Bye Bye Bubba!

When you become a parent one of the first things many of us say is 'we won't use a dummy!' and before you know it, somehow, it has appeared! All well and good and research has proven that babies who sleep with a dummy reduce the risk of cot death. However, getting the little nipper off it is a different matter!

We spoke to the health visitor a few weeks ago about it and her advice was to just get rid of it and get ready for a couple of days of hell!

Marianne refers to her dummy as 'bubba', her bugs bunny is called 'ya ya' and her eeyore is called, well, 'eeyore'. When she gets upset you can guarantee the sentence of 'ya ya bubba eeyore' will come out. (Wendy and I refer to it as the unholy trinity!)

Yesterday I was in a tired and crap mood and Marianne was winding me up, so when she wanted her 'bubba' I told her she was a big girl and only babies have dummies. And you know what? It worked! She has occassionaly asked for it but I just shake my head and she replies 'Marianne big girl, bubba's for babies'. I'm sooooo chuffed. She's really advanced with her word skills and this will help her even more. It makes it soooo much easier to understand her.

I love coming home from work and talking to her about her day. She's two years three months and a bit and I can honestly say we can spend ten minutes having a conversation. Ok, she's not into full gramatically perfect sentences but it makes me smile and so proud.

Linkin Park - Minutes To Midnight

It's music recomendation time again! You've gotta check out Linkin Park's new album. It's got a different sound from the first two albums but it's a feeling of 'we've grown up and this is what we are now'.

One of the songs is called 'Hands Held High' and I played it over and over on the way to work this morning and, I have to admit, it put a bit of a lump in my throat. Here are the lyrics:

Turn my mic up louder,

I got to say somethin.

Lightweights steppin' aside,

when we comin.

Feel it in your chest,

the syllables get pumpin.

People on the street,

they panic and start running.

Words on loose leaf,

sheet complete coming.

I jump on my mind,

I summon the rhyme of dumping.

Feeling the blind,

I promise to let the sun in.

Sick of the dark ways,

we march to the drumming.

Jump when they tell usthey want to see jumping.

Fuck that, I want to see some fist pumping.

Risk something.

Take back what's yours

Say something that you know

they might attack you for

cause I'm sick of being treated

like I have before.

Like it's stupid standing for

what I'm standing for.

Like this war is really just

a different brand of war.

Like it doesn't cater to the rich

and an abandoned the poor.

Like they understand you

in the back of the jet,

When you can't put gas in your tank.

These fuckers are laughing their way

to the bank and cashing their cheque

asking you to have compassion and to have some respect.

For a leader so nervous

in an obvious way

Stuttering and mumbling

for nightly news to replay

and the rest of the world

watching at the end of the day

in the living room laughing

like what did he say?

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen

In my living room watching,

But I am not laughing.

'Cause when it gets tense,

I know what might happen.

The world is cold,

The bold men take action.

Have to react,

To getting blown into fractions.

10 years old is something to see,

Another kid my age dragged under a jeep,

Taken and bound and found later under a tree,

I wonder if he even thought the next one could be me.

Do you see?

The soldiers that are out today.

That brush the dust with bulletproof vests away.

It's ironic.

At times like this you pray,

But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday.

There's bombs in the buses, bikes, roads,

inside your markets,your shops, your clothes,

My dad, he's got a lot of fear I know

but enough pride inside not to let that show.

My brother had a book he would hold with pride

A little red cover with a broken spine.

In the back he hand wrote a quote inside,

when the rich wage war, it's the poor who die.

Meanwhile, the leader just talks away

Stuttering and mumbling

for nightly news to replay

and the rest of the world

watching at the end of the day

both scared and angry

like what did he say?

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen.

With Hands Held High

into a sky so blue

the ocean opens upto swallow you.

With Hands Held High

into a sky so blue

the ocean opens upto swallow you.

With Hands Held High

into a sky so blue

the ocean opens upto swallow you.

With Hands Held High

into a sky so blue

the ocean opens up to swallow you.

With Hands Held High

into a sky so blue

the ocean opens upto swallow you.

With Hands Held High

into a sky so blue

the ocean opens upto swallow you.

HIP Replacement

Woo-hoo! The Home Information Packs have been deferred until 1 August and at that point only houses with 4 or more bedrooms need to have them before they can go on the market.

