|
Local time
readers reading..
Linkage
Life in the Fat Lane
my calendar
Blogroll Me!
 |
 It's official, I'm a fully qualified first aider. Four grueling days of rolling around on the floor with a plastic dummy (insert your own joke here, I'm too tired to do it) and I've taken and passed my exam. I am now certified, badged and heck, they even gave me a patch (or badge) to sew on my uniform (I could if I had one).
It's all very exciting, really. Actually, what it was - it was exhausting. Seriously, work is more fun. I do feel confident that I can bandage with the best of them and CPR is now done without thinking. Let's just hope that I don't actually have to use this newly found training any time soon. I am booked on a course in August to learn to use a defibrilator - so I have that to look forward to, I guess.
Hello from the murky depths of day two of my four day First Aid course. It's tea break time (aren't the English lovely?) And I'm enjoying a cup of tea but the biscuits taste like Play-Doh. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers, I suppose. Back to the grind... More bandages and amputations! Ooh - heart attacks this afternoon, very exciting!
 I'm on a first aid course all week at work. Today was my first day and boy, am I exhausted! I've been climbing all over the floor, giving CPR to plastic dummies and flopping total strangers around on the floor into the recovery position. I'll have to sit a big exam on Thursday to receive my qualification and I'm a bit nervous! I'm sure it'll all be ingrained and second nature by then, but today it was just nerve-wracking. I can now make a sling from a triangular bandage and I know how to treat shock. All very useful and exciting stuff. Right? The biggest perk? Getting to wear casual clothes to work. Of course, unlike other course participants who went home when we were released at 16:45 - I'm in the office, catching up. Lovely.
Andrew's birthday extravaganza was such good fun. I can't recommend the boat tour we took on the Thames enough or the hotel enough. The Great Eastern Hotel (found via the Design Hotels website, which in itself is good fun just to look through) is now officially my favouritest (nice grammar, huh?) hotel in the world. It's a gorgeous hotel and the level of attention and service from the staff was amazing. I'll spare you the wacky details, but let me just say that I know a bath with rose petals is completely cliche - but I'm hooked. It just felt decadent and very relaxing.
I think my favourite bit of the hotel stay was the breakfast the next morning in our room. They don't just bring toast - they bring you a Dualit toaster so you can make your own. Little touches like that were everywhere. I wish I was relaxing there right now, actually! I'm off to Marksies to find the Dunne family some dinner. After I feel them, I'm going to roll them into the recovery position and pretend to give Andrew CPR - do try not to be jealous!
England just won the football. They're in the quarter finals now - I
like this because it means that again, for another 90 minutes in my life England will be still as all the people who annoy me will be glued to their tellies. I hate to say it - but I love football days. We're back from Andrew's birthday 24 hours of bliss - we had a lovely, lovely time. We stayed at the Great Eastern Hotel and it is now, officially, my favourite hotel in the entire world. Must get Mary Catherine Dunne to bed - more about our adventures soon. ALL thanks to Sarah and Gareth for MCD-sitting!
Just off a speed boat tour of the Thames as part of Andrew's birthday present. In case you were wondering - my gift to him is 24 hours of being an adult in London. Lots more planned ...... The speed boat tour was amazing!
 Last night, in a complete and utter bout of silliness I did something I've never done before in my entire life. I played a video game from start to finish. It took me about six and a half hours. Unfortunately, I started at 11:30. Uh - yeah, I pulled an all nighter playing a game. What am I - 12? LocoRoco came out yesterday for the PSP and man, oh man, is it ever addictive. I love it and who cares if I saw the sun rise (4:02) and heard the bird start twirping (amazingingly loud for 3:45am) .. it was a good time. I'm feeling okay now - but I just hope I'll hold up for the rest of the day.
I did manage to sleep from 5:15 to 8, though - so I'm feeling pretty fresh at the moment. Andrew's sister Sarah and her lovely boyfriend, Gareth, are here to help celebrate Andrew's birthday - so Mary Catherine is entertaining them for the moment. It's nice to have a moment's peace.
We are completely skipping MC's swimming lesson this morning and heading straight for our usual haunt for coffee (extra large for Mummy, please Mistah Starbucks man). Andrew's birthday adventure should kick off after we return from that. I'll try and post via my blackberry as we go along. I hope he enjoys.. oh wait, sorry.. the weather!
