Do I feel guilty?

No, not really.  Its not very Mother Earth of me but I have shipped the 2 older boys off to summer camp and my first instinct was to shop.  I am not much of a shopper, I hate shopping with other people, unless it involves lengthy stopping for coffee and bun, which isn't my Thing right now (off coffee atm), but my expanding waistline has made me itch for a bit of retail therapy.  Now. I have no money, I blew the budget in May on birthday presents and end of school presents - which were in excess, along with all the snacks and special class pot lucks that occurred, so I am still playing catchup - there is lots of ferreting about in the larder being creative with store cupboard staples!  So, I asked hubby if I could take some money from the savings, which have been a bit lean due to tax bills etc.  Anyhow he said yes, so I took myself off to a shopping maul and found myself in 3 different shops looking at maternity clothes.  It was one of those purely joyous occasions when lovely, stretchy waisted outfits were found, including a jumper for under 4 dollar (of course I made a point of highlighting this bargain to husband when displaying my purchases - an absolute must for the occasional shopper). To be fair I rarely shop like this and, as far as maternity wear is concerned it will be worn to death and out of shape, it rarely lasts from one pregnancy to the next due to the excessive wearingness and out of shapeness it become.

So, anyway, now I am reclining wearing Stretchy Waisted item number 1  - a lovely floaty skirt.  Its great. :-)

Day Seven

Caterpillar watch - Day six

Well the excitement of the week has been seeing how fat the caterpillars have grown and how quickly they have started to climb to the top of their pots.  But, pride comes before a fall and one of the pots got knocked off their 'safe' shelf but a boy who was climbing and now there is a jumble of caterpillars and caterpillar poo at the bottom of the pot. I hope they are ok..... The other pot looks On Schedule though, so there is still hope.

Update: I dont think one of the caterpillars has made it, the others seem to have just gotten back on the horse and have started to make their way up to the top of the pot.  This one is either sleeping, or dead :-(

Happy Solstice and Caterpillars

I don't celebrate these things but its always nice to remember -  I think they have a sort of happy feeling about them, I suppose, hope for the future, that sort of thing.

Anyhow, the children received a butterfly kit last week, including a voucher to send off for caterpillars.  The eldest was delighted as they have been doing this at school.  They were met with great excitement and the butterfly enclosure was swiftly furnished with food and home comforts, despite there being no actual caterpillars, butterflies or cocoons in there.  And after much batting about of the enclosure, it has found a home, a hook that has been in the ceiling since we arrived.    I am so glad to find a use for it! The caterpillars arrived on Saturday, 3 days ago and have been sitting in an appropriate place (warm, not too hot not too cold, sunny but not direct sun) and today I noticed they have started their journey up their little pots. Apparently they will climb up to the lid and hang in U shapes under the lid for a bit.  Very exciting.  :-)

Missing radio

I have listened to the radio since I was at my mothers knees in our old house in Bromley, I remember all the jingles and the songs, pick of the pops and Golden Hours.  Then as a teenager, I listened to Capital Radio, secretly in my room, to the late night show of Clare Rayburn, Anna and the Doc, Nicky Campbell, Chris Tarrant in the morning (less secret), then progressing to Radio One, eventually being compelled to Radio Two because I couldnt bear Chris Moyles (I didnt like his style of insulting and belittling).  Since University in Ireland I was a BIG fan of Gerry Ryan on RTE 2FM.  So I fully intended to use radio to help my acclimatise when I moved to foreign lands - after all, its the age of the internet isnt it, and I was always hearing Steve Wright read messages from people across the world. BUT a big happening was going to seriously shake my radio world, suddenly, unexpectedly, big Gerry Ryan died, just over a month before I was due to move.  He was my friend, my daily comfort, and, as a mum at home, often the source of varied information, he was an intelligent informed man, and even now I miss him and his craziness.  But still life goes on and I have the BBC Radio 2, with Chris Evans in the morning, Steve Wright in the afternoon, Simon Mayo, Jeremy Vine and Radcliffe and Maconie.  My poor mum has been through the same thing - her early morning indulgence and pleasure was listening to Sarah Kennedy, not my kind of thing but she loved it.  BUt at the end of last summer Lo! the Hallow Sarah did not return from her hols and mum was devastated.  Instead she has been left with Vanessa Felts, a shabby imitation and an in adequate, and annoying person to greet you first thing.  But the insults go further, over Christmas who popped up on 't radio as a stand in for one of my faves but PATRICK KEILTY - O M G the least funny, most annoying man that could ever appear over the air waves.  And as time goes on, he is given more and more 'specials' to cover.  I fear my time at BBC radio 2 is coming to an end,as it is I have to choose my listening with great care.  And on top of  that , Radcliffe and Maconie have been shifted to radio 6.   


But, disappointly as well, the technology is not as sophisticated as the ideas behind it - I am now on my second* internet radio, and there isn't a great choice, and they are not cheap, but they drive me mad, it takes a few moments to start up (a bit like a crystal radio warming up), and sometimes it stops for no reason (buffering), and when it does start the volume has reset itself so its so low you cant hear it anyway. If you want it to perform one of its other functions you have to crouch down and push the buttons, because you have to have super eye sight to easily see the screen instructions, and there are some buttons that do nothing anyway, so by the time you have found what you were looking for its time to go out anyway.  Whatever happened to just switching the radio on and getting on with life - not with an internet radio.  It looks pretty though.  Some of them offer the Listen again feature if the radio station has it, but unlike listening on a laptop, if there is a break in the connection, the radio programme starts at the very beginning , there is no way to scan through a programme and pick up where you left off. Also, sadly, if you have an ipod or ipad, you cant use the listen again feature, so really the best option is to listen thru your computer, which isn't always very mobile, and generally the sound is atrocious.  And these things are supposed to improve our lives???? It makes me mad because you pay the money and expect a finished product but very often that is not what you get.


* the first was the Pure Avanti Flow - a thing of beauty, sounded fantastic, performed like a dinosaur - lots of crouching to read the display and complicated button pressing routines to change station or function. It got sent back after the only feature that worked adequately - the ipod dock, then ceased to.  The second is the Sanyo R227, also good to look at but without the price tag of the Avanti Flow, so less of an insult, but an insult none the less.

9 Weeks

So it turns out I was more pregnant than I thought I was (quite pregnant, opposed to a bit pregnant...).  On the plus side this means that the first trimester will be over quicker and thus the tiredness and nausia.....  We'll see.

Soooo anyway, I have forced myself to do a bit of crochetting, for some reason the 'sickness' has put me off doing things like this at the moment.  Doing crafty things always make you feel better about yourself.  I managed to make a lil flower.  It took a day, with many rests in between, but I got their in the end. Yay me!  Now for a quick trip to Michaels to buy a brooch back to finish it off.  I love Michaels. :-)