I had an interesting experience over the weekend. I'm amused in hindsight, and actually was at the time, but I was rather astonished too I have to say.
I realised on Friday that I'm going to need a tablecloth for the new kitchen table. The wood has a dark stain, and where I have it placed in the kitchen about half the table is sitting in direct sunlight for part of the day (it's by windows, but it's huge so options are limited). Not so good for fading.
Cue a tablecloth hunt. Well, once I'd been online and found out that Art de Vivre, home of the ladle and also gorgeous tablecloths (until this point, the tablecloth was going to be a no-brainer) appears to have shut it's website down (the website that was launched after they shut their retail store down). AAARRGGHH!!!
Sooo, I was in Newmarket on Saturday morning (things to do, a layby to pick up ...Incidentally, I think we've discussed the general merits of layby before, but I discovered a new one at the weekend. It seems that when you layby more than one item, like, say three, six weeks is long enough to forget about one of them. Score!) and popped into a linen shop as I was passing to have a look at their tablecloths.
The shop owner, a man, asks me "Can I help you?"
A good start all in all, except for the inflection he placed on "help". Sort of like he was going to have to clean his shop once he'd ushered me out the door.
"Do you have a range of tablecloths?"
His response?
To stay exactly where he was and say "They're very expensive".
I don't know that my eyebrows have ever ventured that high into my hairline before.
Interesting assumption for someone in the retail business to make ...and, I think it's a safe bet that he didn't know how much I spent on the ladle. Or how much I wasn't going to spend on a tablecloth (or anything else, ever, come to that) in his store.
You have to wonder what prompts such an assumption though. He'd obviously judged me, but on what? My jandals? The scuffed hems on my jeans? That I dared shop in Newmarket without putting any makeup on? My (beloved) cardi that had seen better days? Silly man. Silly, silly man.
Oh, and in case you're wondering ...? Yes, I made him show me the range anyway, and no, they weren't that expensive.
Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Monday, 9 April 2007
Still deciding
I'm still not sure about the posting. I'm definitely not going the fluff piece route again though.
We have more progress on the bathroom front! We painted the walls yesterday and I can tell already that this new bathroom is going to be such a happy place. Why? Guess what colour the walls are? Chocolate brown. See? Happy place! The only problem is that hanging out in a chocolate brown room for most of yesterday, I ended up eating quite a bit of it as well. Not the room. The thought just kept planting itself, and it's Easter so there is lots of chocolate in the house. Or was. This is the only tricky bit I foresee with the new bathroom. I really don't want another one of those stomach bugs to rid me of chocolate kilos again.
I'm really surprised that painting it such a dark colour hasn't made the room feel small and dark. I thought it might, and I keep going in there to check whether it's gotten small and dark yet. It came off smaller and darker when it had the old white walls. Perhaps it's the polised floors instead of lino? The wooden floors seem to glow. Who knows? No pics yet anyway as we've still got a little bit to do. I was hoping to be finished this weekend, but we've still got all the ...whatever they're called ...the bits at the top of the walls, and along the bottom of the walls? ...to do. They are going to be an absolute nightmare. They're being painted white, and the walls are chocolate brown. I foresee white paint splatters on chocolate walls. Still, it was either that, or chocolate streaks on white top-and-bottom bits, which would be harder to cover up.
I've done my writing thing that I've been working on too. Sort of. I've done and redone it about 3 times, and I'm still glaring at it because it doesn't seem right. The only time anything ever seems to look right first time is when you're a Uni student, it's7am, you've been up all night and drunk an entire tin of really bad instant coffe, and the deadline is 8am. Then, it looks fine.
But I haven't weeded the garden. That's my reward for doing my other stuff. I despise weeding and I really don't know how some people enjoy it. My absolute hate is those horrible weeds that have sort of like bulbs at the bottom, and if you don't get that bit out in one piece fifty five million new weeds grow in it's place. Argh!
And on that rather inane note, I'm off to potter in my bathroom. I have a rather large white streak on one chocolate wall (from the first coat of ceiling paint) to touch up, and a little bit of sanding where my masking up of the wooden finishing strip between the feaux tiles and the painted walls didn't entirely do the trick.
I'll be back tomorrow properly, though I don't feel on form at the moment. I'm not feeling like myself. There's something going on in my head, and I haven't decided yet whether I'm ready to talk to you about it, or even if there's anything to talk about ... and in the meantime I'm fidgety and I'm brooding on it. Something somewhere in my universe is out of whack. Watch this space I guess.