Happy Birthday Andrew
 Hey everybody - it's Andrew's birthday today! Mr Dunne is a whopping 34 years old. Now begins the five months of the year where he and I are the same age. A gentle respite from jokes about my age until November when my clock flips over another number while his blissfully stays where it is for another seven months. I like this time of year. Now Andrew (in my mind) is almost 35 too!
My lesson for this week - never confide in a three year old. I've a few tricks up my sleeve for the Mistah's birthday and felt that I had to tell Mary Catherine about them to prepare her for the highjinks ahead. She did so well until a few days ago when she got confused about what day it was and let the proverbial cat out of the bag about Andrew's sister, Sarah, and lovely boyfriend, Gareth, coming to visit this upcoming weekend. Bless. She mentioned it again this morning and got the funniest look in her eyes when she realised what she'd said. She clamped a small hand over her mouth and said 'we were just talking about the weather, Daddy!' SO cute.
I think we're going to go out for dinner this evening - but the real adventure starts ... oh wait - sorry. I was just talking about the weather.
 Wednesday - officially time to start thinking about the weekend. Only, my weekend is already thought through. Very exciting. Andrew's birthday is tomorrow. Have I bought him a present? Nope.
Mary Catherine has come up with this really funny saying and I can't stop repeating it to myself in my head. 'I got my lips (make two kissing noises) and I got my hips, boom boom!' Not boom boom in an explosion type way, but boom boom as in well, you know boom boom bow-chicka-now-now kinda way. She also does a lovely little side to side movement that cracks me up. So I'm sitting here at my desk and when someone walks by I keep thinking boom, boom!
You know how you see those movies in which they have terribly comical parenting moments? Such as Steve Martin's son running into a wall with a bucket on his head in Parenthood, or Michael Keaton drying his baby's bum with a hand dryer in a bathroom in Mr Mom? Well, I think we've recently had a sterotypical parenting moment. Mary Catherine has heard the words 'shut up' from someone. She threw that little whammy of a sentence fragment at us on Sunday for the first time. Thankfully, she wasn't being malicious when she said it, she was rather polite but did use it in context.
So I got on my mothering high horse and had a chat with her about how we don't say that to people and how rude it is. What did she proceed to do? Oh, you know - just use it about twenty more times in a row. Something along the lines of, 'Mummy shut up, Daddy shut up, car shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up'.. it was rather singsong after a while.
Andrew and I found it hard to keep our straight, stern responsible parent faces on and eventually he looked at me and said, 'you know - if you hadn't said anything she wouldn't be doing this.' Uh, yeah - figured that one out, thanks.
So we turned away and she did it for a few more minutes and we haven't heard 'shut up' since. I barely handled that - wonder how I'll react when she drops the F bomb for the first time?
Just a quick post to show you Mary Catherine in her new uniform jumper. The hat is a nice to have, but the jumper will be a part of our everyday lives come September. It's so weird to see her in parts of her uniform - feels like when I used to look at the girls at the summer camp where I worked during college. I am pretty sure I'll get a bit misty when I see her in the full get up. But who knows. To get her to take this picture I had to bribe her with chocolate. I hope she gets a bit more into it as time goes on!
Saint Dennis
Saint Dennis,
originally uploaded by ebeth. Today we were in Blackheath and Mary Catherine saw the church there. She asked me it was a castle and if the Queen lived there. When I told her it was a church and not a castle, she said 'oh, God lives there' and proceeded to tell Andrew and I that God lives in churches and even ones where he's holding his own head. Seems my little history lesson about the statue of Saint Dennis at Notre Dame in Paris had been slightly altered in her mind!
We had our official welcome meeting at her new school this morning. We were given the uniform list and important dates to note. Mary Catherine got to play with her new classmates in her new classroom and playground, so she was very happy. She wasn't too keen to leave, actually! She starts there on Friday, 8 September. Very exciting!
Speaking of exciting.. Andrew's birthday is this week. Pity we're not observing it. ;)
 Happy Father's Day! Obviously especially to my dad, Andrew and my father in law. We started our morning at 6:30, bright and early. Mary Catherine and I let Andrew sleep in while Mary Catherine coloured him a beautiful heart shaped card (I cut it myself!) while I put a pot of Finest Sumatran Java coffee and got the 'fixin's ready to make blueberry muffins. Mary Catherine made the muffin batter mostly herself, I only stepped in to break the egg. Oh and she let me spoon the batter into the bun cases, as she said she didn't want to have to lick her hands!
