City of Stuff

Still utterly knackered after taking Madre on day trip to Paris in the weekend.

Not sure If I'd recommend the day trip vs. staying over... The "getting up at inhuman hour" does make it a bit gruelling.

Still, we ticked off everything I wanted us to do, and even threw in some RER lotto just to make things exciting.

Will post details and pics when energy reaches reasonable levels.

And of course some mouse photos - these are from the Sunday after we got back. Emily is wearing her "Little Miss Muffett" dress that Alix scored at a second hand shop.

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.

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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