9th January 2006
Hi all,
Enjoying a day off today, and I mean enjoying it. After about fifteen months of failed orders, putting off ordering it again and then finally waiting it out while my final attempt at ordering it came through successfully I know actually own a copy of the Chicago Bulls Dynasty Series dvd boxset. Well worth watching, especially now that former Bull Dennis Rodman is in Celebrity Big Brother. It goes without saying that I've been giving my daughter an early lesson in how basketball should be played.
(I'm not going to mention the Bulls dvds any further after this paragraph. There are 922 minutes of footage in the set and it probably deserves its own thought somewhere down the line. The part that has really amused me so far was where the commentators pointed out that instead of staying with the team in Salt Lake City during the 1997 Finals Rodman used his days off to go to Las Vegas instead. Not really surprising on reflection.)
As I only returned to work a few days before Christmas following my paternity leave I'm still seeing people for the first time since Chloe was born. Needless to say it has created more than a bit of conversation, with a lot of people I don't really speak to a lot offering congratulations, asking how Chloe is, how Lorraine is feeling, etc. It has been really nice, but also very strange. I don't think you can understand it unless you have been there yourself. I find it a bit embarrassing, it certainly makes me feel self-conscious for some reason.
In addition to the congratulatory comments there are a few strangers ones, most notably:
"So is that Lorraine off her work then?"
Nope, she takes Chloe into work with her pops her in a cot and gets on with her normal day, despite the fact that a) She's barely a month removed from what is actually a major operation, b) Chloe needs to be fed every four hours, and c) She is entitled to six months maternity leave. Obviously she's foregoing all of that and has returned to work. Puh-leese.
"What did you have again?"
I actually felt sorry for the first person who asked this. They're a naturally kind and friendly person, it just so happened that at this moment. I've had this a few times since, but the first time you hear the question it does catch you off guard. How could anyone ask such a question? The fact is though that people do forget, so there's no need to take it personally.
Another popular question tends to be, "How are you getting on?" It is especially asked by other people who have recently been introduced to parenthood themselves. We're not doing too badly, especially last week as we had Lorraine's Mum round to help from Monday to Friday. Now I know you're expecting a mother-in-law joke here, so I apologise for not obliging. The fact is the week went very well, most of all with Cookie enjoying Lorraine's Mum taking him for walks.
The first day that Lorraine's Mum took Cookie out she brought a Daily Record, a paper I cannot stand, mainly because it has always seemed to dislike England and English people. Rather than be wound up by it I simply choose not to read it.
However put something readable within my reach and I will pick it up and read it (this stems from countless visits to doctors' surgeries as a child where the choice of reading material was between Reader's Digest and... Reader's Digest). So in the Daily Record last week was a family photo showing five female generations of one family, including a newborn baby girl. As we've taken this photo recently with Lorraine, Chloe, Lorraine's Mum and Lorraine's Gran this photo caught my eye, as did the caption. The newest Mum is just sixteen (so she was almost certainly pregnant when she was fifteen) while the Great-Great-Gran was just 73. There was never a gap of more than twenty years between any of them. When Chloe was born my Gran became a Great-Grandmother for the first time in her early 80s, a far better ratio.
To count down the generations:
Baby - Holly
Mum - Elizabeth Jamieson (16)
Gran - Samantha Jamieson (36)
Great-Gran - Flora Paterson (54)
Great-Great-Gran - Margaret Smith (73)
Time to wheel out my father-in-law's best joke again: Do they know what's caused it?
(By the way, does everyone read an article like that and think, "What a bunch of slappers!", or is it just me?)
As the week progressed the main source of the news actually became the Liberal Democrats. On Thursday leader Charles Kennedy admitted to having a problem with alcohol. When someone is going through a difficult time personally you'd expect those closest to you to be the most supportive. Of course politicians are a different breed altogether so his colleagues actually demanded he resign. Are these the sort of people you would want to be running the country?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not having a go at the Liberal Democrats in particular (if I wanted to do that I'd get my Mum to do it, she has an irrational hatred of them for some reason), all parties are like it. Just about all politicians are vultures. They can't all start out like that, can they? I mean they are actually human beings, aren't they?
On second thoughts, don't answer that.
Have a good week!
Tony
Main Archives
