Firetop

So Tuesday was quite a long day, after 48 hours of waiting in hospital post waters breaking, Suzie_Q called me at 7:30am to tell me to get over ASAP. Then about half an hour later she called me again to tell me I wasn’t allowed in until 9am, so I went to MacDonald’s for breakfast en-route. Around 8:45am I got in to see my wife at the delivery suite and met the mid-wife. We had so many mid-wives and doctors that day that I lost track of how many we saw, I’d say over the three days we’ve seen three doctors, two registrars and fourteen mid-wives. It’s quite stressful because at each change over you want to keep them updated on progress, which I’m sure is annoying for them all, but makes you feel safe. (more…)

I’ve just got home for a quick power nap on day two of the ongoing labour saga. On Sunday morning at 11am Suzie_Q’s waters broke and we were advised by the midwife (on the telephone) to head over to the antenatal day centre immediately. At the hospital two very friendly midwives wired Sue’s belly up to the monitor to track the baby’s heart beat and any uterine contractions, they also confirmed upon examination that the waters had indeed gone. Unfortunately baby’s head is too high and not yet engaged, which carries a risk of a prolapsed umbilical cord (cord delivered before baby), so Suzie_Q was told to stay in by the registrar (who had performed another examination). By 4pm they found a bed on the main ward and midwife number three took us over there. (more…)

Suzie_Q started up a baby blog a few months into her pregnancy, I’ve steered clear of commenting on too many baby matters other than at scan time (and I didn’t even mention the 34 week where baby looked like a Tuscan Raider). As the time nears for Junior’s arrival (due in eleven days) I thought I’d cover the main impacts of pregnancy from the male perspective. Of course it can never be as painful an experience for the man as the woman; I’m not carrying around an extra two stone of weight on my stomach (yet…) and won’t have to give birth - exposing my privates to a room of strangers, but there are implications for us blokes. (more…)

When you own cats you have to expect to receive your fair share of interesting outdoor gifts. Bella, our youngest cat, began life outside by bringing in interesting leaves (holly) and strange pieces of plastic packaging. These days, having cleaned out the mice in the neighbourhood, she has begun to bring in birds. On Friday morning at 3am she brought in a blackbird which sat still in shock as she pulled feathers from it one by one. Fortunately for the blackbird this activity woke me up and forced me to investigate - sending Bella away so that the poor creature could be put in a darkened box until the morning. When 9am came Suzie_Q and I took the bird over to Wildlife Aid in Leatherhead. (more…)

This week I finally managed to find a moment to explore Linden Labs’ ‘Second Life‘ - a virtual world in which you create and clothe an animated character (avatar) before interracting with everybody else and the environment of this virtual world. With $1.5 million spent in ‘real’ money in this economy each day I had high hopes for its appeal. Unfortunately, having created ‘Flash Rehula’ a punk rocker with green hair, I managed to get about 1/4 of the way through the tutorial before I became frustrated at the clunkiness of the movement and slow graphics. Then it got worse; the tutorial kept undoing itself as I completed required tasks, now I’ve given up as the tutorial guide has vanished without trace. (more…)

On bank holiday Monday we took the new ‘family size’ Peugeot 307sw for it’s first long drive down to Bexhill-on-Sea, picking up some family members along the way. My grandparents (Jack and Vera… yes they were a real life couple!) lived in Bexhill for most of my childhood and, with the eight year anniversary of my Grandfather’s passing coming up, we visited his grave which was surrounded by bright blooming flowers. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t too good down in East Sussex, a strong wind meant I had to hold on tight to my Gran to stop her blowing over, she managed her usual ‘you’ll be burying me here soon’ joke none-the-less though, before we all piled back into the car and grabbed some lunch. (more…)

On Friday Suzie_Q and I travelled back from our short overnight stay at Lulworth Cove in Dorset, but not before popping into world reknowned Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre in Wareham. Jim Cronin - the founder of Monkey World, sadly passed away in March this year (Liver Cancer) after creating Dorset’s refuge for monkeys rescued from the illegal pet trade, laboratories and other cruel circumstances. Hopefully Jim’s demise won’t see the closure of this wonderful centre though - it’s one of the only ‘zoos’ I can think of where the inhabitants are given lots of space and as close to natural habitat as possible following their previously traumatic lives. (more…)

Having spent more than seven years working with Nature - one of the world’s most prestigious science publishers, I’ve been aware for some time of the potential use of stem cells for the development of new medical treatments. With ‘Baby Peskett’ due in early July, my wife and I have been looking at some of the commercial services offering to store cord blood (the source of stem cells) for up to 25 years. The stumbling block is that the umbilical cord blood collection is not something many NHS hospitals will support; in our case East Surrey Hospital has just rejected our request. East Surrey will only collect blood if it is needed ‘for therapeutic reasons’ i.e. the treatment of an existing sibling. (more…)

Last week’s Amazon DVD rental supply included Oliver Stone’s ‘World Trade Center’ - a much more believable movie than I had anticipated. I always have some concerns about films depicting tragic real-life events – particularly those which have affected America; their re-enactment on screen is often over-glorified by directors for cinematic and nationalistic effect (e.g. Flight 93). World Trade Center seems, rather pleasingly, to be about as honest a film for such a tragic subject as could be made. Focusing on the story of two Port Authority Police officers buried alive when the Towers collapsed, I was pretty gripped throughout. I even watched it a second time with my wife and a third to hear the additional narration from the real-life police officers (who have bit parts themselves). (more…)

April 1st saw the launch of the new website for the African Child Trust - a UK charity supporting the education of widows and orphaned children in Africa. Frequent readers may remember the ACT open day I attended in October 2006; I’ve been working with ACT for a number of years to support their web activities free of charge (we all need a bit of karma don’t we!). After two years of planning and development at my end (Suzie_Q included), and with the kind donation of free build services by Atto New Media, ACT have a shiny new website. On the back end is a Content Management System built with TYPO3 - giving the staff at ACT free reign to edit their content without waiting on developers. Should you be feeling particularly generous please visit the new site and test out the online donation options… there are plenty of children who need sponsoring so that they can go to school. (more…)