A Full Weekend

That was a good weekend with a remarkable amount crammed into it but still felt reasonably relaxing

Friday evening saw a trip to a nearby meeting for a get-together with our antenatal group, which is turning into a really nice little social and support group. We had the earliest due date for our baby, but last weekend we were gazzumped by one of the other couples, who produced something like four weeks early. We haven't seen them since, but apparently they are doing well.

After this, I dropped <3 back at home and scooted off to the pub to join in the session which was still running. This was a little quieter this time by approximately one piano accordion and four melodeons. The only squeezeboxes present were a couple of concertinas, which seemed a little odd. I think the morris men must have had some other engagement. One point of amusement was a local drunk constantly requesting that someone sing an Irish rebel song, and bemoaning the fact that everywhere he goes people only know one rebel song. Of course, this level of (non-) success may have been influenced by the facts that (a) this was primarily a tunes session, so not many songs got sung (there are usually a handful though) and (b) what the writers of the rebel songs were rebelling against was the English, and the session was full of (mostly) English people in the heart of England. Ho hum.

A good chunk of the rest of the weekend was spent by <3 and meself pottering about at home and around nearby towns buying DIY materials, food, wool, etc., with the rest involving me fitting scotia around the new nursery floor (there are a few gaps, but not bad overall) and painting woodwork, while <3 chilled and knitted. All in all it went well, and I must admit it was nice to go out for a Sunday lunch that I hadn't cooked!

Still no baby, though.

A Whole New World

Sometimes you just have to love the customer reviews on Amazon. The new Katie and Peter album has spawned some awesome reviews. Probably the top of the heap for my money is the one entitled "Two Monstrous Talents", which is a work of genius. Who can ignore a recommendation like: "How can two monstrous talents such as these, who so shun public exposure, have plucked up the courage to make this bold, vibrant statement of artistic splendour? And lets not forget Peter's contribution either"?

Thanks to the guys at The Session for spotting this.

Three Men in a Canal

This Sunday's pub session was very quiet, with only myself (with harmonicas), J. with a fiddle, and W. with a concertina (and occasionally whistle and bodhran), though we were later joined by the landlord and the cajon (that's one of those boxes that you sit on and smack with your hands to make nice drumming noises) which had been presented to him by the band which regularly plays there. Despite the lack of people, I had a great time, joining in on a handful of tunes, starting a couple myself, and spending quite a bit of time just chatting away. While it was light on the music, it was a really nice, relaxed atmosphere and I got to find out a bit about the workings of a duet concertina.

Inspired by the evening, I went home and learnt to play one of the local session standards, The Canal In October (known elsewhere as Le Canal En Octobre), and now I am kicking myself for not tackling it sooner — it's one of those really elegantly simple tunes which is easy to play and nice to listen to. Of course, now I need to learn something to play with it in a set...

Still no baby.

Them Pesky Cats

This weekend I did something that I have hardly managed to do over the last few weeks: get into the garden during daylight. A few days ago I posted about burglars who apparently used a wheel barrow in their nefarious exploits, and Phillip made the comment that perhaps I should worry more about my wheel barrow than my fish. Well, I looked by the shed where the wheel barrow usually sits and it is there no more (and it isn't elsewhere in the garden either). Putting two and two together, it looks entirely likely that our rusty old barrow, with holes in the bottom, was used as a getaway vehicle. D'oh! Did Phillip have insider knowledge?

We'll let the police know, but frankly we could hardly care less about the barrow: I was wanting to get a new one anyway and then this one would need disposal. I think that the main issue is just how open and visible from the road our garden is. As our hedge grows over the next few years, this should improve significantly. It just takes time...

Poster Child

So I finally submitted my final submission for this year's OU course — a project poster and post mortem discussion on the project as a whole. This year was the toughest yet and I genuinely have no idea if I have passed; it'll be about 3 months until I know, by which time I will be well into the next course, which starts at the beginning of February. If (fingers crossed) I didn't stuff this year's project up too terminally, then next year will be the last course I need to finally earn my degree. If I did fail, then I'll have to do another project the year after, making for 8 years of study in total. It's a long road...

In other news, still no news on the baby. <3 is now at home on maternity leave and finding it quite hard work to do anything at all at the moment. It is a little over a week until the official due date (for what that is worth), so it won't be much longer one way or another, but I'm really hoping it comes sooner so <3 can be able to walk again.