We still want to move sooner rather than later but this gives us a couple of extra weeks to ensure that all of the decorating etc. is up to scratch before people come to view.

Dragon Boat Racing!

Yesterday myself and eight other fools, I mean colleagues, took part in the East Anglian Dragon Boat Festival in support of EACH (East Anglian Childrens Hospice.)

I went prepared with three changes of clothes, shorts, shoes etc. and thankfully it was a lovely sunny day, so much so that my face and arms are burnt but my legs remain as lilly white as ever - why does that always happen?

Anyway, the boats are made up of ten rowers and a drummer, with the helmsman provided by the event organisers. As you will see from my opening sentence, we had NINE crew, two short of a full team. The odds were always going to be stacked against us!

Other teams had a full compliment plus ten to twenty reserves that they swapped around throughout races. We had three races to take part in and our two top times were added together to see if we could make the semi-finals.

Well........ race 1 : 104 seconds (the only team to post a time over 100! Woo-hoo!), race 2 : 92 seconds (we learnt our lessons from the first race), race 3 : 103 seconds (ok, we were knackered by this point!)

When I say that the leading teams were circa 63 seconds you can see how poor we were!

But....... every cloud has a silver lining! There were 33 teams racing on the day and we were 33rd! And as a reward for this achievment we have won a day out at Sprowston Manor Hotel to take full use of their social club facilities (gym, sauna etc etc) and a meal chucked in too. The idea is that the losing team can get some training in for next year......

..... or maybe a round of golf, lunch and then a think about it!

It was a great day and over £16,000 was raised for EACH.

If you fancy it, here's the link.

Moving.....

Well, we had the estate agent around today to value the house. Pleasantly surprised at the result. However, whilst he was there a letter came through from Persimmon Homes regarding the house we are having built. Originally it was supposed to be completed September but we were told to look at September / October to be on the safe side. The letter says it will be ready November / December!!! Not good. We want to move a heck of a lot earlier than that.

Oh, and there's one more issue.......

A certain 'troublesome' family have moved into the Housing In The Community flats that have been put on the estate. When I mentioned to the sales rep today that this would be an issue she said that we were the second to cancel because of this family. She will look into it but I can't see anything happening.

The Home Information Packs will still be pushed from 1 June so we want to get on the market before then to avoid it. The estate agent told us today that people who don't want to move until later in the year are going on the market now but inflating the price of their house so noone will be interested just to avoid having to pay for the pack. When they're ready to move they will then drop the price to market value - genius!

Bridesmaid!

We were invited to our friends Naomi and Tim's wedding at Gissing Hall on Saturday and our little girl was one of the bridesmaids. All was going so well. We arrived a bit early to get Marianne settled in, she had some lunch and was really excited about being a bridesmaid. We got her dressed and she said goodbye to us as we left her with Naomi and the other bridesmaids.

Ten minutes later the photographer comes looking for us saying there was an upset little girl wanting her mummy and daddy. We went back up to the hotel room and calmed her down but she refused to be left and wouldn't escort the bride down the aisle! We ended up sitting on the back row with her and she slept throughout the entire ceremony. The poor thing had got so excitable about being a bridesmaid that she knackered herself out!

Anyway, it was a lovely day and Naomi and Tim didn't mind at all. Marianne is bridesmaid again at the start of July - note to self: see if we can get her to sleep a bit!

Here are some pics of our fairy girl:

Back To Reality

Well it was back to earth with a bump at work yesterday. When I arrived my colleagues told me I looked refreshed and relaxed but within an hour I was back to looking harassed and narked!

Oh well, another day in paradise!

Don't get me wrong though, I absolutely lovc my job. It's just that at the moment it seems to be taking over my life - early starts, late finishes don't add up to a perfect homelife! Hopefully all with improve with the arrival of the new manager on Monday!

The Holiday Is Over......

.... so it's back to work tommorrow! Woo-hoo! I am knackered. A week of tidying up a house and dumping junk into a skip followed by two days of looking after Marianne followed by a bank holiday Monday trip to (the rather washed out and rainy) beach.

Work is gonna seem like a holiday!!

Well, until I get there of course and go through my emails and remember the things I put on hold before I left for holiday.

We've got a new boss starting next Monday - a laaady. Should be fun to see how she comes on board. My previous boss was into death-metal which he would torture us with so if she's a Chris De Burgh fan I just don't think it's gonna work!

