This post brought to you by the letter B

Birthday, bbq, babies and bubbles.
'Nuff said really.

Whirl

Stuff has been going on.



Probably should write about it.



Shall post cute mouse photo instead.

Winter Gardens

Over the last few weekends we've taken Sharon out to see some English gardens and parks. Of course the weather has been filthy, but that hasn't (quite) stopped us.

First up was Kew Gardens. Which is magificent due to demented (and dementedly large) greenhouses.

Which transforms cold, grey day like this...

To a warm, mist filled tropical oasis like this. Which Emily (natch) slept through.

We were in time to catch a fair few daffodils and other lawnflowers, and the obligatory bad coffee. Very nice. (well, not the coffee, obviously).

Next up, last weekend, was Hyde Park, to show Sharon some tree-rats. We stopped off on the way at Whole Foods, which despite being a big pile of eco-wank had some extraordinarily yummy food at it (one extremely gooey unpastuerised brie, for example).

Hyde Park, was, well, very Park-y. Had yummy picnic, showed Emily some swans, tried to stop her eating dirt, showed Sharon various tree-rats, and then fled for the nearest Starbucks for warmth and coffee.

And the next day it snowed of course! We shall see if Alix's plants survive.

Last, for Beloved Elder Sisters birthday, we took her out to a Michelen-starred restaurant, The Greenhouse. Yum. Started off worryingly, as the first amuses-bouche tasted a bit like dishwater. Or old sock. But thankfully, everything improved extremely rapidly.

Sharon seemed to be flavour of the month with the staff - she scored brownie points with the bread waiter for scarfing down half a dozen servings of his (admittedly fantastic - esp. the stilton) bread.

The cheese selection puts any "cheese board" to shame - a trolley with the most fantastic variety of cheeses was wheeled to our table... Highlights were the Vintage Comté (aged 4 years), and the Saint Felicien, which was, frankly, profanity inducing (in a good way). As one might expect, much porto was consumed with this.

And of course, cute baby video.

Winter Killed Spring And Took Its Stuff

It's cold and has been snowing on and off for days. But not solidly enough to even build a snowman. Bah.

Cold weather means beloved wife cannot continue with garden project, resulting in grumpiness. Beloved elder sister on the other hand has fled to the British Museum, which is, according to her text, "the best museum yet".

Emily sees no problem with any of these, and continues her vigorous attempt to eat any tissues lurking around.

The Sister Has Landed

And I'm pretty certain it's hailing outside.

Alix and Sharon have taken Alix's zipcar to B&Q to find a new garden shed to replace the one destroyed by recent storms, leavign me on mouse-minding duty. A duty I should probably get used to if I don't get up off my bitch ass and write my CV and find another job.

Slightly fatigued today as we went to supper at Dave's (another one of the brotherhood) up in Blackheath last night - with zipcar and clutching dodgy google maps directions we pootled across town, Emily and Sharon in tow. Quite an amusing drive, as you go past all the nice mansions (well, apartments really) of Chelsea initially, then over Vauxhall Bridge, and you're in Peckham. Which is the inverse of salubrious really.

Fun party, nice to see Kath and Dave again (practically had to pry Emily out of Kaths arms at the end of the night), nice people to talk to and yummy food and drink.

In other news, hopefully Alix's work are accepting her proposed flexible working. This would be a Good Thing, as I don't have any great enthusiasm for trying to find another nanny.

In unrelated news, I'm certain that I'm months behind the zeitgeist on this one, but I recently saw the "I'm f**king Matt Damon" video (and it's, er, sister video "I'm f**king Ben Affleck"), and I was fairly amused.

And of course, cute baby video.

This Way and That

Need to find a new contract. Well, need is probably overstating the case, but its probably Not A Bad Idea. Fortunately end of contract coincides with beloved elder sister arriving, so having a little time off is a pleasant idea.

Plus, thankfully I have a little work to do for a former client so we're not exactly going to starve.

Things I will miss about current contract:

Working for a megacorp.
Being part-time for the last 9 months (and thus getting plenty of mouse time).

Things I won't:

Having to commute to Zone 5 (or 9 on a bad day) out to suburbia.

On other news, recently it was Mothering Sunday, and it was greeted in the traditional way here with presents from Fortnum and Mason (for Alix, natch), a lie in (ditto), and one of the best Eggs Benedict I've had since moving here. Yay for Mr Breakfast!


(Admittedly, since the Bene was made by me, that's more of an indictment on the parlous state of some of the cafes round here, but still).

(hmmm, might have to try and brighten this one)

The Myth of Fingerprints

What can I say about 2007? I can certainly recommend starting the year in a hot tub, drinking champagne with oodles of snow on the ground all around.
















