Bank Holiday Weekend

We've just come out the wrong side of a long Bank Holiday weekend and unusually for Fi and I, we spent it at home.

Saturday night was J and Marie's engagement party at the local pub. Some good food and not so good karaoke saw us into the small hours of Sunday morning. Wedding plans are well on track now. They'll be married in Antigua on April 27th 2006.

Sunday saw the re-incarnation of my mountain biking career.... sort of. I used to ride a reasonable amount about 10 years ago but got lazy and hurt way too often. More bravado than skill you see. In a half-hearted attempt to fend off middle-age spread I gave my bike the once over and headed out to the hills. Of course there is no way that I am any where near motivated enough to do this alone so thankfully Paul had shown a keen interest in a bit of off-road action and we'd been discussing routes for some time. Griff and Rach made up the foursome as we headed to the Quantock Hills for our first taste of 'proper' mountain biking.

The route we chose was the 'easy' route from the June edition of MBR magazine - a short 8 mile loop. Our lack of fitness was immediately evident as we ended up walking the first 1 mile climb!

Apart from this setback, the scenery and the weather were great. Here's where we ate our lunch.

The comedy highlight was Griff losing his shoe in a bog... Paul and I literally had to dig it out - most amusing!

I'm still here...

It's been a while since my last post and alas this will be a short affair.

Last week Dad, J, myself and Mum busted a gut to refit our kitchen. it was not without drama, frustation or argument but it is mostly done. The kitchen itself is fully functioning and Fi and I are left to decorate. Given our past record, this will take us some time but we'll get there in the end. So here's a big public thankyou to everyone who helped. Nice one.

Other news now. Fi is doing very well. We go to see the midwife for the 24 week appointment next Thursday. Junior is moving around quite a lot now. The first time I felt a movement saw my midset change - this is really going to happen!

20 Week Scan

So after 20 weeks of incubation, here are the first pictures of our first-to-be-born. I'm told by the ultrasound nurse (I'm sure they have a better title than that) that the head is on the left hand side of all the pictures



Watching the ultrasound nurse (I'll call her USN from now on) in action was fascinating as she measured, checked and re-checked things. I say 'things' because it really is difficult to make out what the heck you are looking at. The heart was reasonably obvious as it pounded away, the spine was quite clear as were the wiggling legs, but that was really it. I frequently mistook the torso for the head and vice-versa. I'm sure anyone else who's gone through this would second my observations.

Needless to say, Fi and I are both thrilled. Thankfully everything is fine at the moment with mother and child so the final question that we wanted to ask was the sex of Baby. Apparently the little blighter had 'flashed' USN a few times and when we asked her she confirmed it was going to be a boy (or at least confirmed as much as they can). Classy lad it would seem! Next Baby appointment is in 4 weeks with the midwife so more news then.

The Bank Holiday weekend was spent camping in Burnbake Farm near Corfe Castle in Dorset. It's a great part of England and somewhere I'd spend many of my childhood holidays, so much of it is familiar. The normal gang was there plus the welcome addition of Becky, Rachs's sister along with her tent 'Bernie'. The weather on Sunday and Monday was excellent and the highlight for me was the boat trip from Swanage, skillfully mapped by Paul on his shiny new handheld GPS!

I'll post the photos at a later time.