Strange Week

Started out pretty well, was busy as hell at work and tired as hell at home as Billie's been making the whole sleeping thing pretty uncomfortable with all the restlessness and grumbling about the bump (13 weeks to go at the moment).
All was going pretty well until Wednesday. I took the afternoon off work so that i could be in when the Virgin Media installer came to replace our STB with a V+ box (damn i'm impressed with it!!)
I got home to find that he'd already been and installed it but that my wife wasn't feeling well, so i drove her to the doctors expecting her to be told to put her feet up and rest a little.
However by 3pm we'd been rushed into Sunderland Royal A&E because they were concerned about her health. After a little time in A&E she'd had a number of blood tests done, an ECG they'd taken blood from the artery as well as the vein (painful from the artery she says). Then she was wheeled down to X-Ray for them to check out her chest was clear. Thinking this would be the end of the poking and prodding they returned her to a CDU ward while they awaited the results of the tests. Kindly failing to inform us this meant she'd be in overnight as the test results would take a few hours and the registrar and consultant would need to look at them before making a decision.
So by the time it got to 10pm we started to realise I'd need to pick up a few clothes for her to sleep in and i was pretty desperate for some food as I'd not eaten since 8am. So i ran home and picked up the most unsuitable pyjamas i could find (i can never find anything when I'm panicked)
Sadly the saga didn' t end there, the ward repeatedly told her she'd be seen by a doctor soon so i waited to see what would happen though by 11:40 i'd had enough and bid her goodnight. Obviously by the time i got home and got some sleep it was at least 4am so when i awoke at 8am i decided that work had no chance, got dressed and went to find my wife at the hospital.
Only to be told when i got there that the panic was all over possible blood clots on her heart and lungs (they claim they happen more often during pregnancy) and it seems Billies symptoms match those of a possible clot, though the blood tests didn't appear to show the likelihood of them being there / occurring. So there was a big debate over whether she needed to have more scans and x-rays which kept us there until late Thursday.
Thankfully she was allowed to come home and we got her settled in the house. Unfortunately the bump was most unimpressed with the stress all this had caused and remained restless for the entire period. In-fact it's been so restless since the hospital that Billies still sore from all the kicking and twisting and she's now been out of hospital for three days!
I really do appreciate the fact that all the medical staff took her health seriously and did everything they could to ensure she was thoroughly checked out. I just find it disapointing that the ward staff were completely unforgiving of my wife and unborn childs obvious distress at what was going on. For a woman 27 weeks pregnant to be dragged into hospital and thrown onto a ward of obviously uncomfortable and distressed patients is extremely disconcerting and considering my wifes emotions were running extremely high there was little to no concern. And i've never had any problems with male nurses before, but it seemed that the guy on duty overnight had absolutely no sympathy at all. To have him shouting "You can't go anywhere you will DIE if you have a blood clot!" at you is really not helpful when the only thing she really wanted was to go home and get some sleep in a comfortable bed. I really hope i never bump into the lad again outside of the hospital, i was incredibly annoyed and tempted to throw a fist into his face on the ward! (I suspect this would have been much to the amusement of the onlookers, but a bad decision non the less!).
I'll call it a night here as i really need to get some rest before work tomorrow.

Tiring weekend!

Well That weekend was one i'd like to get over as soon as possible. Frankly I'm exhausted and should have been in bed hours ago. especially considering it's back to working full days from Monday (ie, today!)
Well it started out like any other weekend when the wifes off work, with the exception that I've been getting a bit jumpy since the 15 weeks to go barrier was crossed. Not in a bad way, but jumpy regarding the fact that simple things like, nursery, cot, pushchair, car seat, pram etc.. haven't been bought yet. Nor really discussed. So! as Friday evening came and went i THE MAN OF THE HOUSE stood up to be noticed! I said I AM MAN! and voiced my displeasure at the lack of action thus far.

I needn't have bothered as i was soon smothered in websites and detailed research notes (and some complaints about inaction to date) The following day was planned and by 11am Saturday i was already on the way into Newcastle. Little did i realise that we'd have purchased one of these before lunch, and after a manly outburst one of these to accompany it! I'll admit, i'm a wuss and it was too cute to resist. Thankfully we didn't pay full price for either of these as i was 100% adamant i wouldn't buy overpriced mamas and papas junk! (Honestly though the build quality faaaaar surpasses most companies products of comparable value! which is annoyingly satisfying).
By the time that was done there was still another 4 or more hours of shopping time left and i was dragged to the MetroCentre.

Avidly i paid as little attention as i could while being dragged around as it was time to experiment with prams/car seats/pushchairs. Now i'll be honest here, we HAVE looked around before going to visit the shops as i wanted to be able to see what i liked before looking in stores. Now i found something online for £330 that i loved (as did the wife after seeing a film showing it) but after seeing the Hauck Infinity in person i decided it looked absolutely awful. Eventually and after an extremely long chat to a really helpful assistant (ooooh that sounds belittling of her, she was by far more than a simple spotty shop assistant!) we found a few pushchairs that we liked. They were a Silver Cross pram, a Bebeconfort Loola, or a Quinny. Now luckilly my mother had offered to buy these expensive pieces of kit, but as we couldn't settle on one we retreated home for a rest and recouperation (via Team valley!) while we contemplated the next move. I phoned my mother and explained our minds had been changed and instead we wanted a different pram but couldn't decide. So she came up today to help. Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons we visited Mamas and Papas and found the Pramette (Image up top) which i think my mother fell in love with as much as i did. It's just the final price tag of over £550 when the carseat, pram, bag and raincover are thrown in that are causing palpitations!!! However i think splitting the cost will be the way to go as we all love it.

VM & Sky, DAoC and Aliens!!!!