A bit of distraction (and last opportunity - we thought) to go on holiday before the baby arrived turned into a very pleasand Christmas and New Years in Beijing, taking advantage of Wendy being on posting - and thus having swanking paid-for apartments.



We managed to fit in a bit of swanning around, cruising over to Amsterdam, before I joined the boys for the Hong Kong Sevens World Tour. London->Hong Kong->Auckland->Wellington->Auckland->Los Angeles->Las Vegas->Los Angeles->London.


Not for the weak of heart, or faint of liver.






















We discovered a few key things:

1. 4-litre jugs of vodka red bull are Wrong.
2. But its awfully nice of them to put spill-proof lids on them
3. The bars in Wan Chai will stay open as late as you can stay upright(ish)
4. Hotdogs at a baseball game are manky
5. You can't get a beer in LA after 2AM
6. Even in a strip joint
7. The only women to talk to you at 6AM in a bar on the casino floor in Vegas are hookers

So it was pretty educational all round really.

After all that craziness, and a quick Hilton spring Ball came the main event - the arrival of Emily! I consider myself incredibly lucky that I was able to get a long contract that was part time/work from home for the first 7 or so months. Being able to see her change day-by-day, week-by-week has been fantastico. Being back at work full-time now = not so fantastico.

Taking her mouseness back to NZ was amazing (after the jet lag) - the inspiration came from the Walkers - their enjoyment of Emily was so obvious that it seemed the appropriate thing to do to take her home to the Matthews as well.

Now? Things have settled into a routine (for now). Get up, do mouse-minding while Alix showers, breakfasts, etc. Get cleaned, shaved etc. Catch Tube. Work. Catch Tube. Play with Emily. Bottle, bath, bed. Dinner, spend time with lovely wife. Sleep.

I may have not much time to myself (the Tube mainly), or much time to read (ditto), but I can't actually complain that much.

And I joined the library. Free books!

Mouse in the House

I believe that this is where I'm supposed to give a summary of the madness that was 2007. However, I'm knackered, so instead I'll just give you a mouse photo taken by SMV with his zillion-pound camera.

Mouse vs. Iguana

The Matthews family is reunited after the exhausting world tour. Yay for half empty planes coming back!

The little mouse has been pretty fabulous, considering she's jetlagged and all.

It's cold and dark, but Christmas is around the corner. It's the first one for Emily, and while she won't notice the difference, that's not the point! What is a cute baby for if not to spoil completely over this time of year.

Though it's all a bit unfair - the iguana was MY birthday present!

(Madre - you'll need a decent connection for this one)

Over

Thankfully the rugger is over. With that out of the way, less time can be spent in pubs, and the lycra can be packed away for another time.

I suspect I'm not allowed to go to a France/NZ world cup game again, as I am clearly a jinx

And at least I don't work for a French company this time. And I didn't have to live in England if they won.

As a side bonus, we managed to make it on TV - not that I can recall this happening. We're the group saying "four more years of choking" and doing line-outs in the street. In lycra. Video here.

Oh ok, and a couple of mouse photos if you insist.

Preparation

Not many more sleeps to go before we fly 24 hours with a 5 month old! Now that's somethig to look forward to.

Fortunately the fandamily appears to have most items in hand (carseat, cot and pram) Yay Matthews people!

And Madre: this is what I mean by a playgym. (sorry, big file).

What have they been feeding her?

The shifting of the mouse from moses basket to (as yet unpurchased) cot is getting closer, if for no other reason than she is not going to fit for much longer...

Behold the incredible growing baby! Hooray for boobies!

Any Plan Where You Lose Your Hat...

Have addicted Alix to Girl Genius. The convenient thing about coming across a webcomic after it's been running for a while is you get to devour years worth of comics in a few days. Which is pretty much what she's doing.

Me? I'm off to Edinburgh on Saturday! Yay! Beer and Rugby together again at last. Possibly with added lycra.


In other news, the little mouse continues her reign of cuteness.



Like father, like daughter apparently.

This page intentionally left blank

Apparently blogger lets you upload video - however we haven't found the "not suck" option.




Hmph. appears in preview but not when published. Interesting, but mainly in an annoying way. The logical thing is clearly to sleep on it.

Edit - Yay!!!! thanks to Kate and my l337 tecxhy skillz, solution found - publish when in compose mode, not html.

Edit 2 - this video seems a little squiffy - if it stops at about 8 secs in, just click on the slider, and it'll play the rest.

Enjoy!