We have more progress on the bathroom front! We painted the walls yesterday and I can tell already that this new bathroom is going to be such a happy place. Why? Guess what colour the walls are? Chocolate brown. See? Happy place! The only problem is that hanging out in a chocolate brown room for most of yesterday, I ended up eating quite a bit of it as well. Not the room. The thought just kept planting itself, and it's Easter so there is lots of chocolate in the house. Or was. This is the only tricky bit I foresee with the new bathroom. I really don't want another one of those stomach bugs to rid me of chocolate kilos again.
I'm really surprised that painting it such a dark colour hasn't made the room feel small and dark. I thought it might, and I keep going in there to check whether it's gotten small and dark yet. It came off smaller and darker when it had the old white walls. Perhaps it's the polised floors instead of lino? The wooden floors seem to glow. Who knows? No pics yet anyway as we've still got a little bit to do. I was hoping to be finished this weekend, but we've still got all the ...whatever they're called ...the bits at the top of the walls, and along the bottom of the walls? ...to do. They are going to be an absolute nightmare. They're being painted white, and the walls are chocolate brown. I foresee white paint splatters on chocolate walls. Still, it was either that, or chocolate streaks on white top-and-bottom bits, which would be harder to cover up.
I've done my writing thing that I've been working on too. Sort of. I've done and redone it about 3 times, and I'm still glaring at it because it doesn't seem right. The only time anything ever seems to look right first time is when you're a Uni student, it's7am, you've been up all night and drunk an entire tin of really bad instant coffe, and the deadline is 8am. Then, it looks fine.
But I haven't weeded the garden. That's my reward for doing my other stuff. I despise weeding and I really don't know how some people enjoy it. My absolute hate is those horrible weeds that have sort of like bulbs at the bottom, and if you don't get that bit out in one piece fifty five million new weeds grow in it's place. Argh!
And on that rather inane note, I'm off to potter in my bathroom. I have a rather large white streak on one chocolate wall (from the first coat of ceiling paint) to touch up, and a little bit of sanding where my masking up of the wooden finishing strip between the feaux tiles and the painted walls didn't entirely do the trick.
I'll be back tomorrow properly, though I don't feel on form at the moment. I'm not feeling like myself. There's something going on in my head, and I haven't decided yet whether I'm ready to talk to you about it, or even if there's anything to talk about ... and in the meantime I'm fidgety and I'm brooding on it. Something somewhere in my universe is out of whack. Watch this space I guess.
Friday, 6 April 2007
To post, or not to post
I'm in a quandry, and I've been stewing on it all morning.
Is it the weekend?
I don't do weekends, which you know, but I can't decide if it's a weekend or not. It's Friday, so not the weekend per se, but it is a public holiday 'long weekend' and so possibly, technically, qualifies as a weekend.
So, do I do a post or not? And then, what about Monday? Whatever I decide today must stand for Monday as well.
Oh dear.
What to do ....what to do?
I suppose it was for this general purpose that fluff pieces were invented. Space fillers. Conscience-relieving bone-throwing topics.
A fluff piece would work ....except I don't really do fluff, which adds to the degree of difficulty, and therefore negates the purpose of the fluff piece quite royally. If it's hard, what's the point, right? But then, we all have to make an effort sometimes, don't we? Perhaps today is the day I do my very first fluff piece.
Soooo ....What about Britney Spears and that meltdown, eh?
Ahhh, forget it.
Have a nice weekend!
Is it the weekend?
I don't do weekends, which you know, but I can't decide if it's a weekend or not. It's Friday, so not the weekend per se, but it is a public holiday 'long weekend' and so possibly, technically, qualifies as a weekend.
So, do I do a post or not? And then, what about Monday? Whatever I decide today must stand for Monday as well.
Oh dear.
What to do ....what to do?
I suppose it was for this general purpose that fluff pieces were invented. Space fillers. Conscience-relieving bone-throwing topics.
A fluff piece would work ....except I don't really do fluff, which adds to the degree of difficulty, and therefore negates the purpose of the fluff piece quite royally. If it's hard, what's the point, right? But then, we all have to make an effort sometimes, don't we? Perhaps today is the day I do my very first fluff piece.
Soooo ....What about Britney Spears and that meltdown, eh?
Ahhh, forget it.
Have a nice weekend!
Thursday, 5 April 2007
What's brand spankers, gorgeous, and sitting in my kitchen?
A dining suite. We had it delivered yesterday.
Back at the beginning of the year, we thought we'd practice living off Al's salary (I might have told you about this already, so if I'm repeating myself just skip to the next paragraph), and so we made a shopping list of some big ticket items we wanted, and budgeted to pay for these from my salary. So, it's not really living off one salary, it's just that we're being disciplined with mine, and not pissing it against the wall. In theory. So far it's not so bad ...but it is quite lucky that it's only a practice run. Ahem.
