Friday 17th April 2009

Rub your eyes, then rub them once more to be certain - we do indeed have pictures posted at last. For those among you who find reading the relentless waffle of my paragraphs a bit of a dirge this will come as a blessed relief. Indeed, I write this entry rather forlornly as I know you will simply skim over it in order to get to the next photo. However, just in case you're still with me, today's first picture was taken last Saturday at the maritime centre in Macduff (about an hours drive from us). Nick, Jane, Carole, Max and Luca took a trip up there, and by all accounts seemed to have a great time. I've only posted one picture as the lighting and atmosphere within the facility didn't appear to lend itself to producing concise camera images. I unfortunately missed all this due to a combination of work and football, but was filled in over dinner that evening of the highly descriptive looks of wonderment that adorned the boys faces as they processed this new visual information. Luca's always been fascinated with fish (I had to eventually drag him away from the tanks at the pet shop on our last visit), so I can imagine his fascination during this excursion.

The above four pictures were taken on Sunday, albeit the latter one of Max taken later in the day. The former three were taken at Haddo House, which is an enormous estate half an hours drive from our house. We'd decided that this would be a great experience for the kids, as every year the estate hosts an Easter event which encompasses egg rolling, face painting, ornamental egg hunts, etc, etc. Again the quality of the pictures isn't great (my fault this time as I was the cameraman), and the above four are the only ones of even reasonable quality. Indeed, the majority appear to feature the back of Max's head, taken as I chased him down the hill as he rolled his egg faster than Obama's pre election promises evaporate.

The ones I have features are very indicative of the day though. The first shows mum and son enjoying watching the ducks and swans together as they basked in the spring sunshine, the second shows Luca after having hurled his egg down the hill for the first time, the third is an upset Luca as his dad rather naughtily runs away from him, while the final image shows Max in artistic mode. In fact, he rather kindly wrote my name at the top of that picture (Garee!!) before presenting it to me. I very gratefully now hang it on the door of my computer room "cubby hole".

We also had a minor disaster averted over the weekend. On Saturday night Max and Luca took a bath together. However, the bath took objection to two young 'uns bouncing about in it, and proceeded to spring a leak, which started as a drip, but quickly threatened to take down the floor beneath, which sits atop the roof of the utility room. The drip rapidly became a flow. However, after a battle getting the side of the bath off (we think the original plumber decided he'd done such a good job that he'd make it impossible to detach) the problem was quickly identified, and after getting buckets and bowls in place, along with puring all bath water down the sink, chaos was averted.

On Sunday morning (before the Easter extravaganza) Nick and I took a drive to Aberdeen to visit B&Q to buy what we needed for repairs. After the purchase of these overpriced items we headed back to make our repairs - and I'm so glad Nick was there. It was a two man job, and frustratingly so! However, it was completed in due course, and it also appears the damage to the utility room roof has not cracked sufficiently to enforce the need of a plasterer, indeed a simple paint job may suffice. As such events can usually cause so many problems, I'm delighted that on this occasion issues and outlays have been relatively minimal - with much credit and thanks to Nick.

Luca's not been too bad since they left, although when I picked him up from nursery the other night he asked if we were going "home" to see "Max". Despite the occasional roughness between the pair (usually initiated by Luca....) they get on really well, and similarly to his time with Cade and Braeden the experience appears to have aided his development, as well as provided him with so much fun.

I was late-ish home again last night (after 7pm) and as such didn't see Luca for long, but again, in common with much of this week he's been exceptionally well behaved and good humoured. Long may this continue! Caroles also decided that although she loves her fitness classes, she's going to cut back to just one weeknight session per week. This is partly so dinner times to be re-organised to a more sociable hour (eating at 9pm is never good), but mainly so she can put Luca down at night. She's really been missing this aspect.

After Luca went down, we ate tea whilst watching "The Apprentice" on I-Player. It was great, although the final result was of no great surprise due to Dad's spoiler yesterday on his blog! Tonight we'll hopefully have time to watch a horror movie I've got called "Frailty", so hopefully fingernails will be gnawed and pillows will cover our faces - if it's any good!

**Useless fact of the day - "Frailty" scored an impressive 7.3 out of 10 on credible movie website IMDB, all the more impressive considering horrors invariably score very low**

Wednesday 15th April 2009

As this is my third blog in a row without photo's I must sincerely apologise, particularly as the absence of such is holding up description of the weekends events.

Can it just suffice to say much fun was had and Luca was very cute? No? OK. I will upload these sometime in the next two days, in particular for Janes benefit for which I have a number of Max too.

