A slight case of overblogging

In my last post there were a whole series of house woes. The good news is the satellite dish cables are repaired, and no longer leak. And the two double-glazed units whose seal had gone have been replaced, with shiny new ones. That leaves the leaky bathroom wall.

( Bathroom walls )

In other news I had a nice weekend:

• We watched The Mask with Matthew - I'd never actually seen it before because Jim Carrey gets on my nerves a bit, but it was good
• I blocked my lovely Sweet Dreams shawl, and now I just need to weave in the two ends and it's done
• I started another shawl, called Trillian, in green, and it's going to be lovely too but *much* simpler
• I took my bike to be serviced, and it turns out the back wheel is cracked, so it's waiting to see if it's covered under Warranty, since that's not normal for only 15 months wear, even over 2600 miles. Bike shop is closed Sun/Mon so I won't hear until tomorrow or Weds. Just as well I can WFH!
• We played lots of Core Keeper and a bit of modded Minecraft (1.20.1 Forge, with the Create mod, in survival)
• I made my own potato bread thing using left-over mash!
• And today Matthew was meant to be doing a new club after school, but has just appeared at home, having come straight back because he couldn't find it! We will try again next week, but I've had to message Mike to let him know, since he'd already gone out for a roundabout route to meet him!

Back to work today, tidying up loose ends after student registration. I reckon it went quite well, considering we changed the process only a week before it happened, but there are always a few who simply didn't register, and a handful where there were technical issues with the registration process. We're getting there.

A short list of things

• My mum's gall bladder is safely removed, hopefully good riddance
• My phone has died again, and is on its way to Giffgaff to hopefully be fixed under warranty
• I have a startlingly old-fashioned dumb-phone to keep me in calls and texts in the meantime - usual number
• Am considering buying a new phone in the New Year anyway
• I've booked the eye test Specsavers have been reminding me about since March - now only £7.50 instead of a tenner :)
• I dyed my hair purple, coincidentally the same shade as 10 years ago, in just the week people are comparing old and new photos - it doesn't look quite as bright as it did on bleached hair of course
• The Christmas tree is up and we have some lights in the garden too at Matthew's request, and a decorated office door at work
• I have printed out the Christmas card list, ready to start writing cards, late as usual
• I *think* I just did the last bit of present shopping, I gave in and did it online, couldn't face the shops

Any phone recommendations welcomed - current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, and I like the size and the general look and feel and so on. I'd like something with a little bit more power (mostly for Pokemon Go). Looking to spend around £200 again sim-free, or find something on contract for around £15 a month since that's roughly what the Samsung has worked out as over 24 months (including a fiver a month on 500MB of data, and the occasional top-up for calls and texts).

And if you'd like a Christmas card and are not on my usual list then drop me a line with your address!

So following on from my post last week I took a self-assessment test on the NHS webpages, and scored somewhere between 10 and 15, most likely around 13 - indicating that it's likely I'm suffering from moderate depression. Anyway I went to see my GP today (well I say my GP - I'm not sure I've actually seen Dr Rann before, but she seems nice and coped calmly with me sobbing at her :). After explaining how I felt she asked what I was hoping to get from the appointment, to which I said at least partly just to get someone to agree I wasn't just imagining it. But eventually I left with:

- A prescription for a low starting dose of sertraline (anti-depressant)
- A sheet with some online resources for DIY CBT to try
- An appointment for 3 weeks time to see how I'm getting on, and if the CBT seems helpful to refer me for a course

She also suggests I see if the university counselling service can offer any help too, and really thinks 2 years of sleep deprivation is probably a big issue and suggests we need to do something about the night wakings. I'm not prepared to give up breast feeding (which she didn't suggest but equally didn't sound terribly supportive of) but we can try cut down how often we offer milk at night and see if he wakes less as a result - it may not make much difference though, as he was down to just one wake most nights before he was full of cold, so I think it's more than just wanting milk.

