reading at work

have recently started to enjoy my job a lot more - since obtaining the audiobooks for "lord of the rings" and "harry potter: the order of the phoenix", and the use of my mp3 player, i'm quite able to listen to them whilst working without any difficulty, or loss of work rate (they actually speed me up i think).
i'm currently reading (or listening to) harry potter which is getting pretty riviting - at the bit where harry's started learning occlumency from snape. the other cool thing is, as my mp3 player is able to play stuff back through a variety of environmental settings, i'm not only able to have lord of the rings read to me by a proper old boy (as you'd imagine tolkien himself would sound like) but i'm also listening to it in a cathedral!
i've also found hem's new album "eveningland" sounds amazing in an opera house, and "demolition" by ryan adams was made for a concert hall (or possible an indoor arena...) and its always nice to have stephen fry describing harry's antics sitting in your livingroom, as opposed to an office.

a strange night out...

actually wasn't all that strange overall. bea and i went out for charlotte's (her sister) birthday in town on friday night to BRB (what used to be the hallamshire hotel) and had a great time.
as it turned out however, i wasnt wearing appropriate clothing. my grey cords weren't acceptable, so i got bea to bring down my newer jeans with the rips in them (not ripped by wear and tear or course, but bought pre-ripped), i changed in the lovely red deer pub, and was then allowed into BRB after all. shows how fickle fasion is i s'pose. couple of years ago, people would not have been at all impressed with jeans covered in rips. today its fasionable. that's what was strange about the night.
and also, bea and i going out in town on a friday night - that was kinda strange experience too. i think we'd forgotten what it was like!

wax on, wax off...

hooray! aftrer lamenting to my friend zoe that my waxer, sam, had left the salon i go to and they wouldn't give me her details, i got a phonecall from her just now! yipee - she is now based at fitness first on penistone road.

robin was crazy with his feeding last night - every hour. people keep suggesting weaning so i'm hatching a plan - for every suggestion to start weaning i will postpone it one week. that will shut the buggers up!!! anyway - recommendation from WHO and health professionals in this country is 6 months so why i should need to be doing it at 4 months is beyond me!

the nct girls are out on the lash again!! sheffield watch out on 11 december - we are painting the town red and we don't have to pay deposits or fixed menu prices!! yipee!!

cool beans.

andrew jones stayed with us last night as he's in town for a conference today. good to catch up and alsdo get a brochure for orkney from him. looks like we'll be showing our faces up there in the new year.

also - i did the most phenomenal poo today. so incredible that i will not even put the dimensions of my creation up here as you would probably shrink away under a great cloud of inferiority...

th 12th annual beer festival, the cask & cutler

boggart hole clough - ruby red
castle rock - stoat
greenfield - ifre cracker
green wood - unbel-leeds-a-bull
hill island - monster mash
old empire - indian pale ale
wentworth - gunparkin

we had a good time.

the sunrises in the east... blood has been spilt this night.

robin and i got to see quite a spectacular sunrise this morning on our 7am wander round walkley.

100 today!

days that is...
getting bigger by the second, just as loud, just as ginger, still happily standing on two feet, almost crawling in the mean time, resisting sleep quite effectively, starting to giggle, still smiling, still chatting away, putting anything he can get hold of in his mouth, drooling otherwise, pooing spectacularly (when he does).
.....iiiiit's robin!

on the move...

not quite yet.
but heres a very cute short video clip of him trying to crawl. (right click and "save target as" - 2.6mb).
and at last a new photo of him.
he's also got to that stage of putting everything he can get his hands on in his mouth.

an update on the feeding frenzy!

yesterday i took robin to see the health visitor to get him weighed. i was really hoping he would have put on because in the previous two weeks he had only managed to gain 6oz in total (not bad though) but after my two nights of continuous feeding, i was very pleased to hear that he had put on 10oz in six days!!!

went for our regular jaunt to endcliffe park with other mums and nicky had got me a load of 'not blue' clothes for robin from a clothes co-op. fantastic colours - red, orange, lime green, bright yellow!

at the weekend things were crazy - lots of mad energy in everything we did - friend's kid was christened, ant's 30th and then down south to hang out with andy's family. apart fro andy and i falling out temporarily over miscommunication, we had a fab weekend.

mum is up tomorrow - yipee!

mmm... the bath is running!

thwe lovely sparkly jen has taken robin away for an hour so that i can have a lovely long hot bath! andy bought me a bath ballistic from lush and has organised the childcare so i can have a few moments of luxury.

