly seemed the better boxer, but Ricky never did stop coming forward, until the 10th round. Mayweather hit him with a left hook that caused him to head butt the corner post and bounce backwards onto the canvas, it was almost a comedy moment.
Ricky wasn't too happy with some of Mayweather's tactics and the way he was being treated by the referee, and in the official post-fight interview he whinged a bit but did remark that "it's not a tickling contest, is it".
Anyway, it's 5.45 now so about time I went to bed - still got plenty to do tomorrow, erm, well, today.

Visiting Time

We're off to see Eve tonight, she's 18 days old already!
Anton's got the beers in the fridge; I've warned him they need to be at the right temperature or I'll cry, and there's no way he's changing my nappy.

We are taking a little gift though...

Cravings

This woman seems to be craving pickled cucumbers. Olga ate plenty of these before she was pregnant, so there's clearly something wrong. I don't know if this is a craving, but she's started drinking tea with milk in it. Uurrghhh!! Can you imagine that!?
Worryingly, I've started enjoying tea with lemon instead of milk. I'll be eating pickled cucumbers next.

That's yer cot

After the weekend, we now have a bed in the spare bedroom, and the baby's cot and changing table are in place (that's not our cot, but you get the message :-) ).
I need to crack on with getting the study ready, then we can actually move into the spare bedroom and I can get used to navigating around in the dark, avoiding all the furniture when I get up to go to the loo in the night.

I've taken pity on Olga and taken on most of the dog-walking duties, aren't I the caring, thoughtful guy :-) Where's my Nobel Prize?!

Check up day... we're engaged!

We bought a blood pressure monitor last week (only £15 from Maplin and very nice and portable) so we could keep an eye on Ola's (and my!) blood pressure on a daily basis. Ola's was a little high these past few days, and she's been a tad puffy in the hands and feet. Naturally this required urgent treatment - not because of any danger to the baby but because it meant Ola was reduced to only one pair of shoes she could fit into. We made an appointment yesterday morning to go and see the GP, who reassured Ola that her blood pressure was OK, but the swelling and the fact Ola had a headache yesterday morning meant it would be a good idea to go to Wycombe General's Day Assessment Unit in the maternity ward. So she's been there this afternoon (and saw two of our Ante-Natal group mothers there, one of whom is definitely post-natal now with twin boys. That makes 3 boys from the 2 births in our group so far) and been given a clean bill of health, which is very encouraging. Even better news was that Junior has engaged, and is lying in a very good position, the right way up (or down, I suppose) and even facing the optimum way (to the side). We're clearly having a very clever baby who's been absorbing all the info Mum's been reading!

Oh, while I was ironing, Ola was packing the bags, at the moment we have two to go to the hospital (one for Ola's stuff, one for the baby's stuff) with a few things still to pack or buy. The bags aren't by the front door, ready to go, but I'm sure they will be soon...

Domestic Bliss

Nope, this wasn't me last night, but I did spend the evening in that most manly combination of activities - ironing the baby's stuff while drinking beer and watching Liverpool win then watching Stanley Baker and Michael Caine take on those nasty Zulus.
I'm sure we need 10 muslin squares, and when they're used Ola will be delighted at how well ironed they are. Between you and me, I was perfectly happy to spend my evening like that, but don't tell Ola. SSShhhhhhh!

Wycombe "The Ritz" General Hospital

OK, maybe I've built it up a bit much there, it's not the Ritz, but we were impressed by the maternity unit when we had a tour on Sunday evening. There are eight delivery rooms, each with en-suite bathroom (all except the specific Waterbirth Pool Room have Patientline too), and assuming there's a room free when we arrive, we can stay in that room the whole time, it's pretty big, and you can move all the furniture around and play with the lighting to make it feel less like a hospital room.
It was reassuring to see how the room looks, and what the post-natal ward looks like.

All that spurred us on last night into really starting to think about packing "The Bag". So Olga picked out most of the things she wants to take for the baby and washed them, and they'll go into "The Bag" tonight, if we have time after Ante-Natal class. Just so we don't feel like we're taking too much, there will be a "Reserve Bag" on stand-by at home which I can come and get if we feel like we've run out of anything. One of the benefits of living just round the corner!