Anyway I felt a bit better for going, but a bit wobbly at the same time.

And I feel like the Pensions Officers meeting in London today was well worth attending and hopefully having written a brief report on it for our action committee and exec on the way home on the train has been really useful too, so a positive day overall.

This is what a 9-months pregnant feminist looks like, in a somewhat drafty Fawcett Society Tshirt. Not only do they have excellent Tshirts but they do excellent work towards equality in the UK.

In addition to (briefly) dressing up to celebrate the day I've also made a loan to a woman in a less advantaged country, via Kiva. If you were to sign up using my link you can make a free loan of $25, thanks to a generous sponsor, and they'll give me $25 to donate too.

This week has been largely characterised by lots of time waiting for BT. Last week I finally got round to reporting that our broadband connection keeps dropping out intermittently. It's been doing it for a while really - at fairly random intervals it just drops out for between 30 seconds and a couple of minutes - sometimes just when we're on the phone, and at other times it's every half hour, and sometimes it's just random. Anyway having replaced the ADSL filters in January, and replaced an elderly handset on Wednesday the errors were still happening, so I spoke to them on Wednesday last week and they made me plug the router into the master socket for 24 hours to see if it fixed the problem. It didn't, so I spoke to them again on Thursday, and after a basic line check which was fine the second-line support team promised to call me back on Monday morning after their Exchange team had had a chance to investigate (they suggested Friday, but I said Monday since I knew we were going to be away Friday night). Since then there has been an inordinate amount of waiting!

On Monday I waited an hour for them to call me, then tried 1471 and discovered they had in fact tried to call me on Saturday while we were out, so I called them up a bit cross, and they didn't exactly apologise but did agree to send me an engineer on Tuesday afternoon to come and see if they could find the problem. On Tuesday I waited in all afternoon and the engineer didn't turn up - I replied to their text message notification to complain, and got a courtesy call just after 9pm. It seemed there had been a "communication issue" between the booking team and the engineer. Anyway since the issue seemed to have gone away temporarily they promised to call back on Wednesday and check if it was still OK. Of course the connection started breaking again overnight, so on Wednesday morning I called them again rather than waiting for the call back, and after quite some time waiting on hold another engineer was booked - this time for Friday morning. On Friday I didn't actually have to wait long for the engineer! Amazing! He came, was polite and helpful, but couldn't actually find anything wrong though he admitted he couldn't stay and monitor indefinitely to wait for another problem.. He did move our master socket upstairs into the room we keep the computers in, and replaced it with a modern filtered one, which means the other sockets in the house now only act as phone lines, but no longer need ADSL microfilters attached to them. About an hour later the connection dropped again, and after a couple more outages I called BT again - and they've booked me yet another engineer. This time the earliest they can manage is Tuesday morning, so once again I wait.

Since then the connection has actually been up a bit more reliably than before, but still drops out when we're using the phone. An improvement I guess - we'll see how it does over the next couple of days! It's just as well I've been at home though! It would be even more irritating if I were having to take time out of work for this, rather than time I was happy sitting around doing jigsaws, reading, geeking and crocheting :)

There have been other bits of waiting this week too - waiting for baby - who is fine to stay put for another couple of weeks as far as I'm concerned - and waiting for assorted parcels in the post. I now have more maternity bras (you really needed to know that) and we also have a baby bath, changing mats, and a nice new chest of drawers in the nursery for baby clothes with a changing table on top. We've put the pushchair together too and packed the hospital bags, and been for a tour of the Rosie Birth Centre - which was lovely. All feeling much more ready than we were a week ago!

So after a very chilled out day at home yesterday the plan for today is another relaxing morning, then to head into town this afternoon to see Wreck It Ralph at the cinema and go out for dinner. Since as several people have pointed out we might not get much chance for that sort of outing for a while :).

