Saturday 30 June 2012

BLOG EVOLUTION

After doing this for a little while now my blog seems to have taken on its own identity and I don't feel quite comfortable with the original title , therefore I have changed to something more like a diary.
The original name are things I am interested in and the new title is more like what I am. I guess i will still be writing about the same stuff as its what I do ... so we'll see......

RAINY SATURDAY MORNING

why is it that every weekday we have woken up to sunshine and come the weekend it's pouring??? just had tea and toast in bed with two wettish dogs joining us looking out at a very grey scene. BAD WEEK..... a bad week for blogging but a good week overall...... We had a lovely weekend in Norfolk last week and even mangaged a lovely sunny walk on Holkham beach with the tide and the sun out. it is the most impressive beach and the tide was soooo far out the sea was only just visible. Apparently it's the beach that was used in the final scene of "Shakespeare in Love". We had a bit of a giggle going to a WI sale in Holt..... We were hoping for chutneys, jam and tea costs but sadly it was quite a lot of crimplene and polyester.... we all bought a ring..seemed to be the safest option! COFFEE IN THE SUN Managed to meet up with a friend who I haven't seen for ages and we sat outside.....yes OUTSIDE and drank coffee and chatted for a good couple of hours,nothing like a girlfriend natter..... Nothing is off limits for us two...it's hilarious! Not sure what our husbands would think though!!! also went shopping in the sales and did very well and then later that evening...another girls night sitting OUTSIDE again round a fire while one of us cooked paella, what a treat.... Photos to follow. sat out untill midnight ,it was blissful......!!! FAMILY I have been doing some bonding with my middle son this week and it's quite a treatI can tell you! he has just left school , where he was ALWAYS in trouble and is now venturing out into the BIG world! since he started talking we have argued and both said some vile things to each other,it's a prickly relationship to say the least ...but just lately things are improving......Yesterday we were in Oxford St together to get some things for his leavers ball last night! we chatted and had a bit of a laugh trying on designer sunglasses in Libertys and even sat in the sun having lunch....... Very, very pleasant, I am thinking there is hope for us yet!! hope so! MIDWIFERY I am struggling to write about this without breaking any confidentiality so unless I can find something more general to say I think I will leave that for a while! well, I can't really believe it but the sun is out and there is blue sky visible! Am off shopping with Joseph as poor lad as NO trousers to wear , he is growing FAST just now!!

Thursday 21 June 2012

DATE NIGHT

Every Wednesday Ian and I try to go to the movies as its "orange Wednesday" meaning we can buy one get one free on tickets! We go early and have a drink, Ameretto on ice and a beer, and a packet of revels which we have to eat by the time the trailers are finished.
This week we saw"A Royal Affair". Subtitiled danish film, based on a true story. We gave it a 7.5/10.

MIDWIFERY

Breast feeding workshop yesterday, a quiet group so it makes it a harder class to do. One question really made me realise the power of the formula milk companies. A youngish girl expecting her 1st baby was asking about when we should start her baby on "follow on milk". It took me a while to understand her question and then i realised she was thinking that breast feeding was a to be done just very briefly before going on to the "bottle" and all the various milks that these companies sell to women to feed their babies.The power of advertising... thank goodness she came along , she seemed delighted to know that we were advising exclusive breast. How many others are there like that who don't come along! Lets hope she will spread the word and become an ambassador for breast feeding!!


FAMILY


My 12 yr old is starting to change into a rude and mouthy teenager......NOOOOOOO! I can't bear to think that this sweet boy with  peachy clear skin and a lovely sunny nature will soon be a spotty, grunting adolescent. Its difficult for him being the youngest by 5 yrs as everyone else is moving on and he will be stuck at home with us for a while now ,on his own!

Tuesday 19 June 2012

yet more footie....

Yet another evening of sport on the TV..., thank God I have my piano practise, knitting and this to do!

KNITTING

I must say I am grinding to a halt with the patchwork squares and seem to be doing all sorts of other things instead, not a good sign... I know if I stop I might not return  and I have probably done 3/4 so it would be a shame to stop now! I have decided to do some BIG squares to pad it out a bit but it still is interminably slow! Sam is quite excited about having it so I must persevere for his sake.

MIDWIFERY

Ante natal clinic today, usual busy full clinic, all the new pregnancies turning up after a bank holiday weekend, we are very predictable us humans. Last year after the royal wedding , everyone got very romantic and I had a rush of babies.... a snowy weekend , powercut or similar everyone takes to bed early!!