On said list of big ticket items was a new dining suite. We had a small 4 seater jobbie, but it was small, and thinking ahead to entertaining and having a family, we thought we'd really like something bigger - a 6 or 8 seater. So, when my brother came up to do the bathroom, he took the old set (cheap labour! plus then we didn't need to muck around trying to sell it), and we were just going to get a new one in due course. Since we've just had a big bill with the bathroom, the plan was that we'd get onto it in a month or two. We have a place where we get all our wooden furniture - their prices are good and their stuff is good quality and really solid.
We were in the general area of the furniture place on Sunday and thought we just go and have a nosey and see what they had, and get a price etc. Except, there was a problem. A big problem. Painted across the entire frontage of our store, in huge red letters, were three words which normally would have set my heart to racing happily, but on this occasion didn't so much. It was more like blind panic. CLOSING DOWN SALE. I love a good sale as much as the next person, but the problem was that we'd obviously missed it and the store had already closed! Aaargh! I still haven't decided whether I was mortified they'd closed down, or mortified that I missed the sale. I almost feel as though they should apologise to us for closing though, either way ...
After that little hitch in our plans we thought we'd better just get an idea of prices elsewhere, and see what else is around, so we could budget on it etc. I had a really specific idea of what I wanted (which always makes for frustrating shopping), and I really didn't think I'd be able to find it. I wanted plain, clean lines. Blocky, 'country' style. No turned legs etc. Wood with a darker stain, but not dark dark. No light wood. Oh dear.
Freedom Furniture was where it all went horribly wrong for the second time. In the true nature of these things, although I didn't expect to find anything there, we did. It was absolutely perfect. As far as furniture goes, there are some things out there which look great when they're brand new, and even better when they're beaten to within an inch of their wee lives. Our leather lounge suite is one of those things. Our dining suite will be another. It'll look great as it ages, and dings will just add character. And believe me, it'll be getting plenty of dings. That's why I was looking for such a specific thing. I made a note of the style etc, and the price (eek! I've had a few price-related heart attacks in my life, but seriously!) which was quite a lot more than we were intending to pay, and that was, in theory, that. Except, I grabbed a salesperson to ask if we could order different fabric for the chair seats. Just out of curiosity. Woops. Big mistake. Huge. The salesperson merrily informed us that the suite was a discontinued line, and that the chairs before us were the last of the lot. No more. Nada. Zip. End of the road. Crap. So we bought it.
My poor, poor budget.
We saved $1,200.00 on the buy, but I still feel a tad ill.
Al has been duly and severely warned too that even though we have a nice big table in the kitchen now, that does not mean that he can cover a greater surface area with junk. You know how these things happen. It's like when you move into a bigger house, and somehow there still isn't room for all your crap. This of course means that I'm going to have to make sure that I don't cover the new table with junk too. I'm very bad at that ... telling him off for things whilst doing the exact same thing myself. Like the broken toe incident of 2005. I kicked one of his steel capped boots which was lying on the kitchen floor as I walked past it (accidentally of course) and broke my little toe (he was size 13-14 boots, so they weigh a ton, and if you kick them, there is no give whatsoever. And the toe was definitely broken, believe me). As I was swearing up a storm at him for leaving his boots lying around, I turned around and tripped over my own shoes which were strewn about behind me. I suppose at least he had the good grace to go down the other end of the house before he weed himself laughing. Probably because I was also in close proximity to the kitchem knives at the time, and I wasn't really in the frame of mind to see the error of my ways.
Anyway! I digress. Or waffle. Or whatever. The point is ....goodness knows. Oh, yes. We have a gorgeous new dining suite, and have therefore knocked off two of our five major planned purchases for this year, plus a holiday, and it's only the beginning of April. Even I don't want to go shopping again for a while!
Back at the beginning of the year, we thought we'd practice living off Al's salary (I might have told you about this already, so if I'm repeating myself just skip to the next paragraph), and so we made a shopping list of some big ticket items we wanted, and budgeted to pay for these from my salary. So, it's not really living off one salary, it's just that we're being disciplined with mine, and not pissing it against the wall. In theory. So far it's not so bad ...but it is quite lucky that it's only a practice run. Ahem.
On said list of big ticket items was a new dining suite. We had a small 4 seater jobbie, but it was small, and thinking ahead to entertaining and having a family, we thought we'd really like something bigger - a 6 or 8 seater. So, when my brother came up to do the bathroom, he took the old set (cheap labour! plus then we didn't need to muck around trying to sell it), and we were just going to get a new one in due course. Since we've just had a big bill with the bathroom, the plan was that we'd get onto it in a month or two. We have a place where we get all our wooden furniture - their prices are good and their stuff is good quality and really solid.