Last year Mike and I went away for the weekend nearest Valentine's Day, and had a lovely time in Stamford. Valentine's Day happens to mark the anniversary of when we got engaged, which makes it a little extra nice to celebrate it - but generally if you go out you end up with over-priced set meals which can often be disappointing - so we're happy to time shift it a bit. This year we also decided that while it would be nice to go away it wouldn't be too wise to go very *far* away this close to my due date. So instead Mike took Friday off work and we had an early weekend in the far off city of Cambridge :)

We actually had a nice quiet morning pottering round the house, and I did a bit of gardening too, then we headed into town on the bus and checked into our hotel - The Varsity Hotel and Spa on Thompson's Lane - which it turns out had upgraded our room, to a really rather enormous one with a lovely big bathroom and great views out on two sides across the roofs of Cambridge.

We decided to make the most of the nice evening, and headed out for a touristy walk around the backs and through town, taking in bits of Trinity and Kings, and the Corpus Clock. Then we filled the big bath with *all* the bubbles (a foot deep in bubbles alone!) before heading out to dinner in the restaurant which is associated with the spa/hotel. It calls itself the River Bar Steakhouse and Grill, and definitely specialises in steak - which Mike enjoyed. I went for a pretty decent venison and ale pie instead, which at least had good pastry even if it was still technically stew in a bowl with a lid. We didn't have room for pudding - but did have a box of chocs back in the room which made up for it :)

Saturday morning after a lie in we had a lovely big cooked breakfast, and then headed out for another nice walk. It was a really spring-like morning, and heading along the river was lovely - though crowded with other walkers, cyclists, rowing coaches and joggers - the river itself was busy too. All very photogenic. Then we had a bit of a potter round the shops before heading to the Fitzwilliam Museum to continue being tourists for a little longer. Despite having lived in/near Cambridge for just over 14 years it's the first time I've visited! We skipped through the Egypt/Rome/Greece exhibits fairly quickly as Mike had seen them before (with my dad, while mum and I shopped for wedding dresses), and were perhaps a bit underwhelmed by the room full of European/Japanese pottery and most of the galleries of paintings, but then there was a room full of pottery, sculpture and even some jewellry, including a couple of Barbara Hepworths and suddenly I was much more engaged. And the last room we visited with an exhibition of contemporary Chinese pottery just blew me away: China's White Gold.

Our last stop before heading home was Brown's - for a rather lovely afternoon tea. Finger sandwiches, scones with jam and cream still warm from the oven, and a decent little selection of cakes too. Lovely. We've had a really nice time, and all well within 10 miles of home. Recommended!

More photos from the weekend can be found over on Facebook (public link).

The most obvious thing this week is that it's been my last week at work. Very little actual work remained that still needed doing - though Caroline had me having a go at the written test and programming test they've devised for the interview candidates for my maternity cover, to get an idea as to whether they were aimed at around the right level and would take the right sort of time. It was surprisingly fun. She also found me another useful little bit of perl script to write for her too so I spent rather more time writing code than usual - nice easy stuff :) My maternity cover job has now finally been advertised too - closing date 18th February if anyone might be interested. The week finished on Friday with my lovely colleagues surprising me with a big tray of pink and blue cupcakes and a lovely card and box of chocs. Obviously not knowing which colour bun was the right one I had to have one of each :) I shall miss them over the next year definitely, it's going to be very strange not getting up for work tomorrow morning!

Yesterday, despite it being the weekend, we were up fairly bright and early to pack up some lunch before heading into town (into a mildly fierce headwind) for the first session of our NCT ante-natal classes. It was quite a long day really 10 til 4 without only half an hour (by agreement) for lunch - but we packed a lot in. It was lovely to meet 7 other couples all of whom are also expecting their first babies in March. It looks like we're all hoping to give birth at the midwife led birthing centre at the Rosie hospital too. Lots of information to take in, but Sian, the class leader, has promised to email us all lots of info. We've got a breastfeeding session to come on Wednesday, and then another long day next Saturday too. With it being a class right in the middle of town there's quite a spread of locations around Cambridge for people to have come from - but it's nice to know that there'll be at least one mum in Shelford that I'll know in advance :) Have promised to let her know the details of the bumps and babies class that apparently runs in the village once I manage to get hold of them myself.

