Welcome to The Good Life!

It’s that time again, for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch! I’ve been really looking forward to this - it’s nice to take an hour out of your day to look at nature - unfortunately, nature is pretty unpredictable and whilst last year was a beautiful spring day this year has brought with it fog and drizzle! Even the chickens won’t come out! If you missed this year but fancy signing up next year - it’s just an hour over one weekend and the research is VITAL to help keep track of bird numbers - then visit www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch for more information and your free birdwatching pack.

I put week 10 and 11 together because they’ve been pretty unspectacular on the pregnancy front. The dizziness has gone, the sleepless nights are now peaceful, (apart from the bizarre dreams every night!), and I’ve felt… well… normal! Or at least, as normal as I can do with an ever expanding waistline and breasts that feel like they could explode at any moment. Oh, and the mood swings of course… :-)

The best bit about the past week is that WE FINALLY HAD OUR FIRST SCAN! I’m pleased to announce that it went very well - but please note, when they say drink 1-2 pints of water an hour before, they MEAN 1-2 pints, NOT 3 litres as I did. The lady made me go and empty my bladder because I was crushing the baby. Whoops… The baby is absolutely fine so far, which has certainly helped with getting some sleep at night. You don’t realise how much you are worrying about it until you can see for yourself that everything’s fine. Baby even did a little flip for us and kicked arms and legs! Quite the wriggler (a typical Rawlings, I would imagine…).
The reason I’ve jumped forward a week is because the baby’s due date has changed from August 9th to August 3rd - almost a week! Which is fantastic news - another step closer to meeting our little person!

Next check up is in February when we’ll also get the results to the Downs Syndrome tests. We decided to have them done because it’s better to know and be prepared. It should all be ok, but it’s another thing to niggle until the next appointment with the midwife! To take my mind off it I’ve been finding all the kids’ tv programmes I used to watch. I’m currently re-watching David the Gnome, but I also have all the old Thomas the Tank Engine series and, for when the baby gets older, a bit of Are You Afraid of the Dark? and the cult classic: Eerie Indiana! In truth, they’re more for me than baby, but at least I have an excuse to watch them now! :-D I’ll be back with a baby update in a week or so. In the meantime I’ll leave you with a picture of my womb and our first look at Baby Rawlings who appears to be holding a martini glass and blowing bubbles :-)

Thursday was not a good day. Paul had a Peacocks voucher which he needed to spend sharpish because they’d gone into administration, but they wouldn’t accept it nor give us the £20, plus I hadn’t been feeling myself so wasn’t really in the mood to go to work. Not that I usually am, but this day I REALLY didn’t want to be there - there’s so much to do in the garden at the moment that I feel like there are far more important things to do than fanny about designing a website for someone who’ll never be happy…

ANYWAY. At about lunch time, John, the architect from the office next door came around to the shop to borrow a screwdriver. He said they thought they’d had a rat problem but in fact a CAT was stuck behind one of their cupboards and had been possibly since before Christmas. I got the screwdrivers, said I hoped the cat would be ok, and got on with not enjoying my day and doing as little work as possible.
Upon his return to bring back previously mentioned screwdrivers, he said that the cat was alive, but very skinny, and he had called the RSPCA. I looked at Paul and Paul looked at me… “Can we take it home?” I said, making it more of a statement than a question… Paul agreed and we said to send the RSPCA around to the shop so we could discuss re-homing it with them.

The end of the day came, far quicker than lunch time had, and there was still no word from the RSPCA, so we trotted around to John’s to find out what was going on. He told us that the RSPCA had told him to simply “let the cat out”, even though it, (we though ‘he’ at the time…), was in a bad way. My heart broke. So did Paul’s. We are too soft. The lady at the office got us a filing box and we bundled the skinny moggy into it and drove it home with us, expecting to be looking after it for a short time before the owners were found and he was taken away for good. Paul shut the other cats in the front bedroom whilst we bought the new moggy indoors, but once he was out of the box Sky and Molly were released! Molly began her usual growling and hissing, so it wasn’t the nicest welcome for moggy and he sat under the kitchen table perched on a chair. Sky was a different story - she took one look at Molly and the new cat, then resumed her standard position of waiting for biscuits. We couldn’t have asked for more!

They settled down eventually and we finally got to bed at 10:30pm (which is really late for me, at the moment!), after waiting for new moggy to have some biscuits and have a drink of water. The next day Paul phoned from work in the morning and told me the Cat Protection lady was coming with the chip scanner because a cat had indeed been reported missing. I was gutted. Despite telling myself that I wouldn’t grow attached, in the few hours we’d had him we’d got a little ‘bonding thing’ going on. I convinced myself that he was chipped and would have to go home, and it seemed like hours before the Cat Protection lady came to read the chip.

When she finally turned up, she was kind enough to get on with the job rather than make idol chit-chat, but first informed me that ‘he’ was, in fact, a ‘she’! She pulled out the scanner and ran it over the soppy moggy. Nothing. I held the moggy still. Still nothing… She WASN’T CHIPPED and hadn’t been reported! I wanted to cry but couldn’t appear ridiculous to the lady, so I stifled my sniffles and asked a couple of ridiculous questions to take my mind off it. I’d spent so long convincing myself she’d be leaving I hadn’t bargained on her being able to stay!