FAMILY

Joseph went to bed early in tears saying he was "starving"... didn't really really understand what he was so upset about... I had a whole spread of food on the table,one of which I thought was one of his favourites... clearly not!! Anyway he needed a good sleep !
Have managed to find 2 lodgers for our empty rooms when the 2 oldest are off to uni in Sept, so that will help towards the massive fees and fill the empty house! We have had some lodgers before and they were fun and fitted in well so hopefully this will work well too.
Charlie is in his last week of school and believe it or not they are still after him for a detention for "eating".... not sure how that will pan out as they will not allow him to go to the leavers ball until he does it... The school has been on his back since day one and will be till the very last day...... it makes me feel VERY cross but that's what we signed up for I guess......


No bread making for a while though I think I will put the bread maker on tonight as we have very little for breakfast!

Thursday 14 June 2012

A DAY OF DOMESTIC BLISS AND PICTURES


 the result from the pretend sourdough bake

the progress of the pretend sourdough





One of those quiet but lovely days... starting with a dog walk in the sun, followed by coffee with a friend I haven't managed to meet with for quite a while, some,not many, chores, then food shopping with Charlie , who got VERY excited about the numerous possibilities for his lunch, and hopefully the gym later and some knitting!
Menu for the next couple of weeks

Wednesday 13 June 2012

A RARE EVENT

 A strange occurance this morning... I woke to sunlight coming through the curtains .And then later whilst walking the dogs in usual clothing, several layers, coat ,gloves , I started to feel warm, HOT, in fact and had to take a layer or two off!!A vague memory of summer......

KNITTING

I haven't picked up needles or wool for 2 days.... how did that happen? thought tonight would be a non knitting evening too as it is usually our"date night", orange Wednesday when we go to the movies with 2 for 1 voucher but our local was not showing what we wanted to see"Angel Share". We saw "Moonrise Kingdom" last week which was great. Maybe I can get a square or 2 done of the blanket later.

MIDWIFERY

Just finished 2 days of work now, so Weds eve always feels good. Yesterday I did an Ante-natal clinic all day, quite a busy clinic and strangely had 3 sets of twins... Haven't  had any twins for a long time, so its a good test of my palpation skills. I also had a bit of a reality check..  A young girl of 16 who I had not met before presented herself, at about 22 wks. She is from Sierra Leone and has been here for a year. Her parents were killed in the war when she was 11 and when I asked who looked after her she said"No one, just myself"......   She looked a good 10yrs older than that and after hearing her story it is no surprise .... It certainly made me think about my moaning about the weather.


FAMILY

Hmmmmmmmmmm, just had a BIG shout at Sam who shut down this blog with a load of unsaved words, very frustrating but here I am rewriting again when I really should be knitting by now....
Becca made it safely to Venice despite her very early flight to Venice at 06.30 from Stanstead. Ian got up at 3 to give her a lift to Victoria where she caught a coach, so not such a cheap flight in the end.
Charlie did his 2 exams and they were ok. A fire alarm went off in the middle of one and he thinks that will give him 2 extra marks because of the disruption, that would be good!
A potential lodger rang tonight. We will let out 2 rooms when Becca and Sam go off to uni in Sept. We have done it before and so far it has worked well.

BREADMAKING

I have given up with sourdough and now make a pretend sourdough which uses yeast but ferments for quite a few hrs overnight so has a sourdough tang. All will be revealed tomorrow. Just made a focacia to go with our tea, sausage casserole, yummm.

Thats it for today, the wool is calling......
tonight's tea


the beginning of the pretend sourdough!

All of us on the beach in India Christmas 2011

MORE OLD STUFF


Having another go and causing a few tensions to say the least…… I seem to be having BIG problems getting to grips with how to do this much to the frustration of more adept computer users!!
KNITTING PROJECTS
I am relatively new to knitting after stopping for a long time after learning as a child. I am too impatient to knit large projects but tend to knit small, gloves, hats scarves and my latest craze is snoods. AT Christmas time I have a small sale with other friends and try and sell a few bits and pieces, its fun and sociable and made a few £’s towards Christmas presents.
My latest project is a “going to university” blanket for Sam who is off to Glasgow school of Art. It is a patchwork, with lots of small squares with all different patterns, colours and stitches. It’s really interesting to make a different design every time.
MIDWIFERY
Sadly I won’t be doing much practical work this week  as i am doing Mandatory training update. Midwives have to do this once a year to keep updated. Its interesting and great to catch up with colleagues,  interspersed with quite dull lectures as well like mentorship updates…. right at the end of the day too when you just want to get home. 
FAMILY
Usual Sunday night blues here, everyone a bit overtired after the excess of the weekend and not looking forward to work/school tomorrow. Charlie doing his A levels over the next few weeks , always plenty of stress there….. He has been working hard over these past few weeks so hopefully it will pay off for him.
Well, back to the knitting now as a bit of r&r before bed