Well i've really enjoyed watching the big fuss over Virgin Media Group and Sky these last few days. In absolute honesty i was of the belief that a last minute deal would be reached between the two companies. I believed that wholeheartedly until 11:59 last night. I wasn't expecting the signal to just drop. I have to be honest, i didn't watch it until midnight, so i don't know what time they pulled it but when i turned on Sky One this morning i was expecting more than a blank screen. However! I'm happy to see VM stand up to Sky and refuse to pay an unreasonable amount. I have no intention of returning to Sky (Despite my displeasure with the 4mb broadband) i'm quite happy with them. The only thing that really angers me is the fact the VoD (View on Demand) content they keep harping on about, it's either Pay Per View meaning that because i no longer get sky i have to pay a fee to watch each episode! or It's old content that i've seen before.
I'm going to phone Virgin at some point next week once the fuss has died down to see if i can get V+ installed to compensate for the loss of these channels. Reason being we've still got a sky dish and Sky offered me a Sky+ box for nothing provided i paid the £10 a month for the services. (as opposed to a £75 installation + £10p.m

DAoC wise, i've returned to the classic server cluster tonight, i was against returning to the game prior to 1.88 being released as i'm primarily an Archer and at present we're the weakest classes on the table! However a friend of mine told me he'd returned and as WoW was getting repetitive without my duo partner to level with i've decided to go back to Gareth for a while. At present i'm not sure this is the best thing to do BUT i'm back playing Hib for a while so i've started a new toon (Bubblecow) on Lamorak and will be trying to get levelled up a little whenever i'm not playing something else.

And finally tonight i spotted Aliens (James Cameron's finest film imho) on Ch4, i thought this would just be a highly edited and disapointing version, however much to my suprise they actually showed the full Special Edition version (possibly slightly edited but i didn't spot it!) Kudos to Ch4, i'd grown accustomed to having to dig out the old VHS out whenever i wanted to watch this and was grateful to be able just to settle down infront of the TV and enjoy an awesome Sci-fi film. Well done C4!

Adios!

Film4 & baby kicks!

Wow i've been impressed with Film 4 recently, since it went over to freeview i dont think there's been many nights when i've actually gone to bed without watching or falling asleep to a good film. Fair enough many people will complain they keep repeating some films for days on end but i'm not a person who objects to that really. It's been years since i've seen the likes of 24 Hour Party People, The Deer Hunter, Once upon a Time in America, Forrest Gump, Chariots of Fire etc.. etc.. Most of them are films i don't actually have in my DVD collection (though i'm not sure why).
Well done Film4, Thank you!
They're no Sky movies, but on the same token they don't cost anyone a penny to watch, They're mostly Great films! (interspliced with some incredibly strange and thought provoking films, not forgetting the downright strange films aswell....)

Lastly, i didn't realise just how hard the baby has been kicking my wifes innards until this morning, i woke up to find myself being kicked in the back. Initially i thought it must be the dog on the bed or possibly my wife pushing me, but it wasn't. Truth was she was trying to hug me and the baby was unimpressed with being squashed and forced to share the space with his/her soon to be daddy. I wouldn't be suprised if i actually have a slight bruise from the beating i took! 15 weeks to go... remains to be seen if she'll last that long!!! She's insisting she will as she's travelling to the London Book Fair at 32 weeks pregnant (much to my disgust!) but so long as she manages to keep the blighter in till April we're all good!

15 Weeks, 57 and Download Speeds

Well where do i start? I suppose saying YEEEAAAHHH!!! DING 57! is a good place to start, finally i've knuckled down and gained that last 20% needed to hit lvl 57, so my hunter is now merely 13 levels behind the rest of the guild (oooh lucky number there i guess!) after what's that so far? 2 months since TBC launched? and yet i'm still not even 60! god that's commitment for you! hmmm maybe i'll play more in future.

So with the good start over i'm going to have a grumble about my download speeds with Virgin Media (or NTL:Telewest is really at fault i suppose) Until a few weeks ago i was running on the 10mb NTL cable connection, it was basically the one thing i wanted when i moved in with t'other half and she agreed it was fine, and all was well with it. However when i decided to tell Sky where to shove their digibox and stroke NTL's ego by moving to them for all three important services (Phone, TV & Internet) i decided to take a drop in my net speed as i thought 10mb was a bit much considering how little downloading i do outside of gaming. But since dropping from 10meg to 4meg my download speeds seem to have dropped through the bloody ringer! and i'm not happy about it!!!!!one!!! but Virgin dont seem to give a shit, yes they acknowledge i should get a faster conn but wont accept blame, so i'm tempted to phone them and tell them i'm going back to sky and will be taking my cable modem and shoving it up (non)Virgins arsehole! replacing it with a 16mb DSL connection with Sky. But i can't even do this, NTL installed a new line to the house, meaning that my phoneline isn't with BT! so i can't even try and get DSL over it anyway!!!! fecks sake! they really know how to make a person cry. In-fact i think i'm going to stop myself there, i don't really want to depress myself anymore!

On an alternative note i'd like to say a big thanks to my mum who called me tonight (after speaking to my sister whom i'd been texting about there only being 15 weeks left before she is an auntie) in shock having been under the illusion that this birth thing was happening at some point in the very far future and that she would not be a Grandmother for a long time to come! Strangely it seems my wife is still in denial, despite this revelation she is also convinced that the little blighter will not be escaping her body EVER if labour is involved. It's hard for me to remain straight faced when that type of hysteria is thrown around, yes it's scary, yes it's probably going to be very painful but does trying to convince yourself it's NOT going to happen really make you feel better? Meh i'll call it a night at that, it's nearly 2am and i want to get some sleep at some point this year, here's an image showing what the 25th week looks like!