Saturday 25 August 2007

We're moving soon

So here we are, our last weekend in this house. On tuesday we collect the keys for our new house just a few minutes down the road. The new house has a small front room & kitchen, we would have preferred a bigger place but it has 3 bedrooms which we wanted & it also has a bath!! There is gonna be a fight for that bath on our first night there as we have spent the last 18 months in this house with only a shower. The road we will be living on is a dead end so it will be quieter with not having to put up with cars racing past at all hours. We also have a small conservatory which will be nice in the summer, unless of course next summer is like this..a complete washout. We have 2 cats which is always a problem when it comes to finding a house to rent but getting rid of them was never an option, we will just have to make the best of what we have. And at least we have not had the terrible floods that a lot of people have had to endure this summer, sometimes we moan about not being able to afford to buy our own house or not being able to rent places we like because they won't accept pets but we have been very fortunate this year. I would be absolutely devastated if I had lost what so many others have, my heart goes out to everyone effected by the floods. I was never the sort of person who attached themselves to any place, to me if anything had happened to my house or flat I would have just moved on without a moments hesitation but having Jack has changed my outlook on life completely.

Talking of my little Jack I hope you like the new piccies, as you can see he really is a little devil now! He is an absolute nightmare, we can't take our eyes off him for a second as he is always crawling everywhere, chewing everything. Ever since he could crawl properly he has been trying to stand up on his own ( and consequently fallen over so much ) & he tries walk which ends up with him doing a strange hybrid mix of walking & crawling on his hands & feet. He can pull himself up on his own now (as you can see in the piccies) & he manages to stand for several minutes, all he needs to do now is develop his balance & he will be walking (and then the fun starts). Jack can also sit up properly on his own now, he just gets very frustrated that he can't stand unaided. Today we were in the post office & there was a little girl in a pushchair next to us, Jack & this little girl were staring at each other (Jack is definitely a ladies man already) & we got talking to the girls parents, she is 10 months old (the girl, not her mum) & she is so much smaller than Jack. When he was born he was tiny but he seems to be growing at a rather accelerated rate. He was 6 months old on thursday this week, I can't believe it has been so long, it seems like only a few weeks ago since I brought him home from hospital. My little boy no longer seems like a baby, we have so many photo's & video's of him but I wish I could have captured every minute of him growing on film. it seems like such an old cliche that everyone says how fast kids grow up but it is so true.

Nic has worked full time over the last 3 weeks but we now have 2 weeks off so we can move & have time to sort the new place out before having to go back to work. When she goes back she will be working 3 & a half days a week, she has not been as grumpy as I thought she would be with going back to work. It has tired her out having to get up early every day but its been the same for me as I have been taking her to work nearly every day. I feel so drained that if we hadn't got the time off work for moving house I think I would have had tp book some time off. I have been getting up at 6:30am every day, taking Nic to work, dropping Jack off at her parents & going to work myself, I really don't like getting up so early every day.

I will be sticking with aol when we move (stop laughing at me, sometimes its better the devil you know), hopefully they will get the line active quickly, I really don't want to be spending too long on dial up waiting for my broadband connection. Dial up is such a pain in the ass, its too slow & you have to be so much more cautious with regards to surfing the net. I used to work for ntl (please do not send me hate mail, I hated them as much as any customer ever could) & used to regularly have people ringing up complaining about premium rate phone charges because they used a dial up connection for the internet & didn't take care what sites they went on. I will let you know how the move went once my broadband connection is back up & running.

I have just finished reading Robert Rankin's The Toyminator which is a great read, very funny & it raises some serious questions (where do all the chickens come from?), he has a new book out called The Da Da De Da Da Code which I intend getting very soon. I have just got Born To Be Mild by Dave Armitage & The Gospel According to Chris Moyles, will let you know if they are any good. Also not sure if I have already shared this with you, but if you like a good thriller then you might want to check out Alex Barclay's Darkhouse, it is a great book & I will be checking out her follow up novel The Caller soon.

