G'day from WA

Humpback flipper, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Well, we all survived our jaunt to Western Australia. At least two of us are bigger than when we left and one is a lot more wriggly but the important point is - no DVTs.

At 12.45 and 5am today, I was wondering if the baby had jetlag, when I remembered the helpful pie chart in The Pregnancy Bible called 'Waking and Sleeping Patterns of a Newborn'. It's in two different shades of orange (crying and feeding) and green (sleeping). There is a large orange wedge between midnight and 3 am and another one from 4 to 6 am. Then it says 'Your baby does not know or care about your normal sleeping patterns.'

But I digress. We had a good time in WA, even though Jules had to buy a polarfleece on day 2. We swam in the sea three times - twice because it was hot and once in the Southern Ocean at dusk in a moment of insanity just to say we'd done it.

We saw a lot of wildlife - this particular humpback came to visit the whalewatching boat we were on but we also saw them from the shore at Cape Naturaliste. Plus kangaroos and big lizards and random emus at the side of the road and a wide selection of parrots in the national parks.

Yawn - fading fast and it's only 9 pm. Watch this space for Friday Wombat Blogging.

Fetal anomalies, goo and mutterings

We went for the fetal anomaly scan today. Apparently the baby is very active and the following appear to be normal: heart, head, face, spine, neck and skin, chest, abdominal wall, gastro-intestinal tract, kidneys and bladder, extremities, skeleton. They're going to have another look in three weeks, just to make sure.

There were three doctors at the scan, one of whom seemed to be there specifically to look at the heart. They examined that for about ten minutes, muttering under their breath the whole time, then breezily declared it all looked normal. By that time, I was imagining open-heart surgery at six weeks...

It has a smaller than average head and abdomen and longer than average arms and legs. It is already sucking its thumb, and is lying the wrong way up, but it's a bit early to be worrying about that.

No pictures this time - will order some at the next one on 3 November.

Honorary Gooners

Two of Matt's gooner mates had a baby recently. They have called her Scarlett, but apparently that is just because they liked the name, nothing to do with Arsenal at all.

So we have been to the new stadium on their tickets twice in a week and had a fab time at each game. We have even had a gooner burger (aka chicken balti pie) each in a flash red box and we can sing along to all the chants. We have, however, stopped short of buying one of these...

The new stadium is very impressive, especially when full (always) and at night. Instead of lights on four posts at the corners they have a circle of lights right around the top edge of the stadium, so you don't get any weird shadow effects.

Saturday's game was against Sheffield United, who were not much good really, and Arsenal scored 3 times at the opposite end to us. But then at last night's Champions League game, Henry headed a goal in right in front of us, which was just as well as I missed the other one due to trying to hear Matt's explanation of the chant that ends with a very complimentary line about Martin Joll's mother.

Jules even tried out his finger pointing at the opposition fans. Maybe next time we go he'll even be able to carry it off.

At the Galleria Ferrari

Wom at the Galleria Ferrari, originally uploaded by Racmol.

...Wom gets ideas above his station.

The Cinque Terre (well, four of them)

We arrived by train into Monterosso mid-afternoon on a fabulous hot Monday. Found the hotel easily and then went straight out for a swim, which was wonderful and cold. The beach at Monterosso is mainly stones - there are a few sandy patches of private beach where you have to pay for deckchairs, which seems a bit mean because if you have a deckchair, what do you care if it's stony underfoot? So we lay on the stones and came away with interesting pink indentations.

The next day we caught the train to Riomaggiore, the furthest away of the five villages and walked back through Manarola to Corniglia for lunch. At Manorola there was a fantastic-looking deep patch of sea that you could climb down a ladder from the rocks into, and we thought about it, but there was nowhere to change and we thought we'd get uncomfortable walking the rest of the way in wet togs. A bit foolish, as all the way from Manorola to Corniglia you could hear the thunder and see the storm coming. It struck just as we got to Corniglia for a nice pasta lunch, so that was good timing.

After lunch we walked on to Vernazza, getting progressively wetter. It was probably the most interesting stretch of track, with old olive groves to look at on both sides, but very slippery in the wet. At Vernazza we discovered there was a train in 5 minutes and leapt on it, as the rain was only getting heavier.