We were in the general area of the furniture place on Sunday and thought we just go and have a nosey and see what they had, and get a price etc. Except, there was a problem. A big problem. Painted across the entire frontage of our store, in huge red letters, were three words which normally would have set my heart to racing happily, but on this occasion didn't so much. It was more like blind panic. CLOSING DOWN SALE. I love a good sale as much as the next person, but the problem was that we'd obviously missed it and the store had already closed! Aaargh! I still haven't decided whether I was mortified they'd closed down, or mortified that I missed the sale. I almost feel as though they should apologise to us for closing though, either way ...
After that little hitch in our plans we thought we'd better just get an idea of prices elsewhere, and see what else is around, so we could budget on it etc. I had a really specific idea of what I wanted (which always makes for frustrating shopping), and I really didn't think I'd be able to find it. I wanted plain, clean lines. Blocky, 'country' style. No turned legs etc. Wood with a darker stain, but not dark dark. No light wood. Oh dear.
Freedom Furniture was where it all went horribly wrong for the second time. In the true nature of these things, although I didn't expect to find anything there, we did. It was absolutely perfect. As far as furniture goes, there are some things out there which look great when they're brand new, and even better when they're beaten to within an inch of their wee lives. Our leather lounge suite is one of those things. Our dining suite will be another. It'll look great as it ages, and dings will just add character. And believe me, it'll be getting plenty of dings. That's why I was looking for such a specific thing. I made a note of the style etc, and the price (eek! I've had a few price-related heart attacks in my life, but seriously!) which was quite a lot more than we were intending to pay, and that was, in theory, that. Except, I grabbed a salesperson to ask if we could order different fabric for the chair seats. Just out of curiosity. Woops. Big mistake. Huge. The salesperson merrily informed us that the suite was a discontinued line, and that the chairs before us were the last of the lot. No more. Nada. Zip. End of the road. Crap. So we bought it.
My poor, poor budget.
We saved $1,200.00 on the buy, but I still feel a tad ill.
Al has been duly and severely warned too that even though we have a nice big table in the kitchen now, that does not mean that he can cover a greater surface area with junk. You know how these things happen. It's like when you move into a bigger house, and somehow there still isn't room for all your crap. This of course means that I'm going to have to make sure that I don't cover the new table with junk too. I'm very bad at that ... telling him off for things whilst doing the exact same thing myself. Like the broken toe incident of 2005. I kicked one of his steel capped boots which was lying on the kitchen floor as I walked past it (accidentally of course) and broke my little toe (he was size 13-14 boots, so they weigh a ton, and if you kick them, there is no give whatsoever. And the toe was definitely broken, believe me). As I was swearing up a storm at him for leaving his boots lying around, I turned around and tripped over my own shoes which were strewn about behind me. I suppose at least he had the good grace to go down the other end of the house before he weed himself laughing. Probably because I was also in close proximity to the kitchem knives at the time, and I wasn't really in the frame of mind to see the error of my ways.
Anyway! I digress. Or waffle. Or whatever. The point is ....goodness knows. Oh, yes. We have a gorgeous new dining suite, and have therefore knocked off two of our five major planned purchases for this year, plus a holiday, and it's only the beginning of April. Even I don't want to go shopping again for a while!
Wednesday, 4 April 2007
So, yes, I've been thinking ...
Mulling, I suppose you'd call it.
Initially, when we saw the specialist to discuss fertility treatment, and he said that waiting 2 or 3 years wouldn't matter at all to my fertility, and he thought that it was a good length of time to continue trying to conceive naturally, I was horrified. 2 or 3 years. I'm 28 now. I thought I'll be 31 in 3 years, and the thought panicked me. It panicked me because I always imagined having my children in my twenties, and there isn't that much of my twenties left. I was going to have had 2 by 30, and that would be my family complete. That was the plan. Before the plan got shot to bits of course. I swear, it was like we made the plan, and someone out there painted a bullseye on it.
The specialist was suggesting that we change the goal posts, and that was scarey stuff.
But, the more time I have with these thoughts, things seem to be changing for me. The specialist (we'll call him Dr G shall we? for Dr Graham. It saves me typing out 'the specialist' every time I refer to him) said to me that as far as my fertility, or apparent lack thereof, goes, there is no difference between 28 and 30/31. Not like there is between 28 and 35. Dr G believes that as long as I'm OK, there is no need at all to rush.
