A slight case of overblogging

Really productive week at work - I'm training my colleague Julia up so she can cover the most of the postmaster parts of my role once I'm on maternity leave, which is quite rewarding, but John and I also managed to get a new server up and installed and running as a replacement for the very elderly hardware which was doing our virus scanning and giving off repeated temperature warnings from the CPU whenever it had any mail to process! Plus I've made a bit of progress on some documentation which isn't even really my area but has become my problem which is also good - though it'll be more satisfying when it's finished.

At home by contrast it's been a pretty lazy week - watching Sherlock (the BBC version) and The Inbetweeners (series 3) on rental from Lovefilm, playing some more Minecraft and so on. I pre-ordered the new XCom game online and got a free copy of Civ V with it, which led to some amusement (but not much progress) on evening - and having spent all night downloading it I've spent this morning playing the XCom game. It's definitely quite good fun :) Whether it's 30 quid and 12GB of download worth we'll have to see. No baking this week.

Now 19 weeks pregnant and this week's vegetable is a giant tomato - well, it says "large tomato" but I've never seen one which is 15cm across. I'm pretty sure I may have actually felt the baby move now too! Not enough for Mike to feel yet. Just over a week until the next scan! With a birthday ceilidh for a friend to look forward to in the meantime. While bump is getting quite a bit bigger it's not slowing me down much yet and I don't intend to let it stop me! Weight gain suggestions from the US have now been plotted on a graph and my gain so far is nicely between the upper and lower suggested amounts so far. Still eating sensibly (she says while tucking into an apple :)

In today's fit of doing something useful though I rang our mortgage provider up to arrange a new deal for when our current fixed rate runs out in December - to make sure we don't default to their standard variable rate. Rather bemused to note that they do a quick valuation of your property themselves using a computer model and that took about £14K off the expected value of our house - meaning we no longer had a good enough Loan to Value for the deal we wanted. Turns out that if you ask they can do a more complicated version though, which they do warn you could be even worse. Provided it gets a high enough confidence score they can use that instead - and in our case it did - undoing the £14K reduction and adding a further £25 on top! Given it makes 0.3% difference in the available rates it was worth asking, but I do wonder how many people just believe the first computer and don't even ask!

You can catch up on any ranting I make midweek either on Facebook or twitter. I won't repeat my thoughts on bad cycle facilities or union action here.

I feel like I have a busy social life right now. On Tuesday night we had a lovely meal out at CB2 for our wedding anniversary - with chocolate milkshakes - and a walk back through Mill Road Cemetery for old time's sake. A very happy 2 years it has been, and we're looking forward to many more! And tonight we met up after work for another good meal out at Loch Fyne - made even better with money off offers - and then met up with some of Mike's colleagues for drinks to celebrate Scott's 30th birthday. Very entertaining when we were both rather more sober (ie completely so) than everyone else (completely not). I did have a couple of beers - but they had no alcohol in! Plus tomorrow I'm heading off for a hen party.

The other thing I did on Tuesday (fun ways to spend your wedding anniversary) was to have a Glucose Tolerance Test at Addenbrookes. Apparently in this area they recommend one for everyone at 28 weeks - but because of the family history of diabetes and my own raised blood sugar in the past when I was diagnosed with metabolic syndrome they decided to recommend I have an extra one around 16 weeks too. You arrive first thing, having not eaten or drunk anything since the previous evening and they do a blood test. They then give you a strong solution of glucose to drink (with a splash of lemon juice to make it taste better) and give you 5 minutes to finish it - then you come back at 1 hour and 2 hours after you finished the drink for more blood tests. I have to admit it made me feel as sick as a dog - so much so I even had to put my book down and stop reading. The results were supposed to take a week, but I got back this evening to find they've arrived.

According to local guidelines they recommend a diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus if any one of your results is at or above the following:

Fasting:   5.3 mmol/l
1 hour:   10.0 mmol/l
2 hour:    8.5 mmol/l

My results were:

Fasting:   4.4 mmol/l
1 hour:    6.8 mmol/l
2 hour:    3.4 mmol/l

So I pass! And it's well within the guidelines for a normal result in non-pregnant people too. I think they'll still want to do it again later in pregnancy, but that's great news for now. No excuse to stop eating healthily of course. Though with the hen party tomorrow (which I'm all packed for and looking forward to) this weekend may be a bit of an exception. I have Monday off to recover and go see my midwife for a 16-week check-up, and then I have an appointment with the obstetric consultant on Tuesday - and we'll see if they think I do need any more extra checks or if I can just be counted as a normal pregnancy from here on in.

In the end it was too dark yesterday evening, so we left coat 3 until this morning, and then did coat 4 after lunch - meaning that by mid-afternoon it was dry enough to take all the tape away and tidy up and declare it to be a job well done. It may not be perfect, but it's not bad at all even if I do say so myself. Mike did all the edging today too, and provided lots of encouragement :)

Photos of the results, and the process, are on Facebook.

