Half day off work

Today when I got to work I thought it was going to be a very bad day....the coffee machines weren't working.

Turns out this was something to do with the fact that we had no running water. We had an engineer out who blamed it on the water company who then snet someone out who blamed it on our building owners. We were advised by our fearless leaders that it would get resolved....then a little later we were told that if we needed to go to the toilet we could go home & wouldn't have to come back!! Why they didn't just tell us to all go home I don't know because obviously we all did.  So today I had half a day off work & it was great.

I got to spend more time with Jack which is always a bonus (honest, it is....even when he is screaming). A friend from work has seen pictures of Jack but hasn't seen him since I took him into work when he was less than 2 weeks old so we went round to see her today so she could have a 'squidge' as she puts it. I think she's getting broody now!

Little Jack is so fast now, he still can't quite coordinate himself enough to crawl on his hands & knees but he manages just fine pulling himself along. Once he does get the hang of crawling properly its gonna be a nightmare, nothing will be safe, least of all Angel. Jack adores Angel, he will watch our other cat Bailey but not the same way as he does with Angel.

I hope you like the new pics.....until next time take care..VampJack x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The passion

Today is a good day. Kimi Raikkonen has just won the british grand prix with Alonso 2nd so more points cut from Hamilton's lead.

I am really bored of listening to itv drone on & on & on & on & on about Lewis Hamilton. Today Kimi drove a great race to bring another win home for Ferrari. Ferrari seem to have well & truly bounced back from their recent slump which is great for the championship. This year looks to be a close fight between 4 drivers, usually by the halfway point in the season it is clearly between 2 drivers but this year we have Kimi, Fernando, Massa & Lewis all capable of winning this years championship.

I am looking forward to next weekend, Honda are having a charity open day at their Formula 1 factory in Brackley which I have tockets to. Nic is coming with me as she wants the chance to have a go in the F1 simulator. Jenson Button will be there as well as Anthony Davidson, Murray Walker, & loads more..including Jody Scheckter, Ferrari's last world champion before Schumacher. It should be a fantastic day.

I haven't had much time to update my journal recently so I apologise to those of you who have told me you need more entries. I just never seem to have enough time for everything these days, between looking after Jack, work, housework, & my limited social life I think I need about 36 hours in each day.

Jack is now sort of crawling, he either pushes himself along with his feet or pulls himself along with his hands but hasn't quite got the hang of using both together, although I think it is only a matter of weeks before he is crawling properly. He has progressed from milk to having 'mush' as well now. We have a freezer full of pureed veg & fruit for him, he doesn't like baby rice at all but give him apple puree or sweet potato puree & he will eat it all. Nic moans becasue when I feed him he doesn't make much mess but if she feeds him he gets covered in food, I've tried telling her Jack knows daddy is the boss but she doesn't believe me.

He has started waking more during the nights now, either 2 or 3 times between midnight & 8am he wakes up for a feed. I would love for him to go back to sleeping through the night completely but who knows when that will happen again. My friend at work brought her baby in to see us last week, she is gorgeous & I am so jealous because her daughter has slept through the night ever since she was born.

We are looking at moving house at the end of august when our tenancy ends as we only have a shower here & it is not big enough to be able to take Jack in the shower with us & he is very nearly too big for his baby bath already so we want a house with a bath. It would also be nice to have 3 bedrooms so we can have family come to visit & have somewhere for them to sleep instead of just having a few hours visit before they have to go home again. Moving is horrible so we will let my mum or Nic's parents look after Jack for a couple of days while we move. Nic will be going back to work next month as well so its all happening here.

Right better go before I get told off for not doing my jobs around the house!! Hope you are all well..take care & I will be back again (hopefully) soon...VampJack x

my first fathers day

I will remember today as long as I live, today was my first Father's Day.

I was woken up this morning at 8.45 by my son giving me a slobbery kiss, Nic had got him up (considering its not a work day for me that was a massive surprise) & brought him in to see me with my card & presents. I got a small 'spaceform' glass plate with 'i love you daddy' etched on it, a framed daddy poem (Nic made the poem up, its great) with a picture of me & Jack the day he was born, it also has Jack's foot & hand prints around it. I also got a box of liquorice allsorts, will have to make sure I hide them or Nic will steal all the blue jelly ones wiv bits on...and she'll probably blame Jack for it.

When I was a kid I remember buying my dad loads of crap like socks, after shave, ashtrays..all sorts of crap really. I don't remember one year when I actually bought him something he would have really wanted but I now know what fathers day means & i expect Jack will buy me some crap over the years but you know what?.... it won't matter because i will love the fact that he has got me something. I will keep this years presents forever as they are the first ones & they mean more to me than if i'd have got a massively expensive pressie (although this doesn't mean i don't want him to buy me a lamborghini one year).

