Oh. My. God.....
Thursday, 16 May 2013
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
So, did you hear?
Well, did you? As of yesterday at 3.00pm we, me and Ivan (Mr Bicknell) officially became parents, ahem, yes indeed, it has been a very long journey with a few bumps here and there, but at last, someone will call me Mummy! HOORAY!!
I cannot describe the feeling, if you are already a Mum or a Dad, then you will be familiar with the complete feeling of joy when you look at your children, I simply cannot believe my luck, or just how desperately in love I have fallen with this little monster, yeah, the one who is smiling at me like butter wouldn't melt despite the fact that it is nearly 8pm and he hasn't had any sleep since midday! But I cant blame him, today was his first sight of the outside world and I don't think he wanted to miss a thing.
Ivan (Mr Bicknell) was in charge of the Baby Bjorn today and I am telling you right now, he is NEVER going out on his own with Noah - talk about a babe magnet! I don't know who was enjoying the attention more, Ivan (Mr Bicknell) or Noah! Did I mention in my last post just how beautiful the residents of Addis are. No? Well they are, some of the most incredible looking people on the planet are right here in this city, Storm needs to get its scouts over here right away and snap 'em up! The two younger nannies are stunning to start with - err I don't feel inadequate at all..... But generally we are surrounded by beautiful people, don't worry it's not just the women who are easy on the eye - I'm also enjoying the view! It is no surprise therefore that Noah is completely stunning, yeah, I know I am probably biased, but my God he is a looker, it was so funny when he met the ladies here at the guest house, they practically fell over themselves to get to him, declaring that he was a good colour!! I suppose they can say that because they are also Ethiopian! He has the most wonderful nature and was soon hi fiving them! He is looking at me right now saying Mama! Only because he wants out of the cot! I can't believe how well he has settled with us, he hasn't cried, panicked, been withdrawn, anything, it's like he knows he is meant to be with us! Even going back to see the nannies didn't phase him! BTW we gave each nanny 2 months wages worth of cash, and made a note in the tips book in the house about how little they are paid..... Did I tell you that during the rainy season they don't get paid at all? Honestly my blood boils.
I have to admit that I was nervous about walking around the city today en famille, you know, white family have adopted token black kid, but on the whole it was a very uplifting and inspiring experience, we did of course get the odd less than friendly look or comment, but people were actually coming up to us and kissing Noah and congratulating us, it was amazing, one man in a shop clutched his heart and then gave us a double thumbs up! Many thanked us. Court for us yesterday was a very positive experience, not just because of the end result, but because the judge was so lovely, she was friendly, charming and happy to meet us, laughing at me because I was such a jibbering wreck! I have never felt such emotion, I couldn't help crying, one of the other solicitors became really concerned and asked if we'd had bad news, I think she was a bit surprised when I said I ea tearful because I was so happy!
Going back to the orphanage to collect him was surreal - we were like, umm, what do we do now? Thanks to Annie my wonderful sister in law I now have a comprehensive plan of action and within minutes of our arrival at the guest house the odd job man was putting up a cot for us, and today we took receipt of a baby bath - I am a little damp after our first attempt tonight! We have also done some baby massage and cleaned his teeth! He is now fast asleep and we ate keeping our fingers crossed that he sleeps a full 10 hours again just like last night! Can we be this lucky? Maybe it's just beginners luck!
Tomorrow we are going to the big market with Acha's daughter (the one we took swimming), these gestures are important to us, but nothing compared to the fact that her schooling is being paid for by another adoptive couple, now that's awesome. Acha told us today that Noah wad tiny when he arrived and had never been bottle fed, having spent the first two months of his life with his Mum, she kept pressing my boob with her hand to make her point, Ivan (Mr Bicknell) could barely contain his amusement! She also said that when another couple rejected him before us (thank God) she was so worried that no one would love him, but really happy when she met us! Apparently he was tiny when he arrived, so they have done a good job as he is very healthy! He is a little under weight and still wears size 3 - 6 month clothes even though we reackon he's a year almost, but seeing how much he ate today, I think he'll make up for lost time!
That's it for now, so sorry about the lack of picks, but we forgot our card reader, maybe we'll find one here in Addis!
Night xx
That's it for now, so sorry about the lack of picks, but we forgot our card reader, maybe we'll find one here in Addis!
