Random bullet points as full sentences are too much effort

• It keeps snowing in other parts of the UK but we haven’t got any yet. Shame, really.
• The dog is not enjoying her daily longer confinement to the new house (despite Mark’s mum visiting every lunch time), and lessened number of walks, and has told us so by chewing Mark’s wallet to pieces. Ha ha, at least it wasn’t mine. Otherwise she’s being pretty good – the cat has already pulled up some carpet (thanks, buddy) but she is generally behaving in her still puppy sort of way.
• I tried to drive here for the first time on Sunday. Driving the car itself is fine mechanically. It’s the whole side of the road thing that is getting to me – as far as which mirror I should even be looking at, etc. And there are still road signs and markings that I am not entirely sure of, even after living here for over 3 years. Roundabouts don’t worry me, it’s actually non-standard stops with traffic lights that is more confusing. We have put a giant P badge on the car (which means ‘this loser driving real slow just passed their test’) which is actually a lie, and I would prefer an L badge (for learner) but apparently you legally do have to be a learner and I can’t be considered one as I have a full UK license.
• I have actually finished my Christmas shopping (in my desperation to get it done while still in London in the daytime) and might even manage to ship everything to Canada by the end of the week (in my desperation to hit a post office near work as there isn’t one near home).
• I am actually getting sick of eggnog lattes and I haven’t had as many as I did last year.

The third trimester is evil. I hate it. When will this be over? Can I go back to the simple life of like week 18 when vomit was the only thing to worry about?

I’m at work but Mark doesn’t think I should be. I have so many things to do though, so many things that I thought I could still accomplish this week but I’ve been off sick quite a bit recently. Sunday night the combination of deadly heartburn, not being able to breath due to congestion and not being able to breath due to legs or other body parts pressing against my lungs finally got to me and I ended up projectile vomitting all over the bathroom (I am so sure you all wanted to know that). So I decided the sensible thing to do was to sleep in the armchair downstairs to quell the deadly heartburn and keep the congestion down in my lungs. Actually it worked well, except I still did not feel right in the morning so I slept a lot of the afternoon there too. And spent last night there again. I am not sure how great sleeping in the chair is good for my posture but at least it’s suiting my stomach.

I can’t imagine how this bump is going to get bigger. I am feeling so huge and uncomfortable. How can it grow even more? How can my stomach actually get any bigger? I got used to not having much of a bump at all for so long and now I have had enough of it.

We are much more set for this arrival with ‘things’ than we were before – I think if it arrived tomorrow (god I would be so happy) we would actually have everything that we would immediately need. I have the stuff I need for hospital, pretty much. There is even a semblance of a nursery now. Not finished – will take photos when looking a bit better.

Of course can’t do anything with them until we get internet at home, which we better get soon cause if I don’t have it next week when I am off work, welcome to my cabin fever hell. Mark’s mum is already very helpfully offering to just take me random places she needs to go in order to get me out of the house! I also had a mini driving lesson on the weekend. Let’s not talk about how scary that was. Yes I have a full license (with a restriction to automatics, which is what the Mercedes estate car is) but it doesn’t mean I have been behind the wheel here before…

Physically prepared of course doesn’t mean mentally prepared. I am spending a lot of time wondering what the hell we have gotten ourselves into and couldn’t I just have changed jobs or something if I wanted a change???? I am finding it really difficult to imagine what January is actually going to be like.

Got a surprise visit from a community midwife and her student when I was at home sick last week. Thanks for letting me know you were coming, as I sat in the filth of the house in my pj’s. Anyway, everything was fine but for a trace of protein in my urine (how many more bodily fluids should I mention today?!). They asked me to take another sample to my GP, which I did two days later (as I had to be there anyway for a routine blood test). They didn’t call me back so I am assuming it’s okay. Although a sudden onset of preeclampsia resulting in a c-section tomorrow sounds strangely appealing right now – no, no! must stop!!

Must get back to work. Have just wasted like 10 minutes on here when I should be working furiously on handover notes or something…

Not a lot to report really. Feeling huge and uncomfortable. Keep getting stupidly weepy as I feel the person that I share the house with has no appreciation for how huge, uncomfortable, tired and grumpy I am feeling.

Almost had something resembling a seperate nursery yesterday until we realised we didn’t have enough space in the wardrobes for all clothing so now the room is clogged up with bin bags of clothes again. But there is at least a single bed and bedside table in there, and in a couple of weeks possibly a few more items.

Bought another Roots item off of ebay.co.uk, it’s a sleeper with little baby beavers on it. Awww. So the kid will absorb vague images of Canadiana through osmosis perhaps?

Inspection over, survived it, and most senior and middle management are off on leave this week so it’ll be nice and quiet after all that hard work. And actually, we did quite well in the end. Middle of the week, I think everyone was questioning how much scrutiny everything was getting, but they had very nice things to say about us. And the best part for me was that they recognised our partnership working and efforts to widen participation in learning, which is mostly what my team does.