We all went to Nic's parents for dinner as her dad was doing a barbecue & very nice it was too. Had to be back by 5 though for the formula 1 (what, you really thought you'd get away with another race not being mentioned?, don't be silly). I am in awe of Lewis Hamilton's talent but I am sooo sick of itv mentioning him every 2 seconds. My beloved Ferrari' were better at this race than the last 2 but we still have a very long way to go before we're nicking the wins from McLaren.

Right well i'm running out of time now, got lots to do so i'll catch up with you all later...VampJack xx

Back in j'land again

Hello, is anyone out there or have you all gone away because I haven't put in an appearance recently?

It has been over a month since I last updated my journal, it wasn't a planned absence or anything it just kind of happened. I have been spending as much time as possible with Jack, that along with little excursions, work & keeping the house in a reasonable state has led to me having less time to myself & something had to give....in this case it was my journal.

So since I was last here quite a bit has happened. My sister, bro in law, 2 nephews & my mum came over at the beginning of may which was great. It's been quite a while since we were all together, even though it was just for mthe one day it was still nice. It was the first time my sister & her family had seen Jack, both my nephews were desperate to hold him but when my oldest nephew held him Jack screamed his head off so his younger brother didn't get a chance. My sister was in pain from a back problem but she wasn't going to let that get in the way of holding her new nephew, even my mum didn't get much of a look in with sis hogging the cuddles.

Jack has had his 2nd lot of injections last week, apparently he screamed quite a bit & that night he whinged a lot. He is growing so much now, when he's in the car seat it weighs too much for Nic to carry him more than a few yards. We're going to have to by a new car seat soon, his feet are nearly over the edge of the one we have. We bought him some Tigger trainers the other day, he's only 14 weeks old but we've had to buy him size 9-12 month trainers!!!

We went to my sisters for a few days the other week, she lives in Cranwell now cos her husband's in the raf & she's just been posted there. It's really nice & peaceful, even Nic said she wished we lived somewhere like that & she has always said she wouldn't want to live anywhere too quiet. While we were there Jack learnt how to push himself around using his feet (when he's lying on his back), he hasn't figured out how to use his arms when he's on his front so he's not crawling just yet but I don't think it'll be long. We'd leave the room for a minute with him lying under his play gym & when we went back he'd be across the other side of the room, definitely gonna have to watch out now. When he lays on his front he can push his bum up in the air but has worked out he needs to use his arms to move forward.

After that week off I was supposed to work bank holiday monday, I got to work only to be told by the manager on duty to go home. She was sat in her car in the car park because the security guard hadn't turned up so nobody could get in, we only work some bank holidays (we cover Ireland so if they don't have the day off we work) & obviously noone had thought to make sure the guard would be in to open up. The upside was that I got to spend the day at home, when we went in on the tuesday those of us that should ahve worked the monday asked about our day in lieu because we'd all made plans, we were hoping work would still give us the day in lieu because we had turned up for work even if they had to send us home. To our surprise they have said not only do we get the day off but they are paying us the overtime for monday too....bonus.

We are still having major problems with the big changes that have happened at work but this week it has got a lot better. I don't mind the problems though, it is frustrating when we can't provide the usual high level of service to our customers but it has made the job more of a challenge which in turn actually make sit more enjoyable because we don't get time to be bored.

I took my lieu day for the bank holiday last friday, Nic went with the girls to Alton Towers & I decided to visit my mum (which she'll never tire of as long as I take Jack), I also had time to go & see my best friend. It was great to be able to have a chat over a coffee & relax, even if he did ask me if I took sugar in my coffee & then twice put sugar in my cup after I told him I don't take sugar!! He has promised Jack he will take him to get his first tattoo when he turns 18, I guess this is payback for all the times I have wound my sister up by being the fun uncle who teaches my nephews bad habits & buying them drums. I am so glad the court case was sorted last year following my accident, if not I still wouldn't have a car so it'd be so much more difficult to go and visit my friends & family.

We had a little drama on sunday, Nic was sitting on the bed holding Jack when he suddenly wriggled free and fell onto the floor. Nic was absolutely horrified & was blaming herself, I told her that eventually something like that would happen because that's what babies are like but she was so worried he'd have to go to hospital. In the end we kept him awake for a couple of hours to make sure he was okay. He cut his mouth but only a little & he also had a big bump on his head but he is fine, the bump didn't even turn into a bruise. It still didn't stop Nic feeling guilty, she knows kids are going to do things like that but I guess if it was me holding him & it happened I'd be exactly the same.

Anyway I guess that's enough for my return to j'land, enjoy the new pics.....VampJack x

Please pass this on

Please can you all include the following link in your journals, tonight Jack is spending the night with his nanny & grandad. This is the first night he has spent away from home & I miss him so much, every night when I get in from work he gives me a big smile.....Maddie's parents are not as lucky...please post this & add the profile to your myspace if you have one.

http://www.myspace.com/findmadeline  

I can't even begin to imagine what Maddie's parents are going through. I'm not asking a lot but who knows, maybe by posting this as much as possible it may help to bring an end to this nightmare.