Finally the lady left us to it and I carried on settling moggy in. Paul and I settled on the name Poppy and this is her third day with us now. Sky is being as good as she ever was and Molly is getting used to her now, but still insists on growling and eating meals alone… I’m pretty sure she’ll settle down soon :-) Poppy woke us up by wetting our bed this morning! The joys of cats! She’s already worked out the litter tray, but Molly went on sentry duty outside the bedroom door and Poppy didn’t want to go past :-( I think they’ll grow to be good friends (eventually!) :-) Poppy has been eating lots and already looks more plump. She has a sparkle back in her eyes and even smiles now! So that’s the story of how two became three! Welcome home, Poppy!

Paul and I have been ‘Pond’ering (*tumbleweed…*) how Doctor Who should have ended, because I don’t think he should have gone to see Amy and Rory, since he rarely revisited assistants and, let’s face it, he was in love with Rose, so if he was going to visit anyone surely it would have been her? Right? Anyhoo, picture the scene… lots of past assistants and people who have been in Doctor Who throughout the years all around the world would be laying their table for Christmas dinner, and every one of them would be laying a place for the Doctor, showing just how many friends he could have and how many lives he’s touched… Then, the Doctor in the TARDIS eating dinner on his own with a paper hat and a small christmas tree, content if a little sad. Because THAT’S what the Doctor is about. Saying goodbye to people because ultimately he knows they won’t be there forever, but he probably will, and because he believes he has or will let everyone down.

Ok that’s quite detailed, but I think it would have made a better ending… Certainly a bit fuzzier in a way, knowing that all those people still care about him when he thinks he’s failed the human race. So there ;-P

My phone is already failing to send messages, which in this day and age is an issue you’d have thought the phone companies really would have sorted out by now, so I will take this opportunity to wish you an EXTREMELY prosperous 2012, f**k the recession and the government, be nice to your friends and ignore your enemies (they’re just jealous), love your family even when you hate them, don’t go on Twitter just to abuse people - get a hobby like baking (or therapy…), learn something new every day and teach someone something new every day, laugh, dance, be polite, avoid MacDonalds at all costs, avoid Starbucks at all costs, buy local, support independent businesses, shop in charity shops, write a letter, remember you’re never alone even if you think you are, love, realise that winning isn’t everything and there’s no such thing as a loser (except probably where politics is concerned), don’t watch XFactor, protest for the right reasons and keep all protests peaceful: be the peaceful majority not the violent minority, drink tea, drive safely, be courteous, respect your elders, respect youth, help someone who needs it most, brush your teeth twice a day, be kind to animals, live life like everyday is your last… and we might all just have the best year ever :-D HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s finally up! Feeling the festive spirit a little bit more now. It’s been a while since I did a post on here :-( Will remedy that from now on!

Meet Witchy, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Halloween!

Here are the two pumpkins I carved today - one more to do tomorrow!

Well, this is the week I climb Ben Nevis! This is also the week I start to panic - not because of the climb, I might add, but because I’ll have to go without a toilet for almost 9 hours. If that’s not enough incentive to get up and back as quickly as possible, I don’t know what is. I’ve bought enough chocolate to feed an army, and my BFF’s mum and dad very kindly grabbed me two big bars of Kendal Mint Cake when they were up there a couple of weeks ago, so it’s unlikely that I’ll get any sleep after the climb despite some very tired feet.

The weather forecast looks bleak - and that’s the positive side. But rain, wind, and even the chance of snow won’t stop me from getting up there (or back, hopefully…). Everyone has been so supportive - THANK YOU. The funny thing is, out of the five people who have wished me luck climbing EVEREST, only two sponsored me: so if I WAS risking life and limb climbing Everest, I probably still couldn’t raise as much as I wanted to ;-D

I’ll be using a GPS tracker app called Endomondo to track my walk and it *should* update Facebook once I’m back down again, so you’ll be able to track my progress. The walk starts at about 7am on Saturday and I’m hoping to finish by about 5pm or risk having to pee at the top of Britain’s tallest mountain. My sponsorship page is still open and I’ve already raised a heap of money for Kidney Research UK, but if you’re feeling flush or have some spare pennies you can donate here: Don’t forget to GiftAid it if you’re a UK taxpayer! http://www.kidneyresearchukevents.org/threekidneys

Thank you so much for supporting me - I won’t let you down! More updates as they happen ;-)

So I went back to Amazon just now and before I purchased I checked out some of the reviews. I always have a quick look at the good ones, but take my time looking at the worst ones… I don’t think the Dukan diet is for me - lots of people saying that fruit and veg are restricted. I can’t live without fruit and veg, so this is a huge thing for me! Also a couple of doctors have commented and they have said the same as me - a low carb diet makes you lose weight quickly but won’t keep the pounds off.

I think I’ll just (try) and stick to eating healthy and drinking my herbal teas. Total, utter, respect to people that are sticking to it and losing weight. I just don’t think this diet will suit me personally, and I really think that restricted fruit and veg will make me want to binge more. Well, that was another flash in the pan then! :-) I’ll see how I get on trying on my own. Frankly I don’t want foods to be restricted. Certainly not the healthy ones.