Night xx
Monday, 13 May 2013
AFRICA
So here we are. The last time we were here, I couldn't wait to get home. It didn't help that I got sick and the enormity of meeting our little chap for the first time I suppose affected my overall experience, so I tried to come this time with a more positive attitude. Unfortunately we have had a bit of a bumpy start. Upon arrival we soon discovered that our little chap's Mum had failed to turn up for court. Great I hear you say, errr no, not great. Ethiopia is a country of principle, this is of course a good thing, I'm not saying that greasing palms is unheard of, in fact 11 ministers were arrested here a couple of days ago for corruption, but overall, they like to do things properly. Therefore before we could even stand before the judge 3 things had to happen. 1, a police report had to be completed stating that a proper search for Mum had been conducted, but to no avail. 2, a newspaper search had to take place, this taking the form of an advert in a local paper calling for the Mum to appear at court on a given date at a specific time. 3, the Ministry of Women's Affairs must endorse us formerly by letter. This comes as quite a shock when you have just landed and it is slowly sinking in that before anything can happen, you are going to have to sit things out for a couple of weeks..........
Well, that was over two weeks ago now and tomorrow, at 2pm we must sit and wait in court to see if she finally rocks up. The wait is practically killing me, Ivan (Mr Bicknell) is playing it cool and as ever, is the rational one of us, doing his best to quash my fears of how many ways this can all go pear shaped, but well, it hasn't helped getting to know this little chap who is happy, cuddly, funny and oh so sweet, you'd go mad at the thought of losing him too! So again, I ask you - will you keep those fingers crossed? Tomorrow, 4pm UK time? Cheers x.
So onto our current city of residence - Addis Ababa..... You know what? It really isn't that bad, it does help though that we are staying in an awesome guest house where the owner and her daughter look after you like You are family! I'm not kidding, advice is free-flowing, you are practically force fed every morning and they always want to know how you are doing! Our room is spotless every day, our laundry is hung up or laid out pressed and fabulous on our bed - never before has Ivan (Mr Bicknell) had an ironed t shirt to wear every single day - , there are films every night, pretty reliable wifi and proper hot running water. We have a small kitchen with a fridge and a microwave and a bigger kitchen downstairs where we can cook properly if we want to. So we are lucky. I can tell you it is a damn sight better than staying at the UK house on the compound where for pretty much the same money per night you have virtually no light, intermittent running water, no internet access and no TV. My refusing to stay there hasn't made us very popular with the owner of the orphanage, but perhaps she should have told us about the complications with our adoption and not lived in the hope that if we flew out anyway we would occupy the house and further line her pockets. I had been feeling a tiny bit guilty about my princess behaviour until I discovered this weekend that she only pays the Nannies 1000 Birr per month - that's 35 quid to you and me, yes 35 quid A MONTH! Addis is not a cheap place to live in either, we are having to count our pennies, so how people survive on so little is beyond me. We can get a decent meal for about £8 between us, but that soon adds up! These AMAZING women rotate in 12 hour shifts and have 5 babies at a time to cope with. Our chap is the only boy, the others are therefore all girls and when I say that they are demanding, I am playing it down! Two of them are capable of the most spectacular tantrums and 1 is only 3 weeks old! I tell you, I couldn't do it! The nannies appear to have no end of patience and the babies all clearly adore them, so as a prospective adopter I am so lucky to know that my little chap is very, very well cared for. They do a far better job than us too given that we nearly poisoned our guy! It turns out that due to lack of funds (don't get me started on how much each family "donates" to this orphanage - in crisp $ bills), fruit is not part of the babies diets - so feeding them fresh avocado and banana in abundance isn't necessarily a good idea, the two nurses and the doctor who pretty much interrogated us didn't think so anyway, especially as the product of such rich food was copious vomiting and the runs! Oops.... He's all right now though apart from some serious teething..... Anyway, I digress, back to the city, it is colourful to say the least, the people on the whole are friendly and kind, and if you are polite to them, they are extremely courteous back. Addis is a mish mash of construction and serious under development, big companies are erecting buildings left right and centre, but most of the trading we see takes place directly on the street or from a tiny little corrugated iron box, these boxes consist mainly of fashion stores, minuscule grocery stores and hairdressers - I have never seen so many hairdressers, people really care about their hair here! Massage is a big thing too and we have already experienced this first hand. For less than £20 for both of us, we had the most awesome massage at the Boston day spa - we will be going there again! The spa is in the Boston Partners building on the Bole Road which happens to be in the district that we are staying in, we have decided that it is the Islington of Addis! This building also houses a great cafe called the Lime Tree Cafe which serves a very broad clientele and some pretty amazing coffee! There is also a bar called the Black Rose which really wouldn't look out of place in any city of the world. So really in this building alone you could spend an entire day for probably less than £50 and have a fine old time! I will not be allowed to do this I suspect, but I am encouraged that Ivan (Mr Bicknell) liked his massage so much that he is talking of a repeat performance!