Then we took Andrew his coffee in a mug that came with a book I'd bought him called 'My Dad' (it was a mug holiday, as Grumpa, Ampa and Daddy all got mugs today - who knows next year, maybe it'll be ties!). We then let him read and sleep as long as he wanted. He surfaced around 10am.
We're off to Ikea now to return the stuff we bought yesterday that we got TOTALLY wrong. We'd been wanting to redo our kitchen as the space and storage drive us nuts. However, when we'd looked at other layout options, it seems we're a bit stuck - so we've decided to remedy the storage problems by installing a big pot rack over the sink, which means we'll lose a large picture that's hanging there, but I think it's going to be worth it. The current trend is to stack your plates and bowls on open shelves, so we're going to try that as well as a crazy Ikea-inspired space-saving idea of a hanging dish drainer. Yesterday, at Ikea we bought the wrong size pot rack and sliding drawers to put into the cupboard where thed pots currently live. So, back we go. Harumph.
Dental update
The dentist was interesting. In America when you go to the dentist (every six months) you get your teeth cleaned and then the dentist nips in, throws on some gloves and has a look around your mouth. Here, I went in and got in the chair and the dentist himself tipped me back and had a look around. I thought it was weird that he was looking before they were cleaned. Then he said my teeth were perfectly fine and he'd see me around Christmas. Uh - what? When does the cleaning happen?Well, it doesn't. Apparently not unless you need it and my teef are tartar free according to the dentist. I was shocked - I've not had them cleaned in a guilty two years! How can it be? He told me that it's not necessary and that the Americans overreact. Hmm. okay. Well, he's the dentist.
He looked in Mary Catherine's mouth and all looks well there. Andrew is a different story. He needs to floss but didn't require a
cleaning. Although, it's been discovered that Andrew is a grinder. You'll maybe remember that about a year ago, I was diagonosed as a clencher and had to get fitted for a night guard - a lovely piece of plastic that I grind to bits in my sleep instead of my teeth.Guess who else gets to have a night guard now? Yup. Aren't we going to be a fetching couple at bedtime? Sexy!
I can just picture us at 'NA' (Nightguards Anonymous) meetings. "Hi, My name is Elizabeth, I'm a clencher. This is my husband, Andrew, he's a grinder. Nice to meet you."
Today is a 'wharf school' day for Mary Catherine... Meaning that she's at a nursery near me that we use when I need her on this side of town. She loves it there and the staff are fantastic - so it's a treat when she gets to go. I like that she's close (two buildings away) and that she likes it so much. I'm leaving work early today as the Family Dunne all have an appointment with the dentist. Only two years late, this will be Mary Catherine's first visit. I hope it goes smoothly. More later.
I'm on the tube on the way home and it's a relatively empty train... There is a man and a woman, both middle aged, dressed in business suits, completely sucking face in the aisle. It's one of the weirdest things I've ever seen on the Tube. Heck, white trash teens don't even make out like this! It's like a car wreck, I can't help but look! How bizarre....
 Continuing on my search for lunchboxes, I keep running across fun sushi toys. I so wish we ate fish (well, Mary Catherine does, Andrew and I don't) so that I could enjoy eating sushi. We have been to sushi places and enjoy the non-fish bits very much, but I can hardly expect them to make toys of non-sushi side dishes now, can I? (Sushi play set)
 While doing my usual zen-surfing (which is what I call it when I start out wanting to know about 'X' and then just follow links as I find them, so that a few minutes down the line, I'm totally engrossed in a completely different subject than I started with - I do this so much that I'd actually classify this as a hobby.) I discovered a site called The Spoon Sisters (home of the sushi set, above). There I found the strangest, yet sensical, gadget I've seen in a while - the Thumb Thing! How cool is that - I read books with one hand all the time - looks goofy, but makes total sense to me!
 And I promise that I'll love anyone forever if I ever receive a tin of the bacon band-aids (here). Those are the funniest things I've seen in a very long time. Can you imagine MC going to school with one of those on her knee! I can't stop laughing at the thought (does that make me a bad mother?)
