29 September 2014

Music stuff : September



It's Monday morning, the Cub's at nursery, I am sitting in a coffee shop slowly waking up, and the headphones are on. Pre-Cub I managed to dedicate a fair amount of time searching out new tunes to listen to, but it doesn't happen much these days and feels like a real luxury. It's even more of a shame as the Cub herself loves listening to music (and that even includes my singing- ha) and dancing, which actually just means turning in circles until she falls over. So now I've managed one mum post, I'm going with a music post. These are five albums/ tunes I've been listening to/ trying to listen to this month...

1 - War on Drugs, Lost in The Dream (album). Yep, I know, really behind with this. Listen to Red Eyes on Soundcloud

2 - Lia Ices, Higher Listen to Higher on Soundcloud

3 - Perfume Genius, Queen Watch the video for Queen on YouTube

4 - Robert Plant, Rainbow Listen to Rainbow on Soundcloud

5 - Alt-J, Every Other Freckle. And there's a new album I can aspire to listen to by mid 2015. Listen to Every Other Freckle on Soundcloud

(Thanks, Lauren Laverne, for pretty much all of these.)

Mum stuff : Halfway

So the baby monkey is halfway brewed. Crikey. Now that the horrendous morning sickness has gone I am sometimes mildly surprised when I remember I'm pregnant, despite having seen clear (and amazing) evidence at my scan last week. There's not much of a bump to speak of; I like to think there was plenty of existing bump for the baby to use up before expanding outwards, lovingly crafted through a couple of months of the Crisp and Millionaire's Shortbread Diet. So we'll keep it brief and go straight for a nice positive list today...

Five exciting things about having another baby:

1 - I can talk to a small child of mine without it being punctuated with a stream of loud 'NO!'s and a hand held up in my face in the manner of an overly aggressive traffic policeman stopping cars

2 - I can change a nappy without having to chase a small child around the sofa three times and then be screamed at for the injustice and indignity of said nappy change at a decibel which could break windows

3 - I might manage it this time without constant, debilitating fear of cocking it all up (this time I am pretty confident I will cock it up but it will probably all be OK anyway)

4 - I might get cuddles that don't result in injury (I've never been in a physical fight but the closest has been being- accidentally, I should say-  headbutted in the nose twice in the last fortnight)

5 - I can sit on the sofa for hours at a time whilst feeding (the baby, and yes, OK, me) with no guilt whatsoever.

And I've just realised that I've included nappy changing in a list of exciting things about having another baby. Clearly gonna laugh at that one in months to come.

22 September 2014

Other stuff : The First Post

Well, hello.

So here it is, the first post and, with any luck, not the last. This has been a long time coming, largely because I am a champion faffer but also because I wanted to get it right. I've pretty much abandoned the latter in favour of actually getting on and doing something, so forgive me for any tweaks along the way.

The purpose of this blog is, like any other blog, to give me a chance to write down some of things that occur to me on a daily basis and which my usual companion has no real interest in hearing. It might be because she's 18 months old, but to be fair simple conversations about changing nappies or getting dressed don't hold her attention much either at the moment. So here I am. Lucky you. (I promise not to post much about changing nappies or getting dressed, don't worry.)

I'm hoping to write about a lot of things but inevitably being a mum will feature prominently because that's my full time job, and it's about to become fuller- as it were- since I'm 20 weeks pregnant. It's also one I both love and struggle with. But once upon a time I had lots of other interests too- books, travel, photography, food, music and graphic design- and I'm hoping this blog will give me a chance to catch up on what I've been missing and let me share things that interest and excite me. Hopefully someone out there will find it interesting too.

The concept, such as it is- list five things- is also designed to give me a bit of focus and structure to my posts. It's also because I love lists. So without further ado here are five random things you may or may not want to know about me...

1 - I can speak a little Chinese. Mandarin, that is. Ni hao!
2 - I once bought Michael Douglas a drink whilst wearing an oversize felt jester's hat
3 - The last film I saw in a cinema was Sunshine On Leith. Nearly a year ago. Sigh
4 - I really like coffee-flavoured chocolate (controversial, that one)
5 - I am, right now, listening to the new Alt-J album and I am reading a book called- hang on whilst I remember- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (can't comment on either yet, too early)

(Turns out that was a particularly difficult list. I do hope they get easier after this...)