The last one for 2009

My dear readers, I hope you had a great Christmas and peaceful time with your loved ones. I've been at home for almost a week and the frenzy of the shopping, cooking and catching up surrounded me from day one.

First of all, thank you to my new followers for joining in, I hope you'll stay and get to know me a bit better. There are nealry 50 of you! you all mean so much to me, your support is precious, I'm sure you know this already, and I'll need all the support I can get in the next couple of months.

And then here's what I've been up to in the last few days.

A great thing I discovered this time in Italy has been meditation. I never practiced it before and my sister (who's a bit of a yoga-health-relaxation expert) convinced me to go to a class on tuesday evening for a guided session centred on the theme of peace. I loved it. The next day I bought a book and a CD and definitely the new decade will see me embracing this new practice. if you are interested I can recommend the book I got which apparently was written by a well-known guru. I'll also write a bit more on meditation in the new year when I have more time, but for now I have to say, it was an eye-opener. Definitely more me than acupuncture and possibly more than reiki. I think I'll go again for reiki with the new cycle and I'll associate meditation with it!

We had a bit of drama on wednesday, I brought my sister to the eye-ER around 3 am to find out that she had a corneal ulcer. Damn. For a bit we weren't sure if she could join us on our skiing trip but we got the all clear today. So that was a definitely a good Christmas present.

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were traditionally spent at home, the all lot of us, making it to a head-spinning number of 6 people around the table! It's a great thing Mike comes too, although I'm not sure he'll be coming next year (that'll be 5 years in a row...) but I really don't want to miss out on this days with my family, at least until my granny is with us. Afterwards, we'll see, I suppose we'll start alternating years like it's tradition...and it'll be a major sign of love on my side eating turkey and ham instead of my traditional Christmas dinner...

Anyway, we are off skiing tomorrow, we got a lot of snow here so I'm egar to get to the slopes! I'll have the company of AF for a few days (knocked at the door today to see if she could join in right on time wohoooo) which also means I'm starting the pill probably tomorrow as I'm not really bleeding yet. I'll be on it for just 3 weeks!!! Basically a normal pill cycle! It's a different brand this time, I needed a little change, let's hope it'll agree with me. Oh dear...the rollercoaster is about to start again...we'll see how the new-zen-me will cope this time.

2010 here I come. Be kind to me, that's all I ask for.

Last minute

The week is nearly over, our flight is tomorrow at 7.20 am and we have not bought presents yet!! AHHHGGHHH surely I used to be much more organised!

We have the presents for the niece and nephews, I know what I'll ge for Mike (a drill! very manly!) and I have a good idea about what to get for my sister. Presents for my parents will be dealt with once I get to Italy. And for the in-laws we usually bring them out for lunch at some stage in the new Year.

Now in what's left of the day, we have still to go and do a bit of shopping, pack the suitcase, going to the SIL on the other side of town and give the presents to the children. And ideally I would have wanted to submit a revised article and send off a new one. Ah well, these last two things will have to wait until January. Also my student (remember the one who had a bit of a break down a couple of months ago?) stopped by with her bound PhD thesis this morning, she'll submit it on monday! Ohhhh I definitely got a bit emotional!!

Our holidays will be full of things as usual, a part from the rush up to Christmas, with things to get and friends to visit, we'll be going back skiing on the 27th for a week! There is a lot of snow and hopefully it won't be too cold for maximum pleasure on the slopes.

I'll try to read your blogs while I'm away and comment as much as possible even if I'm not ICLW this month, but I guess my next post will be in the New Year!
I wish you all my friends and very peaceful Christmas and may the New Year bring us all what we long for. Much love, Fran

At the chemist and other updates

I came back on monday aftrenoon, very late may I add, due to snow in my town and delayed flight. I had a great time and skiing was jus what I needed! So I'm back now for the last week in college, with several last minute things to do as you can imagine.
I have finally managed to read the latest on most of the blogs I follow and posted on many of them and I'm very happy for the good news all around and very sad for the bad ones also all around. I suppose that's life.

I went to the chemist yesterday to pick up muy pill prescription and I'm not sure if you remembered that this particular chemist is the one that deals with the special meds for IF treatments and the girl there knows me by first name by now. When she saw me she came around the desk and hugged me. She said she was so genuinely sorry to see my prescription caming in and I had gone in for support meds the last time with the good news of the beta...ah well, obviously it wasn't my time yet. I'll pick up the rest of the meds in January before starting the cycle (jeez, I'll be taking the last pill in just over a month and I haven't even started it yet!). It dawned on me then that we are starting a new decade. It sounds good. 2010 is a nice round number, let's hope it'll be the "right" number also!

On the attic front we had yesterday a second architect coming to see the place and hopefully he'll give us a quote by next week! That's all so exciting and I really can see the big picture and how it's going to look! After that it's a matter of price. And we'll definitely play it safe.

The New Toy is not back yet and needless to say I'm fed up with it already. I called the support unit and all I was told was that they have "loads of computers" with the same issue. That's reassuring...NOT! And believe me, this is a well known brand! Grrrr.....

Finally, I'm going back to Italy next monday for two weeks and the Christmas madness, so I'm afraid I won't have much time to blog but I'll be posting a Merry Christmas post before going.

Trip

I'm off tomorrow for a work/pleasure trip.
It happens that I supervised a Master student from my home-town University and tomorrow she has her thesis defence....so I thought I'll go along! I'll be back on Monday at lunch time.