Walking back to the hotel, Jules got waylaid by the sight of someone else's roadside tiramisu so we stopped for a bit then went back for hot showers. Bliss. No swimming that day.

Today we have got a couple of different trains to Parma, and we will be having a look at Modena and Bologna over the next few days.

From Lucca to Monterosso

Having a lovely time in Lucca, where it is quite hot and there is a gelati stand on every corner. Have done all the things you usually do in Tuscany - climbed the tower and walked all the way around the city wall. Tried to visit Puccini's house but it was closed for restoration. Someone had crossed out the 'opening Spring 2006' with a vivid marker and written 2010 in its place!

Today we are off to the Cinque Terre, having found somewhere to stay in Monterosso at the last minute. This will involve 3 trains, but all quite short distances.

Late last week we got all excited when we got home to find two delivery cards, indicating that the rest of our insurance replacements had arrived. So we leapt in a minicab and went to one depot in Cricklewood to pick up my ipod and then down to Park Royal to pick up what was meant to be Jules's laptop and digital camera. By the size of one of the boxes it was clear someone had stuffed up and ordered him a desktop PC (weighing 30kg!) but the depot staff insisted you could only refuse both items or take both items, and as he wanted the camera for our holiday, Jules thought we should take them. Got home to discover the smaller box contained someone else's ADSL modem...

So now we have a huge box squatting in our spare room. According to Geoff (who has actually done this) if you ask them to collect it and they don't within 30 days, it is yours and you can then sell it on ebay!

Heir to the Empire

Front profile, 12.5 weeks, originally uploaded by Racmol.

...or an indistinct smudge, depending on your point of view.

If you know what you're looking for, you can see the eye sockets and the jaw.

The highlight of this morning's scan was seeing the baby flap both arms vigorously.

Getting a low-risk nuchal translucency result of 0.7mm was pretty good too.

ETA: 11 March 2007

Friday Cat Blogging: Bank Holiday Bagpuss

Handy food safety tip from Jules's boss

Never eat shellfish in a month that doesn't have an 'R' in it.

Or in France, at any time.

The Attack of the Parisian Bistro

Poor Jules has been very sick all week and is signed off work for seven days, with a nasty fever and a suspected intestinal parasite. It all comes of being too polite - he thought his mussels were not really hot enough on Sunday but was reluctant to send them back in case they got nuked.

The meal in question was not even the worst we had in Paris - that honour goes to Le Vieux Bistro, near Notre Dame. Don't even THINK of eating there, unless you think a cassolette is a big bowl of oil with overcooked carrots and crunchy raw potatoes floating in it. Bleah!

This morning, Jules said plaintively that he had contemplated moving the mattress from the sun lounger into the bath and sleeping there, so as to be close to the toilet, but in the end he just settled down in the spare room, sweating and shivering under his towel and some clothes he found there. Didn't seem like a good moment to say: 'You don't mean the CLEAN WASHING, do you?'

A busy and domestic weekend ahead, by all accounts.

A Parisian dragon

A dragon outside the Natural History museum, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Weekend in Wien

Just back from a flying visit to Vienna, where we did a lot of walking and ate a small farm of meat, as you do in that part of the world.

We arrived on Friday night, quickly realising that we have now become so blase about travelling that neither of us had the first clue where our hotel was. Had to ring them up and ask for directions, but we got there in the end.

On Saturday we took the u-bahn out to Schloss Schonbrun and spent a pleasant few hours wandering around the palace and gardens. The palace is quite impressive, but much like any other European palace in many ways - you know, Room of Mirrors, grand ballroom with chandeliers and frescoed ceiling etc. The interesting bit was the history of the Hapsburgs - had never realised, for example, that Marie Antoinette was one. As Jules said, the whole 'let them eat cake' story is doubtless a gross misrepresentation - and actually indicated nothing more than the Viennese faith in the peace-making powers of coffee, Sachertorte and a bucket of whipped cream...

After a pleasant lunch in the Bierhof, we went for a wander around the museum quarter, stopped for obligatory afternoon cake and then went to the Leopold Museum - mainly 20th century Austrian art - which was excellent. They had huge black and white reproductions of Gustav Klimt's three murals he did on health-related themes for a university. Sadly the university rejected them as too suggestive of death and then the originals were destroyed in a fire. But you can see they would have been very impressive.

