It's a small world after all, or, how the internet causes me to embarrass myself.

This actually happened months ago now, and I keep meaning to blog it but recently had it brought back to the front of my mind.

So picture the scene, I am in Nando's with Rich and the boys, one of whom is still very small and therefore making a bit of a racket in the very full restaurant. Not embarrassing enough apparently.
I turned to see a couple of people leaving, walking past our table as they went.

"Oh," says my brain, "That's Sarah. Check her badge just in case." I did (she was wearing a work badge, not just for funsies) and it said, funnily enough, Sarah.
"You should smile at her so she knows you've seen her." said brain. So I did. "You should wave too, I don't think she saw you," said brain, "it's important for us to be nice to people. Go on, wave."
So I did, just a little wave, the kind you do to someone you know, but not well, across a small space.

Sarah gave me a very odd look with a polite smile, and hurried on to exit the restaurant.

Under normal circumstances, that response would probably have upset me. As I say, under NORMAL circumstances.

It was then that my brain chipped in again....

"Ah... We don't actually know Sarah do we?"

No, brain. We do not. Thanks for that.

Sarah is in fact, the Sister-in-law of an old friend, Tim. More recently, I have been reading the blog of Sarah's sister, Rachel, Tim's wife. Therefore, I have only ever seen pictures of Sarah online. As a side note, is this not slightly bizarre? Sarah lives not far from me, but I don't know her except via her relatives, who live 200 miles away near my parents. And yet I've seen her dancing to Feliz Navidad.

Facebook and Blogs have made my world a smaller place. To Sarah, (and no doubt the future similar victims of my friendly wave) I'm sorry.

Just know that the random woman waving at you wasn't crazy, or drunk, just internet-addled. *waves* :D

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Pre-Christmas Fun!

Bit late with this post, as Christmas is almost upon us!

Christmas Tree!

I had to relinquish control over the tree totally this year. It was a difficult day, but actually a lot of fun decorating with Ethan this year. I am now doing constant battle with Sam for him to please NOT pull off all the decorations within his reach (the precious ones are at the top, for example the glass angels!)

Gingerbread house! With candles inside, that remain lit for very short periods of time, seeing as the roof has chocolate on!
Matchmaker log doors, Windowsills, and log pile. and Jelly tot lights! It smells amazing in my kitchen right now.
I built it, but didn't bake it. I want to try that next year :) Ethan and I decorated it together. What this picture doesn't show, is that when the house was facing the other way, Sam climbed up the stool Ethan had been using and pulled off some of the roof. Clearly his mothers son ;)


Sam and Annabel (his little friend) at their toddler group Christmas party. Food, Bouncy castle, presents. What more could they want?

Ethan in Sunday's Nativity, as a cow. He was supposed to be a sheep, but was very upset as he was a sheep last year, so we asked if he could be a cow instead, and he was delighted. So it's not traditional, but there were probably cows in the stable, right?

So Christmas is fast approaching, much to do! Have a great one!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Centre Parcs - Updated with new pictures :)

Totally Awesome.

So I don't have many pictures at the moment because the good ones are on Rich's phone and I can't find his cable, so, helpful. Even so though, we didn't take many anyway as we are forgetful and get too busy having fun. It happens every holiday.

The swan up there - lethal. That was our little patio, every morning we were greeted pre-dawn by squirrels, ducks of many varieties, pidgeons, the occasional seagull and these 2 monstrous swans. They were fine for a couple of days, but on day 3, one of them saw me coming with the food, and started PECKING THE GLASS. It was also pressing it's body up against it. There was no way I was opening that door. It was not giving up. I had to go around to the bedroom window and lure it away while Rich opened the door and threw out the food as quickly as he could.

The squirrels too were fearless, we had a few mad scrambles to shut the door before one got in with those too. Sam and Ethan loved it though, and spent ages each morning watching them.

After that it was swimming each day. On day one Sam cried the entire time. Rich and I kept throwing each other what-have-we-done? glances, as we'd bigged up the swimming everyday to Ethan, and so couldn't really back out! The next day we let Sam nap first, fed them and then went and he decided he loved it, phew!

On the Tuesday evening we took the boys to 'Animal Magic' and animal show and tell sort of situation, with all your fluffies, rabbits, baby chicks, a couple of cute rats. Then they brought out the hissing cockroaches. Bleurgh. They didn't hiss, as we were told they'd become too domesticated and they only do it under attack. All I can say is thank goodness, they were revolting enough as it was. Funnily enough, none of the children or parents wanted to hold them.

Then came 'Rosie' the Tarantula, who also didn't get a hold. I did however learn that if you drop a tarantula on it's abdomen, it will pop like a light bulb. Thanks for that, animal experts, excuse me while I throw up.
After that was a bearded dragon, a boa constrictor, and a tortoise. Much better. Sam loved it ALL and wanted to touch everything they brought around!