Also managed to do a bit of pruning and dead-heading in the garden, but looking forward to a lazy day tomorrow, and maybe a bit of a walk.

My Saturday morning consisted of waving Mike off to get the train to Bristol for a birthday party, a bit of housework, and then a bit of knitting while supervising (aka watching) the chimney sweep (From http://www.chimneysweepcambridge.co.uk/) - who let me see the brush poking out of the top of the chimney for good luck. Then I dashed out of the house to the bus stop, for the frustratingly slow bus into town, and then a rather faster one out to the Golden Hind to help Becky and Stu move house (from two flats into one house). Everyone else had already got much of the heavy lifting down, but I helped unload the first van and load the second and even managed to sneak in a bit of helpful hoovering of cobwebs - very satisfying. I wish them luck in getting everything unpacked, and every happiness sharing the house together.

Next was another dash back into town on the bus again for a quick change in Lion Yard loos, before meeting Sarah S, Sarah W, Lorna, Laura S, Tish and Karen for the first part of Laura's hen party - a cream tea at Auntie's Tea Rooms. Sarah W's brilliant idea to ask for *bacon* sandwiches with her scones, rather than egg and cress, was shamelessly copied by nearly all of us. After a lovely long tea setting the world to rights and getting to know people we pottered off (through a *very* busy town centre) to find Hidden Rooms - a relatively unknown bar lurking beneath Pizza Express on Jesus Lane - for the rest of the festivities.

There we were joined by Laura W-D, Rach, and Fiona, and with the first round of cocktails ordered we spent an hour learning to dance a routine to "We'll always be together" from Grease. This was great fun, but definitely quite hard work! Sarah S, who sat the dancing out, kindly took lots of photos (even of those trying to hide at the back) and videoed our final dance for us. I've not looked at them yet, but I've promised not to publish lots of photos that people hate, so you won't see any until they've been vetted!

Once we'd finished the dancing we were joined (last but not least) by Tanya, with a mysterious sparkly bag, and it was time for stage 3 - a cocktail making class! Our instructor Marcus, and his glamorous assistants Cathy and Alistair, spent the next hour or two entertaining us and feeding us lots of tasty drinks. Starting by teaching Laura the art of sabrage. First we all made mojitos, then they demonstrated what happens if you just throw things together at random by getting us in pairs to each pick a favourite cocktail ingredient and then mixing them all together and asking us to try the result - with midori, gin and creme de menthe amongst others it came out apparently tasting like Listerine. Laura made cosmopolitans, and we all got a chance to learn the knack of releasing the glass from the cocktail shaker after you've shaken a cocktail, and then we tried our hands at igniting orange oil for the top of the drink. Next we watched how to make a chocolate milkshake, and saw how fun it is to set fire to chocolate powder. And finally we split into two teams for a design-a-cocktail contest - coming up with The Princess Bride (loosely based on a cosmo but featuring creme de mure, gin and apple juice) and Pete's Tropicana (which was loosely based on the mojito, but rather lemony and refreshing - apart from the limoncello I'm not sure went it in - but it was very elaborately decorated). Considering I'm on medication this week and can't drink at the moment they went out of the way to make sure there was always something I could drink instead - with some rather syruppy concoctions instead of the jagermeister shots which were the prize in the contest. I did have a drop of cava for the toast mind, and a tiny taste of some of the cocktails. I can definitely recommend the virgin mojito in particular though - probably my favourite of the ones I tried.

When the cocktail class finished we had a booth booked in the bar for us all to hang out in for the rest of the evening. It was still relatively early and quiet, the first other customers were just starting to arrive, and now was the perfect time to bring out the mysterious sparkly bag that Tanya had arrived with. The contents had been sent by Bridget, who sadly was ill and couldn't join us, but had done an absolutely *awesome* job of creating the KryptHen Factor challenge for Laura. I want to personally thank her for the notes she'd made for the Quiz Master, and I only hope I did it justice. There was a mental agility round, where having memorised a sentence on a card (which we later all signed as a memento) Laura had to put together different letters from different words to spell out some comedy answers. Then there was the physical challenge round - where with some help from others she skipped over an ankle hula-hoop thing (do those have a name), twirled batons, threw bangles as quoits onto her fantastic fluffy tiara, and attempted to juggle. She absolutely aced the observation round - and spotted all 5 changes we'd made in the selection of artfully arrange oddities (we later ate the chocolate orange to much satisfaction all round). The intelligence round was a puzzle, arranging pieces of card marked in dark and light patterns to make a picture of a space invader - and although the result wasn't perfect it was recognisably the right sort of thing so she got quite a few points for that. And finally the general knowledge round, where really I think some of the hints from the audience (naming no Sarah Ws or Tanyas in particular) were perhaps a *little* on the generous side. However when the scores were totted up at the end Laura was declared the winner, with a fab score of 45! Sadly she didn't get a chance to learn any of the tricks from the magic set - so we'll have to look forward to her dazzling us with them at the wedding instead perhaps?