I'm not suggesting that we're going to put the brakes on things, and try to avoid a natural pregnancy. We're just going to carry on life as normal. I'm purely thinking about if it comes down to IVF. We could get pregnant naturally in 6 months and it won't be an issue. But, in the meantime I'm musing about what happens at the end of this year if we're still not pregnant and the IVF issue starts to loom large , not if something unexpected happens naturally in the meantime.
The thing is, one cycle of IVF is $10,000.00 thereabouts. $10,000.00 is a lot of money. And if the cycle doesn't work? You may as well have just stood there and flushed the whole lot down the toilet. Can you imagine flushing $10,000.00 down the toilet? Then there would be another cycle, and maybe another one on top of that. You get the picture. It's big dollars. The cost of one cycle - $10,000.00 - would almost get my house finished. I could recarpet, redo the kitchen (the benchtop and cupboard facings), and a few other bits and bobs that I really want done. I'm thinking that we can do those things, and then just come up with the IVF money again a bit later on.
Plus, I'm really happy at the moment. Very content to kick back and enjoy life as it rolls on by. I'm loving the time I get to play with my dogs at the park every day, and the time with Al with no demands other than those of normal life, loving just 'being' for the moment. I'm thinking about maybe taking a big holiday next year (and by big, I don't mean 'normal people' big, like an OE or tour, I just mean going overseas for a week or something ...big for me. My travel thing is a whole other post). A month after seeing Dr G I am just in such a good head space. Things are great. Does that make sense?
I suppose what it all comes down to, is ... I am starting to wonder, is there any need to rush?
No, there's not.
Looking at my beautiful new bathroom (which we're painting this weekend, so stay tuned for pics), I'd really like to get the rest of the house done, and it'd be so nice to have a gorgeous house to rattle around in for a bit. Of course a house doesn't make up for a child, and I'm not suggesting that it can, or will. I'm just thinking that this extra time that Al and I have without a family is a gift of sorts that I could probably enjoy for a little bit longer than I thought I might be able to.
Anywho ...Methinks I'm starting to waffle, so I'll leave it there. Watch this space.
Initially, when we saw the specialist to discuss fertility treatment, and he said that waiting 2 or 3 years wouldn't matter at all to my fertility, and he thought that it was a good length of time to continue trying to conceive naturally, I was horrified. 2 or 3 years. I'm 28 now. I thought I'll be 31 in 3 years, and the thought panicked me. It panicked me because I always imagined having my children in my twenties, and there isn't that much of my twenties left. I was going to have had 2 by 30, and that would be my family complete. That was the plan. Before the plan got shot to bits of course. I swear, it was like we made the plan, and someone out there painted a bullseye on it.
The specialist was suggesting that we change the goal posts, and that was scarey stuff.
But, the more time I have with these thoughts, things seem to be changing for me. The specialist (we'll call him Dr G shall we? for Dr Graham. It saves me typing out 'the specialist' every time I refer to him) said to me that as far as my fertility, or apparent lack thereof, goes, there is no difference between 28 and 30/31. Not like there is between 28 and 35. Dr G believes that as long as I'm OK, there is no need at all to rush.
I'm not suggesting that we're going to put the brakes on things, and try to avoid a natural pregnancy. We're just going to carry on life as normal. I'm purely thinking about if it comes down to IVF. We could get pregnant naturally in 6 months and it won't be an issue. But, in the meantime I'm musing about what happens at the end of this year if we're still not pregnant and the IVF issue starts to loom large , not if something unexpected happens naturally in the meantime.
The thing is, one cycle of IVF is $10,000.00 thereabouts. $10,000.00 is a lot of money. And if the cycle doesn't work? You may as well have just stood there and flushed the whole lot down the toilet. Can you imagine flushing $10,000.00 down the toilet? Then there would be another cycle, and maybe another one on top of that. You get the picture. It's big dollars. The cost of one cycle - $10,000.00 - would almost get my house finished. I could recarpet, redo the kitchen (the benchtop and cupboard facings), and a few other bits and bobs that I really want done. I'm thinking that we can do those things, and then just come up with the IVF money again a bit later on.
Plus, I'm really happy at the moment. Very content to kick back and enjoy life as it rolls on by. I'm loving the time I get to play with my dogs at the park every day, and the time with Al with no demands other than those of normal life, loving just 'being' for the moment. I'm thinking about maybe taking a big holiday next year (and by big, I don't mean 'normal people' big, like an OE or tour, I just mean going overseas for a week or something ...big for me. My travel thing is a whole other post). A month after seeing Dr G I am just in such a good head space. Things are great. Does that make sense?
I suppose what it all comes down to, is ... I am starting to wonder, is there any need to rush?
No, there's not.