My dad suggested to use the weekend to warm up the legs on skiing slopes and I just jumped at the opportunity. Within seconds my sister was on board also and finally my mum could come too, so it'll be like when we were children on a short holidays together. I can't wait.

On other fronts: the New Toy (aka the computer) is sick again with the same BSOD it had before. I had it back a day or two and sent it straight back in repair last week. It's not back yet and I'm getting quite pissed off as you can imagine. Now they think the problem is the wireless card and the mother-board. Considering that the first time around they changed the hard-drive I think they've pretty much reassembled a new machine. We'll see.

The Attic project is at halt at the moment. We got the signed letter from the owner of the apt below but we haven't yet received anything from the architect. We liked the guy but if he's not on our same timeline I think we do have a problem. Mike called him this morning and he said he's going to email us the plan this afternoon. Last chance.
Exams have started so I've scripts to correct, but it's not too bad.
And finally yesterday I met for lunch with H., she's one of the girls coordinating the Ectopic support group! We had a great time and really connected, she hopes that with the new year we'll be awarded the charity status and everything else is ready to go.

Big hugs to Sam, things didn't work out this time unfortunately.

The attic project update and the rest

We have made some more progress in the red tape for the project! The directors have no objection in principles and don't see a problem in us opening windows on the side wall either, they will want to see the plans before singning off on it though. So that's great!
The architect has posted the budget proposal to us this morning so we should soon know what kind of money we are talking about. More news on this coming soon.

Today I'm so very happy for my cyber friend C who has seen a heartbeat today after a lot of spotting and bleeding and she certainly deserve a good happy ending this time.
And then there is Sam who's testing tomorrow and I'm so so hopeful it'll be 3rd time lucky! Come on my friend, it'll have to be your time this time.
On the other hand, another cyber friend from a local board had a BFN and I'm really sorry for her...she also suffered an ectopic, lost both tubes and finally lost an IVF pregnancy at 31 weeks...I cannot even imagine how heartbroken she must be. But she'll go again and I have everyting crossed it'll work out the next time.
I went to the clinic on monday, paid my deposit and booked all the scans for January!! I have to say, the sight of my file would make a stone cry....it must be 5cm thick by now...enough, 2010 better be the year that file closes!

Finally I've been looking a lot into american agencies for the adoption project. Very very few would work with non-US families but I did find one that gave me loads of info. Now, we are still ages away from anything happening, we haven't even heard back on our documents sent out 6 (six!) months ago. And that's just to get a number to get on a waiting list for a preparation course...can you imagine? The waiting list will probably be a couple of years long. You really need to be committed, but the governament here really really should work on this because it's appalling. If any of you in the States knows of any reputable place we could contact so that at least after the course there won't be anoher three years wait to be matched, please let me know.

The Hairdresser Madness

Living in a different Country from that you have grown up in, brings some issues like...trying not to look exactly like everyone else coming out the hairdresser. And you are not used to it. In Ireland this is something so common it's unbelievable. There are probably 3 or 4 hairstyles...long straight hair (not very difficult to just trim), curly (usually medium-long), medium length bob and I can't think of another one. The fake blondies have the same colour blond, it's unreal, the straight hair also are the same, Jannifer Aniston had hit hard here I think.
I had long hair before, and it is as straight as spaghetti, so for a while I didn't mind too much spending and hour or two and answering "yes" to the standard question "Do you like it?". Then I wanted to change, a nice chop, lighter and more me. For a couple of times I just couldn't convince the hairdresser to cut it short. You should have heard the excuses..."but you have just put highlights in..." or "it suits you so much this way...". And believe me, I HAVE tried a few different places. Finally a hairdressed in a new saloon took me on one time and she went for it. The length was gone but, how could I say more clearly "I don't want hair across my face??". No joy, I always come out with a "curtain" of hair hanging over my right eye. Great. And there is just no point in arguing. I've lifted a white flag with that one. At least she's shortening it. Today I thought I had a chance. My usual hairdresser wasn't there and I had a different one, short hair herself. I was very clear, I even showed her a picture on a top fashion magazine dedicated to short hair...We seemed to be in agreement and then...there she starts puling the hair to one side, I knew the "curtain" was coming. She shorten the hair a good bit at the back at least, but it's the front that matters more! I kept telling her my hair wouldn't stick across the forhead at that fashionable angle unless she glued it to it. But she tried. And tried some more. Then she shortened it a bit. Then a bit more. She even "taught" me how I should dry it to make it stay that way. Yeah right. Once I had a perm, a real one (ah.. the eighties...) and it disappeared two days later when I washed it!! I know my hair, I've had it 35 years and I can tell you, unless you overload it with wax/gel/spray and a few prayers it'll go back to it's original position. Straight down.
I gave up. I left the saloon annoyed, without leaving a tip and with the "curtain" across the forhead. Like the hairdresser who cut my hair. I should have known better.

Back home, I cut that "curtain" myself, and swore not to go back there. Not sure I'll find a better one though, I'm nearing the end of the list of places I can think of and I just think it is silly to pack in a haircut too when I go to Italy...but unless I have some seriously recommended place for the next time I might have to do just that!

28

I am not sure how long it was since I had a perfect cycle. 28 days and AF had shown up. Amazing. I was telling you that I feel like my old self and this is an other sign.

On a different note, we had the first hurdle dealt with for the attic conversion! The owner of the apt underneath have no objections whowhhoo! So next is to get the approval of the board of Directors, I'll put a letter together over the weekend.

Finally, I seem to have some problems in leaving messages to blogs in which the comment box is imbedded in the page...am I the only one?