MIL, weather and other updates

Thank you to all of you for the kind thoughts on MIL. Surgery went well, they amputated the leg below the knee so once she gets a prosthesis she will be able to walk a bit more naturally. We have not seen her yesterday, we planned to go to the hospital (which is at the other side of the city from where we live) but the weather and traffic were so bad it was absolutely impossible. It took us two hours to get home from work (normally it's no more than 20 minutes). We will go today.

Weather is really cold and it keeps snowing. So Ireland doesn't do snow well at all, it happened in January too. Schools are closed, roads are at various levels of danger (depending whether they salted them so it's very slushy or not and so it's hard snow/ice), cars are not equipped with winter tyres so they are all over the place and drivers are either way too careful (they could walk instead at the speed they are going) or not enough. College issued a statement they are shutting down now and probably will be closed tomorrow too. Given that it's the last week of term with plenty of lectures and labs to finish I don't know how they can fix it. I had less than half the class this morning and thankfully I only had very light material which is not part of the exam. But tomorrow and firday I have three hours teaching plus continuous assessment with the final year students and we'll have to find a way of having those hours done. You see, next week is revision week and then exams starts immediately running till the 22nd of December, there was really no contingency plan in place. We'll see.

More bad news came last night from various relatives in Mike's family, I won't go into details but let's say that things are looking quite bad or at least two of them and feel very sorry for them.

I'm just waiting for Mike to arrive and we go home!

32 weeks and lots of snow

Yesterday I turned the page on the book that brought me officially into the 8th month of pregnancy! Woohoo! Everything is great thankfully, the only thing I have to mention is that I'm getting cramps in my calves at night (it seems to be the right one mostly) and I started having very vivid dreams/borderline nightmares!! Last night I dreamt something like "28 days later" the movie...not sure what prompted it but sure when I woke up (heart pounding and Elvis kicking!) I had to pee and was afraid to go to the loo!! Yes yes silly I know, but in daylight all is good!

My weight is pretty much stable this week, sure with the scale I'm using we have to allow for a plus or minus a Kg, but I considered it still +14 as of yesterday.

I thought Elvis has somewhat a pattern in his movements but not quite. He used to be active around the time the alarm went off but this is not happening anymore (well in the last few days anyway) so I think he's active beforehand and after breakfast. I still panic a bit if I think he should be moving and he doesn't, but then he starts and there's no doubt he's happy! So I calm down again, until the next time...

Tomorrow I have the OB visit, I look forward to it, hopefully it'll all be well.

On Saturday we woke up to a white landscape, it snowed!! I love snow but like last year people panic a good bit and don't really enjoy it. It's very cold, like, unusually cold for this time of the year, it should last until friday which is also the LAST DAY of term!!!! Oh my God I'm soo counting, mainly so that we can come into work without the fear of not finding a car space LOL! Patches and The Dude are fascinated by the snow and spend ages looking outside the windows.

The attic is almost ready for the cosmetic work, windows are in, plasterboard too and I can't wait to see what it will look like at the end of the week! Like my friend Saige suggested, I may make a little slide show once it's done!

Oh and Hannah was asking if I was wearing maternity jeans in the photos and yes, definitely maternity!

That's it for now, I'll update again tomorrow.

Sorry neighbour!

Oh dear...I would have updated the previous post but I know it wouldn't have been really fair as you guys had left comments already (thanks, you are great!!)

So last night the doorbell rang and it was neighbour N with a brand new brush for us!! He was very apologetic and the brush is actually much bigger and stronger than the one we have! Mike answered the door (thank God, I would have been mortified!) and things between guys are always so much easier to straighten out aren't they? Mike offered him our old one but no no, no need at all and sorry again!
Then Mike said to me "See? you FORCED me to go ever and give out to them! There was no need!" Ehhmmm...I mean... with the way things had gone the night before, I still think something had to be said, but it is more of a possibility now that it was his extra-neighbour to damage it and he truly didn't know....