Well it's time to say goodbye for now, I hope you are all enjoying the sunshine which has made a rare appearance this weekend....VampJack x

Sunday 5 August 2007

The calm before the storm

Today is the last day before Nic goes back to work, temporarily she is having to go back to her old hours starting at 7am. I'm on lates this week so I can look after Jack until I go to work when one of our friends is going to be looking after him, when Nic's parents are back from holiday later this week they will be doing the babysitting job. I'm glad for Nic that she's going back, she's been getting fed up with staying at home but she will be more tired than normal so she'll be short tempered this week, joy of joys. Having said that, as I will be getting up early to look after Jack & then working late I will also be a grumpy ba$**rd this week. So the message here is ..... don't come visiting this week!

Last night Jack was crying in his sleep, all I wanted to do was pick him up & cuddle him but he was fast asleep so I didn't want to wake him. It broke my heart listening to him crying, what was he dreaming about, the farley's rusk factory burning down, prohibition on milk, ferrari not winning....it was so sad.

Nanny came to visit yesterday, I wish she could come over more often to visit but as we don't have room for her to stay its a little difficult. We have seen 2 houses in the last couple of days that would be suitable for us, we have another couple in the pipeline for this week so hopefully by next week will know where we are going.

 

Right i'm off cos Nic wants a paper today, she wants the Bananarama cd in the Mail & i desperately need a coffee.

 

Take care...VampJack x

Thursday 2 August 2007

 
Well hello again.
 
So much has happened since I last updated my journal so i'd better get on with it.
 
A couple of weeks ago I went to the Honda F1 charity open day at Brackley which was fantastic. We met Jenson Button & a couple of drivers that Honda are bringing up through the ranks. The whole day was great, there was so much to do. Unfortunately due to them running overtime I missed out on my chance to take part in a real pit stop, I should have been doing the rear jack but hey, I'm sure after the success of this event they will have another & I will make sure I get to have a go next time. Just think, if they hadn't been running over the times set I could now sit watching the races & going "i've done that" whenever I watch the pit stops. maybe I will get my chance at the Renault World series event at Donington in September. Nic went with me to the Honda day & she really enjoyed herself as well even though she's not really a racing fan ( oh yes she is now, she thinks Jenson's cute!!!!, still didn't stop her from telling him to shave his beard off though ).
 
Last weekend saw a fantastic race in Germany, Lewis had a big accident on saturday but thankfully he was okay. The race itself was frantic, there was a huge downpour shortly after the start and cars were flying off the track. For a while it looked like we were going to get another Ferrari victory but Kimi's car let him down & so it was down to Massa to bring it on home. Unfortunately near the end of the race the heavens opened again & Massa's wet tyres had rotated on the wheel rim which cause lots of vibration making the car a complete bitch to drive & Alonso got by & took the win. Ferrari may not have won but we had the pace to do so & at the end of the day it was a great race so no complaints.
 
During this last week Nic & I have both had our birthdays so it was a good week. There was an announcement at work that I think is a good change to how we operate, the potential is always there to screw up when you make changes but I think this is a good start to improving things for us & our customers. Our centre was named the Customer Contact Centre of the year ( throughout Europe, Middle East & Africa ) & on friday we had a bit of a party at a local pub with free food & drink, normally you wouldn't catch me attending a works party but the small group of people I would choose to socialise with all decided we'd go. It was a good night out & a chance to share a drink & a laugh with friends outside of the office.
 
**** BIG NEWS ********
The big news since I last updatd is that although Jack has been able to pull himself around using his hands or pushing himself with his feet he was not co-ordinated enough to crawl properly - well not any more. Yesterday we got back from town & he just got up on his hands & knees then crawled over to me. He never ceases to amaze me with his achievements. Last night we went to a friends party & there was a girl with her baby daughter there, the baby is 7 months & 3 weeks old but she doesn't crawl yet, I was so proud that Jack was crawling. 
 
Why  do all houses in Coventry seem to have kitchens smaller than a shoe box? We're still trying to find somewhere suitable to move to at the end of this month, we have officially given notice on this house today so we either find somewhere pdq or we stay at Nic's parents for a little while. Would be nice to save some money but we'd have to put our furniture in storage & I really don't want to have the 3 of us living in 1 room, plus the fact that her folks have got Virgin & not Sky so I would miss Prison Break season 3 when it comes on soon.
 
Right, off to catch up with some reading....c ya later...VampJack x