It hasn't all been plain sailing with the locals though, some who have guessed why we are swanning around their streets are less than pleased and have been mildly aggressive, but I suppose that's justified given that we are effectively hoping to take one of their babies to an entirely different country..... But on the flip side some are pleased and supportive and a good example of this is Dilu, the amazing guy without whom we would be rather lost out here... To demonstrate just how positively he feels about our presence here in Addis we were privilliged enough to be invited to his house for Easter. It's at a different time here and is far removed from the scoffing of chocolate eggs and trips to the garden centre that we indulge in at home..... We are talking the slaughtering of an animal which is then eaten, still steaming and completely raw.......The whole affair begins at 7.00am, where a live ox is walked onto the driveway of the hosts house - this was the first time that Dilu had hosted the actual slaughter so it was a real occasion - the poor animal was so terrified that it actually passed out, given with what happened next I didn't think that I would be far behind it! A pair of butchers arrived and ceremoniously cut its throat and then proceeded to butcher the entire animal up in record speed. Ivan (Mr Bicknell) managed to photograph the whole event, but I have to say that he didn't have the steadiest of hands! Dilu told us that his animals slaughtering was the 8th that this particular pair had done since 6pm the previous evening! It was incredible to see, 8 families had chipped in to buy the ox for about £500 and therefore the animal was divided up equally - huge piles of steaming meat were placed on a large sheet of plastic with pieces of paper placed on top with numbers on, so that each pile may be drawn lottery style by each family representative so that it was fair! The best meat was reserved for curbing up for raw consumption and fortunately for us, a cooked version, to my relief Dilu asked us not to consume the raw variety for fear of making us sick, phew! It was almost still wriggling! I was allowed to help cook with Dilu's wife Muna, who is a very bright woman and works to educate the uneducated on HIV and AIDS, travelling the length of the country to get to the various tribes, she told me that in the south of the country alone there a 50 different languages with few people speaking Amharic, so her task is further handicapped by a genuine lack of comprehension. By 9.00am we were tucking into stir fryed ox, chicken sauce - which was only served to us as it is a special dish only served to guests - and copious amounts of honey wine. What we hadn't realised was that they expect you to eat an entire meal before they even start! Oh my God, it's hard going that early in the morning! This wasn't helped By the fact that I cannot stand the taste of chicken! The whiskey appeared at ten and the talk with Muna's brothers - all 7 of them, turned to politics and the like, hearing their individual struggles made be very grateful for the life that I lead at home. We might not like some of the things that our government does, but it is a far cry from what happens out here...... After the boys had kicked a ball around for an hour or so it was time to crash, being drunk at 11.00am is not nice and being as old as we are, we actually needed to go back to the guest. House to sleep it off before heading out to see our little chap! Well, we had been up since 5.30am!
Our daily routine here involves a relatively early wake up so that we don't miss breakfast and our morning chat with our lively hosts, a bit of a mooch around town picking up supplies or even doing something like having a massage or a swim and then heading over to the orphanage to spend the rest of the day with our little chap. I am afraid that we have been a bit cowardly on some days and tried to avoid the lunchtime feeding of his injura, injura is the traditional food of Ethiopia and is basically a kind of pancake type flat bread, it is smooth on one side and looks rather like tripe on the other, it is also almost grey in colour! Sometimes it comes mixed with tomato and sometimes carrots and potato - he HATES it, and more often than not, I end up wearing it! His later meal of what we have come to call tobacco stew, because of its strange odour, seems to go down much better, so I don't mind feeding him this one! Ivan (Mr Bicknell) is the king of the milk bottle and seems to have the magic touch with this, it is common knowledge that our chap doesn't like to drink very much, so it can be a bit of a battle! He is developing every day and has learnt how to say "ta" when he gives or receives something and can do an excellent "high 5"! We are still mastering waving hello and goodbye! He is very affectionate and will often stop mid play just to come and give us a hug! He also has a really silly streak which is fortunate as neither of us are particularly grown up! While he has an afternoon nap in the house we have been ploughing our way through the strange assortment of books in the house, there are some particularly fundamentalist leaflets on Christianity which suggest that if you do not invite God into your heart, you will surely burn in hell, and damn all other religions, sporting cartoons of Islamic characters saying that they have now captured the UK and are now coming for America! The novels mostly consist of detective stories where the hero has to overcome all sorts of adversity in various African countries where the inhabitants are mainly crazed killers, this did make me a little uneasy when watching the ox slaughter I have to say, the butchers were certainly efficient!