Ah well, back to meditation, this has to be forgotten now! Certainly if I had followed one of the key instructions of the book which states "Wait 24 hours before having any reaction"...ehemmehhm I suppose....next time...Zen...Zen...Zen....

More snow and neighborhood tales

No improvement here, temperatures are below freezing and we live on a hill south of the City so I'd say we have it a bit worse. Nontheless...I absolutely love snow.
I have actually learnt a few new words which have to do with how dangerous streets are. Here they go: there are hazardous conditions, excalating to treacherous to end in impassable! As of yesterday evening roads in Dublin are between treacherous and impassable. A part from the roads in private estates I actually think it's not that bad at all. And you should see the drivers...can I just say once again...if you can't handle the snow....STAY AT HOME!!! No need to drive as slow at 10km/hrs on clear roads, you know? From home to the office today I don't think I shifted to second gear at all... and College is pretty much deserted. What can you do...any excuse will do! Well, I'm in, as well as my Swiss colleague and the Swedish one! It's unreal.
I got a call from the pharmacy yesterday to let me know that they had my prescriptions but that "due to weather conditions" they weren't sure if they could be delivered to my local pharmacy by the end of the week. No problem, I don't need them until the 21st anyway. I got the opportunity to check on my progesterone support and it was the Crin.one, so I told them I would have called the clinic to have it changed to the pessaries. It was sorted in no time and I got to talk to the Favourite Doctor!! How nice. She said she'll do my scans personally. I love her.
A bit more on the frost and snow (rant ahead).
One little thing is that, if you remember I live in a duplex and I have two short flights of steps to get to my door and to that of the immediate neighbour. Now, in fairness they were really dangerous (impassable??). Snow had compacted and frozen and each step was very slippery. We have an outdoor brush which I use to clear the balcony and Mike went out yesterday morning and brushed the steps. We got a bag of salt from the management company to share with the other duplexes, we spinkled a bit and then Mike went to the other neighbours in our block to see if they wanted to clear their steps and have a bit of salt. Well, perhaps you can se where this is heading. Neighbour N was very thankful, asked if he could get our brush and took the bag of salt. Mike wasn't too pleased that he took the bag as a few more houses will need it, but still he left everything with him. N said he would return everything to us. After an hour or soo I look out the door and see the bag left there, half empty. It was a 25kg bag. Then I notice the brush also left at our door. The handle was totally ruined. The idiot had used the wooden handle to break the ice (over concrete) and you can imagine the state of it. He didn't even have the decency of ringing the bell and thank us. I was steaming out of my ears. I just cannot tolerate careless people...specially when they are careless with things we kindly lent them. I told Mike he had to go and say something (Mike was also pissed, but probably would have sulked for a while and not acting). Off he went and here's what happened.

Mike rings the bell, N's wife answer.
Mike: "Hello, I'm your neighbour, I gave this to N to clear the steps. It was mine. He must have used the handle to break the ice, look at the state of it now"
Wife: "Oh... yeah, really sorry, we gave it to our neighbour too, he must have done it..."
Mike: "I didn't lent it to your neighbour, I lent it to your husband"
Wife: "Well, yeah...sorry about this, bye!"

Fucking unbelievable. Maybe it's the pill, but i just can't get over it. This people are young, like 30 something, they have a child. Yeah they are weird a bit, wife never says hello. It's not the cost of the brush of course, it's the cheek of them. Not a thank you, not a gesture of offering to get us a new one...Ahhhhhghhh and I like being nice and hepful to others but God, I don't think I'll be ringing their bell anytime soon to offer something.
I am waiting to see if we see them again and if they say something.
I turned to meditation last night to clear my head. It helped a bit but obviously the rage is still in my system! Damn asshole.
Ohhhhhmmmm Ohhhhhhhmmm....Fecker.....Ohhhhmmmm Ohhhmmmmm