OLD STUFF FROM LAST BLOG


getting started... its all a bit confusing!!
Thank God for  teenagers…..with out them i wouldn’t be here now……sitting in bed with my 2 dogs, husband and one child who has got me this far in my attempt to start a blog!! nonetheless it is still very confusing and I’m not even sure that this will end up on the page! I’m even struggling with this keyboard……
So to get started……
I have been inspired by my daughters boyfriends grandmother who has got a great blog going about her life up in Scotland and her knitting and gardening projects so I thought I’d give it a go.
I live in London, work as a community midwife, have 4 noisy, lively, lovely children aged 22,20, 17 and 12, all living at home this year but 3 moving on this coming Sept. I am crazy about knitting to the point I managed to get a knitting injury earlier this year which now thankfully has resolved, after a few sessions of acupuncture (love it). I am also a keen bread maker and having been trying with very little success to make sourdough.
I work 2 and 1/2 days a  week, just in my local area. I haven’t done any births for quite a while, the last time was by mistake when one of my ladies had her baby at home unplanned and I just happened to be driving past. It was a very hot day (remember them??) and I had ice cream in the car. Between contractions i was running out to the car giving instructions to my son as to what to take home and stick in the freezer! It was all very exciting especially as i had very little equipment…. thankfully everything turned out fine!
most of my work now is ante and post natal care, I am very lucky as I have a lot of continuity with my ladies and have been working in the same area for over 12 yrs now so have seen some women through several children. Another of my passions is helping mothers and babies to get going with breast feeding. Yesyterday I was stopped my a mum who had been to a class i run ,teaching breast feeding, who had had great success and was still feeding her 10 month old! Always great to hear that!
Well…. i had better get started with the day now, got to walk the dogs and then off to friends for lunch, great.. i don’t have to cook.
Hopefully will get back to this later and get a few photos etc up.

Monday 11 June 2012

Slightly runny but delicious apricot jam, bring on the croissants and coffee
naked cyclists in Picadilly on Saturday

rainy Monday


LALALALALAAAAAAAA......
just come back from choir, the highlight of the week. 12 or so ladies in someones front room and 1 1/2 hrs of singing gospel type music in 3 part harmony. Its sooo good for the soul.
A very ,very rainy day so after a tiny bit of work I had a blissful day of pottering at home, which mainly involved cooking, namely apricot jam which looks and tastes divine but not sure that it has set!!
Knitting... none so far today, might get a couple of rows in after this!

Midwifery...... frustrating today as trying to help a new mum with her tongue tied baby to be able to feed without it being agony. The baby is growing so well but both he and mum have thrush now so that's causing a few problems too. Had to refer on to my much more experienced colleague. 
FAmily.... a houseful for tea, 8 in all, I love it when its like that, friends popping over and all sitting around the table! I atr far too much but it was delicious, both veggie and meat lasange !
Good luck to Charlie tomorrow as two BIG exams A levels and he has an horrendous sore throat. He has been working soooo hard  its not fair that he is now poorly on the one day that really counts.
Becca is getting up at 3 to get a bus to Stanstead to fly to Venice, lucky thing as might even see the sun!!

Sunday 10 June 2012

Well,I'm not very good at this blog thing...... Need to get into the habit of writing everyday,but there is always something else to get on with! So to get started again..... Knitting projects.... Still going on with the patchwork blanket for Sam to take to university with him. I am losing .the will to live with it!! The wool scraps I am using are all quite dark so it's looking a bit drab,I need some more bright colours to liven itupbut am reluctant to buy any more wool as I have far too much already!! Also I have made the squres a little to small, so I am having to make loads and hey are slightly uneven sizes so not sure how it wil all hang together.i have gone too far to give up but am probably only half way so am going like the clappers to get it done!, A week ago I attended a sock workshop and made a lovely little baby sock, quite simple really, my heart is with socks now but I know if I stop with the squares I won't return...... Midwifery..... Well....it's half term so have had a week at home and no work so not much to say about that today. One thing that woke me up this morning was a dream about a breast feeding workshop I do weekly. At the moment it's for women only but we have an idea to change it and bring the Dads in too. Think it could be interesting and it will be good to make some changes as we have been doing it the same way for a long time now. Family..... The A levels continue, but not for. Too much longer, Charlie is working SOOO hard,I am in awe of his concentration and commitment! Everyday up and out to the library for 6-7 hrs, just hope he reaps the rewards. Very annoyingly. There is a cold going around and he is complaining of a sore throat,so I am I fear that it will hit him on Tuesday when he has two HUGE exams. Sam, Ian and I went to the Summer exhibition at the Royal Academy yesterday, some lovely pictures there, sadly the one I really liked was a mere 66K so had to leave it behind! It's interesting to go with Sam as he often has a different angle on the art. When we left we happened upon a large crowd of naked cyclists....... Quite a sight, a protest about oil and cars etc I think! Certainly caused quite a stir! It's one thing cycling naked in London in a large group but what if you get a puncture at Hyde park and get left behind.......!!!!! Right, off to walk dogs now, I am looking after 2, so I am looking like the mad dog lady with 100's of dogs