More equipment has arrived too - last night we worked out how to put the Baby Bjorn baby carrier on me (no point trying to fit it around Ola's bump at the moment!) and I had some fun seeing how far up the dial I could go on our TENS machine (electrical pulses through the skin to help with pain relief). It's all a bit theoretical at the moment, as neither of us are in pain, and we can't use it on Ola until labour actually starts, so I can't say how much it will help, but if nothing else it will give Ola something else to think about.
For the record I stopped it at level 4 out of 10... if you believe some people, it's likely to get stress-tested up to 10 when the time comes!

Would you Adam 'n' Eve it?

Here some more pics of ickle Eve. How come she's got more hair than Dad already?

Practice makes perfect

We had a morning Ante-Natal class today; I was the only man able to make it, Olga was very proud :-) We're such a team! Part of the class was the inevitable "nappy" lesson. We split into two groups and could choose between trying to describing how we would change a nappy (what we'd need, how we'd do it, etc..) and how we would bath baby. I jumped in for the nappy scenario, I know even less about bathing a baby than changing its nappy, and there seemed more things to get wrong with bathing, and I didn't want to be the first one in the group to drown the doll.
Our little group of myself, Olga & one of the other mums-to-be, Susie, got most of the theoretical things right in the end, it was only the practical aspect where we tripped up. Those nappies should have Front and Back written on them, otherwise it's far too easy to put them on back-to-front. Would that be too much to ask? At least put that on the "newborn"-style of nappy, or put a pretty pattern on the front, so we know. It's not immediately obvious that the fastening tapes should go at the front, is it? If you were being neat and tidy, wouldn't you put them at the back, out of sight?
Anyway, one of us put the nappy on the doll back-to-front, and I'll never reveal which one of the three of us it was.

Besides that, it was a very useful session, and things are moving quickly now; on Sunday evening we're all going to the Maternity ward at Wycombe General for a look around.

At home, more things that Olga has ordered on the internet are arriving. Last night the dining room table looked like it had come from a UN Refugee Camp, so abundant were the blankets and towels. We had a little play with the Quinny pram, trying to work out the brakes - that could prove useful in Wycombe, although chasing a pram down a steep hill is a quick way to lose those post-natal kilos.

We're going to have fun trying to work out how the car seat fits in the car this weekend....

The Crooners

Instead of watching the football on Wednesday evening, Olga & I went to see Chris & Cara sing at Borlaise School in Marlow. They've secretly been attending singing classes this autumn and this was their "passing out" concert. Each member of the class sang one song, and then there was a team rendition of the good old Timewarp.
Cara sang Somewhere Out There, from An American Tail, and Chris sang "The Way You Look Tonight" by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields (never heard of them? Me neither, and nor had Chris, but it has been sung by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Michael Buble, Rod Stewart, Bing Crosby...). They were both very brave, there must have been 200 people in the audience, and I'm no expert but they sounded great. Once I get it the OK from them, I'll load the videos I took up to YouTube and put a link on here.
No Royalties will be payable, guys!

Euro 2008? I told you so

I wasn't bothered at all about watching the England game on Wednesday night, I don't think we deserved to qualify, and McClaren needed to be sacked - you heard it here first - I'm such a pundit!
Coincidentally, I won an auction on eBay on Wednesday for a Russian National Team football shirt, so I'll put that to good use next Summer.
Who should they appoint now though? I don't think it should be anyone "big", they should appoint a caretaker until after the Euros and see who's available then. Gus Hiddink? I hope so, he was my choice 18 months ago... who does he manage now? Russia.
For the time being, why not Ricky Tomlinson? He did OK as Mike Bassett, England Manager.

Who needs Business Class?