Looking at my beautiful new bathroom (which we're painting this weekend, so stay tuned for pics), I'd really like to get the rest of the house done, and it'd be so nice to have a gorgeous house to rattle around in for a bit. Of course a house doesn't make up for a child, and I'm not suggesting that it can, or will. I'm just thinking that this extra time that Al and I have without a family is a gift of sorts that I could probably enjoy for a little bit longer than I thought I might be able to.
Anywho ...Methinks I'm starting to waffle, so I'll leave it there. Watch this space.
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Happiness is a short working week
I've just realised that it's Easter this weekend! (Yes, yes, I know. I'm a little slow on the uptake at the moment) Wooppee! A 4 day week this week, and a 4 day week next week. Bliss!
I'm planning to weed my gardens ...or at the very least the one where the weeds are taller than the miniature fruit trees that are supposed to be growing equally as well. Ahem. And, I have a writing thing that I should have done a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't. Bad me. I'm going to do that this weekend as well. I started working on a draft last weekend ...but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's probably best not to try and write coherently whilst in the grips of a dealthy delerium. It reads a bit like I've been on magic mushrooms.
The long weekend does however vaguely make up for the fact that my birthday (how smooth was that transition?) is about a week later, and I'm getting old. I don't like getting old. I'm just not as quick as I used to be ...I really should have made the birthday plug yesterday when I was talking about that beanie that I didn't get from Beaufoy. (Beaufoy. In Gisborne. Winter White. I can give you their contact number if you like ...? Oh. Woops. Subtlely is the key to hinting. Bollocks) Anyway! Happy Birthday to me! I get a holiday.
And off on a completely different tangent ...yesterday I went and had the bloods done that my specialist ordered. We're looking at my FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) levels this time, which hasn't been done before. Apparently this one is quite important, probably more so, than the CD22/23 bloods to check for (or confirm, really) ovulation. The FSH blood work checks whether my hormone levels are good at the start of my cycle, and therefore that my body has what it needs to create the follicle(s) that will release the egg(s). It's all expected to be very, very normal, it just had to be done so that we have all the information we can get. We'll see.
The very funny thing at the moment (well, perhaps just mildly ironic ...assuming I've used 'ironic' in the correct context, which is usually a little touch and go for me) is that we got a phone call just before we went away confirming our registration for the next Fertility Associates seminar for IVF information etc, which is on 1st May. As it turns out, as of 1st May we're going to be trying to avoid a pregnancy for a couple of months (yes, I know that sounds odd ....as of 1st May ...but it's pretty much how my cycles fall).
It seems strange to be leaping in the other direction with things! But, my brother's wedding is next February, and so we don't want to risk having a baby due around that time - I'd kick myself if I missed his wedding. So, best not to have to worry about it! The timing just seems a little quirky with the seminar and then the break from trying to conceive. Mind you, I also can't help but wonder if I'm starting to back peddle a bit over things (I've started thinking about what the specialist said ...If it comes down to IVF, I'm only 28, what's 2 or 3 years? Really ...in the scheme of things? You know?) ...I have the oddest feeling, which I voiced to Al the other day, that we are going to get to next March, have the money in the bank to start IVF, and I'm going to want to recarpet the house with it instead. Al is, as always, completely supportive of my ever-changeable mind, and just asked if we could do the kitchen bench at the same time (it's pink. You'd want to change it too). Sure! Whatever! The cat would be pissed if we stuck something in her cot anyway.
Of course, in relation to the break from trying to conceive, there will be those among you tempted to say "It'll probably happen now if you're trying to avoid it!". Don't do it. Resist the temptation. My foot will be up your ass before you get to the end of the sentence. In the nicest possible way, of course!
I'm planning to weed my gardens ...or at the very least the one where the weeds are taller than the miniature fruit trees that are supposed to be growing equally as well. Ahem. And, I have a writing thing that I should have done a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't. Bad me. I'm going to do that this weekend as well. I started working on a draft last weekend ...but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's probably best not to try and write coherently whilst in the grips of a dealthy delerium. It reads a bit like I've been on magic mushrooms.
The long weekend does however vaguely make up for the fact that my birthday (how smooth was that transition?) is about a week later, and I'm getting old. I don't like getting old. I'm just not as quick as I used to be ...I really should have made the birthday plug yesterday when I was talking about that beanie that I didn't get from Beaufoy. (Beaufoy. In Gisborne. Winter White. I can give you their contact number if you like ...? Oh. Woops. Subtlely is the key to hinting. Bollocks) Anyway! Happy Birthday to me! I get a holiday.
