10lb 11oz so he beat his brother in the weight contest.

So I was all geared up today for a c-section only to discover the baby has somehow turned 180 degrees without me noticing and I've been sent home again. Ho hum. I wouldn't mind the whole process so much if it wasn't for the fact that none of the staff are willing to offer a genuine opinion or advice on what to do. I know that it is the fault of the ambulance chasers and the governments endless waffle about choice and not the staff themselves, but it's blooming irritating at times!

It seems the wee sprogling doesn't understand (s)he's supposed to be head down and insists on staying in the breech position. So next week I'm off to the hospital where they will try and turn them around. This could result in a) a c-section on the spot if the baby doesn't like the idea b) a c-section a week later if they fail to turn the baby around or c) the baby being turned around and back to an uncertain due date. I do so love knowing what's happening!

I don't know why this amused me so much but poor old Paris Hilton claims she enlivens dull lives so should be let out of jail. Doesn't she realise that the thought of her being behind bars is enlivening this persons dull life?

I wonder if littlebrownduck has one of these?

Well here I am stuck in Gatwick airports departure lounge waiting to fly off to a 24 hour workshop in Portugal. I made a special effort to catch an early train so as to avoid delays - there were none. Now of course my flight is delayed. By 25 minutes at the moment but something tells me that will be extended. *sigh* Just what I wanted whilst fat and waddly.

littlebrownduck nudged me last week to update and due to my speedy reaction times I am only getting around to this right now. I could blame this on tiredness but, unlike my office mate, I am not currently so tired I have to sleep on my desk. In interest of brevity I shall summarise some random events:

• I had a glucose tolerance test a couple of weeks ago to determine if I have pregnancy diabetes (one cause of large babies). Apparently I don't and so the chances are this sprog will be just as large as Luke simply due to genetics.
• Our access to sky one, two and three has been cut off due to the ongoing row between Virgin Media and Murdochs empire. This is oddly liberating, no longer am I having to remember to record a program that I'm not sure if I'll get around to watching. 
• I have bowed to the inevitable and gone back to a windows based laptop. Apple's insistence on including webcams in all their recent laptops would have meant I couldn't actually use the darn thing on half the sites I visit. However I am not completely daft and have gone nowhere near Vista.
  
• Both my sisters have moved house in the last month but we remain happy in Leeds (much to kinggoose's disgust no doubt).

I was supposed to be in London today, but all the direct trains between Leeds and London were cancelled and I decided to stay put. The information given out by Network Rail is pretty useless. I could have travelled via Doncaster, but the revised time (an hour and half more) didn't seem to take into account the speed restriction that have been put in place. As a result I have no idea when I would have actually arrived. Haven't we known about these storms for the last few weeks? Why are the timetablers so unprepared? The poor guy on the information desk hadn't even been told why the trains were cancelled! Ho Hum.

Kinggoose has tagged me to write 5 things about myself that people won't know. I'm struggling a little with these but here goes:

1) My school made me play "Jesu, Joy of Mans Desiring" on the Oboe for Evelyn Barbirolli. My mother was so stressed by this that she nearly dislocated her hip during the performance. Afterwards Lady B confided in me that it was a real pig of a piece to play and she always found the breathing hard.

2) My little toe nails are strange. Instead of growing flat and straight they grow up and stumpy.

3) My (married) surname is extremely rare and I seem to be the only person in the world with this firstname/surname combination.

4) About 10 years ago I was at a Scifi meet in Bradford and too embarrassed to ask Sophie Aldred for her autograph. I sent Mark instead who naturally said "it's for my wife". She clearly didn't believe him so demanded that I come and ask myself. Thus my slight embarrassment was tripled to extreme embarrassment and I ended up throwing the picture away!

5) I kill plants. This includes unkillable plants such as waterless plants, goosefoot, and mint.

Well it's my first day back at work so predictably I'm not getting anything done after tidying up my email. I didn't help that I had my second ultrasound scan this morning (everything fine and dandy apparently) so I'm a bit distracted. Not much else to report mind you: I spent Christmas at relatives, visiting relatives, sniffling or playing on my new xbox. BSG starts again on Tuesday which I mustn't forget. And so the new year is off and running and not a lot is different.

