Project Monkey

Last weekend we took a long break in London to celebrate nothing other than taking a long break in London. Well, this is not strictly true, what we were actually doing was using the space in a London Hotel, Flemings-Mayfair in Mayfair (strangely), that I had due to a business matter.

So we went to London and I was told we would have a good apartment, as it was we got the Penthouse Apartment in the building. It was very pretty. It had a fully fitted kitchen, private lift (that opened up into the hallway of the apartment), our own back door access that led onto a different street to the hotel and just looked like a residential address. Two bedrooms and three bathrooms – and a private patio. Pictures follow.

So Leigh’s cake layer continues to shrik as Flash, formerly known as the Pudding Bump, continues to develop and spread out giving himself womb to manouvre

Latest images reveal that Leigh is at least happy with this situation.

Don't you dare say anything about cake

She looks very happy about this

So the second room is coming along in the old -getting decorated- stakes and I thought it would be a good point to post a few low res pictures of the changes done so far – so here they are in order of being placed (newest are at the bottom).

Okay I have been implicated in a potential false claim, to whit, that I have put across the message that my wife cannot feel the kicking of our active sprog due to her ‘cake layer’. I didn’t start this rumour, as it is not a rumour. I merely report to you all a fact. My wife has always claimed she has a second, ‘pudding’, stomach, I do not dispute her right to claim that. I claim that it is this stomach that prevents her feeling the kicking because I have seen the truth and you can also. If you look closely at the -FULL- copy of the 20 week scan (which I have helpfully labelled for you) you can clearly see Flash, the Placenta and then Cake Layer I claim is the cause of her feeling nothing.

So, apparently I’m supposed to blog stuff here.
Blog blog blog.
Not enough? Well alrighty then, I might as well waffle about Flash for a bit. As I write this I’m 22 weeks along, and have I felt any kicks yet? Have I b*****ks. While I feel a little aggrieved that the pregnancy book promised kicks between 16-22 weeks and they have yet to be forthcoming, I take some solace in the fact that the cartoon lady who’s diary is in that book hasn’t felt anything yet either, so at least I’m not alone. I’d figured we might have a lazy baby on our hands here.
We were at the hospital for our check up yesterday and I was asked if he was moving regularly. Regularly? At all would be nice, I said to the very pleasant lady who introduced herself as our consultant’s registrar. So she measured me, declared Flash’s house to be just the right size for him, then got out the Doppler to have a listen to his heartbeat. Then she looked surprised.
“He’s moving a lot! Can you really not feel that?”
“Nope! Not a sausage.”
“Well, he seems happy in there.”
“It must be your cake layer,” says my dotting hubby. Thanks, my love.
So the good news is Flash is dancing around, even though I can’t feel him. The other good news is it’s cake Friday and someone just handed me a pink marble cupcake! Yum. Life is good. And no, I don’t think those two things are connected….

We had to take the cat to the vets last week as we noticed that his breath was a little ripe and on examination his gums looked red. So we made an appointment and it was for two-thirty p.m. – yep Tooth Hurty – two-thirty – they couldn’t have just made it 2.15 could they.

Anyway it was found that he needed to go in to have his teeth cleaned and a proper examination which happened yesterday. While he was under they discovered that the wee mite has viral gingivitis (yuck) and that he has most likely had it for some time. He is probably prone to the condition. They had to remove five of his teeth to help ease the pain/pressure on his gums and from now on he must have dental-formula biscuits and we get to play at brushing his teeth and applying a special gel to the gums to try and keep the infection/condition under control.

They also charged us a good sum (over £150) for the privilege of doing all of this work – though sticking your fingers in a cats mouth can’t be that much fun.

Failing that we could knock all his teeth out and then watch him suck his biscuits for the rest of his life :/

So we had some electrical work done just over a week ago and I said that I would blog about this chap:

Mark Hunter Electrical

01524 66090

07766014904

If you need any electrical work done in the Lancaster district I can highly recommend him, he is fast, efficient, polite and well-priced. Mark came when he said he would and performed a really nice job. So just to SEO a few more links, he is a Lancaster Electrician.

We’re off to a sci-fi convention this weekend with the wonderful Simsian Parental Units. I know is this a descent into further geekdom/nerdalia, is it in fact possible for that to happen to us since we are already fairly immersed, did we pay for it? Well, no, and yes.

Linda won some tickets to the event in a magazine competition so we have free entry, though the cost of travelling and accommodation isn’t included so hey ho. Half the cost is bourne by the fickle fingers of finance the other by fate.

I will be reporting some more on what happened/happens sooner or later but for now let me tell you there is a masked ball/costume event and yes I’m Batman (or should that be f…..).

So we are finally, and it does seem like an age since we moved the books into boxes and stacked them in the front room in preparation for this, getting around to decorating the dining room/second room.

Huzzah. Hooray. Yay. All that Jazz.

For the love of Pete why?

That’s a simple answer, it needed it. When we moved in there was a hole in the ceiling, caused we think by a leak in the bathroom at some point.

There were glass uplighters (eaugh) on the walls and no light on the ceiling.

The wooden stair feature was painted with matt white paint that had yellowed (partly due to the previous occupants being smokers, the ceiling were yellow as well, partly because some arse had decided to paint varnish on top of varnish, stain it, then paint it with no undercoat – the idleness of people stuns me).

We had to have one wall completely re-plastered due to damp.

We had new centarl heating and pipes fitted due to the old system being, well, sh*t.

So we decided to decorate/re-model and I moved stuff in preparation for a long and well thought out process involving a complete strip to bare surfaces (and boy did stripping a whole half wall of wood take some time!).

Speed it up…..

So why the rush. Well that’s simple, we now have el sprogalatta on the road to popping out and so I must finish this task, so I can do the next task which will be the great my God we need a nursery quest.

Greensleeves (well I lean on my paint a lot)

So we are going for a green theme to the new room with bookcases built onto the walls and a new lighting and putting a new doorway in to the kitchen. Picture of test for colour is below – I will post more images when the room is done/as we go along.

Wall colour test

So it was the 20-week, bite broken and torn fingernails some more, scan today and we were a little nervous. But, it was fine. All is well with the little pudding that Leigh is growing in her cake-belly (9 months at Regulo Wifey).

The only detail they couldn’t see was the Baby’s face (he lay on his back the entire time kicking at the Placenta) so they couln’t check that, but the brain, spine, heart, stomach, kidneys and all that Jazz seem to be developing well.
Also we can now say ‘He’ as it is a boy. They will state that they are not 100% positive of this, me, I say “but he has dangly bits”.

What is in a name?

I have already been asked about a name, and my initial response is that we are calling him Flash during his bump life. But, Isamabrd Kingdom Brunell was called Kingdom as his father believed if you name your child with greatness they will become great. I like that andf it was true for Brunell, so I think Flash Empire Keating, then one day there may be a Flash Empire Empire