After our class we had a bit of a wander over to the retail park not far from Mill Road to take a look at pushchairs/buggies. Steph and Dave did offer us their Silver Cross pram, but we've decided it's a little big to be practical for us, and Mike really quite fancies spoiling us with a new one anyway. We're a bit torn between going for a simple buggy, which works out the lightest and most compact option - not to mention the cheapest, or going for something which can do front and rear facing positions and has nice big wheels for off road use. The Quinny Buzz 3 is quite tempting. We also need to think about whether we need to get a car seat even though we don't have a car - possibly just so we can get baby home from the hospital in a taxi! Though one of the couples yesterday did very kindly offer us the long-term loan of one which their brother-in-law had given them, as it was spare. Sending me home in a taxi and letting Mike walk with a pushchair would be one solution, but a bit weird :) Does anyone know if there are local taxi firms who can provide car seats themselves? Though if so would we trust them?

Bump is now 35 weeks old, and reportedly around 46cm long and 2.4kg in weight - about the same as a honeydew melon. Of course by this point the weights are all going to be very much averages - as all babies come out a bit different. I still seem to have a pretty compact bump for this stage of pregnancy really, but am measuring the right size for my stage, and everything else was well at my last midwife appointment on Monday too. They're coming thick and fast now with only just over a week until my next one - and I'm waiting to hear back from the GP practice nurse as to when I can have my whooping cough jab too.

Not much more exciting has been happening this week. We saw very few birds in the garden for the birdwatch - probably because the weather had got so much nicer they didn't need our food supplies so desperately any more. The bedside tables have gone, leaving us with more space in the living room, and we enjoyed our haggis :) We bought a new shower curtain too - so exciting :) Mike and I have been mostly chilling out, watching DVDs and reading (him) and knitting (me). I finally finished my giant fuchsia pink mohair shawl which has been going since 2005! And I've just started crocheting a pram cover for baby Snape too. I expect I shall spend much of next week crocheting and reading and playing computer games - though I'm going to try and make it to the gym for a swim a couple of times too if I can. Got some union stuff on Wednesday too which I will still go to since for now I'm only on annual leave not maternity.

So what's new since last week? Well, there's been some rather wintry weather! We woke on Monday morning to a cm or two of snow. It snowed some more during the day but didn't really settle further, and melted quite a bit on Tuesday. On Wednesday we woke to freezing fog - and I cycled to work and back in -4°C! Thursday was even colder, but bright and sunny, and since I was working at home for the day I got the chance to take some pretty photos in the garden but otherwise stay indoors. And Friday we were promised yet more snow - which looked like it meant business when it arrived, but in the end settled less than a cm deep. A bit of an anti-climax really, but at least it meant it's still easy to get about here in Cambridge at least. I took lots of photos.

On Sunday BHF came for the furniture - and refused to take the bedside tables because they've been painted. Drat. If anyone wants a pair of large chests of drawers in a nice blue colour and can collect from Great Shelford I can send you photos :) They did take the DVD racks though. I've spent much of the week knitting, and have now pretty much finished my scarf for Mike - I just need to weave in all the loose ends of yarn. I hate that bit! Evan and Gina (who live very near the Welsh border) decided it would be better not to come and visit this weekend - which was probably the right decision given the weather en route, but is still a shame - we shall have to reschedule. This leaves us at a bit of a loose end this weekend - which today at least we shall fill with a walk into town to see Les Mis, have dinner at Nando's and the bus home.

Work has been busy, but productive. Couple of useful scripts written from scratch, though not quite in service yet. A bit of software tested and documented (though again the docs haven't gone live). And some rather intractable problems with Eudora bullied into submission. Only 10 more days left to work! Though in theory I could juggle the holiday around and spread them over more than 2 weeks I think I'm probably just going to get them out of the way ASAP and then enjoy my break!

