Graham Norton Saviour Of Eurovision

Or to be a bit more prosaic the saviour of the Beeb's coverage. El Tel had lost the plot years ago and he sounded like a man who was too old too tired and too confused by johnny foreigner to be covering the show. He'd been ruining my enjoyment of the programme for at least the last five six years. Graham was a delight, I thought, he didn't take it too seriously and most importantly made it clear that other performers can be popular in European countries without us hearing of them something Wogan forgot or never understood in the first place.

I thought the British song was a bit meh, but it obviously was the right sort of meh for the show. Be interesting to see if Lloyd Webber writes the song for next years Eurovision or if someone else has a go. I just hope we don't end up taking it too seriously because after all the music has been pretty uniformly shit since Abba won it. And as a viewer I enjoy the misguided frocks and attempts at gay euro disco than I do the actual songs.

I'm Sure

... That there is something I should be blogging about but I can't think what it is at the moment.

Is That The Time?

Sorry about the blogging outage but I've just not seemed to have had the time or the inclination to blog.

I'm sure that you don't want to hear my whinges and grips about being pregnant, I am going along nicely and the baby's head is now 3/5 engaged (THIS DOES NOT MEAN I AM LIKELY TO GO INTO LABOUR ANY MOMENT NOW) but boy is it uncomfortable and tiring and I'm bored with the whole thing. The uncomfyness and tiredness has been a main preoccupation for the last few weeks so you've been spared some major whinging trust me.

But cat naps aside it hasn't all been daytime TV and gaviscon. No, we got the nursery sorted out, bought a new car 3 and half year old Golf TDi 2.0 it's the nuts. I went to kiddiecare near Peterborough met up with my mum and bought a pram, cloth nappies, various bits of cot bedding, stuff and a baby bath thermometer.

We've also entertained, bought a bbq, garden furniture. Planted seeds, planted out seedlings and tomato plants.

I've learnt the joys of online grocery shopping, Sainsburys since you ask. Really pleased with the service so far.

I've spent a lot of time in the bath, great for getting comfy and reading books although nothing too heavy as it has to fit round the cat naps and not fall out of my nerveless grasp into the bath when I start snoring.

So now you know what I've been up to mostly. My due date is in twenty days and the hospital won't let the pregnancy go beyond 14 days so at some point in the next 35 /36 days we shall become parents.

Where Did All The Energy Go?

Today is the first day of my maternity leave, I am now a "lady of leisure" for roughly another 8 weeks before the mayhem begins. It was lovely to be able to turn off the alarm and turn over for another hour or so of shut eye, or as close as you can get when you've got a baby jumping up and down inside of you and an urgent need to visit the lavvy. But nethertheless it is still lovelier than having to get up to go to work with no chance of actually catching up on missed sleep or over come the tiredness.

Ah yes the tiredness, I know I can no longer do have as much as I would like, so I decided that I would start as I mean to go on, one biggish task a day which will keep me ticking over, getting out of the house and not turning into a day time Teevee junky. Today was a trip to Morrisons for a big shop. I was knackered before I got to the confectionary isle, I managed to stagger round the rest. Just. I think if the checkout girl hadn't kindly unloaded the trolley for me, I would have still been there now, trying to lift out a bag of cotton wool balls to put on to the belt.

Lesson learnt - Big shops are too big.
Possible Solution - Online shopping.
Most Probably Solution - Simon carries on doing the big shops.

Dinner

We've just been to a local hotel for dinner, it was an odd place, a lot of time, effort and love had been put into doing it up in the late 90s and the day to day standards are very high. No nasty communal liquid soap dispenser, each sink had a free standing soap pump and a hand towel to dry your hands if you didn't wish to use the hand driers. It was incredibly clean, neat and well cared for. The huge shame was that all this work had been done by someone who has the taste of a deranged granny with a fetish for commemorative plates and brasses.

There almost wasn't a surface in the ladies loo that didn't have some knick knack or dust collector on it' the pot pouri was in a wicker duck, the walls had porcelain masks and ladies summer hats hanging from them. The fire place in the bar had a flotilla of large brass statues sat on its hearth, and an electric fire glowing with amber coloured glass, through out the art on the walls really belong in the cyber walls of my Bad Art Group on Flickr (unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me). The food was ok, but a bit lacking in vitamins, and sadly for all you lovers of kitch the atmosphere in the bar was pretty lacking so I doubt we will be going back.

How Am I Supposed To Do That?

Lots of good advice gets thrown at you when you are pregnant especially about what position to lie in when going to bed. First off - Don't lie on your back - very good advice it is too for the later months what with the possible potential of fainting and that it is rather uncomfortable too.

Then there is the advice for dealing with particular ailments such as heartburn/indigestion/acid reflux - sleep with your head raised up, use pillows to prop yourself up at night. It helps stop the acid from flowing up so easily.

If the other end of your body is bothering you and you have feet and ankles the size of Tasmania then the best thing to do when going to bed is to raise your feet up so that they are above your heart, pillows are great for this as are a couple of bricks under that end of the bed to raise up the whole of the bed.

But what do you do when you are like me, suffering from heartburn, oedema and find it really uncomfortable to sleep on my back? How exactly am I supposed to raise my head up and my feet above my heart at the same time, whilst sleeping on my left side? Since when did I have to be a contortionist? Exactly how many pillows do I have to take to bed at night? And where exactly is my husband supposed to sleep?

We Don't Do...

Gender Stereotype in our house. I've been watching the rugby and poking the fire, throwing logs on it etc, while Simon has been bimbling about in the kitchen cooking dinner and dancing to pop music. Just to mix it up later, I shall do some sewing (making a patchwork throw for Jnr) and Simon will be knocking nails into walls, no doubt with his bare hands.