Fourth Trimester (aka Photo Extravaganza)

Recently a certain little mouse turned 3 months old, the point at which everyone says Things Should Have Gotten A Lot Better - which thankfully appears to be the case. Pretty much from about six weeks in, Emily has been sleeping more, been more active and responsive, and becoming a little person, increasingly fun to be with.

Certainly my working part-time over this time has made things a lot easier for all of us, and has been very nice to see Emily change - sometimes day to day... Looks like I've managed to organise some days working from home over the next few months as well, so I can keep up my mouse fix.

Highlights of the last few months:

Toadman (aka Adrian) got married - one advantage of having the grandparents around was that Alix and I were able to to attend his wedding and reception - probably a good call since I was his best man. He wasn't struck by lightning when he entered the church, which was a bit of a suprise, but thankfully the lack of any other surprises made for a very pleasant day out - and I (somehow) managed to come up with anecdotes that were suitable for a more, er, genteel audience.





The Happy Couple..










The English Summer - well, it was cancelled, but we managed to get out to a few BBQ's (including one mad jaunt when Emily was 2 weeks old), and hosted one ourselves which we got some kiwi couples from the local mums and babies group, resulting in a house full of babies!

Road trip - Went down to Truro (Cornwall) on business, and managed to fit some swanning around - including a visit to the Eden Project, which was very cool. I'm still curious about the quantity of drugs it must have taken to come up with the idea, frankly.




Madness. But glorious madness.










Wedding Anniversary - 4 glorious years!! Yay to Alix for agreeing to marry me!


Aaaand... a selction of recent photos of a certain mouse, starting with some roadtrip photos, of Emily in her stylish Gap gear, a gift from Gerhild and Eff...



















Little cute green dress..
















Passed out the prayer rug we got on our last China trip...
















And just some random cuteness

Smile

As promised, after about six weeks, the smiles have started to set in....

Home Alone

For 3 hours and 47 minutes I've had sole responsibility for the little mouse while Alix is out partying hard. And I haven't managed to misplace her yet. (Emily that is, not Alix).

And surprisingly enough she took the bottle happily and went off to sleep with minimum fuss! (although Key Lesson Learned - make sure ALL of the expressed milk is defrosted BEFORE the feed.)

Alix picked a good night as her first night out (except the weather - but Glastonbury was last weekend, and it's Wimbledon now, so quelle suprise really), as she is off to Zara's hen night! (Zarah being the fiancee of Toadboy).

I believe the plan is to kick off at the Absolut Ice Bar and then dinner, drinks, dancing, and I assume oiled-up strippers with unfeasibly-sized packages.

Of course since Alix has had about half-a-bottle of wine in total in the last 10 months, she should be roaring after one cocktail... As long as there are no incriminating photos of her tearing of strippers G-strings with her teeth, then everything should be fine.

In other news, Emily was 4 weeks old today - and getting cuter every day. Apparently all of Wellington sent us flowers too. Thanks All of Wellington! (I assume that was the Abel Smith rent-a-crowd).

That Was the Week That Was

Things I have learnt:

(1) Western medicine = the good. (See Alix's comment re: epidurals below)

(2) When they say 6-10 nappies a day, they mean it.

(3) Following on from the above, long-legged babysuits = the very good.

(4) If present at the birth, unless you've got a wooden stake and crucifix handy, avoid getting a good look at the placenta. People who take that thing home and eat it are freaky, freaky freaky.
(5) Also, pretend you never heard things like the doctor saying "bring me a bucket". Brrrr.

(6) Alix is the Most Fantastic Woman in the Entire Universe. Hmmm... actually I already knew that.

(7) Emily ("The Little Mouse") may not be a readhead, but she's still pretty fantastic too.

Photos - i've photochopped one of my favourites so you can actually see Emily.

Showing off some of the presents - note woolly hat, buzzy bee booties, and owl suit.

View from the trenches

Apparently "epidurals are great!" according to Alix. To be honest, if I was in her position (20-odd hours into a 40-hour labour), I'd say exactly the same thing. But with more profanity.

On the other hand, I wish I had a voice recorder so I could have on record some of the crazy stuff that came out of Alix's mouth while high as a kite on Entonox. Except she'd probably beat me to death with it.

Anyway - enough feeble humour - the main event:

Emily Josephine

Born June 1 3:48PM

3.4 kg

Timing

BT in their infinite wisdom, have finally given us back our broadband (after nearly a month).

Yay! Especially as we have to go to hospital NOW for Alix to be induced.

Wish us luck!

Patterns

So far for 2007:

Getting the last few holidays in - the trip to Amsterdam/Den Haag was suprisingly chilled and enjoyable - witness the Giant Pregnant Woman below...