Our evenings begin at about 6.30/7.00pm once we have put our little man to bed. We try to vary what we do and have found a couple of reliable places to eat and also stayed in to meet our desire for fresh veg where we can be sure that things have been washed in mineral water! This also ends up as being an excuse to splash out on a bottle of wine, the cost of which is normally more than dinner for two with beer, but you have to have some luxuries! We had been warned by Dilu not to go out alone at night, but we haven't really listened, the other night however made us consider why... On our way home from dinner and a couple of drinks at the Black Rose, we were accosted by a hawker trying to sell us tissues, we politely said no, but he wouldn't listen and continued to harass us, eventually he shoved his tray of tissues right under Ivan's (Mr Bicknell's) nose and proceeded to try to rifle through his pockets! The next thing I knew was Ivan (Mr Bicknell) shouting at him and shoving him, I don't know who was more scared, me or the hawker! Fortunately he just ran off then, but it did occur to me that he could have had a knife. So lesson learned, be careful...
Last weekend we took one of the nannies - Acha and her daughter Sosina to the Sheraton for a swim, it was a bit embarrassing as for four of us to gain entry and have a drink and a swim, would have cost Acha two months salary, but I had only imagined it as a nice thing to do, it is true that just giving them the money would have been so much more beneficial, but Sosina seemed to really enjoy being ther, it was just a shame that it was so full of over indulged, rude Europeans, we had thought that it might be nice to have one night at the Sheraton perhaps but seeing the clientele firmly changed our minds. The place itself is spectacular, huge and incredibly opulent, a far cry from the surrounding city, but this is definitely where people come to avoid just that and stay in a bubble where they can pretend they have stayed in Addis. I would like to go again with our little chap, but perhaps in the week and with less expectations!
We visited a local craft market recently and picked up a few gifts, it was a bit like a makers market and all very chilled and laid back, next weekend we are going to attempt the merkato, but this takes guts as it is rife with pick pockets and demands some hard bargaining! I am looking forward to this though!
This morning we changed our flights, I wanted to wait until after court tomorrow, but we didn't have much choice as we were booked to fly on Thursday, now we just have to pray that things start to pan out for us.... For all we know the judge might tell us to come back in two weeks, oh God I hope not.
What strikes me most about Addis is that it smells nice, even when after Easter we were literally stepping over drunken, over indulged bodies and the skulls of various slaughtered animals - Easter really isn't a good time to be a cloven creature in Addis! Part of the reason that things have taken so .ong to organise is because of he holiday, strangely, even though the Monday after Easter isn't an official holiday, no one goes to work, this is purely down to the fact that everyone has completely over done it and gorged on all the meat and butter they have been denied during the fasting period! It s also now wedding season, no point in having one the two months before Easter as no one could eat anything, so now people are celebrating hard - we saw 3 wedding parties on Saturday, they appear to e magnificent occasions, Dilu says his wedding comprised of 1,500 guests! We thought we were being ostentatious with 150!!!!