 I just checked the forecast (at right) and it's supposed to cool back down tomorrow with the high on Wednesday a mere 23C/73F. Now that's my kind of weather!
So it's Monday once again. Mary Catherine, Andrew and I all have dentist appointments on Wednesday afternoon. Good thing is that I'll have MC with me here at the Wharf, which I love. She's never been to the dentist (I know, we're well overdue) so it should be an interesting excursion. I hope that by having Andrew and I seen at the same time she'll decide it's a 'no big whoop' kind of thing. Bonus is that I get to spend much more time with her on Wednesday than usual. More later.
 well - best laid plans... we ended up doing our usual saturday thing. today we went to the fountains at thames barrier park. see, the thing is - it's hot here. i mean like, africa-hot. i think the car thermometer registered 96 degrees today, so it was probably in the very high 80s. we don't like hot weather as we're not prepared for it. we do have a portable air conditioner, but it only cools one room - so the rest of the flat is warm. not too hot, but not super comfortable. when it's hot like this, the last thing we want to do is be out and about in the heat. we did pretty well for us going to the park - normally we'd hide away some place with ac.
mary catherine loved playing in the fountains (proof here) and playing on her scooter (see here with her new helmet).
not exactly the embrace london weekend i'd planned - but still very good fun. complete with a proper quick picnic at the park consisting of a bucket o'chicken from the kfc!
Lately I've been on a real kick lately of finding information on the city I live in, London. I've invested in Time Out's London for Kids book and spend increasing quantities of spare time surfing for interesting London-related websites. Today's find: Urban Junkies. Past discoveries are Londonist, Gridskipper and a host of childrens' sites: Kids Love London, Young London and London Kidz.
All worthy sites are being added to the list on the left, for your perusing pleasure.
So this weekend, I'm totally stoked to go and enjoy a bit of the big smoke this Sunday. While I'm very much into going to the S&M Cafe at Spitalfields Market and then walking around the market stalls, I'm very tempted by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew - their children's section, Climbers and Creepers, looks like a surefire hit for Mary Catherine. It is, however, the last weekend for the Pixar Exhibition at the Science Museum. Oh the choices!
I feel like a hyper tour guide. You should've seen me last night (or maybe it's better that you didn't) lying in bed going nutso with with Post-It page markers in the London for Kids book. It was only with much self control that I didn't use multi-coloured flag to mark the pages.
So, what to do... what to do!
 My friend Cathy has a new baby. No, not a 'real' baby - but a brand spanking new iMac. Andrew and I have been talking her through her first days of Mac ownership with so much gusto, we're like Scientologists when they actually convince someone to take a stess test! Last night, Cathy and I let her daughter and Mary Catherine have their first video chat! They loved saying hello to each other and waving and making faces. MC and L ran around their respective houses showing each other their prized belongings. For L it was a fairy book, for MC it was Buzz Lightyear, a stuffed rabbit (named Rabbie) and a pink princess handbag.
It amazes me to think that this is how our children are growing up. They'll never know a time where video chatting with their friends on their home computers wasn't a totally normal, everyday kind of thing. Even I can barely recall a time when televisions were tiny, phones had cords or how to use a VCR. I am not keen on the idea of using a tape in my answering machine - heck, who has those any more? Doesn't everyone just use the service from the phone company?
I live in a very geeky house. We have a computer for every member of the family, and yes I am actually including the cat. There are mobile phones, a plasma telly and a trial HD box that looks really dingdang awesome. I love all the gadgets and gizmos that we have. (and no, Andrew, I will not admit this to you in person)
However, having gushed about all the above - I do have a bit of an internal conflict. I want to be carefree and earth motherish - believe it or not, this is a very strong desire for me. But is it weird to try and do/be that with such a love of technology and the like? I mean, yes, I'm now making my own bread because I want my family to have healthier options, less waste and it's much cheaper. But I bought a bread machine to make it happen. So for as many bread bags as I've saved from the rubbish bin, I recyled much more cardboard. For as much money as I'm saving, I spent a decent amount on the machine.
We are recycling everything that we're able to in our house, inclusive of clothes, shoes and textiles. But we currently still leave our gadgets on standby, which isn't the greenest thing to do. I suppose I need to seriously think on how to be geeky and fabulous, but kinder to the environment at the same time. Not such an easy task, I think.