last night robin only woke twice but the night before he woke hourly and the nighty before that it was 1.5-2 hourly! i am a little shattered but andy lets me have lkots of lie-ins.

mum up this week coming and dad up next weekend to join her. can't wait.

down south tomorrow to see andy's family and his granny will meet robin for the first time - aaaw!

the levellers

you know how you have those moments when you, by complete chance, hear a song and it reminds you of a time of life etc and you go back and listen to the album it was from and you get all excited by it again, but at the same time hear it in a whole new way, noticing bits you never heard before, and understanding the story behind the songs more.
thats just happened to me and the levellers.
spent most of the time at work today listening to levelling the land, a weapon called the word and headlights, whitelines, black tar rivers (who's title i especially love), and just see them in such a different light - you see all the political/ anarchist stuff that washed over my first time round - some of the songs really hit me in ways i never felt before - made my head go all hot and tingly (for want of a better description!!). and also realising that when i was originally into them, it was very much from the indie point of view, and now this time i see it much more through folky eyes (and seeing the punk in it too).
theres another song, "england my home" that's very interesting too - about the things he see's england about, what he's proud of england for and the dissapointments of it, and all of it without being soppy or nationalistic.
also quite challenging in a way about how we view capitalism, the traps of it, the alternatives (and the struggle of fighting against it), the people and so on.
truely a lovely gem to rediscover.
haven't ventured into their new stuff yet...

"...but am i in the pension scheme?!"

well - its been a very long time since my last post, in which i said the same thing - a month ago or so...

anyway. what is there?
the job at the home office is going well enough - it started up a bit dull and depressing, but i'm kinda getting into it now. i went for an interview for whats essentially the job i'm already doing, but employed by the home office itself and not thru an agency. whilst it means i wont get a pay rise, i do get all the benefits of being a civil servant! these include half a day off to do your Christmas shopping amongst other random holidays and days off and the above mentioned pension scheme (which is itself a quote from which (cult?) TV programme, anyone?), and of course the options of climbing the ladder, ousting D Blunkett himself.
the red tape however slows everything down - whilst i have passed the interview stage, it would appear a certain employer of mine is being difficult when it comes to references, and so has thrown the proverbial spanner in the works. in the mean time, i've already been trained up to do the next job up on the ladder, an Admin Officer, aka case worker. this also includes a pay rise!

hmm.
other things.
robin.
robin.
still finding things pretty difficult - not as hard as they were a few weeks ago, but still finding it hard to spend much quality time with him i guess. he's definitely moe easy going than he was (except his current "i dont want nobody but my mummy" phase).
he's smiling and giggling lots more, responding to me more, and is generally more laid back at nights.
not that he's forgotten how to raise hell and give me a ringing ear when he feels the need... and he does a good impression of an insomniac, managing to fight off sleep at all possible opportunities.

have finally got round to upgrading my mp3 player. whilst the round-the-neck thing was good, working 8 hour shifts means i get through the songs a bit too easily, so i've gone for a full on 20GB player. texan friends will no doubt notice i'm not buying the whole apple thing, still continually unimpressed with them, i've gone for the new creative zen touch.
obviously the fact its only 20GB is an easy shot to take for iPod fans, but who on earth has 10 000 songs - i checked my hard drive and theres 2443 songs on there, and that having spent weeks dumping everything i could possibly find on there.
on the flip side, it does have a 24hr battery life, significantly more useful than the iPods 8-12 hr.
plus its cheaper.
and i reckon it looks nicer anyway.

rant over.
but on a vaguely related theme...

have recently discovered the wonders of gillian welch.
not much to say other than it has brightened up my days at the home office no end. truely beautiful music.

have also been getting back into quite a bit of ryan adams recently too, having found loads of odd live stuff on the internet, including a version of "come pick me up" thats got a distinctly slow/ tired/ stoned feel to it...

bea.
had a good time last night "out on the lash" as she put it. robins on the alcohol milk (mook? mooch?!) as a result.
in fact bea and i are doing quite well at the mo i think. we're both pretty tired and wiped out most of the time, and rarely get much time together, but things are going alright.

not sure theres anything else that comes to mind.

seeya in a month or so, hopefully less.

he he he!!!!!!

today the sun is shining

i have just got washing on the line and it is lovely to see it blowing around.

robin is sleeping and i had a kip too. i'm feeling low so i'm off to my sister's for a cup of tea and she's asked me to take my hair-dressing scissors - intriguing!