And before he mentions it again, I will send a DVD of our holiday photo's to Dad soon too - again it's been a time issue - and of course a memory one too. Perhaps I should exchange this DVD for fish from his factories. Unless anyone can disprove the theory that fish are great for increasing brainpower and the memory?

By the looks of the other blogs everybody's routine seems to be returning to normal now. Ours is too, albeit at a slower rate - with having guests up for a few days, added to Caroles curious illness it's been difficult to get back into the swing of everyday life. However, with Carole apparently returning to a more healthy state we should be able to move forward from here, and I should also have time to blog outwith the limited periods of first thing or lunchtime from my office.

Not that it will be a quiet time. Across the next several weekends we've got a night out in Stonehaven with friends, a few other friends coming round to ours for dinner (which may develop into a barbeque if the weather continues to improve) and a bowling night. I haven't mentioned the latter to Carole yet, so if she reads this then this will be her notification!

I know Carole particularly just wants a day or two of quietness to recover and get back to full fitness, so touch wood I can keep this weekend relatively free in order to do this. I'm a little in need of the same, so with the exception of dog walking and Luca entertaining I'll endeavour to keep things quieter than the engine of a Mercedes 2002 Benz E55. Apparently that's quite quiet, and as Ross doesn't read the blog I'm confident he won't now barrage me with emails detailing some particularly obscure car facts.

Reading Dad's blog about his old friends moving/working away reminded me in particular of an old friend of mine, Michael Pratt/Jefferson (he changed his surname by deed poll!). We were friends throughout much of our childhood, but had a (relatively) minor argument at around age 21/22 and haven't spoken since. Indeed, he got married about a year later and I didn't even hear about it until after the event. A curious situation - but my early 20's were a particularly hectic time socially so I never gave the situation too much thought. Should I consider making contact after such a long period? Obviously I don't have contact details for him but despite the fact he moved from the area many years ago, in these days of Bebo, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc it surely wouldn't be too difficult to locate him. I think perhaps it wouldn't be worth it (as life is busy enough) but Dad's blog just got me thinking.

His recent downloads have got me thinking too. My recent music additions have been a little more diverse than normal, from the indie jangle of "Liars", to the post-grunge of "Fightstar", through the soundscape of "The Decemberists", onto the electro pop of "Lady Gaga" (and I make no apologies for the final addition!).

Waffle aside, despite the need for quiet time during a busy work and social period, I also hope to drag Carole to the cinema at some point soon. Due to a number of reasons, I'm devastated we missed the recent run of "Watchmen" in the cinema's, as it was my most anticipated release in quite some time. Unbelievably, taking into account the hefty collection of graphic novels I have, I've never actually read the comic version which the movie is based on - hopefully I can rectify that at some point in the future. However, the upcoming cinematic releases of "I Love You Man", "Wolverine" and "Star Trek" hold much appeal and will definitely be viewed. And of course further into the year is "Transformers 2". We haven't seen many at home lately, although Carole caught most of a dodgy horror called "Scourge" on the Sci-Fi channel last night which she predictably enjoyed! I'm still watching movies on my MP4 (albeit across a number of days) whilst sitting on buses to and from work, with the most recent being "In Bruges" - which I have to recommend, even if it is purely to see Ralph Fiennes shoot himself after accidentally murdering a midget.

And as the cliche go's ("last but not least"):- the wee man. He's been good, and for the first time in a long, long time I both dropped him off and picked him up from nursery yesterday in order to give Carole a full day of rest in a quiet house. It was nice to pick him up, as he came running across the nursery when I walked in screeching "My daddy, my daddy". The girl in the nursery took me across to where he'd been playing to show me what he'd been doing. Similarly to home, he'd placed toy cars in a long line, one behind the other, all perfectly straight. I wonder what this says about him? Surely Kelly's 147 years of university psychology training could tell us? I took him to the supermarket before we went home, and as we stood paying for our food the checkout woman turned to Luca and asked his name. I'm not sure what he heard though, as he proceeded to jump up and down whilst crying out "bouncy bouncy"!

**Useless fact of the day - Time is finite: 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day and 7 days a week. You can't save it, but you can waste it. The amount of time we have does not matter, but rather the way we use it. More of a philosophy than a useless fact but there you go....**

Tuesday 14th April 2009

"Regrets....I've had a few" as Old Blue Eye's used to crone. And for once I can identify with him. After posting yesterdays entry I quickly realised my error, that of causing panic and concern. Within an hour of hitting the "post" button Mum was on the mobile lambasting me with questions, while Mike and Liz followed with innumerable calls to the house later.