The rest of the evening was whiled away with more cocktails, chat, pizza (twice!) and even a little dancing. Our booth was lovely for being almost like having the whole place to ourselves, and the music was at a good level so you didn't have to shout to hear each other. It was a great space to be in. I couldn't believe how much time flies when you're having fun, and eventually they were chucking us out, with a rather impressive bill on the tab - which considering there were 11 of us drinking cocktails was actually pretty reasonable. I made my way home in a taxi - to remember when I got home that actually if you need to take medication on a full stomach maybe it helps to take it out with you. An excellent excuse to have cheese and biscuits for supper though :)

Today I woke early, rolled over and went back to sleep for another 3 hours. I plan to stay in my pyjamas all day if possible, and will probably go watch a chick flick before Mike gets home from Bristol, and generally veg out. It really was a fab evening though, and I can't wait to see everyone again in September.

Since we were away with the family at the end of May I have:

• Been away to Manchester for UCU Congress - which was fantastically interesting.
• Been to Alison's hen party: chocolate making, night punting with a bat expert and cocktails.
• Been to Mobbsy and Alison's wedding: a very happy couple and very happy guests and lots of dancing. (photos)
• It was lovely to have Chris to stay for a few days for the wedding too, even if we'd rather he hadn't been delayed by having his car written off!
• Had a weekend off! Played lots of Diablo 3, watched football and tennis and didn't do much else.
• Visited Mike's parents to celebrate their Ruby Wedding anniversary. (photos)

I've also been logging exercise on Fitocracy and I even joined MapMyRun and went for a run. I'm still not convinced about running.

Looking forward to Laura's Cambridge hen party in a couple of weeks time - and sad to have missed the Edinburgh leg. Then after that I think I'm pretty free until late August when we're off to the Lakes for a summer holiday. Fingers crossed there's a bit less rain by then, but we're determined to enjoy it even if it tips it down :)

So... the last thing I really posted about was my parathyroid all clear (hurrah). Since then I've been busy, but I'll briefly summarise. Click through each photo for the rest of the album.

On my birthday (a Friday) we went out for dinner with Becky and Stuart and then went to see the latest Harry Potter film, which was great fun. Sadly we couldn't stop out for a drink afterwards as we had to get an early train to Burton-on-Trent for the wedding of Mike's cousin Stephen and Anna. It was lovely to see lots of Mike's family again so soon after our wedding: Chris and Margaret (Stephen's mum and dad) were particularly smug that it was now their turn to be proud parents of the groom. I love weddings, and this was no exception: lovely ceremony, gorgeous dress, a nice meal and then speeches, *loads* of dancing with a real band, and an excellent buffet.

Since we were in the region anyway Mike decided his birthday present to me was a bit of a holiday in the Peak district, so his Mum and Dad kindly gave us a lift to Buxton on the Sunday (very kind, since it turns out to be a very awkward journey to do by train, all those hills in the way). We pottered round the town on Sunday afternoon and went to see Show of Hands at the Opera House - which was great fun but made us feel very young :) On Monday we got a bus into the middle of nowhere (the bus driver kindly dropped us even though there was no stop) and went for an 8 mile walk along the Roaches to Lud's Church. Considering the time of year we were lucky there were only a few very muddy bits, and the weather smiled on us far more than we deserved, it was brilliant! And then on Tuesday we visited Poole's Cavern (a show cave dating from Victorian times) and Solomon's Temple (a folly on the hill above the town). It was a lovely few days away and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

In mid-December we managed another picturesque weekend away, this time in Yorkshire. We went to visit my mum and dad, and Mike's parents joined us there too. We had a Saturday out in the Dales, visiting the Strid near Bolton Abbey, having a fantastic lunch in Burnsall, and then driving up over the tops, past the last of the snow, and down through Malham. Fantastic. And on the Sunday we were joined by my sisters and John, Dave and Oliver for a big family not-quite-Christmas dinner, complete with turkey and trifle! It doesn't match getting to see them at Christmas itself but it was definitely a highlight.

And then of course there was Christmas proper. This year we spent it in the Forest of Dean with Mike's parents, and were joined by Pete and Val and Val's mum Hermine late on Boxing Day. It was another lovely break with lots of food (it wouldn't be Christmas otherwise) and lots of long walks in the snow and time watching the birds in the garden: Mike and I bought ourselves a good pair of binoculars and a bird watching scope for Christmas and enjoyed making the most of them.