Got in contact with previous flatmate Victoria Webster, who flatted with me before I left for the UK the first time. Apparently life's been a bit of a rollercoaster (has broken up with Mark the Prince of Insincerity), but she's back in the UK, so hopefully we can catch up.

The mighty Exiles ended up top on the table (somehow).

More rugby - the six nations have been sucking up a lot of my weekends - which will be changing soon!

Have managed to get my contract extended - but part time after the creature arrives for three months. Hopefully this will be a good thing.

Ante-natal class yesterday - surprisingly non-hippy, considering the NCT's reputations. Not necessarily anything we hadn't heard before, but a few tidbits - plus very useful to meet people in the same boat!

Amusing note - one couple were booked in for an induction today (cuting it very fine), and the guy popped out at lunch to get a Wii - because after all, he had a week off afterwards!

Lets just say I'm REALLY interested in whether he gets to use said Wii, or (more likely) ends up with it imbedded in his head.

This coming weekend, we have planned a luxurious journey to Paris on the Eurostar - and staying in the Hilton Arc de Triomphe... unfortunately life has a habit of getting in the way....

A good friend Alexis Dodin was killed by an avalanche while snowboarding in Colorado, with a funeral just outside Lille this coming friday. Since I have to catch a 6AM eurostar to get there, I think Alix will be travelling by herself on our swanky tickets to Paris, and I'll have to make my own way there afterwards...

Hiding

It's not co-operating, said the cheery lady with the gel and probing wand.

The Creature appears to be camera-shy at the moment, as it declined to show off its best side. It can, however deliver a good kick, as Alix's bladder can attest.

Photo! Photo!

While The Mother will have seen these (being there and all), some photos for you! Special Friend Price!




A view over the iced-over lake. Admittedly Alix thinks shes looks like a gnome.



Starbucks + Forbidden City + Cold = Niiiice.

White

It's snowing!

Beijing (not normally the nicest looking city in the world) almost looks pretty shrouded in fresh powder. Went shopping in the various markets (incl. Alien Street, where 58 wigs were bought), and threw snowballs at each other.

House of Wax

Achieved today:


(1) Went to Mao's Tomb, to check out pickeled Mao. Very ghoulish. Debated with sister as to whether he was wax or not. Jonathan later makes comment about how his ear came off a few years ago.

Good time to do it - it's cold (but thankfully a lot warmer than normal) so the queues are short. When we were here in the summer, they were lined up round the block.

(2) Drank Starbucks in the Forbidden City. Damn fine, due to the cold.

(3) Had the World Best Dumplings. Being a Taiwanese chain, the service was even competent.

(4) Watched pirated dvd - sorry 'screening copy' - of Babel. Which I can't particularly recommend unless you like your directors being self-indulgent.

Made it!

After all that , we woke up at 5AM to see that the fog had lifted! arrived at LCY, and all was good (if delayed - not so much of a problem for people with a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam).

Alix also noticed that the after security restaurants look like they do mean brekkie.

Made it to China, had Wenz pull her diplo-thing to get us through the queues (though she said she lost face due to the diplo queue being busy), and am currently sitting down with a large G&T awaiting the chinese takeaway.

However, having had approx 4 hours sleep in nearly 3 days, suspect tiredness will suddenly hit me with a rubber cricket bat.

Fog

Hmmm... getting out of London may prove a little tricky, as fog has descended like a soggy grey blanket.

While London City Airport is pretty handy for us (being a short trip on the DLR away), it appears to have been completely shagged by the fog (being on the river and all), and odds of take-off tomorrow aren't looking so good.

All we've got to do is get to Amsterdam to catch our China flight..

Bugger. Might be Easyjet after all!

Dixie Fried

Munching away on a (large) canister of Tyrells vegetable chips - very yummy I should mention, even the beetroot chips - I noted that it had displayed in large letters on the side "Hand fried on our farm".

Now this could mean one (or both) of two things:

(1) None of this over-processed, industrialised farming/food prep for us - our chips are fried by hand the same way we have for, err, years... This way you know that they have been made with care and love to ensure a genuine, wholesome, tasty chip.

(2) While you enjoy the fruits of your labour-saving devices such as washing machines, coffee makers, dishwashers, we pay some East European suckers minimum wage to hand-fry the chips in hot, sweaty and disgusting conditions. And you shmucks will pay more for the privilege of buying this muck, because you think that them being hand-fried somehow makes them "better". As if there was much difference, given its a piece of vegetable fried in oil.

Fantastic. My moneys on 2.