I’m off to Reading again this week, to learn how to be a better manager (part 2 of my course) just before I leave for 13 months of maternity leave and can’t apply the learning (well except possibly nursery management techniques, I’ll let you know if there are any transferable skills). Looking forward again to hanging out with other managers with similar jobs, a hotel room to myself, no 2 hour commute for 2 days, and decent food for 3 meals a day all catered for me. Then I have Friday off just cause – which means I will continue to unpack boxes and sort out the mess of a house.

Really wish I had known where my coats were this morning when it was below 0 degrees… Managed to find a scarf but no mitts.

Still no internet access at home which is a bummer. Something funny with the modem, and haven’t had a chance to look at it myself. And we lost our free calls to Canada in the move – I asked my phone provider Talk Talk to move the service to the new house, and they decided on their own I was cancelling it. How annoying. It was going to run out this month anyway, but still.

Mark is out late tonight for the third time lately, and although it’s costing me a bit to get home (train + cab fare from Berkhamsted) I have actually enjoyed taking National Rail as it’s so much faster than the tube and I always get a seat. So civilized, the train.

I come into work and find people in dark suits wandering around with faces we are unable to read the expressions of – oh yes, the inspectors are here! It will be an interesting week anyway. Many of us haven’t been through this experience before so we aren’t aren’t entirely sure what they are going to be looking for. Everyone has worked really hard to put things in place so we can show the good work that we try to do around here – particularly because if there is anything wrong they’ll be able to spot it themselves.

Last week I put a file together representing the work of my team (thankfully not integral to the inspection but sort of a nice side bit to showcase) and it really is a good file. It’s something that I am going to leave my replacement as I think it abley demonstrates what we try to do and how we make a difference to learners and to the Service.

It’s kind of a funny week as there was so much put into preparation, and I’ve actually blocked off the week just in case there is more to do, but I am really unsure what the demands are going to be and it could easily be that I spend my week doing nothing much at all. I’m sort of sitting around twiddling my thumbs right now, and I hope that I won’t be doing that all I day as I have to be here until 9pm tonight (again, just in case they need anything from me or my team).

At least we are only living in one house now so I know where I am coming and going from. Mark didn’t get the last few things out of Valley Drive until actually after the closing time on the sale by about an hour or so. The move ended up taking a week, which I knew would happen but Mark hadn’t counted on (how much junk do you think you actually have?).

So all the belongings are at Chiltern Farm Cottages but of course are not all in their correct location. We are slowly getting to a liveable house though, did a lot this weekend. Kitchen almost entirely in place, front room getting there, and I can locate all my clothes although they aren’t actually in wardrobes or anything yet. Upstairs just feels daunting right now. We’ve gone from a large 4 bedroom house to an okay sized 3 bedroom house but have lost quite a bit of space. However, it feels good, a better size for us. And it’s actually the first time we’ve lived together without having a tenant or two or three around.

The dog loved last week as she did the commute everyday with us, spending the day at Valley Drive while Mark popped in and out shifting stuff around. Then at night we’d go back to the cottage and she would end up sleeping on our floor. This week is her first time left at home, shut in the kitchen and utility area with the cat (Mark’s mum is helping us out for the next few weeks by stopping in to visit her and let her out). She’s not happy about being left though and keeps escaping as I try to close the door.

I’m not yet familiar with the area we are in, but it feels nice. It’s very quiet except for the main road at the end of the long drive up to our house. We are semi-detached but there is a hedge between the houses and you can’t even tell there is someone else around. Other than that we are surrounded by farm land and Dunstable Downs. This is in full view from our yard (from Whipsnade Animal Park). Keep seeing deer everywhere (on the roads at night or yesterday during a walk in the rain in the daytime). There are sheep in the next field – which means Piper needs to stay on the lead or she will vault the barbed wire and try to play with them.

Now if I knew where the digital camera was, and if the computer at home was set up, I could actually put some pics of my own on here!

So, as everyone said yesterday, 2 months to go. 2 MONTHS?! This may seem like not a very long time to some of you but it seems like ages to me. Actually 9 weeks sounds much better. More manageable.

I’ve sort of had enough of it this week. My legs don’t seem to fit into my hips properly half the time so I am starting to walk like an old woman. The bean itself has felt like it is actually trying to dig itself out through my belly button area. For a few weeks I have been getting this weird pain/itch/numb feeling in one small spot on my ribs on the right. And I am just so tired all the time. Of course this may have something to do with the week-long moving house saga that continues today, and all this preparation for inspection at work, but it’s all happening at once and I am exhausted and not getting enough sleep.

I so should have gone on maternity leave already. Only 20 working days to go! Hey, that’s a nicer number.

Moving house sucks.

That is all.