Now get off the internet and have some fun :)

The scan this morning showed all to be progressing normally apparently so it's probably time to 'fess up. Due on the 27th May (the one day it won't appear!).

I couldn't resist an early present to myself:



Pros (?):
* Nose gun extends and retracts with silly firing noise
* Moves as erratically as the real thing

Cons:
* Doesn't say "Hostiles repulsed, Most satisfactory"

So I am in Sweden, but have not seen a single Ikea outlet! And I forgot my socket converter so I'll have to make my batteries last for two days. Thankfully I thought to bring a spare one for the PSP.

Spent this morning finalising details for my end of week trip to Sweden, where I've been asked to go and give a talk. The first time I've actually been asked which is nice. I must admit to being slightly relieved to learn that their restaurant plans are for french or spanish/portuguese, I know that I should make the effort to try local cuisine but pickled herrings really do not appeal.

Weekend was fine. I am still struggling to find school trousers which fit Luke though - if they fit his thighs/waist then they are too long. If they are the right length then he has his bum hanging out builder style. This is what comes of having a bruiser of an offspring I guess.

Ok www.stationerymovies.com is starting to drive me a little mad. Anyone know what 8, 14, or 19 are?

Edit: And almost straight away I get sent a clue and get 19. Which leaves 8 and 14.

Yesterday I started a new job. You could tell by the way I am sat at the same desk, in the same office still finishing off deliverables for the old one. Ok so, technically it's just a different project but it's all so vague. I don't know who my boss is, what the clearance proceedures are, what the official start and end date are or have a workplan. Of course, I have already been taking part in meetings for the new project anyway, again in typical vague, overlap style.

I know I shouldn't complain as I have a great deal of lattitude on the work I do, when I do it etc. but sometimes it would be nice to know just what's going on.

It's been a horribly long time since I updated the journal so rather than waffle on it's probably best to throw together a summary of things I've done:

1) Went to Mum and Dads and saw both sisters at the same time. This is an event worth noting.
2) Visited The Deep. It was surprisingly good.
3) Went to Coventry to drop off Luke with his Grandma for a week. Actually saw some nice bits of Coventry.
4) Spent a week attempting debauchery (since we had no responsibilities). Was resonably successful.
5) Picked up Luke and realised how much we missed him (aaaaah)
6) Went back to work - booo!
7) Actually finished some of the myriad of games I own.

I am humbled by this gadget. Even I could not envisage a wifi enabled rabbit. Comes with a range of different ear accessories too.

I have been putting together a cheesy football song playlist for my spanking new mp3 player so have made assessments of some of the recent crop.
Tony Christie: "Is this the way to the world cup" - quite a poor effort I'm afraid. Doesn't scan properly and lacks the energy of the Peter Kay Amarillo version. 4/10
Embrace: "World at your feet" - well it's grown on me a little, but is still lacking in stadium "singalongability" and sounds a bit wingey. 6/10
Tonedef Allstars: "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Jurgen Klinsmann" - Absolutely superb, this fits the bill nicely. On the downside there are voiceovers which will become less funny as time wears on, but the chorus will sound superb belted out by 10,000 drunken England hooligans. 9/10

In other news I suffered the so called service of goftr again today. No change from the ticket machine and they still need an extra member of staff to manage it. The screen detailing the next stop was stuck on heslington hall for the whole trip. Finally, the smell made me feel really sick. Think I'll walk back to the station this evening.

I'm on a very extended weekend until tomorrow as Luke has a two week half term for some reason. On Friday it was Luke's fifth birthday and we pottered off to the Ryan family home where both my sisters were staying. Much giggling ensued as it was the first time we'd all been together for several years. There are some fine profile shots of the three noses which need to be photoshopped to a "guess the owner" competition. Luke was having much too much fun playing with his vast array of new spiderman and pirate toys to get involved however.

In other news my 3g ipod is on its very last legs so I've replaced it with a creative zen vision:m (shock horror). I found some lovely GPL'd software to manage it via my mac and so far I'm very pleased, although it is something of a brick. It has some nice features, such as album of the day, but keeps picking cd singles so far.