That night we went on a long trek in the rain in search of a pork knuckle. Would have helped if we'd realised the Prater was a park, not to be confused with Praterstern or Praterstrasse, but we found the place in the end. I asked for a 'kleine' pork knuckle, but that turned out to mean 900g instead of the standard kilo. Jules amused himself taking pictures and texting family members things like 'Rac just ate half a pig'.

On Sunday morning Vienna was a ghost town and finding breakfast was a bit of a mission. Then we went to the Kunst Historisches museum, which is full of the sort of art I hate - still lives with dead fish and deer, and fat naked people pretending to be Greek and Roman Goddesses complete with grotesque cherubs. One or two interesting Rembrandt portraits and a single Vermeer but by and large I would give it a miss.

After an ample pub lunch, we walked across to the Belvedere, an old palace converted into an art gallery, where there is a lot of early 20th century Austrian art - Klimt, Egon Schiele, Anton Kolig etc. They have Klimt's The Kiss, which is huge and a lot more textured than you'd imagine. Infinitely better experience than the KHM.

And then it was time to catch the train to the airport.

Back to the burglary - the new laptops, cameras and so on should be arriving this week so we'll be back in business photo-wise soon.

Technology-free household

Since we had our front door kicked down on Friday, we no longer have any laptops (among other things) so the blog will not be updated for a bit. Also we have not done anything interesting, due to spending most of the weekend at home entertaining the crime scene investigators, detectives and locksmiths.

The fabulous new Dualit toaster

The fabulous new toaster, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Here is what cookware.co.uk has to say about our new toaster:

"The ultimate toaster, this is the design all the celebrities go for - it oozes quality and style.

A true design classic, an object of desire for over 80 years.

It's not just its classic looks, inside is a professional toaster manufactured to such a high standard that you'll never have to buy another toaster again. It will provide fast even toasting every time year after year."

Never have to buy another toaster - did you hear that, Julesy?

Some members of the family may be amused to hear that it doesn't actually pop up. You choose how long you want to toast for and it ticks away then shuts itself off, keeping the toast warm for up to ten minutes.

We were sold, anyway.

NEVER toast a taco!

The aftermath of the Taco Incident, originally uploaded by Racmol.

I was just sauntering out of the living room after dinner when I heard an undignified squawk from the kitchen and arrived in time to see Jules frantically unplugging the (flaming) toaster from the wall. Then he wet a tea towel and threw it over the top as I rushed to shut the door into the hall before the smoke alarm went off.

After a reasonable interval, I opened the door again to investigate. By now the toaster was in the sink, still flaming. Filling it with water seemed to solve the problem.

Jules was busy extricating something charred and unrecognisable - formerly a taco. Did he not see the pool of fat left on the oven tray after the tacos were gently heated, perhaps?

And then, just as he was proclaiming that the toaster would be fine once it dried out, he spotted the blackened burnt-out taco shape on the inner element.

Rest in peace, toaster - with many thanks for a year's good service. According to the wanton toaster destroyer, we're getting a cool retro pastel one next!

The alarming thing is that the smoke alarm, which goes crazy if you so much as toast a crumpet, remained completely silent in the event of a genuine fire!

Midnight Sun, Tromso

Jules at midnight, Sunday, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Regent's Park AND Paddington Rec - 13.5km

Very tired now. Failed to get up early enough and it was very hot.

Sensibly, the PDSA charity shop on Kilburn High Road had reduced all its England flags by 50% yesterday morning. Wonder if they all went?

Michael Owen: keeping the World Cup in perspective

The highlight of Michael Owen's first tv interview after ripping his anterior cruciate ligament in two was when he described how he agonised over how to explain to his small daughter what had happened.

The resulting phone call:
Michael: Daddy has broken his knee, darling.
Michael's daughter: Look, can you call me back - Postman Pat is on.


Tags:
michael owen
postman pat

Regent's Park and back

Went for our first 7-mile run this morning - down to Regent's Park and back.

Plan for the rest of the day - lie in heap on couch and eat things. Oh, and watch football. Obviously.

regents park
run
couch potato

The Secret Language of Sleep - find your sleeping pose

Now...this can't be right, surely?

Find your own pose!