Obviously most of you are now aware of Caroles condition, which isn't quite as life threatening as my blog initially indicated, but to clarify she's OK. My defence is that I was half asleep as I typed the blog yesterday, hence the rather extreme descriptions of events! While I was at work, Luca was at Nursery, and Jane, Nick and Max were travelling North, Carole simply slept through the day. I came home around 4.30pm (as my eyes wouldn't stay open any longer) to find her in bed, albeit awake and not in any great pain. I left her briefly to walk the dogs - I think they walked me, as I stumbled along the road like a character from a George A Romero movie - before arriving back home minutes before the Armstrongs, who'd also collected Luca from nursery. Any thoughts of a quick kip evaporated as Luca and Max chased each other round the house. However, Carole took it in her stride and even coped well with the short ones bouncing on the bed! Luca even went one step further and climbed under the cover, and as he pulled it up to his neck told us this was now "Luca's bed" and daddy could now sleep "Down there", as he pointed the bottom of the bed.

Nice to know my role in the household has been relegated to the same status to that of a dog.

Jane fed Luca while I spent time (nay snoozed a little) with Carole, before I got him changed into his jammies, bottle, story, teeth and bed. Max followed shortly after, though again initially going to sleep in his mum and dads bed - he's complained vociferously about Luca keeping him awake with his chatting! A valid complaint I must add!

Carole got up for a short while during late evening to spend a little time with her sister. They're leaving to travel back to Nottingham this morning which may be a fraught journey - Max wasn't in the best of moods as I left the house with Luca this morning due to lack of sleep. Although I think he's genuinely going to miss Luca and Sima too.

Hopefully I'll get online tonight to post the photo's from the weekend, and to describe the house insurance claim we were almost forced to proceed with - I'll describe in more detail later, but suffice to say I was glad Nick was around....

**Useless fact of the day - The following are strange, but true, insurance claims:- In one case a female motorist filled her tank with the wrong substance after mistaking a bottle of shampoo for a container of petrol.
Happily for one owner, CCTV footage was able to corroborate his claim that a passing camel had kicked and damaged his car at a garden centre.
One driver lost control of his vehicle and ended in a ditch after driving through liquid that had leaked onto the road from a large pile of decomposing carrots dumped nearby.
Elsewhere, a car was damaged when a naked pedestrian jumped on the car bonnet, leapt onto the roof, jumped up and down and then ran away.
One driver's windscreen was melted when a Harrier jet flew overhead, crash landed nearby and burst into flames**

Monday 13th April 2009

A rather worrying and eventful night has just passed. Carole started complaining of stomach cramps around 11pm last night, although initially we gave little notice - with it being Easter Sunday I'd initially considered it to be a simple case of overindulgence. However, by 3am, and with less than an hour of sleep having been attained I started to worry. Carole was shaking and crying and getting steadily worse. As such I called NHS 24 who (after innumerable questions) told us to come straight into the hospital.

After waking Jane and Nick to let them know what was going on (and being extremely thankful they were there to look after Luca) I loaded Carole into the car and set off for Foresterhill hospital in Aberdeen. The on-call nurse saw us immediately, and proceeded (after a repeated set of questions) with a standard examination. Blood pressure, urine tests, physical checks and manipulation (of the stomach and back), etc. After some time, with a confusing set of conclusions reached, she called in the main doctor who thankfully turned out to be one of the head men, and as such hugely experienced. However, he too couldn't come to a conclusive diagnosis, although the following was reached:- Aggravated stomach and colic.

The colic issue is merely hypothetical at present, and is merely their guess as to what the pains could have be - there's no evidence to suggest this will be the case, and we need to monitor her from here in case the pains come back. If they don't, then great. They also mused as possible forthcoming gall bladder issues, but again there's no set evidence to say this conclusively.

I eventually got her home around 6am this morning and put her back to bed. Her stomach is still very tender, but the two antibiotic jabs they gave her seem to have eased the severe cramps. I'll update again tonight.

I decided there wasn't much point in me going back to bed, so after walking and feeding the dogs I got myself showered and dressed before heading into the office - although obviously having had only an hours sleep I may leave a tad earlier than usual today.

