New York

We've just finished packing for our trip to New York tomorrow. We booked it back in November and as normally seems to be the case, the time has flown by.

We're in the US until Tuesday, giving us 3 whole and 2 half days to roam around and we're staying at The Michelangelo - it certainly looks nice, but time will tell. As any previous visitor to NY will tell you, there is a whole heap of things to do. Fi and I are both virgins to the area so it will be easy to try and cram too much in, however, we're both in need of some relaxation so we'll try and keep it a little calm.

Until next time.....

Better get used to The Tweenies

In what seems to be an increasingly rare posting to my blog, I reveal our most exciting news since Fi and I married. Yep, it’s the big one – we’re going to be parents. The life-changing month is September, round about the 15th-17th, depending on who you speak to. We’ve known now since before we went skiing back in January, however we’ve bowed to tradition and waited the suggested 3 months before making a general announcement.

Mother and bump are doing well. It’s easy for me of course but Fi has had what seems to be ‘fairly standard’ morning sickness, although it’s been occurring in the evening. As we enter the second trimester (I’ve been reading up on these things), the sickness seems to be abating and I can slowly wean myself off ready-meals for one.

Bath and North East Somerset council (or BANES, if you prefer the ‘catchy’ version) don’t pay for the traditional 12 week scan, so we wait until 20 weeks unless we’re willing to pay £200 for it. We thought about it but decided last night to wait – it’s only 6 weeks away anyway.

Obviously we’re both over the moon as it something we’ve wanted for a while now, but it’s overwhelming. Perhaps it is something that won’t settle in for sometime but then maybe it never does?

Other news is that we’re off to New York on Good Friday. This is partly in celebration for Fi’s 30th Birthday (April 11th) but mostly because it looks fun and something we’ve both wanted to do for some time now. It’s quite nicely timed given that come September we’ll never have any free cash ever again.

Christmas & New Year

Where has all the time gone? November 30th is over two months ago and yet the blog has remained static. Hopefully this is a return to form for Yours Truly and I will attempt to backfill the last couple of months without labouring too much.

Obviously the big calendar event was Christmas, or in our case 'Christmases' (not even sure if that is the correct plural...). Being that we were due to spend the big day in Spain with Fi's parents, we spent the weekend before with my parents in Cornwall. How about that for equality eh? Thankfully after the demise of the old digital camerea, I was presented with a shiny new, smaller and better one. Nice one Mum & Dad!

After the weekend it was all about preparations for Spain. These were all thrown into the air when we received an email from Ryanair stating that there was a proposed baggage strike at Girona airport on the day we were due to return. Now they stated that although they wouldn't be accepting checked baggage, they would still fly... This wasn't particularly helpful given that we were hoping to make the homeward journey laden with presents! Thankfully it all turned out to be a storm in a teacup - the strike was cancelled, not before we had arranged to come back 4 days later than expected though. Christmas in Spain is exciting - you should try it.

It seems that party life is rife in Spain. I suspect when we look back in the years to come, the most memorable will be the Christmas Eve party we attended. It was hosted by Andy Ball, the ext keyboard player from MUD - remember them?.... It was a Christmas Carol party and just in case you're curious, we did sing 'Lonely this Christmas'.... Legenedary

Stir-Fried Sprouts

It’s been a crazy week at work. Last Friday saw some important deadlines come and go and working up to them had been a bit of a nightmare. Still, that’s all in the past and although weekend left little time for rest, it was great fun.

Saturday saw the second annual games championship. Essentially, a whole bunch of us get together and play video games competitively. Last year I won quite comfortably but this year’s running promised to be a hard-fought occasion. There were 10 ‘events’, the most amusing being ‘Knockout’ on the PS2 using Eye Toy. It really is very funny and not a bad workout! It amounts to little more than shadow-boxing and seems perfectly sensible when you are boxing. Watching others do it on the other hand is an entirely different experience! I brought the cup home again for the second year running, although Paul was just 5 points behind. Maybe next year eh fellas?

With the AGC out of the way, attentions turned to Thanksgiving. And before you all point out that the ignorant limey has the wrong date, I know it was last Thursday. Unfortunately us Brits don’t get the time off work so Sunday was the logical date. As with last year Marla cooked the turkey, made the stuffing and gravy and tidied the house good and proper. The rest of the attendees bought various dishes to accompany the centre-piece. Fi and I provided carrots and sprouts and BBC Good Food Magazine provided an interesting twist on these festive favourites. ‘Stir-Fried Sprouts?!’ I hear you cry…. Don’t scoff until you’ve tried it!

So, three cheers for the Loughborough’s for hosting the occasion. Same again next year?

Good, just not 'Incredible!'

This week has been busy. Patsy and my mum have been in Bath since last weekend and we have been busy entertaining. Coupled with a crazy week at work for me and I'm glad the weekend is here.

Yesterday, we took Patsy to Bournemouth airport for her flight back to Girona. Her flight was a little late in departing but she is now safely back in Calonge. The weather in Southern England was shocking yesterday and it is nice to be reminded that it is 17C with clear blue skies in Northern Spain...

We all went to see The Incredibles last night. To say that this was an anticipated movie would be a marginal understatement, unfortunately, I came out of the movie a little underwhelmed. No doubts, Pixar have done it again with the production quality; the visuals and audio were both out of the top drawer. I do however, have a few major gripes.

• It was too long and I suprised myself by actually checking my watch on a couple of occasions. Pixar clearly want us to care about the characters and therefore the first hour seems to concentrate on the plight of the unwanted Superhero. Now this is all very well (and I suspect that this effort will not be wasted - surely it will be all too easy for Pixar to churn out a couple of quick and dirty sequals), but in parts it was just too slooooooow.
• I'm not sure who the intended audience is. When the action builds at the end it sometimes felt a little too much like a throw-away cartoon on a kids TV show, but there were a couple of powerful mature moments. I can't help feeling that neither Kids or Adults came away fully satisified.
• It's actually not that funny. Pixar's previous efforts have had the firm foundation of a razor-sharp script. Unfortunately, The Incredibles relied rather too much on slapstick comedy for it's kicks and lacked the panache of it's previous efforts

So to sum up, Spykids meets the James Bond family in a cartoon. Good, just not 'Incredible!'