last night was poker night - i had some good hands but people were being very frugal in their betting so i didn't manage to win much - in fact my chips were down at the end of the game. oh, and i really wanted us to 'up the ante' at some point because my new poker playing has given that phrase meaning , but no one would go along with me. robin got a little over-stimulated but at least he's getting a good education froma young age.

on wednesday we went swimming together and he loved it. today, when andy gets back from work, the three of us are heading to the pool.

tonight we are off to crazy man hodgson's for tea and we'll get to meet his dad - hooray!

can you hear that noise? ...it's robin asleep!

should be resting while robin sleeps but instead i am busy doing housework and other things to fill my time. i find it hard to rest when stuff needs doing cos i feel anxious when it is waiting around.

i am off to doctor's in a minute about my mental health. the appointment was booked three weeks ago so she could keep an eye on me but it has come at the right moment - in the knickers of time!

shannon has posted the below - i agree 100%:

Did you know that there are more people traded today as slaves than were traded when slavery was legal? Something really must be done and I believe that church has to step up and be involved.

I also believe that the emerging church must be involved in working towards a solution. We must stop being focused just on the people that look like us, talk like us, dress like us and have a missiology that includes those that works towards justice for those that justice isn?t easily attained.

today is sick day!

sorry no blogs for a while - robin keeps us very busy and when he sleeps the internet is not a priority when there is washing to do and all manner of other things.

andy has just done a few cool poster designs for a conference called FEM 04. the poster that another guy had done for this Kat (the organiser) was horrendous. eek!

andy has also talked recently of re-designing our blog. it would be good i think - there are a couple of fun pictures we took of each other on our anniversary which i'd like to see replace the ones of us at the top of the page currently. i don't know what his ideas are though for the re-design.

i'm cooking roast lamb for tea tonight but can't find anyone yet who wants to come for tea - everyone wants to be at church instead.

hope you are all well.

my, hasn't he grown...

although robin's just passed the 2 month mark and we're already putting him in his 3-6 month clothes!
which is good in some ways, cause it means he gets to wear a lot of the cool outfits people have bought him, although even some of his 3-6 month stuff is getting a bit small for him...

at last...

photographic evidence of robin smiling

fringe festival jokes

...as emailed to me by a friend:

Q: Who are the most decent people in the hospital?
A: The ultrasound people.

A lady with a clipboard stopped me in the street the other day.. She
said, "Can you spare a few minutes for cancer research?
I said, "All right, but we won't get much done."

I realised I was dyslexic when I went to a toga party dressed as a
goat.

My dad is Irish and my mum is Iranian, which meant that we spent most
of our family holidays in Customs.

Sleeping with prostitutes is like making your cat dance with you on
its hind legs. You know it's wrong, but you try to convince yourself that
they're enjoying it as well.

You have to remember all the trivia that your girlfriend tells you,
because eventually you get tested. She'll go: "What's my favourite
flower?" And you murmur to yourself: "$hit, I wasn't listening ...
Self-raising?"

The world is a dangerous place; only yesterday I went into Boots and
punched someone in the face.

Cats have nine lives. Which makes them ideal for experimentation.

Got a phone call today to do a gig at a fire station. Went along.
Turned out it was a bloody hoax.

The Butler Report is the political equivalent of saying, "Leave it out
lads, we've all had a drink".

Employee of the month is a good example of how somebody can be both a
winner and a loser at the same time.

I enjoy using the comedy technique of self-deprecation - but I'm not
very good at it.

If you're being chased by a police dog, try not to go through a
tunnel, then on to a little seesaw, then jump through a hoop of fire.
They're trained for that.

greenbelt photos are now (finally) up

click here to see the rest of them

spaced

just like with "the office" Bea and i have gotten a little behind with our intake of TV sitcoms and then binged on them after they'd all passed away from you're average license paying viewer's memory.
this time it was the spaced series, having watched both series in about 3 days (between Robin's crying (see later) and me working full time (also see later)), we've become quite avid fans, especially of the enigmatic brian...
have even (pre)ordered the (3 disc) box set from amazon (here) as pictured over there...

you may have also noticed that this is the first blog of mine in a very long time - last time i blogged was robin's 3 week birthday - he's now 7 weeks old today.
have felt that classic "i've not blogged in so long i dont know where to begin" and so dont blog at all.
thought that'd be a good thing to get the ball rolling hopefully.