Glamping in Glastonbury, a weekend in Wednesbury, and Chemistry with the Cubs

Hi all,

The last three weeks have simply disappeared! So here's all three bumpdates at once.

Glamping in Glastonbury

In Mid-May B & I decided to try to fit in a babymoon - a short holiday before bub arrives and changes everything. We started looking, with a few caveats - it could only be a weekend (B doesn't have much leave left for the year and we want to save that for after the little tyke arrives), somewhere close-ish (long car trips weren't that comfy for me), and obviously, not too expensive. And as the title suggests, we ended up glamping in Glastonbury.

We stayed in an ePod on the edge of a field - a little wooden building with a fridge, toaster and kettle. There was a Weber BBQ outside for cooking, and a private bathroom & toilet a short walk away. It was really relaxing to have a couple of nights semi-camping - food cooked on the fire, surrounded by greenery, listening to relaxing birdsong.. with the luxury of a real bed, blackout blinds, and access to a heated swimming pool! Divine! 

Saturday was our day for exploring (we arrived Friday and had to drive back Sunday). We started with a hike across fields to the Glastonbury Tor - apparently one of the most spiritual sites in the England. What a good place for a bumpdate:

From there we walked into town, past the Chalice Well (another spiritual site, but too expensive to look through a garden). Glastonbury is a strange town.. loads of hippy-type shops but with prices that seem above average. Bruce called them rippies (rip-off hippy shops, or shops for rich hippies). :-) After a tasty and random lunch (cream tea, chips & cheese ploughman's - all shared) we walked back out to the camp and had a swim. *phew* we certainly earnt our smores that night! For those who don't know, smores is a North American treat, we made ours by making a sandwich with chocolate digestives and marshmallows and heating it on the BBQ. :-)

All in all, it was a lovely relaxing weekend!
Some more photos here

Weekend in Wednesbury

Last weekend was British Father's Day, so Friday night we headed up to Wednesbury. We went shopping in Willenhall on Saturday, and visited Grandad on Sunday before going for a short walk around the Swan Pool.

And here is last week's bumpdate..

Chemistry with the Cubs

We've had a busy weekend this weekend! Yesterday Bruce had to keep 21 Cubs and 5 leaders occupied from 1pm-4pm. He hadn't been able to find any helpers, so I went along.

We ran three different activities - solar windmills, hydrogels (disposable nappies), and red cabbage chemistry. The first activity was engineering, the next two were chemistry (although hydrogels are a smart material and so they also fit under the materials engineering banner).

It was a super-busy day - we spent the morning collecting everything for the workshop and then the afternoon running everything (and cleaning up). As a treat, we stopped at Wagamama for dinner on the way home (mm, ramen). We ended up being out of the house for more than 12 hours, and my ankles certainly showed it (where did they go?!).

On the up side, we had some lovely weather at Swansea Bay Campus, so this week's bumpdate is from there:

Today we had our first antenatal class, it ran from 10am until 4pm. We were asked to bring along sharing food for lunch.. but apparently it isn't something that the British do. We took a tasty salad (mango, strawberries, bacon, chicken pieces, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms and a yellow pepper - using veggie "meat" of course).. and we'll probably be eating it for the rest of the week! Other contributions included crisps; crackers and hommous; shop bought flapjacks and slices; grapes and watermelon; and cold pizza. O well.

We now have some idea what to expect next month (! Time flies!!).  We've got the second (and final) class next week. It's quite an intensive course but we couldn't fit in any of the "slower" classes (that run a couple of hours each week for 5 weeks) because either B or I were away for one of the sessions! We're lucky to have found any course that we could get to!

I've got two busy weeks before I start my maternity leave - I'm off to Aberystwyth tomorrow, back Tuesday.. then with training sessions in Swansea, ChemNet events in Treforrest and an open day, I'm already looking forward to sleeping all day Saturday! Bruce also has a busy June.. but he's promised me that he has no events booked in from mid-July - in case bump decides to arrive early. :-)

Everything is going fine with bump.. lots of moving and kicking (often when I want to sleep). We still don't feel ready, but we did get a pile of baby clothes from one of my friends (she got them in the grand tradition of hand-me-downs). Once I'm on leave I'll wash everything and get the Moses basket set up and all of that kind of thing. It's really weird to think that the due date is only four weeks away!

Apologies for another mammoth post. I'll keep the next update shorter. :-)

Where did that month go?!?

Hi family,

It feels like it's been ages since I wrote an update.. and after checking the last few posts, it's been more than a month! How did that happen?! And what have we done with ourselves since then?

The last couple of weekends have seen us in 'Spring Cleaning Mode' - we've taken a car-load to the tip and 5 bin-bags full of stuff to the op-shop. I've packed up half of my wardrobe (all of the things that don't fit me right now but that I want to keep) and Bruce emptied out at least half of the shelves in the store-room and moved around some of the furniture in the lounge. *phew* Clearly, this is all part of the 'get ready for baby' preparations and we know we've got lots still to do.

