Making Me Sad 2

After writing the previous entry, I remembered a sad story, this one from last year.

There were two ducks living in the office pond. In the spring they produced lovely ducklings which waddled in a happy line across the grass in front of the lunch room and brought delight to the staff. Then the ducklings started to disappear, one by one until there was only one left. Then there were none.

What was happening to the cute baby ducks? Investigations revealed that a monster eel had picked them off.

That made me sad.

The eel is no longer resident but the ducks have not appeared this year.

Making Me Sad Today

Having a new baby is a time of great happiness and also worry and emotional turmoil. Anything can bring a tear to my eye at the moment.

For instance, I have noticed a lot of ducks in Rolleston. There is no water to speak of. They all spend their lives wondering the streets, forlornly looking for a pond. It's a futile exercise. They won't find one.

Whenever I see them, it makes me feel a little bit sad.

Toby Comes Home

Today Toby came home for the first time. He has been super good and slept lots. He seems quite content. I can't really remember what Lily was like on the first day home.

Signs I am Turning Middle Aged 2: Car Park Rage

Tiny Car-Park: Christchurch Hospital

At the hospital today was further proof that I am on the slippery slope to middle age. I indulged in the truly middle aged pass-time of arguing over parking spaces.

At Christchurch hospital, the car park is miniscule and has about 30 spaces. Visitors queue for a space and usually wait about 10 minutes, unless people jump the queue and drive the wrong way around the one way system to nab the space, or push in. Its quite a stressful wait.

One such person pushed in in front of me with his red Mazda sports car. I jumped out of my seat and said "do you know there is a queue?"

"I've never been here before"
"Are you going to go to the back of the queue?"
"No, you don't know what I'm f*cking doing here"
"What are you doing"
"minding my own f*cking business"

This carried on for a while so I called him inconsiderate and rude before returning to my car sanctimoniously, feeling quietly satisfied that I had upheld my honour. I'm not too bothered at having people swearing at me. It's basically what I do for a living.

Further evidence that I am turning middle aged is that I have found it necessary to spell fuck as f*ck in case any other middle aged people are offended.

Baby Toby Arrives

On 24th August, baby Toby was born, the second child of the Hattams of Rolleston. He was 9lb and half an ounce, which is a good size, as the nurses keep telling Jo. He was born at 10.37 to the sounds of Daydream Believer.

As you can see, Lily is clearly thrilled to be a big sister.

Jo is bringing him home tomorrow so that's when the sleepless nights begin.

Tomorrow's the day

Tomorrow is a big day. The ashes will be decided, probably tonight. Then, at lunchtime tomorrow, our new baby will be born.

What a day.

Signs I am turning middle aged

1 Hairier eyebrows
2 Less hairy head
3 flabbier thighs (danger of chaffing)
4 Man-boobs

An Inconvenient Arrival

In two weeks time, our second child is due. Jo is expecting to have a ceasarian section on the Monday. Annoyingly, this clashes with the final day of the Ashes series.

However it could have been much worse. We are quite relieved that the baby isn't being born on a Tuesday when it would clash with top Kiwi drama series Outrageous Fortune.