Since we got back we've mostly had a quiet time - except for one lovely evening hosted by Clare. We've been shopping and spent our wedding presents in the sales - new cutlery, crockery, bedding and other odds and ends for round the home. And today we defrosted the freezer - we know how to live :) It may not be a very exciting start to 2011 but it's a happy one, and we're looking forward to the rest of the year.

Bit out of date ;)

On the bank holiday weekend we went off to Cardiff. Partly to visit Rae and Adam for a BBQ and partly just for a break. We booked a hotel in town and spent saturday afternoon shopping - mike bought an ipod touch - and then went out to Jamie's Italian for dinner. A little pretentious but the food was really really good.

On Sunday morning we got up and went for a potter round the castle which was great fun. Took loads of photos which I will add a link to later. It rained as we were heading up to Penarth but gradually cleared up and we had a lovely afternoon sitting around in the sun in good company and eating lots of meat :)

When we got back on Monday I promptly ordered muself an ipod too - just in time for them to launch a new version! Never mind.

I had Tuesday off work and took myself off to the local hairdresser for a trial hair do - which I think will look lovely. And I have my final dress fitting on Thursday, it's all go!

This weekend was another busy one. On Saturday we got on the train to Brandon and cycled the 6 miles to RSPB Lakenheath where we spent 3 hours pottering about and taking photos. We spotted a couple of interestibg new birds to us (a bittern snd some marsh harriers) but the other Blairs will be relieved to knpw they're not in the book! I'll lonk to those photos too.

And on Sunday it eas another bike ride over to Duxford for the battle of britain air show to which Mike's work had invited us to celebrate their 75th anniversary. It opened with the red arrows and closed with a display from*16* spitfires and turned out to be really quite impressive. The burgers and drinks were a bit expensive but at least the cream cakes were free and we had a brilliant view. Haven't had time to process those photos yet - we took rather a lot even though we eventually ran out of battery!

And then it's back to work and our last full week before the wedding and then honeymoon. Can't wait. :)

And I'm posting this from mu new toy. Not sure about the LJ app yet, it doesn't understand about default views which is a bit of a drawback.

PS Cardiff photos and Lakenheath photos.

I've got in a bad habit lately of posting minor stuff on Facebook and nothing here on Livejournal. But the fact FB has now started importing people's journals properly again (judging from the sudden rash of old posts on my friends pages) I've been prompted to come and say hello :)

Not a huge lot to say mind, I've been chilling out, playing a bit of Sims World Adventures (The Sims meets Indiana Jones), a bit of Lego Batman (which we've now finished apart from one really *stupid* bit where you have to ski down a slope and get through all the gates and it's almost impossible). We had a second long walk after our Roman one - from Great Chesterford to Royston mostly along the Ickneild Way. Managed not to get burnt again and had a lovely pub lunch on the way.

All this walking is sneaky practice for our summer holiday: walking the Pennine Way from Gargrave to Appleby (two points just about on the way which conveniently have train stations :). Mum and dad are going to come and say hi and stay with us for the first night in Gargrave which should be lovely. We're still planning the wedding too, with me having contacted hotels and DJs this week - and having got our wedding rings a few weeks back. It's lovely to have my anniversary/engagement ring back and fitting again too!

Back to the hospital next week for a check up at the parathyroid clinic: had blood tests this week to check hormone level and calcium levels so they should have the results of those and the ones I had done in January. Hopefully all should be well. And I'm still gradually losing weight, and hoping when I go back to see the GP next month my blood tests there will be all good too, even though I'm not taking meds any more. I really don't want to have to start taking them again!

S'all good really.

Oh yes and of course I'm off to vote later today, although I doubt I'll be staying up for the election results tonight. I doubt it's going to be terribly good news in the morning no matter what the result is, but it could well be interesting!

They're just like buses: you don't have a puncture for over a year and then 3 turn up at once. Saturday's was in the back tyre, yesterday's in the front and today's in the rear again. The two I already repaired were both due to small chips of flint, and I expect today's was too (unless it's just my previous repair failing), and that I cycled over a patch of chips at some point recently and they've been working their way through the tyres since. I picked half a dozen other small chips and pieces of glass from the front tyre yesterday.

All in all it's clear the tyres are getting a bit old and worn and aren't as resistant as they used to be. So I took the bike to the local bike shop and asked them to do me some new Marathon Plus tyres, supposedly some of the most puncture resistant ones available. New tubes (since the rear is already doubly patched) and some new front brake blocks while it's there and all in all it's going to be quite expensive, but there you go. Still, it's cheaper than running a car or getting the bus every day.

Of course speaking of buses I then had to get one to work. I waited about 20 minutes for the every-10-minutes bus, but apparently it was actually 35 minutes since one of other people waiting had just missed the previous one. And guess what, two turned up at once.