So that's probably it for now, I may add more later, and some pics too, but I thought it would be nice to get you up to speed a bit! G X
It hasn't all been plain sailing with the locals though, some who have guessed why we are swanning around their streets are less than pleased and have been mildly aggressive, but I suppose that's justified given that we are effectively hoping to take one of their babies to an entirely different country..... But on the flip side some are pleased and supportive and a good example of this is Dilu, the amazing guy without whom we would be rather lost out here... To demonstrate just how positively he feels about our presence here in Addis we were privilliged enough to be invited to his house for Easter. It's at a different time here and is far removed from the scoffing of chocolate eggs and trips to the garden centre that we indulge in at home..... We are talking the slaughtering of an animal which is then eaten, still steaming and completely raw.......The whole affair begins at 7.00am, where a live ox is walked onto the driveway of the hosts house - this was the first time that Dilu had hosted the actual slaughter so it was a real occasion - the poor animal was so terrified that it actually passed out, given with what happened next I didn't think that I would be far behind it! A pair of butchers arrived and ceremoniously cut its throat and then proceeded to butcher the entire animal up in record speed. Ivan (Mr Bicknell) managed to photograph the whole event, but I have to say that he didn't have the steadiest of hands! Dilu told us that his animals slaughtering was the 8th that this particular pair had done since 6pm the previous evening! It was incredible to see, 8 families had chipped in to buy the ox for about £500 and therefore the animal was divided up equally - huge piles of steaming meat were placed on a large sheet of plastic with pieces of paper placed on top with numbers on, so that each pile may be drawn lottery style by each family representative so that it was fair! The best meat was reserved for curbing up for raw consumption and fortunately for us, a cooked version, to my relief Dilu asked us not to consume the raw variety for fear of making us sick, phew! It was almost still wriggling! I was allowed to help cook with Dilu's wife Muna, who is a very bright woman and works to educate the uneducated on HIV and AIDS, travelling the length of the country to get to the various tribes, she told me that in the south of the country alone there a 50 different languages with few people speaking Amharic, so her task is further handicapped by a genuine lack of comprehension. By 9.00am we were tucking into stir fryed ox, chicken sauce - which was only served to us as it is a special dish only served to guests - and copious amounts of honey wine. What we hadn't realised was that they expect you to eat an entire meal before they even start! Oh my God, it's hard going that early in the morning! This wasn't helped By the fact that I cannot stand the taste of chicken! The whiskey appeared at ten and the talk with Muna's brothers - all 7 of them, turned to politics and the like, hearing their individual struggles made be very grateful for the life that I lead at home. We might not like some of the things that our government does, but it is a far cry from what happens out here...... After the boys had kicked a ball around for an hour or so it was time to crash, being drunk at 11.00am is not nice and being as old as we are, we actually needed to go back to the guest. House to sleep it off before heading out to see our little chap! Well, we had been up since 5.30am!
Our daily routine here involves a relatively early wake up so that we don't miss breakfast and our morning chat with our lively hosts, a bit of a mooch around town picking up supplies or even doing something like having a massage or a swim and then heading over to the orphanage to spend the rest of the day with our little chap. I am afraid that we have been a bit cowardly on some days and tried to avoid the lunchtime feeding of his injura, injura is the traditional food of Ethiopia and is basically a kind of pancake type flat bread, it is smooth on one side and looks rather like tripe on the other, it is also almost grey in colour! Sometimes it comes mixed with tomato and sometimes carrots and potato - he HATES it, and more often than not, I end up wearing it! His later meal of what we have come to call tobacco stew, because of its strange odour, seems to go down much better, so I don't mind feeding him this one! Ivan (Mr Bicknell) is the king of the milk bottle and seems to have the magic touch with this, it is common knowledge that our chap doesn't like to drink very much, so it can be a bit of a battle! He is developing every day and has learnt how to say "ta" when he gives or receives something and can do an excellent "high 5"! We are still mastering waving hello and goodbye! He is very affectionate and will often stop mid play just to come and give us a hug! He also has a really silly streak which is fortunate as neither of us are particularly grown up! While he has an afternoon nap in the house we have been ploughing our way through the strange assortment of books in the house, there are some particularly fundamentalist leaflets on Christianity which suggest that if you do not invite God into your heart, you will surely burn in hell, and damn all other religions, sporting cartoons of Islamic characters saying that they have now captured the UK and are now coming for America! The novels mostly consist of detective stories where the hero has to overcome all sorts of adversity in various African countries where the inhabitants are mainly crazed killers, this did make me a little uneasy when watching the ox slaughter I have to say, the butchers were certainly efficient!
Our evenings begin at about 6.30/7.00pm once we have put our little man to bed. We try to vary what we do and have found a couple of reliable places to eat and also stayed in to meet our desire for fresh veg where we can be sure that things have been washed in mineral water! This also ends up as being an excuse to splash out on a bottle of wine, the cost of which is normally more than dinner for two with beer, but you have to have some luxuries! We had been warned by Dilu not to go out alone at night, but we haven't really listened, the other night however made us consider why... On our way home from dinner and a couple of drinks at the Black Rose, we were accosted by a hawker trying to sell us tissues, we politely said no, but he wouldn't listen and continued to harass us, eventually he shoved his tray of tissues right under Ivan's (Mr Bicknell's) nose and proceeded to try to rifle through his pockets! The next thing I knew was Ivan (Mr Bicknell) shouting at him and shoving him, I don't know who was more scared, me or the hawker! Fortunately he just ran off then, but it did occur to me that he could have had a knife. So lesson learned, be careful...
