Wednesday 24 December 2014

And so this is Christmas

This is either a huge pile of pressies or a very small tree.*
This is going to be a different sort of Christmas.

I have my own tree, my own lights; my own stack of presents in the corner of my own living room, in my own house. In a few hours, my own family will be joining me here. We'll be spending the evening here and in the morning opening our presents here, in my own house.

That's a big thing. My whole life, Christmas has been spent in someone else's home, usually my parents' and more recently with Hannah's parents. We will be seeing both sets, my parents later on Christmas Day and Hannah's on Boxing Day, but we're starting the day with eggs and presents in my home, with Hannah here and Andrew, and of course Arya.

Not so long ago, I'd pretty much given up on the idea of having a family. Arya has been a life-changer for me, and Hannah little less so. This isn't Arya's first Christmas, but that was spent at Hannah's parents and, while a good time, wasn't ours in the way that this year is looking to be. In a lot of ways, this is going to be my first grown-up Christmas, and I'm looking forward to it.

The full plan is that once Arya is in bed, we will chill, play board games and eat baked Camembert. In the morning we will open presents, and have eggs Benedict with ham I am cooking today and eggs royale with salmon Hannah cured at the weekend. Hannah and Andrew will have a glass of prosecco and Arya and I will have orange juice. Later, we will drive to Norfolk and have Christmas dinner with my parents, with more presents.

On Boxing Day morning, we'll head north to Leeds for a couple of days with Hannah's family, before coming back to Martlesham. Not sure where the new year is going to be spent, but I'm hoping to be back here for my birthday on the 4th.

* It's a very small tree.

Monday 22 December 2014

Taste it, damn you!*

I am so tired.

Not the tiredest, that was Sunday, and even then I was just the tiredest me, and yet somehow only the third most tired person in the house, thanks to Hannah basically taking the adorable, sleepless bullet that was a slightly feverish, definitely insomniac baby.

On Friday night she went down with a struggle and was up again early. I managed to persuaded her to sit with me and watch about two hours of Muppets before she went back to Mummy and Hannah insisted I sleep on the sofa for the rest of the night so one of us was vaguely rested. Saturday night was not dissimilar, but with more concern about the temperature.

Sunday night was grand, but we got very spooked in the morning when she spiked up around 40 degrees.

Anyway, this isn't my baby blog, so I'm mostly planning to talk about Christmas, but I'm probably not going to make much sense. That's the point of the above, in as much as it has one.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. I'm losing weight (yay fear and stress over a sick baby. No, wait...) Christmas shopping is almost completely done. Christmas cooking is underway; my fridge is full of curing fish** and fudge, including a block of Nigella's Shame (a delicious blend of sugar, butter, condensed milk, more sugar, syrup, Catholic self-loathing and self-aware sin) which is effectively a combination Christmas treat and emergency hypoglycemia treatment, and which I was tired enough to consider mainlining last night. I need to buy and cook ham for Christmas breakfast.

We went to the local Christmas fair a little while ago. I got the hilarious Blade trilogy at the DVD stall, Arya showed admirable distrust of a man in a false beard offering her gifts, and as we learned last night, Hannah won a quilt! Also, due to missing a train from Ely I was obliged to take a turn up to the market square and buy some Christmas Turkish delight. There's a van where they sell the real deal; not that jelly crap they mass market, but the proper 'sell your soul to a random chick in a sleigh' kind of Turkish delight.

I guess what I'm saying is that although sleep was a hard thing to come by this weekend, we have a lot to be grateful for, and I am very grateful for it.

* Title may not make sense to those not reading my baby blog.

** Just don't; it's been done to death.

Thursday 18 December 2014

The Rats in the Walls

Well, actually it's damp, but who's counting.

At the start of the week I was very coldy and last night I went to see The Battle of the Five Armies, so I'm going to have to attack the damp tonight. My plan is to knock the affected plaster off gently, brush or vacuum it up, and give the remains a go over with mould killer. That should hopefully keep until I can afford to have the plaster redone.

While I have the machine out, I can vacuum the rest of the flat as well.

Oh, the trials of being a grown up.

Sunday 14 December 2014

What I did with my weekend

This weekend I spent some quality time with Arya while Hannah was in London for a LARP. It's a new system for Hannah and something for her to do on her own, and it was important that it went well for that reason, as well as for the far more basic reason that I constantly question my qualifications as a father and need a lot of reassurance (Arya's smiles and Arya falling asleep on my lap are huge reassurances.)

I went to the start of a Swedish Jul party and had some lovely saffron buns. I also got to cook for my family, and to introduce Andrew to Mystery Science Theatre 3000 via the medium of the classic Fugitive Alien ('he tried to kill me with a fork lift!')

My Christmas tree is small, but damned Christmassy.

On more of a downside, my flat is kinda damp at the moment. In particular the many outside walls of the bathroom make it a condensation trap.

And How Art Thou Fallen?

So, I've been silent on LJ for a while. My other blogs have been lively, but nothing talking about me (as opposed to my daughter, or bad movies or games or whatever.)

In an attempt to redress this imbalance (which has been commented on, in particular as it means I don't talk about the awesome times I have with my girlfriend unless Arya is along with us,) I have created this new blog.

And the title... Well, at least one person knows why I chose that quote, but probably just one. So it goes (which was also an option.)