As of today Bump is 33 weeks old, is up to 44cm long, and weighs 2kg - which is supposed to be the weight of a pineapple, but the one in our kitchen is just under 1.4kg. I clearly need a bigger pineapple. I got the tape measure out too - and I'm now about 43" around the bump! Heartburn continues better than previously, but I'm definitely starting to find the four flights of stairs at work leave me a bit more breathless than they did. And I had a random nosebleed last night - which are apparently more common in pregnancy - I don't think I've ever had a proper one before! Thankfully Mike is an expert :) Still both pretty chilled out about it all - probably need to think about buying a few more things for the baby before long, but there's no rush. 5 to 9 weeks to go!

Addendum: I finished Mike's scarf!

Had a lovely New Year's Eve with just the two of us - a proper sit down dinner with candles, which is pretty rare for us, and saw in midnight while reading in bed :) Not very exciting but pleasant - and it was a very tasty dinner. New Year's Day I did some leafleting for Slimming World round our street, and then went for a long walk with Mike - 10.5 miles was probably slightly overdoing it to be fair :)

Hobson's Brook and Grantchester

Back to work for just three days this week - which is probably just as well as we've been pretty tired. A fairly useful three days for the time of year though - and it looks like my new mail server will be going into full service early next week - right on schedule. Once that's done that's my last big project before I'm on holiday and then on maternity - but I've got another 4 weeks left to work, and no doubt plenty of odds and ends of stuff to do too, as well as a few more things to document or show Julia before I go.

Taking it pretty easy this weekend - enjoyed some of the CITV Old Skool re-runs of children's TV yesterday and today (Dangermouse has probably been the highlight). Took the Christmas decorations down last night, since that's 12th night. Today on reading of King Cake I got the urge to bake. We looked through the new baking book we got at Christmas, but it turned out we were a bit short of eggs for most things, and it turns out we don't even have enough oats for flapjacks. Back to the G&B book instead and another go at the chocolate brownie recipe, though scaled down to 2/5ths of the recipe. They look good!

Next midwife appointment is tomorrow afternoon - but all seems to be well at the moment. Bump is as wriggly as ever. Beginning to be a bit harder to sleep, but mostly because whichever hip is underneath is feeling a bit weighed-down by the rest of me, which doesn't seem to be something which the usual tips on pillows would address. Heartburn is much more under control though - cutting down fizzy drinks and cutting out coffee definitely seems to have helped. 7 to 11 weeks to go!

I'm quite enjoying keeping LJ a bit more up-to-date, even if it's been a couple of weeks since my last proper post, and I'm mostly posting in bullet points. Since then I've:

• Planted a David Austen rose in the garden - Malvern Hills
• Started to get into posting pictures on Instagram - though I prefer not to play with the filters
• Had my first free NHS dentist appointment (maternity perk)
• Bought some nice new clothes from M&S, ebay and Isabella Oliver with my birthday money
• Had my first UCU committee meeting, a meeting for Pensions Officers in London, and a union event on stress and workload in the department
• Had a lovely day off work with Mike: a frosty walk taking lots of photos, Christmas shopping, cakes from Patisserie Valerie
• Went out to the Crown and Thistle in Great Chesterford for Mike's work's Christmas party - excellent meal and lots of fun
• Watched some Masterchef, some Time Team, some NCIS, and the rest of season 2 of The Walking Dead
• Whinged quite a bit about the heartburn I've been suffering from - though it's improving a bit now
• Posted Christmas cards, wrapped Christmas presents, put up Christmas decorations and iced the cake!

In the coming week I have a glucose tolerance test, a midwife appointment, a haircut, my work Christmas lunch, my Slimming World group's little Christmas party, and then we're off up North for a Christmas with the Blairs in Mirfield and Littleborough - which I'm looking forward to lots. In the meantime here's some photos, and a link to the album from our frosty walk