Belated

Yes, I am slack - so while it might be mid-way through December, I've managed to dig up some photos of the Kiwi Boys tour to Cardiff for the All Blacks game. From November.

Good year for rugby - All Blacks top of the table, Ealing Exiles top of the table, and managed to make it to two All Blacks games - vs. England at Twickenham, and vs. Wales at Cardiff.

The England game was good times - we had been at Eff and Gerhilds Halloween party the night before (and stayed in luxury at Eff's Hilton), up early to get to The Weir for pre-match sustenance, and then on to the game!

One crushing All Black victory (and many pints) later, stagger onto remaining trains..

(admittedly, was a bit nervous pre-game because last time I'd been to Twickenham, was vs. France in the '99 World Cup)

Cardif though - if you like rugby, nothing beats going to Cardiff for a big match. The whole damn city goes nuts.

Once again, we made a production of it - Me and BOC had to go to Heathrow (at 9AM) to pick up the Supermodel and Eff - and then promptly drove directly (and at high speed) to Cardiff! Madmen.

The rest of the pre-match routine was soothingly familiar though - find pub, drink beer. Repeat. Go to stadium. Find more beer. Drink. Cheer. Repeat. Leave stadium, fnd pub, drink beer. Repeat. Move to bar/club. Dance badly, drink beer. Repeat.

Go to 'Chip Alley', get kebab, stagger home.... sleep.

Best of all though, we had a spare ticket for the game - so was able to give it to the Classy Tart - who we found out has had her residency for NZ approved! Yay!

(Photo below pre-haka kerfuffle)

The End is Here

The Most Horrible Man in the World is engaged.

Admittedly:

(1) He was drunk when he proposed.
(2) Zarah made him propose again in the morning when he was sober(?)
(3) She then promptly made him go to Canary Wharf to put his credit card behind the counter at the jewellers.
(4) This prompted moans that it was a "pretty pricey weekend".

Gobsmacked.

Greetings

Well since Alix thinks it has the Matthews Nose, I probably shouldn't call it the parasitic growth anymore (though Alix has dubbed it the space alien).

And despite The Most Horrible Man In The Worlds' Karmic backlash theory, it appears to be singular.

Carbon Criminal

According to the Times, Alix and I are Carbon Criminals.

Phhhtthptt!!!

Quite frankly - and I speak as someone who is at least moderately environmentally aware - I am getting heartily sick of the "responsible" and "ethical" organisations making pretty sweeping comments about how people should live their lives (and often making a healthy profit doing so).

Not entirely convinced that nagging people like this is the way to deal with the problem - but hey, those evil rich people flying make an easy target dont they?

I'm dreaming of a.. err.. greyish-black Christmas

We're off to China!

Arrive Beijing Christmas Eve,
Depart Beijing 2nd Jan.

Yay!

Politics: Not so Super Tuesday

Tommorow is the November mid-term elections in the US - the entire House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, and 30-odd governorships are going to the polls.

Of course it's completely coincidental that Saddam has been sentenced to death this week.

Most commentators are expecting a Democrat victory in the House, and perhaps, if they're REAL lucky, the Senate.

Does this matter? I suspect a lot less than many people are hoping for. While it will provide a (much needed) check on the Bush presidency - and provide (hopefully) some transparency, don't expect any major surprises or any major turn left. Fun though it might be to fantasise about a Bush impeachment.

After all:

(1) While the Democrats might be more 'left' than the Republicans, there is a certain difference between a lot of the American left and, say, the UK left. Must be a driving on the wrong side of the road thing.
(2) A lot of the candidates the Dems are putting up are 'electable' - i.e. pro-gun, anti-abortion, anti gay (marriage), etc.
(3) "You Break it, You Bought it" as Powell said. 'Nuff said.

EDIT - 12/11 - Well bugger me - they got the Senate as well.

Stag

So when did stag (and hen) nights become weekends? Or (God forbid), weeks?

This weekend involved going up to Newcastle for a weekend of drunkeness for Andy's stag.
Suffice to say that the Friday early afternoon train did not mix well with the Friday morning hardware drop for my project. And the Saturday midday to Sunday midday drinking did not make the Monday early morning nerd wrangling any easier either.

What happened to good old fashioned go out (on one night) get drunk, visit strip joint, get drunked, vomit on shoes, go home stag nights?

Feh.

China

Sharon and Riadan are currently visting Wendy in Beijing. Very jealous. As a result, we are currently plotting to go to Beijing for Xmas.

The theory being, that while one's sister has swanky apartment in foreign city, one should take thorough advantage of it.

Now, because Sharon was up on the wall recently - it seemed like a good time for a gratuitous Great Wall shot. Nyah.