It's been a strange couple of months at work actually. My manager left at the end of March and throughout April myself and my three colleagues have been trying to do our jobs as well as his plus adjusting layouts etc. in respect of new acquisitions to the company. The Thursday before I had my holiday I was in at 7, left at 7, came home for an hour to see Marianne and was then back in from 8 until 11. Unfortunately my job description doesn't include the magical word 'OVERTIME' but I did manage to get a chinese meal! Hmm.... something aint right here!

Hopefully with our new manager on board she can leave us to get back to our jobs and hopefully normal working hours.

Sloblock!!

Man, you have got to LOVE YouTube!! Years ago Fry and Laurie had their take on Countdown and my mates and I thought it was just the best ever. Whenever I see Fry and Laurie are on one of the satellite channels I have a quick flick to see if it is the elusive episode, with no luck. Now because of the wonders of YouTube, voila:

Marianne - The Child Who Is My World

Finally got around to hooking one of the cameras up to the PC this evening.



We took Marianne to the beach a couple of weeks ago and it was her first trip since a disastrous outing last year when she refused to go on the sand. Well, we asked her if she wanted to go to the beach and she was very excited about it, so we bought a bucket and spade and off we went. Complete contrast to last year and she absolutely loved it.






We went again last weekend and tried her on every kids favourite - the Snails! I went first with great intrepidation as I figured all the noise etc. may frighten her - how wrong I was! Every time we zoomed down the slopes all I could hear was squeals of laughter followed by 'more Daddy, more!' She really does surpsise me every day.

We've also got season tickets to Banham Zoo which is fantastic. Marianne can run around for as little or as long as she likes and it doesn't cost a penny (asides from the mandatory ice cream of course!)

I'm sure you will all agree she gets her looks and hair from her daddy!

Fray Update

Following on from my Fray recommendation check out the following:

What Classes As Junk?

Well, it was up to the loft today for a mighty fine clearout - not saying it was bad up there but i'm finishing it off tommorrow! The skip we hired is nearly full so i've now got to decide what really IS junk and what I can hold on to a little longer....

It's quite fun in a way sorting out old junk. I had great fun reading through my (not very impressive) school reports and finding old school photos. It's a shame I haven't got a scanner but i'll have a word with my dad and see if I can get some of them done. It's hard to think I used to have hair.

I've got two more days to finish the loft and clear my study. Ideally i'd like to finish it tomorrow so I can have Friday off to chill!

Phew!

What a day. I've dumped so much stuff out of the shed that the skip is half full (or half empty, depending on your viewpoint) already and that's before the loft gets looked at tommorrow. I've gone and done my back in which doesn't help but that's what paracetamol and codeine is for. Add to that Marianne (my 2 year old nipper) coming home this afternoon shouting 'Swings daddy, swings!' and heading over to the park, then I can quite honestly say that I could do with a relaxing bath and a pint.

I'm gonna need another holiday to get over this one.

The Fray - How To Save A Life

Whilst setting this whole blog thing up i've been listening to The Fray's album 'How To Save A Life'. It really is fantastic and I highly recommend you make a purchase.

I'm a big fan of Counting Crows and their style seems to be right there with The Fray both musically and lyrically.

House Tidying - Erk!

I'm off work this week to clear junk out of the house so that we can get it valued and put on the market. We've reserved a house which is going to be ready September / October time but we don't know what it's going to cost! Also, until we've had our house valued we won't know what we can afford either.

We need to move as our house has the worst garden ever! It's completely concrete and about 12ft by 6ft at the most, and with our 2 year old running around you can imagine what a nightmare it is to ensure that she's not going to fall over and hurt heself. So far, so good, but i've got a feeling our luck will run out at some point!

The skip was delivered this morning and is already half full from emptying out the shed - the loft has got to be tackled tommorrow and Thursday which I aint looking forward to. Luckily i've got some help arriving to pass bits and pieces down to.

To say that i've lost my hoarding tendencies is an understatement! I've got rid of my entire collection of FHM magazines dating back about 7 years on http://freecycle.org/ and have listed some other stuff. It's a bit sad, but Wendy is very pleased that i'm finally getting over this urge to hold on to stuff. I dunno, sometimes I just can't seem to let go. Who knows when that 2 metre piece of 3 inch piping will come in handy?

I'm gonna go get some lunch now - i've earned it!