We ended up having a very mellow day Sunday. We never made it to the DIY store to buy plants (care to wager if they'll ever get sorted?) .. Mary Catherine and I went on an errand with Andrew that took us into downtown, so she and I sat in the car with the windows open while he went and picked up a parcel. We listened to Mary Poppins, sang along and played with the plastic princess jewelry she won at the fun fair last weekend. It was one of those moments that was spectacular in its everdayness, if that makes sense.
My mom is coming to town in July and today I booked off two days to hang out with her. Very much looking forward to that - I think we may hit some museums, but knowing my mother, she'll just want to clean my house! Not that I mind that. A and I are on a countdown to her arrival - we've got to get our spare room sorted. All it needs is about four hours, loads of rubbish and recycling bags and Andrew to leave the house with Mary Catherine for a while so I can get knee deep and do some DISPOSING!
I never made bagels this weekend, but I did make a nice olive oil white loaf and last night threw caution to the wind and made a cheese and onion wheat loaf. It was merely okay. I think the strong flavour of the wheat didn't quite mesh with the cheddar and the onion was just not quite right. I think caramalised onions next time and a white loaf.
On another note - we go on Monday the 19th for the last time to MC's new school. This time around we'll be having the big talk about life at the school and what we'll need to have for her entry in September. I hope we'll get pointers on what uniform pieces she'll need and what most people do for lunch. I know that she can purchase a hot meal, but I think I will pack lunches for her. I am inspired by Vegan Lunchbox. Not that I'm planning to force veganism on Mary Catherine, but the lunches this woman creates are amazing.
I am in limbo at the moment about what type of lunchbox to get for Mary Catherine. Now, I know every girl should have a plastic horrible Barbie-pink lunchbox, but.. uh. no. My current favourites are various versions of the bento box / tiffin carrier idea - like this and this). My biggest requirement is that her lunches use nothing disposable - so no plastic bags, etc. The Dunne family is slowly getting greener and greener.. pass me my Birkenstocks and mumu!
RIF - Reading is Fundamental
This morning, while we were waiting to finish making our waffles for breakfast (oh, what a life, huh?) Mary Catherine and I were doing word/colour flashcards. We got to the one for pink which also features a pig and she spelled out 'Puh-Ih-Guh'. Which for those of you who aren't into phonics, is how you spell PIG. That's right, my child read her first word! We were floored and called my mom immediately to share the good news (and to make MC think that what she'd done was, truly, worthy of incredible praise. While I was on the phone to my mom, Mary Catherine went on to the next flashcard which featured a strawberry and pointed to another word and said, 'Ruh-Eh-Duh' - so unaided and on her own she sounded out RED. I am so chuffed!
Now, we're a long way away from her first novel, but man, I am totally excited that she did that. We immediately got out the Word Whammer that we bought her for Christmas (that has, until now, been mostly unused) and have had fun all morning making different three letter words. Part of me is really psyched (I know, I'm stuck in the 80s) that she made her first leap with reading in a non-electronic way. The earth mother in me likes that very, very much.
We're off now to the B&Q (home and garden centre) to buy plants for the planters on our back patio. I figure two planters is about the extent of growing things that I can be trusted with. Well, that and we don't really have space to garden - oh, darn. Too bad. :)
 "Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
Say, who are the people in your neighborhood?
The people that you meet each day...."
Man shot in anti-terrorism raid (link)
A man has been shot by police during a raid involving 250 officers carried out under the Terrorism Act. He was taken to a nearby hospital after police searched a house in Forest Gate, east London. His injuries are not life-threatening. A 23-year-old man has been arrested and is currently in custody at a central London police station.
 Last night, I made cinnamon raisin bread that was absolutely amazing. Soft and dense with lots of plump raisins in all the right places. Andrew cut it and we had it warm with butter. That's what we had for our dinner - so heavenly. It's another grey day in London - June the 1st and the temp when I woke this morning at 5:45 was 7C/45F. Remind me that I was complaining when it's August and dreadfully hot and I'm cranky, won't you?
Am so thankful that we've had a short week this week. I could really get used to four day weeks. We don't have much on our plates this weekend, but are thinking we'll bum around Marylebone High Street or maybe Covent Garden on Sunday. I love taking MC to Covent Garden where the Royal Opera House students perform in the street. I think the weather will cooperate. I'm rambling - having a scattered day today.
|
|
posted by 
