Because there is not much I can do to help around the house I decided that I should at least do something useful and do the… cooking

People who know me know I’m a disaster in the kitchen and that I hate cooking but since it’s about the only thing I can do that doesn’t require too much effort I decided to give it a go.

As I don’t know how to cook and have to follow a recipe I thought it’s best to follow a Portuguese recipe (without veg cos Russ doesn’t like them). Something with chicken which we had defrosting. So I went with the chicken rice in the oven recipe and also use the Portuguese chorico my dad sent me.

One hour later (and a few rest breaks) it was done. I am happy to say that it really tastes like home! Mmmm! Unfortunately for Russ this means it is a taste he is not very used to but considering we have enough for a couple of days, he’ll have time to get used to it

Maybe it’s because I have a cold but it’s really tasty, I’m impressed

Happy Cat

As if it wasn’t enough that I felt useless because the pregnancy is preventing me from doing everything that needs to be done, I decided to get ill. It’s not a very common thing in me. I get 2 or 3 colds in a year and they only last for a couple of days. Not this one tough

I’ve been feeling miserable for 4 days now and no signs of getting better. I sleep even less than I did because of the blocked nose, sneezing and bleeding from my nose and there is nothing I can do about it. The only thing I can have is paracetamol which never worked for me anyway.

Just last night I couldn’t sleep after 3am so I had to get up and try to get some rest on the sofa so that Russ could get some sleep. A flea wouldn’t find this sofa comfortable and with my big bump and runny nose I can tell you rest is not a thing you can do on it.

So more pressure on Russ to get things done. He’s been very good though and the fact that I lost my appetite alerted him to the fact that I might be really ill and he makes lovely honey and lemon hot drinks

Because I can’t do anything for more than 5 min without having to sit down an rest, my frustration is turning to bad temper. I hate being sick!!!!

Anyway share a thought for Russ hat has to deal with a pregnant, ill, bad tempered woman and to all the business work and house stuff by himself. Besides I decided that tonight I won’t be he one sleeping on the sofa, seems fair to me…

I still get shocked by some people’s behaviour. Maybe it’s just my impression but I have been faced with some very unpleasant behaviour in this country. Maybe I was just lucky to never see it in Portugal or my general group of acquaintances were just very special.

Two examples:

When I was waiting for an ultrasound at the hospital the waiting room was packed with pregnant women and their partners. I was lucky that there was one seat left and Russ just stood next to me. One heavily pregnant woman came in with her partner and she was clearly tired and uncomfortable and looking around desperate for a seat.

NONE OF THE MEN GOT UP AND OFFERED HER A SEAT! How is this possible???

It was only after she stood there for ages, got out and then came back and stood again for ages that a young man got up and asked her to sit down. Even though I was tired as well (and very big) I was about to get up and give her my own seat (not without making a loud remark that would get some faces red). This is unbelievable in any country but especially in the country famous worldwide by it’s gentlemen’s politeness!

On a less shocking note but that I had to endure for longer, on a restaurant table a conversation was going on between 3 women and a man. They worked at the same place and the man was the boss in some department. The women looked like a pack of wolves surrounding the lamb and asking him all kinds of confidential questions about work. The one that excited them the most was interrogating him on who would be fired next (not them of course as they weren’t in the same department). They started naming people asking if they were next, saying who they would think should be next and the guy just tried to be polite and was obviously uncomfortable not wanting to give away anything. My only comment to Russ was how can people find so much pleasure on gossiping about who will lose their jobs next? Specially in this current climate! There are some very small people in this world.

I just hope that when I get back to work I don’t have to put up with this kind of behaviour. Or that I never need a seat anywhere while I’m pregnant.

After 4 weeks living at Russ’s parents, not being able to find any of our stuff and living with boxes all around (see this post), the day we got the keys to our house finally arrived! 18th November

We started bringing things as soon as we could but because we didn’t have a van this time it took a lot longer. Some of the furniture we had to take apart cos it wouldn’t fit in either of the cars. Endless trips from us and Russ’s dad (we couldn’t have made it without him) later we finally had all our stuff in the house by Sunday. With a little extra help from Scott, Lee and Sophie, all the heavy furniture was on the right floor of the house. Now all we had to do was unbox everything. Uff…

First things first: the kitchen so we could live and a bed. Then everything else could take its time. And it did. We still have loads to do but the main rooms of the house are done. We finished the living room yesterday, our bedroom and en-suite today together with the study and the cloakroom. All that is left is the 2 other bedrooms, family bathroom the garage, and get everything else in the loft. Oh and we need to paint the baby’s room as it is a very strong blue at the moment. Even if it was a boy it would be too dark for a baby.

It is really starting to look like a home now and I love it more and more. The only problem we encountered was the smoke alarms setting off randomly in the middle of the night. There are 4 of them and they’re all connected so when one is on the others are too. You can’t imagine the noise they make and being woken up in the middle of the night with that noise not knowing what is happening it disconcerting There is no apparent reason for it either-no battery problem, air freshener, or anything else. I think we found the one the causes the trouble but after it happening 3 times already we still need it to happen once more to find out exactly.

Other than that it’s getting used to the size of the house – it’s going to take ages to clean so we need to come up with a plan. The living room is what impressed us the most. Although it’s not huge, compared to what we had it’s a monster. We were used to have a TV too big for the room and a sofa just right. Now the TV is far far away and looks tiny and we need another sofa twice the size of ours to add so that the room doesn’t look like the desert Plenty of room to play the Wii though I can’t believe it costs the same as our previous tiny 2 bed flat!

Oh and we have the internet since yesterday so all the essentials done.

Hopefully it won’t be long until it’s all done and we can start getting visits

I saw that there is a show on TV that is a competition to find the best butcher 0f the year.

With all the suspence, drama, judges making ‘really tough decisions’, and everything.

Really??

I hate this feeling that my entire life is on hold. Even being just temporary it is still a long temporary.

I’m still trying to do what I can in advance but other things are just not up to me.

Unfortunately I’m not one of those people that can just sit down, relax and watch life passing by…

…there was a girl who could sleep for 8 hours in a row and still be able to take some extra naps.

Then she decided that getting married, finishing a PhD, getting pregnant, moving house and  starting a business all at the same time was a good idea and she forgot what a good night’s sleep was.

The end.

It is unbelievable but everything I avoid in my life, either because it’s too difficult or because I hate it, follows me and becomes a big part of my life.

Some example between the many:

- At school I hated trigonometry – and it was what saved me on the exams to access University.

- Always hated Physics and Atmospheres – worked on it for a research grant back in Portugal.

- At Uni I hated and could not understand spectroscopy – ended up doing a PhD in spectroscopy (although I’m not sure I understand it yet)

And the worst one:

I always avoided anything related to IT (I really, really don’t like it and technology never works with me) – Russ and I are starting a business in IT. Still, I hoped to take care of the management stuff and leave the technical things to Russ. But at the moment I am working on the company web site…

And even worse, even on my spare time I am doing some course related to Geology and now I am having to program!!!

Arrrghhhhhhhhh

Ninguem e perfeito, mas falta-me a paciencia…

Very tough times…