Last weekend we took one of the nannies - Acha and her daughter Sosina to the Sheraton for a swim, it was a bit embarrassing as for four of us to gain entry and have a drink and a swim, would have cost Acha two months salary, but I had only imagined it as a nice thing to do, it is true that just giving them the money would have been so much more beneficial, but Sosina seemed to really enjoy being ther, it was just a shame that it was so full of over indulged, rude Europeans, we had thought that it might be nice to have one night at the Sheraton perhaps but seeing the clientele firmly changed our minds. The place itself is spectacular, huge and incredibly opulent, a far cry from the surrounding city, but this is definitely where people come to avoid just that and stay in a bubble where they can pretend they have stayed in Addis. I would like to go again with our little chap, but perhaps in the week and with less expectations!
We visited a local craft market recently and picked up a few gifts, it was a bit like a makers market and all very chilled and laid back, next weekend we are going to attempt the merkato, but this takes guts as it is rife with pick pockets and demands some hard bargaining! I am looking forward to this though!
This morning we changed our flights, I wanted to wait until after court tomorrow, but we didn't have much choice as we were booked to fly on Thursday, now we just have to pray that things start to pan out for us.... For all we know the judge might tell us to come back in two weeks, oh God I hope not.
What strikes me most about Addis is that it smells nice, even when after Easter we were literally stepping over drunken, over indulged bodies and the skulls of various slaughtered animals - Easter really isn't a good time to be a cloven creature in Addis! Part of the reason that things have taken so .ong to organise is because of he holiday, strangely, even though the Monday after Easter isn't an official holiday, no one goes to work, this is purely down to the fact that everyone has completely over done it and gorged on all the meat and butter they have been denied during the fasting period! It s also now wedding season, no point in having one the two months before Easter as no one could eat anything, so now people are celebrating hard - we saw 3 wedding parties on Saturday, they appear to e magnificent occasions, Dilu says his wedding comprised of 1,500 guests! We thought we were being ostentatious with 150!!!!
So that's probably it for now, I may add more later, and some pics too, but I thought it would be nice to get you up to speed a bit! G X
Friday, 26 April 2013
The usual catch up
So this is it you lot.
In about 30 minutes we are loading the car and off to Heathrow for the 9pm to Addis. This is crunch time - where we find out if baby Noah is really, truly going to ours - imagine the most stressed you have ever been and then times it by 100 and you will be close to how I am feeling right now. Yesterday leaving work was horrible, Charmian my colleague cannot for the life of her understand why I was sad, but leaving all my lovely boys and girls was a bit gut wrenching - I got two brill cards and some awesome flowers from my first years - I think Siobhan and Milly werre behind it, so thank you lovelies!
This is basically a round up of what has gone down recently and today's unusual events - i.e. packing for an 11 month old!!
How am I going to blog as a non textiles teacher?????? Well only temporarily......
After enjoying making the pics for Noah's room so much I thought I would make some for the stall - a lot of making took place over the Easter hols for fear of having no time or desire upon our return from Africa!
Birds of course!
My fabby pal Caroline had a birthday - she of the "A year of living brilliantly" blog http://carolinepeene.blogspot.co.uk/ and we had an amazing and incredibly boozy lunch with her and some of her other very nice friends - I have stolen these images from her blog!
I wish I hadn't seen this link on her blog though! http://www.husandhem.co.uk/
My birthday offering!
Back at college Emma-Jane has gone dino crazy - we found these on Pinterest and decided to have a go!
More spray paint coats needed but you get the idea!!!
I became addicted to the idea for Noah's room - so she picked me up a handful from Hawkins Bazaar! What a sweet girl she is!
Here is my scarily good card from the first years - Yes I'm ALWAYS late and yes, I ALWAYS have a Costa in my hand!!!!
Let me tell you - the flowers were HUGE! I had a raging cold and couldn't smell them initially, apparently the staff room gave everyone a headache!!
How sweet is this? Ivan's (Mr Bicknell's) last Rolo!
As a last Mum and daughter jolly (who are we kidding?) Mum and I went to Bournemouth for a spot of pampering - we also popped into the aquarium - oh I do love a good aquarium!
