Snow Hearts

The One Where I Have An Hourglass Figure

I had my first appointment with the midwife on Wednesday - it was an hour long and very useful. She reassured me that the things I was feeling and experiencing can be a normal part of pregnancy, explained why they were happening and when I could expect them to stop. Blood was taken, urine was checked, my weight was measured. I was very relieved to see that I have only put on a kilo since I was last weighed at the doctors (in February) it doesn't stop me feeling like I've already expanded in every which way I possibly could already, but just nice to know that it's just the body redistributing itself. Right now I've almost got an hourglass figure but that won't last long, within the next month or so junior and my uterus will rise up from the pelvic region I will be able to say that the tub isn't all me.

I'm a bit of the school that you can't have too much background information so I have been buying pregnancy/baby magazines even though I know that really they are a bit shit and I have a couple of pregnancy manuals and I got Simon "the blokes guide to pregnancy" too. I guess I better join a library here, as all those "baby bibles" could turn out to be more than a bit expensive.

Faust 2.0

more wonderfulness from xkcd

The Next President Of The United States

I am surprised at how happy and moved I am that Barack Obama has won. That such a progressive Democrat has won, is excellent, that they weren't that impressed with Palin's "gee wizz jus' an ordinary gal" act hopefully shows that the American electorate have rejected the idea that being president is the job for an incompetent. That Barack Obama is going to be the first president whose surname ends in a vowel other than e should give heart to all "hyphenated Americans" And that Barack Obama is going to be the first black person to be President of the United States is absolutely, completely and utterly fabulous.

From Drop Box

"The Daily Mail - not so much a newspaper as an idiot's guidebook issued in bite-size daily instalments"

I think Charlie Brooker may well have won teh internets with that. The rest of the article is rather spiffing too.

Holding code

To Belgium And Back

I had two nights in Belgium with work, one of our contractors is based out there, we hadn't had a meeting with them in years, the contract's going to be extended and we needed to sort out a few niggles that had built up.

We went by train - Eurostar through to Brussels and then onto an intercity heading up towards Cologne. It was a great way to travel, yep there was waiting around but the journey felt so much more civilised.

We ended up with some spare time on the Thursday, my colleagues went for a bracing walk through the city, I went for a bracing sleep on my bed. So I can't really report on the old word charms of Belgium but my colleagues were impressed.

I got back yesterday amazed to see that there were still pockets of snow on the ground surviving from Tuesday night. It would be so nice to have a proper winter with snow, frosts, chill winds and crisp mornings but thanks to climate change I think we've seen the last of those, sadly.