Jane is kindly taking care of Luca (and Max obviously) while I'm at work and Carole sleeps. Indeed, he woke at 6.15am and had to be coerced into staying in his cot until a more decent hour (6.45am!!). His calls of "Mummy....Daddy.....Mummy......Daddy" at repeated intervals likely woke the neighbours, let alone our own household! Poor Max is sharing a bedroom with him while they're here so his breakfast predictably came earlier then he would have preferred too.

Today's initial plan was for Carole, Jane, Nick, Max and Luca to go to Gardenstown for the day while I worked, but now, for obvious reasons, it will only be the Armstrongs. Luca will be dropped into nursery before they go though in order to give Carole some peace and rest to recover. As mentioned before, I'll be leaving work sharply, and will hopefully witness a slightly less pained Carole. All have my direct number in the office though, so if there's any changes before then I'll head straight home.

With the occurrences of the past 10 hours I haven't yet been able to mention events across the rest of the weekend. However, as we have a large number of photo's taken which illustrate better than words I'll wait until my next blog in order to feature these, along with an update on Caroles condition.

**Useless fact of the day - Colic is more prevalent in newborn babies than adults, and indeed affects around 20% of newborns**

Thursday 9th April 2009

This entry is designed purely to placate Dad - we are still reading your blog, but I think the week in Tenerife has temporarily reduced the need/desire to blog, but likely this will return in conjunction with our energy levels! For some reason I've been knackered these past 48 hours, which I'm certain is a hangover from the holiday - it's certainly not due to any great exertion!

Today's been a difficult one, but in my industry the day before any holiday weekend is invariably horrific. I can't wait to get home tonight, although I won't be as "goggle eyed" as I have been over the previous two evenings - two huge Champions League ties and "The Apprentice" have taken up any spare time I may have had. No issues though, as all were hugely enjoyable, although I have to agree with Dad's assessment of James - he has to go, he's an idiot.

Not much else to write just now - I guess in common with the rest of the family - as this week has been dominated mainly by getting back into the swing of work. The weekend should brighten things up somewhat however, as with Jane and family up, we have intentions to take Luca and Max egg rolling on Easter Sunday. Incredible the things you would have considered tedious and irrelevant pre-parenthood suddenly stand out as highlights?

Or am I just getting old?

News on Luca? He's been good, and his new habit of singing "twinkle twinkle little star" upon awakening in the morning is far preferable to the usual "breeeeep" of the alarm

**Useless fact of the day - A precursor to the alarm clock was a water clock built by the ancient Greeks circa 250 BC where the raising waters would both keep time and eventually hit a mechanical bird that triggered an alarming whistle**

Tuesday 7th April 2009

Unfortunately there'll be no images on this entry, the last numbers of holiday photo's remain on the camera which will be attached to Caroles PC tonight in order to burn to CD for dad's accumulated holiday DVD. Even worse is the fact that we've been home for four days now and have yet to take any new pictures

It will be most prevalent to take photo's of the dogs soon. Whilst in kennels both seem to have been treated well, and Sima in particular seems to have lost a little of her pot belly. In fact, when picking them up the kennel owners wide showed a very distinct reluctance to give her back! A bit too much bonding there methinks....

After getting the dogs home on Saturday (and watching Isis re-apply her usual batch of drool and slobber throughout the house) I registered - for the first time ever I may add - with an online bookmaker. Not because I'm developing an irrational need to throw all my wages down the toilet, but merely in order to allow us to place bets on the Grand National without being faced with the inconvenience of having to exert any more energy on our first day back in Scotland than was absolutely necessary by walking to a bookies shop. Between us we backed four horses, or whom three completed the race. Despite this, our highest placing was 7th, which I think indicates the cessation of any possibility of making a living out of this betting business!

On Saturday night - after a brief reappearance from bed by a weary Luca - we settled down with a Chinese and "The Apprentice" on the BBC I-Player. That's what being at home is all about! Sunday was dominated by odd jobs (fixing fences and the dog pound) and walks with the dogs in the surprisingly mild Inverurie spring breeze. It wasn't quite Tenerife, but in the larger scheme it was OK.

Yesterday I was back on the buses for my daily work commute, which as before wasn't as dreadful as I'd originally expected. Surprisingly I arrived back home at a reasonable time - 6.45pm - to be greeted by Carole, Luca and Guthrie, who'd popped in to see Sima. He's just ordered a black Labrador puppy, which'll be a bit cute. It did, however, remind me of the pet shop in Tenerife which rather cruelly had puppies in glass cages within the store, wherein there was a beautiful golden lab puppy who Ross and I briefly considered rescuing and packing in our luggage for our return to the UK. Although I'm rather unsure how long it would have survived surrounded by Ross's unwashed pants...