And off on a completely different tangent ...yesterday I went and had the bloods done that my specialist ordered. We're looking at my FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) levels this time, which hasn't been done before. Apparently this one is quite important, probably more so, than the CD22/23 bloods to check for (or confirm, really) ovulation. The FSH blood work checks whether my hormone levels are good at the start of my cycle, and therefore that my body has what it needs to create the follicle(s) that will release the egg(s). It's all expected to be very, very normal, it just had to be done so that we have all the information we can get. We'll see.
The very funny thing at the moment (well, perhaps just mildly ironic ...assuming I've used 'ironic' in the correct context, which is usually a little touch and go for me) is that we got a phone call just before we went away confirming our registration for the next Fertility Associates seminar for IVF information etc, which is on 1st May. As it turns out, as of 1st May we're going to be trying to avoid a pregnancy for a couple of months (yes, I know that sounds odd ....as of 1st May ...but it's pretty much how my cycles fall).
It seems strange to be leaping in the other direction with things! But, my brother's wedding is next February, and so we don't want to risk having a baby due around that time - I'd kick myself if I missed his wedding. So, best not to have to worry about it! The timing just seems a little quirky with the seminar and then the break from trying to conceive. Mind you, I also can't help but wonder if I'm starting to back peddle a bit over things (I've started thinking about what the specialist said ...If it comes down to IVF, I'm only 28, what's 2 or 3 years? Really ...in the scheme of things? You know?) ...I have the oddest feeling, which I voiced to Al the other day, that we are going to get to next March, have the money in the bank to start IVF, and I'm going to want to recarpet the house with it instead. Al is, as always, completely supportive of my ever-changeable mind, and just asked if we could do the kitchen bench at the same time (it's pink. You'd want to change it too). Sure! Whatever! The cat would be pissed if we stuck something in her cot anyway.
Of course, in relation to the break from trying to conceive, there will be those among you tempted to say "It'll probably happen now if you're trying to avoid it!". Don't do it. Resist the temptation. My foot will be up your ass before you get to the end of the sentence. In the nicest possible way, of course!
Monday, 2 April 2007
Back from the brink of disaster
And feeling a little less death-warmed-up and a little more health-on-ice. A subtle difference, but a difference nonetheless. Not so bad all in all, and considering I've been sick for a week. Plus, I got to add something new to my 'experience the unexperienced' list ...several times I threw up so hard, I had chunks lodged up my nose. Now that is puking! (and, even though I haven't eaten carrots since I was about 9 ...well)
It was only a week or so ago too that I was thinking I really had to do something about the extra couple of kilos that seemed to have settled around my butt ...and Voila! Problem solved! I only had to nearly die to do it (really, such a small sacrifice for such quick results), and I can still only eat soup and bread, but, you know, if I was a super model, I'd only be allowed a lettuce leaf every second day and I'd have to puke forever, so really, I'm living it up!
Gisborne was great though and the first couple of days were gorgeous - going to bed early, getting up early, going for long walks, nosing about and eating a lot.
Huge kudos to the following places:
Peel - for a fab bagel with cream cheese and strawberry preserve.
Wharf - for the best creme brulee I have ever [inhaled] savoured in my life. Seriously. I swooned.
Gordon Gecko - for a divine eye fillet steak.
Muir's Bookshop Cafe - for having books and coffee in the same place. Fantastic coffee too! Fall in your cup stuff.
Villaggio - for being muffin heaven (and no I don't mean it's a cafe full of girls who don't know what size jeans they should be wearing). Pumpkin and corn, Spinach, Feta and Pesto, and blackberry and custard ...huge muffins too! Plus, I learned a very valuable lesson about 18 month to 2 year olds and chocolate fish while I was there. If you are having coffee with a group, and said group consists of 18 month to 2 year olds, you can not leave your chocolate fish to enjoy once you've finished, or nearly finished your coffee. Once the little buggers spot a chocolate fish, it's all over. There will be tears, tantrums, and dirty tactics, but you will end up sharing the damn thing with however many of them there are. Still, it's one of those learned-my-lesson-the-first-time things. Won't happen again.
Anyway! I said I was going for the food, and the above were very happy times, well worth noting.
I also found a very cute little boutique, loaded with very cool clothes and things. Cool enough that I can forgive the rather odd name Beaufoy ...Thinking about the name, I feel as though I should understand some great secret but I have no idea what it means, if in fact it means anything at all. I suppose googling it might be helpful (no, it wasn't). It was a very cool store though and had a really good mix of designers - Kingan Jones, Sabine, that sort of thing. And hats! Fabulous hats! I fell head over heels in love with these gorgeous knitted beanies that they had ...very simple, and extremely cool. I tried one on in winter white, but, I was obviously possessed by a demented spirit at the time, because I didn't buy it. Duh.