Speaking of preparations, for those of you who missed the photo on hangouts, here's the bumpdate. This was from last weekend when we were out looking at prams and cot-beds (note: it's still not warm enough for t-shirts yet.. not for longer than a few minutes anyway.) :-) This week I'm having a glucose test (fingers crossed for no gestational diabetes) and I think we're almost sorted for all of the 'big' purchases - car seat, pram & cot-bed. Now it's just all of the 'little' things we need to work out (and I don't even know what they all are!). And I realise that I need to get in-shape - I've got about three months to build up my strength and flexibility. Anyone got any good links/suggestions for programmes/stretches/etc?

Work has been keeping B & I busy, as always. We've both been travelling lately, with more to come over the next month.

Easter was a welcome break - we had a lovely quiet Easter at home and then headed up to Birmingham(ish) for Phil & Sarah's wedding. Phil and B have been mates for years, so B was a Best Man. Here's a pic taken by Gwen - I'm sure you'll agree that Bruce scrubs up pretty well. :-) The wedding was lovely - religious ceremony in a little church followed by reception at a hotel in the middle of nowhere. Good food, good company and we stayed at the hotel, so I didn't have to wait for B to be finished before I could go to bed. Yay!

After the wedding we headed even further north for a short-break with Vicki and Stephen. We stayed at a lovely little flat in Gatehouse of Fleet (Southern Scotland) and spent the time exploring castles and abbey ruins, spying on the local wildlife (we saw a seal in a field!), playing games whilst it rained, and enjoying wine, cheese and chocolate! I haven't looked through my "real" photos yet, so here are a few from my phone.

Caerlaverock Castle

Feeding the red kites

Sweetheart Abbey

The coming month is looking like it's as busy as the last - I've got two weekend conferences and at least two trips to North Wales! But we've also got two bank holidays in May (yay!) and I'm planning on taking some leave (not to go anywhere, but to sleep-in and relax a little). Next weekend is May Day and there's a local festival in Radyr and Morganstown - we might even see what that's all about.

What are the rest of you up to?

I want more power tools

We've got a bit of a break between visitors so I thought I should write a quick update.

We were expecting Darryl at some point before the baby was born, but he surprised us by calling us a few days before the weekend to say he'd be here along with his family. Luckily I had just spend a large chunk of the previous weekend cleaning the spare room (for the guys to come and fix our shutters) so we were okay. It was great to see Darryl, Alicia, Charlotte, William and Spencer, and although Oscar got a little upset about having to share his toys early in the week (especially after his nap when he was still tired) by the end of it he was happily (for the most part) playing with everyone. He seemed to like following Charlotte around, copying her, and later he and Spencer both copied each other.. which was good, because they were playing together, but not so good if they both wanted to play with one little toy :) I think it's a small taste of what's to come for him though. Daz was brilliant.. he made us the wardrobe (which we're still in the process of filling), fixed up the front security door, reattached the linen press door.. just generally did those tasks you really need power tools to do. We repaid him as best we could with beer and chocolates, but I think we still owe him big time.

This weekend Rach arrives, which will be great too. She's staying for a week, and I know Os is going to love having family here who don't want to ride on his bikes or read his books ;) Sadly Rach wont be bringing power tools to fix up whatever is left, but that's okay.. I think Chez has got a day off work so I'm sure they'll get up to no end of hijinks.

Speaking of Chez, she's doing really well. Only 10 weeks to go, and the little girl is very active. Os calls her "baby sister" and occasionally points out toys for her :) The time seems to be flying by now. We put up some photos of Cheryl so you can see her belly too.. I don't think it's as big as it was for Ossie. Either way I'm sure you'll agree she looks beautiful.

And me.. I'm on a weird low-carb diet. I'll write more about that when it's over if you're interested.. Then I'll have final numbers and the like. Either way, it seems to be netting a result for me, which is good.. because I do miss delicious carbs.

BellyWatch: Week 39

Hey all.. well, we're down to the last two weeks before the due date, which means it could be any day from a few weeks ago to about a month from now. This means we don't tend to make plans, and I jump whenever my phone rings at work :)

Cheryl is still feeling good, although occasionally the baby finds a spot to poke that makes her uncomfortable... and of course at that point he decides it's a great game to just keep on poking that spot. Still, she's managing a walk every day of around a kilometre, as well as keeping up the various stretches and other exercises that are recommended.

In an effort to improve my fitness I've also managed the occasional walk to the train station in the morning.. it's around 4 - 4.5 kilometres, which means to catch the train at 7:30 I have a fairly early morning. It's a good walk though, mostly uphill :)

Apart from that we're pretty uninteresting I'm afraid. Just generally kicking around at home, staying cool in this stupid weather and not making plans for any long trips.

What has everybody else been up to since Christmas?