I wouldn't recommend the hotel we stayed in - the Royal Bath - more like a Royal Laugh, but my Mum is very good company so it was fine!
Blimey - you can't take her anywhere!!!
She didn't even pick them up!
Card number two - both made me cry!
And a final goodbye - so long Alton College!
The second years also made me endure this......
So, the next time I blog, hopefully this room will be occupied!
Thursday, 11 April 2013
Easter holiday treats
I was lucky enough to get a huge amount of Amazon vouchers for my birthday and aside from spending them on crap American drama - this time round Parenthood - continuing with my addiction of the fabulous Lauren Graham, I invested in some inspirational material - I am planning on being one of those irritating Mums! Things I love is a book my Megan Morton - stylist extraordinaire, and a book I have been hankering after for ages - it doesn't disappoint! Has all sorts of goodies inside and a book I know I will return to time and time again. Organic by the Zapitza studio will provide lots of pattern inspiration - especially as I can feel a change of direction coming on! A Zeal of Zebras isn't really for me - but I love it and it is going to have to be looked after by our potential little man! And speaking of which - I think I might need some evening entertainment in Africa and wool is light right?.............
Megan Morton new book 'Things I Love' from Megan Morton on Vimeo.
The flash cards are next - who knew that a group of polar bears was called an Aurora?!
I also discovered Sweet Paul Magazine - worth a look...
Check it out here...
http://www.sweetpaulmag-digital.com/sweetpaulmag/spring2013#pg1
Check it out here...
http://www.sweetpaulmag-digital.com/sweetpaulmag/spring2013#pg1
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Easter holiday productivity
So the Easter holidays have been productive for us - for example, lots of baby stuff and baby proofing has been taking place - I have discovered that after 12 years, Ivan (Mr Bicknell) can actually "do" DIY! Blimey, who would have thought that stair gates would be successfully hung, or cupboard doors could be beautifully fashioned? Err, not I, that's for sure! But it's true, and our house is slowly morphing into a place that is to accommodate a little person. I just hope that all goes well and he gets to see all our hard work!
Aside from all the baby stuff Ivan (Mr Bicknell) has been squeezing in as much climbing as possible, and so far, I have been printing my little heart out, tidied up the garden, (- did you catch the sun last Saturday?), cleared out draws and cupboards, eaten chocolate eggs, entertained (swearing never to drink again after one such evening) and been to London. We still have a great deal to do before flying out in a couple of weeks, but at least our flights are now booked - bloody hell! Did I mention that I still need you all to keep your fingers crossed?!
The climber
Yikes....
I don't know if I have ever mentioned this before, but when Ivan (Mr Bicknell) goes climbing/adventuring he finds me a stone - not just any old nondescript old rock, but something that comes shaped as a heart (awww) - I proudly (sadly?) have a whole dish of them on our hearth - this whopper came to me last week all the way from cheddar gorge - sunnyside terrace apparently!
New clutch purses
and books...
Did you have a lovely papier mache chicken? No? Well get yours next year from the Paisley Cat in Farnham..
Deborah and I went to London - the dedicated lecturers that we are!
After admiring the skateboard graveyard on Hungerford footbridge we headed over to Somerset House to see the Crafted exhibit - I had no idea that this was on, but Deborah fortunately keeps her ear to the ground! It was well worth the visit and the craftsmanship simply took my breath away. I'm afraid that if you haven't seen it, it's too late, but check it out on line if you want to know more!
A spot of lunch at Tom's Deli also went down a treat!
Next stop was the Design Museum (always further along the Southbank than I think - so good exercise - not sure Deborah saw it that way though, but we did get to walk through Borough Market and sample some awesome chocolate - and well, maybe I might have bought some too, and as I sit here munching it, I can confirm it's just as good at home!) - I try to visit the Designs of the year exhibit every year - it blows my mind that so much great stuff is being designed every single day - especially when so much actually contributes to education and even saving lives.
"The Designs of the Year awards, ‘The Oscars of the design world' showcase the most innovative and imaginative designs from around the world, over the past year, spanning seven categories: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Transport and Product. Category winners and the overall winner will be decided by a jury and announced on 16 April 2013."
And being the mug that I am - I even spent a day at college so that the dedicated few could go in and work - it at least gave me the chance to put my books together which involves lots of hammering that my neighbours aren't particularly fond of - so everyone's a winner!
Nicole working hard!
Josie - not even a textile girlie - Charmian will be pleased!
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