The other thing I found in Gizzy Vegas is that is is full of gorgeous old houses - huge estates down to little cottages, and most of the ones I saw were beautifully restored. They were all over the place! I fell in love so many times over the course of a couple of days ...and usually our walks ended in Al dragging me home by the ear. I love old houses.
I'm sure there's more, but you should see the stack of paperwork I've walked into at work this morning! I'm actually going to have to go and do something about it. I'm trying to concentrate on my blog (obviously, my top priority), and I can see these piles of paper out the corner of my eye, waving about saying "Look at us! Look at us! See how many of us there are!" which is very distracting. Tragic.
Oh, and there will be pictures of the bathroom too, so never fear! We've polished the wooden floors that were hiding away under the revolting light blue feaux tile (textured) lino floor (no more having to scrub the lino on my hands and knees to get the dirt out of the texture! Wooppee!!) and so the bathroom is only going together properly later this week sometime. We still have to gib and paint the walls as well, but once we've had a divorce over what colour we're going to go with. So hopefully pics will So, pics will come in due course - hopefully in a week or so, or if I can't help myself, you'll get pics with bare gib walls. We'll see how I go!
It was only a week or so ago too that I was thinking I really had to do something about the extra couple of kilos that seemed to have settled around my butt ...and Voila! Problem solved! I only had to nearly die to do it (really, such a small sacrifice for such quick results), and I can still only eat soup and bread, but, you know, if I was a super model, I'd only be allowed a lettuce leaf every second day and I'd have to puke forever, so really, I'm living it up!
Gisborne was great though and the first couple of days were gorgeous - going to bed early, getting up early, going for long walks, nosing about and eating a lot.
Huge kudos to the following places:
Peel - for a fab bagel with cream cheese and strawberry preserve.
Wharf - for the best creme brulee I have ever [inhaled] savoured in my life. Seriously. I swooned.
Gordon Gecko - for a divine eye fillet steak.
Muir's Bookshop Cafe - for having books and coffee in the same place. Fantastic coffee too! Fall in your cup stuff.
Villaggio - for being muffin heaven (and no I don't mean it's a cafe full of girls who don't know what size jeans they should be wearing). Pumpkin and corn, Spinach, Feta and Pesto, and blackberry and custard ...huge muffins too! Plus, I learned a very valuable lesson about 18 month to 2 year olds and chocolate fish while I was there. If you are having coffee with a group, and said group consists of 18 month to 2 year olds, you can not leave your chocolate fish to enjoy once you've finished, or nearly finished your coffee. Once the little buggers spot a chocolate fish, it's all over. There will be tears, tantrums, and dirty tactics, but you will end up sharing the damn thing with however many of them there are. Still, it's one of those learned-my-lesson-the-first-time things. Won't happen again.
Anyway! I said I was going for the food, and the above were very happy times, well worth noting.
I also found a very cute little boutique, loaded with very cool clothes and things. Cool enough that I can forgive the rather odd name Beaufoy ...Thinking about the name, I feel as though I should understand some great secret but I have no idea what it means, if in fact it means anything at all. I suppose googling it might be helpful (no, it wasn't). It was a very cool store though and had a really good mix of designers - Kingan Jones, Sabine, that sort of thing. And hats! Fabulous hats! I fell head over heels in love with these gorgeous knitted beanies that they had ...very simple, and extremely cool. I tried one on in winter white, but, I was obviously possessed by a demented spirit at the time, because I didn't buy it. Duh.
The other thing I found in Gizzy Vegas is that is is full of gorgeous old houses - huge estates down to little cottages, and most of the ones I saw were beautifully restored. They were all over the place! I fell in love so many times over the course of a couple of days ...and usually our walks ended in Al dragging me home by the ear. I love old houses.
I'm sure there's more, but you should see the stack of paperwork I've walked into at work this morning! I'm actually going to have to go and do something about it. I'm trying to concentrate on my blog (obviously, my top priority), and I can see these piles of paper out the corner of my eye, waving about saying "Look at us! Look at us! See how many of us there are!" which is very distracting. Tragic.
Oh, and there will be pictures of the bathroom too, so never fear! We've polished the wooden floors that were hiding away under the revolting light blue feaux tile (textured) lino floor (no more having to scrub the lino on my hands and knees to get the dirt out of the texture! Wooppee!!) and so the bathroom is only going together properly later this week sometime. We still have to gib and paint the walls as well, but once we've had a divorce over what colour we're going to go with. So hopefully pics will So, pics will come in due course - hopefully in a week or so, or if I can't help myself, you'll get pics with bare gib walls. We'll see how I go!
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