Luca was very cute yesterday too, and it appears his vocabulary has increased exponentially during the holiday. He's much noisier now, and is communicating extremely effectively. As he progresses further I'll have him him in front of the Skype camera for family chats.

And speaking of family, Jane, Nick and Max are coming up to stay with us for a few days from Friday. With Easter Sunday looming two days after, it will either be fun or hell on earth watching Luca and Max fight over the chocolate eggs....

Lastly, I downloaded the game "Left 4 Dead" for Carole last night on my PC, but unfortunately it appears my graphics card isn't strong enough. A shame, as for for those not in the know the games objective is to run around blowing the heads off screaming zombies - perfect for Carole! I also downloaded Katy Perry's album, which is pure pop rather than my usual obscure Indie/Shoegazing/Rock/etc. Am I mellowing music-wise? Nope, I'll classify this purely as an aberration!

**Useless fact of the day - In 1960, when Elvis Presley was at his post-military trimmest, he weighed a little over 12 stone. When he died, in 1977, he weighed a just under 19 stone**

Saturday 4th April 2009

Before I go any further, let me make it clear that the photo's featured today are mainly for the benefit of our Lincoln(shire) based relatives, and therefore predominantly feature Carole and Luca. I also have a number of pictures of Scott, Cade, Braeden, Kelly, Mum, etc, etc which I'll post over the coming week, but todays are for the Corthorns, Breeds and Armstrongs benefit.

Unfortunately the images/descriptions aren't in chronological order, but are close as dammit. Our first three - as featured above - were taken during our first weekend in Tenerife, and although not generally typical of what the country offers (being essentially set atop a live volcano most of the landscape is dead, dying or under development) they do depict your everyday city setting. Luca, at this point, had been emboldened by an earlier lunch break and only posed for pictures under duress. Indeed, see his mum and dads arms bulging as a tight grip is maintained! He had a habit of sprinting off into crowds at any given opportunity, which caused far more sweating than any peak time temperatures.

The next photo was taken a day or two later in a seafood restaurant only a couple of hundred yards from the coast. The food was great (probably the tastiest lunch we had during our stay) but his poor gran probably didn't enjoy it as much as the rest of our group due to Luca's decision that she would be privileged by his bum being placed on her lap throughout the meal.

We also visited the local zoo during our stay, and the wide array of exotic animals (including a white tiger, chimpanzees and hippo's) entranced the little one. He seemed most intrigued throughout the live parrot show - see picture 3 above - although wisely stayed close to his mum as the birds (many of whom had a longer body span than he) whirled and swooped above his head.

The holiday wasn't entirely dominated by the attempt to entertain the snot faced one though, as these pictures demonstrate. We took these photo's of each other across the table of a quayside restaurant on our anniversary - which rather disturbingly is 1st April - as we enjoyed a lunch "sans" Luca. His aunties, uncles, gran and grandad kindly babysat him as we enjoyed a brief time alone together. It was great, with the food being delicious and the settings romantic, though I do fear the mood may have been spoilt slightly by my choice of t-shirt.....

And what did Luca do while his parents deserted him? See the evidence below:-

He went to the beach with the rest of the family, and on our return to the group we caught his gran feeding him the biggest chocolate chip ice cream cone you've ever seen! Look to his right to see Craigs reaction, as it probably best summarises the "uh-oh, busted" attitude as we approached!

The final photograph - shown beneath this paragraph - was taken last night, just after we arrived back home (around 9pm). Luca hadn't slept a wink all day, not even during the flight, and looked like a zombie on sleeping pills as I carried him into the house. Indeed, he was so limp it was like carrying a bag of coal inside. We'd left his favourite teddy at home whilst away on holiday, and as he hadn't mentioned it throughout we quite logically felt he'd possibly now out grown it. Nope. As soon as we arrived into his bedroom he demanded it, and held it over his face for an age, until I eventually had to forcibly remove it and return it to the cot - where he rapidly followed.

After he fell asleep -a very quick process - Carole and I collapsed on the couch and watched a bad movie ("The Ringer") while remonstrating about the holiday. We had a great time, although it was possibly a monumental week as this type of gathering may not be possible again for a considerable time due to distances (mainly Lucy and families US residence), and possibly further complicated by Kelly and Craigs projected move from Cornwall to Australia. However, blogs, phones, mobiles, emails and skype will fill the gaps until then - and it was a pleasure to be around such a diverse, but kind hearted and funny group of individuals which make up this side of the family.