Man flu time again

I didn't update my journal last weekend because I was suffering with man flu. because of my cold I didn't do much, went to see a financial advisor at my bank about investing my damages money from the accident, it's all going towards our move to Spain. it could still take years before the right opportunity comes along but we are doing everything we can to try & make the move happen earlier rather than later. My friend from work has just come back from honeymoon in Costa Blanca, she was staying near where I used to live & when she was telling me about it the other day I felt so homesick. I had gone on holiday to Spain when I was younger but had never thought about moving out there, then a few years ago I was unemployed & finding it really difficult to get a decent job in England. An opportunity arose for me to go & work in Spain so I took it, to me it was just a chance of a job. But after only a couple of days over there I felt as though I finally found where I belonged. Growing up we moved around a bit as my dad was in the army, because of this I never really thought of anywhere as 'home', until I went to work in Calpe. I don't know if you will be able to understand quite how I felt but suddenly I felt as though I had somewhere I belonged. If it wasn't for the fact that I got ripped off by the company I worked for I would not have come back, but then again maybe it was fate...maybe I was supposed to realise that's where I should be but had to come back & meet Nic ( who has always wanted to live in Spain ) & have Jack before finally making a permanent move from England.

But back to the present, we've had a major change at work & to be honest it has been better than I expected. The only downside is that my dept is the one chosen to assist everyone else when needed during the transition period, but even with this little pain there does seem to be a general feeling of optimism in the office. But for me its sick leave time, yesterday morning about 9 ish I suddenly got a massive thumping headache, I never said anything because i thought it would just go away but this morning the pain was so bad I felt really sick & my vision was a bit blurry so I phoned in sick. Sounds like it might be a migraine but I will wait before going to see the doctor because I have never had migraine's before now & i'm not one of these people who go to the doctors every time they get an ache or pain. I will see how I am in the morning & decide then wether I go back tomorrow or not.

Even though I have been in a lot of pain today it has been nice to spend more time with my little man Jack. He has grown so much & even now i sometimes look at him & have to tell myself that he really is my son. Every time I come home from work or if i've been in town he gives me a big gummy smile & it amkes my day. My sister is coming over on saturday with my bro in law, their 2 boys & my mum. It's going to be really nice having them all over, my sister & nephews have been dying to meet Jack & this is the first chance they've had to visit, I can't wait.

Thats all for tonight, better not spend too much time in front of the pc if I want this headache to sod off...take care all....VampJack x

The light at the end of the tunnel getting brighter

Finally have time to update my journal. Since i was last here we have had a few parties to go to, lots of work & some good news.

Last saturday my friend from work got married & we went to the evening party, as all brides should she looked fantastic & happier than I think I have ever seen her. Unfortunately we couldn't stay too long because it was also Nic's mums 50th party. Yet again Jack was passed around everybody, we had some fireworks which he loved watching. Nic went out with her friend after the party so I brought Jack home & he went straight to sleep.

Jack's been really good the last couple of weekends, he generally sleeps for 6 or 7 hours before waking for another feed, friday night he went to sleep about 9.30pm & didn't wake until 5.15am. I am well impressed with his sleeping ability, during the day mind you he has been a bit of a screamy little bugger! Nic took him to the clinic on tuesday & he weighed 12lbs 2 ounces, what a little porker. On friday he had the first 2 immunisations & apparently apart from a scream when he was first stuck with the needle he was really good.

Yesterday my mum came over to see us, she spent the whole time looking after Jack & it was great to see him spenidng time with his other nanny. It's not too far for me to drive to loughborough and see my mum but I obviously have other things to do like housework & shopping so I can't go over every week & Jack see's Nic's parents nearly every week so i will try to let him see my mum whenever we can. I hadn't gone to see her before now because Nic won't go on the train, she says it's too much hassle with Jack because of everything we have to take. But this week I had my car sorted, it failed the MOT so I had to have a bit of work done to get it through, now though its all done.

Talking of my car the good news I had this week is that I should finally be getting a cheque for damages following on from my accident back in 2003 ( you may remember my entry last year when I finally had my day in court ). It's only taken about 4 years!! I have an appointment next saturday with a financial advisor at my bank, I want the money invested in the best possible way as this will form a very large chunk of capital to help us move to Spain. We have been spending more time looking at our options as we can see our dream becoming reality in the near future. It may still take a few years to find somehting we can afford & that suits our requirements but at least we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Nic's parents are off to Mallorca next month & they have said they are going to seriously look at properties while they are there because they too want a better life away from england. If they find somewhere we have the added possibility of staying with them so we are nearer to mainland spain & that will make it easier to find permanent jobs & a decent home. Everytime I think about it I hate having to keep living here until we get something sorted but we are going to do this properly so no going out no holiday & getting bar jobs as we obviously need to be able to provide for Jack as well as ourselves so we need decent jobs & a decent, child friendly place to live.

Thats enough for now, i'm off to have a shave & shower before 24 comes on, stay safe....VampJack x