The flight home on Tuesday was mostly uneventful; BA has introduced "on demand" video now for Economy passengers, which is great, you can choose your film or TV programme from a very long list (probably 30 or so films and 20 TV programmes) and you can start it when you like and pause it when you need the loo / a drink / a snooze.
Apart from me putting my still-turned-on mobile phones in my hold luggage rather than my hand luggage when I checked in - I owned up to this and the Chief Steward checked with Biggles in the cockpit and was assured the plane wouldn't fall out of the sky - everything was hunky-dorey until we tried to land at Heathrow. The cloud cover was very low, and we ended up having to abort our landing. Biggles came on the intercom to say it was a combination of us turning in for our approach too early and they aircraft in front of us not clearing the runway quickly enough. It was all very exciting, but just meant that even more passengers were desperate for the loo when we finally made it to the gate.
So, why is Jeremy Bowen's mush staring out at the top of this post, I hear you ask. Well, he was on the flight too, in Business Class I assume. I was standing next to him at the baggage reclaim for 25 minutes (why is it your bags can travel 2000 miles in 4 and a half hours but then take 25 minutes to travel half a mile?), and my bag arrived before his. Ha! There is justice. He's planning to go to America on Sunday, using his spare passport, which is the one he used to go to Cairo, in case you're wondering what his plans are for next week. The things you learn by listening to other people's mobile phone conversations.
Then it was home for a snooze and Tuesday night's Ante-Natal class.

Stonehenge? A B&Q garden ornament

Here's the view at 5.30pm from my balcony, it's the only time the smog has lifted enough to see the pyramids. You can't quite grasp how big they are until you see them up close, but this gives you an idea, seeing as they are 10 miles away (click on the picture for the full size version - it's not perfect, I took it on my phone). Stonehenge is nice, but I doubt you can see it 10 miles away.

I was thinking of going out tonight, but an hour's worth of free Happy Hour beer and a Chivas Regal for Eve Lawrence has made me think I'll just hang around in the room and see if I can beat the £40-odd I spent on room service on Saturday night...

Tough work if you can get it

The work is all finished and I'm back at the hotel, enjoying a beer on the floating bar (a bit rocky when a boat goes past). Traffiic was bad, but maybe that was because David Milliband is in town, giving a talk at the university, or because Tony Blair will be here tomorrow, probably not because I'm here!
So I'm going to enjoy a few local stellas on Ant'n'Bec's behalf, but not too many, my car is coming at 6am tomorrow...

(Water) Breaking News!! NOT OLGA THOUGH!!

Here's this morning's big news... Becca gave birth to Eve Lawrence at 11.20 last night. Mother and baby are fine, Dad's delighted but tired. I assume mum is too! Photos to follow in good time...

Saturday in Marlow

Lucy and I went for a walk by the river in Marlow on Saturday afternoon. Here is one of the pictures.

Waiting around

It's 6pm on Sunday in Cairo and i'm hanging around in reception at the client's office, waiting for three Italian gents to finish their meeting so we can share a lift in the company car back to the hotel. I've already been halfway there in one car, before the driver understood he'd taken me to the wrong Sofitel, and rather than take me to the right one, then go back to the office and get the three Italians, then go to our Sofitel again, he's brought me back here to wait. For an hour and a quarter. Oh well, it's not like I've got anything else to do!
The job's gone very well, despite me oversleeping yesterday morning and keeping the driver waiting for 20 minutes. The hotel really is very posh, I'm on the 'executive' floor, I couldn't resist the whole rom service thing last night, although I didn't do the James Bond thing and order the beluga caviar (£90) and champagne (the cheapest was £250 a bottle). I just went for the beef medallions at £15 and a bottle of egyptian rose. Yup, it was as bad as you are thinking! I'll let the client treat me to something european tonight seeing as i'm working up a thirst just sitting here.

Well, thanks for helping me pass half an hour. Hopefully there aren't too many mistakes, it's very fiddly typing on this pda!

A weekend in Cairo

I'm off to Cairo on Friday afternoon, coming back on Tuesday (in time for ante-natal class, of course), but this is work, not play, I'm doing a Tigress upgrade and Egyptians work on Saturdays and Sundays (they're not workaholics, they have Thursday & Friday off).
It should be nice though, they normally put me in the Sheraton on the Nile, and you can see the pyramids from the balcony if the room is on the right side of the hotel, although you do have to squint a little.

What a difference a day makes..

This top photo is the study, with the floor all laid, I just need to put the skirting boards back on. It took two and a half days, two thumbs and a finger to get to this stage.

However, these photos are of the spare bedroom, which will become the nursery, and which I managed to get this far just on Monday, it's amzing what you can do when things actually go to plan!

I just need to finish the last two rows (the most tricky ones) tomorrow morning, then maybe I'll do the porch while I'm in a laminte-positive mood.
The skirting can wait until Olga & Lucy have painted them over the weekend, while I'm in Cairo.