Guess the time and date (and eye colour) competition

As discussed, I'm going to run a competition to guess the time (to the nearest hour) and date of the baby's birth, and the eye colour. That means if someone has the same time that you want, you have to go a different eye colour :) The winner will be the closest time first, and if there's two times that are close then whoever gets the eyes right.
I'll put it up here for a day or so for you all to guess, and then I'm going to post it on my website and keep a running tally of guesses up there :)
The expected due date is Feb 1. Both Cheryl and I have brown eyes, but both our Dads have blue eyes. Oh, and there is a prize (it'll probably be one of my tees from redbubble.. it wont be naming the baby, sorry Jared)
Good luck! ;)

BellyWatch: Week 27

This weekend Cheryl officially entered her third trimester. We took some photos. It may look like she's really pushing her stomach out, but that's just how her back is.

So I guess we're officially in count-down mode now.. it's no longer "27 weeks in", now it's "13 weeks left". We've still got a fair bit to do - the most pressing of which is to organise a car seat from the RAA, or we wont be able to take the baby home. But apart from that we have supplies to buy, not to mention furniture.. we've ordered a cot, but we've still got to find a little chest of drawers or bookshelf or something to put a change-table on top of.. and of course the change table itself.

Such fun :) Time for a trip to Ikea methinks.

We did buy a pram on the weekend. A friend was recommending the brand when they found one on eBay that was actually being sold in Adelaide. I sent a message through to the seller saying we'd like to have a look, and she gave me a call - turns out she lives about 5 minutes away from us.

So we headed over there for a bit of a look, had a practice pushing it around, opening and closing it to make sure it was all easy enough, and then bought it from her straight away. It's a nice little pram, a Peg Perego Pliko P3.. they retail for around $600 - $700.. I was a bit taken aback with the cost of prams to be honest... But yeah, second-hand we got a good deal. It obviously sits back for a baby as well as being upright for a toddler, and our friends said theirs has lasted several years.

Cheryl took another video while I was at Iaido on Sunday, this one is even freakier than the last. Check it out at my website

Painting and Belly Watching

Hey all,

Just a bit of an update. We've started painting the baby's room.. you now all know the gender, so I don't mind showing you the colours :) We've got a light blue for most of it, and then a feature wall in a nice bright green. You can see photos of the progress here. The plan is to finish it off tomorrow, on our public holiday (huzzah!).. assuming I don't sleep in until 12 like I did this morning ;)



We also took a few photos of Cheryl for the week 24 BellyWatch. You can see them here.

We've been looking around for a cot and all the trimmings for the last couple of weeks.. we thought we had found the perfect one at Toys R Us (on sale no less), but unfortunately they don't deliver as far as Morphett Vale and we had no way of getting it from the city to our place.. and the local Toys R Us doesn't have it. Ah well, back to the drawing board. Assuming we can get the painting finished this weekend all we have planned for next weekend is steam-cleaning the carpet so we should have some time to look.

My general plan is to have the room all completely finished before you guys all visit in December, so we have a bit of time still.

BellyWatch: Week 22

A little something special for this BellyWatch.. check it out over at my site (you'll need the flash player)

BellyWatch: Week 20

I'm a bit behind on the updates but here's the photo from last weekend. We bought a gorillapod tripod, so I was able to wrap it around a post out the back and solved the low-light/shakiness issues of earlier shots.

We also had the ultrasound on Monday. This was a longer one than the last, where they check the baby's organs, skeleton, that kind of thing. They didn't see anything wrong, which is good.

We also found out the baby's gender.

I've told Mum and Dad, Nana and Lisa.. Dayna, Glenn and Dee, we're happy to tell you guys but we don't want to post it here just in case you'd rather not know. You can give us a call if you'd like, or else post here and we'll tell you :)

Apart from that things have been pretty much the same. The baby is kicking with enough force that I can feel it through Cheryl's belly, which is quite exciting.. and it's about time I thought about decorating the baby's room too. I want to paint it.. but first I have to clear it ;)

BellyWatch: Week 18

Just a quick update to say Cheryl is immune to pavovirus so no slap cheek for us. We thought it was pretty safe but got the blood tests anyway.
I don't know what's going on with the colour in this photo, next time i'll try to take it with less sun behind her :)

BellyWatch: Week 15

Just a quick update with a photo of Cheryl so you can all see how she's progressing.

We went to a kid's birthday party today, lots of screaming, pushing, running around.. it makes me glad we're only going to have one baby and not about 6 ranging in age from 1 - 3. It was good fun though, plus we got a lolly bag at the end: Score.

We didn't get any bags of lollies or chocolate after Cheryl's birthday but we did go out for pizza and ice-cream on Friday, and shopping on Saturday.. so all up, it's been a good weekend. We even found time to clean up the house, because next weekend Yuko and Akira from Japan are visiting Adelaide.. that should be a lot of fun, keep an eye out on flickr for the photos :)

That's all from me, we'll post another photo in a few more weeks or so i'm sure