We took Ethan for a pony ride to Santa, which he loved, and he got to pick a present from Santa, he picked a Lego digger, which was handy as he'd been talking about a digger for Christmas recently and we'd not got him one. He loved it so much we took them both again the next day as Sam had been asleep. Sam was slightly wary of this man with a beard (never seen one of those before!) and just stood and stared at him, but was happy enough to get a stuffed Tiger from him :)

One of Ethan's favourite things was the child sized trolleys in the little shop, too cute!

We went to a gorgeous fireworks display, where there were also some jugglers and 2 dancers, who were doing hula hoops, 4 at a time. Ethan thought it was very cool so he and Rich went to look closer. The dancers were wearing very small skirts over shorts (I guess to not impede the hoops) with tights and fluffy boots, and the girl did a spin while spinning these hoops (I'm not explaining this well!) and turned her back to Ethan who promptly said "Daddy! I can see her bottom!"
Santa then did a pass of the beach on a speedboat, which Ethan loved, and then came round again. We'd already put him back in the pushchair to head home, and so we started getting him out to see over the crowd. He started shouting "Daddy! make Santa wait! I want to see him!" we got him out in time and he said "don't forget to come to my house Santa!" and blew him kisses. Bless him!

All in all, a wonderful week, we didn't want to come home at all!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Blue Lights on the Ceiling

Let me start by saying, I am in fact fine now.

On Tuesday I was happily out shopping with a friend, when I got tingly fingers. Ok I thought, I am getting a migraine. I should have eaten breakfast. Never mind. At which point I grabbed a Wispa and some Ibuprofen at the checkout. To clarify, I am usually very lucky with migraines, in that I get some weird tinglies up my left side which then stops with a minor headache in the right side of my brain.

I'm not sure which side I think with, but it's definitely misbehaving!

We finished the shopping and went to get Ethan from school, I hopped out the car and walked in to the playground, realising my legs felt a bit odd, but shrugged it off as 'tinglies' and carried on. We got back to the car (no, I wasn't driving, that could have been a lot worse!) and Jannine my lovely friend took us back to her house to get my pushchair, where I declared that actually, I didn't feel that great. Jannine kindly offered to have Ethan (and to let me sleep in her bed while she watched BOTH of my boys, and her mindee, though I declined) and I set off in the fresh air thinking I'd put Sam down to a nap and have one myself.

Halfway home and ..hmm.. I feel sick. great. I phoned Rich to see if he could ask his mum to have Sam so I could really sleep and kick the migraine. I had thought to ring her myself, but, call me old fashioned, I only feel comfortable risking a phone puking for my husband. They obliged and 15 minutes later Sam was packed off with Grandad and I headed for bed, thinking that was that, I'd wake up in a couple of hours and be at least mostly fixed.

Ha. Ha ha ha. Oh how I was wrong.

I woke up about an hour later and crawled to the bathroom, head pounding, and was sick. Here is where it gets a bit hazy for a bit. I remember struggling to make my phone ring Rich, it was so weird, it was like the buttons were all jumbled up. He told me to ring NHS direct and later told me I had been slurring. I struggled again to first of all find the number (it wasn't til this morning that I remembered it's actually stored in my phone - I ended up trying to google it on my phone!) and then trying to dial it. The lovely lady on the other end told me she was getting an ambulance and to try and go down and unlock the door. She stayed on the line and talked to me, but I've no idea what she said. I vaguely remember slumping to the floor against the couch and seeing the blue lights on the ceiling. Somewhere in my head I remembered seeing it before - we used to have a lady living on the street who was quite ill with diabetes, and I distinctly thought Well it's much less interesting when they're here for you!
After that I remember a male paramedic asking me which shoes I wanted and where my bag was -very surreal- and that it was raining. Also, quite possibly the worst place to physically be when you are ill, is in the back of an ambulance, because those things can bounce. Seriously, the paramedic kept apologising. Not great when you already feel like your brain is trying to burst out of your skull.

The ambulance service, if you're not nauseous now you will be!
The short version is that I then sat in A&E for about 5 hours, literally crying in agony, with people talking to me about possible brain bleeds, being fed (and throwing up) various painkillers (which either didn't work or didn't have time to) and hilariously, anti-sickness tablets. I have *never* understood the logic of giving oral anti-emetics to someone who is already throwing up. I was finally promised some Morphine and an IV anti-emetic, but a bed became available on the ward so I was denied the Morphine and promised some on the ward. Except I got there and didn't see a doctor for another 3 hours. I was not a happy bunny. Then they gave me something powerful (Tramadol maybe? it began with a T) and I fell asleep, until I woke up to someone talking obnoxiously loud at 3am while moving into the room. I must have started feeling better at that point because I could spare a thought to think murderous things.

In the morning I was feeling much better and allowed to come home, having been told yes, it 'was just a migraine'. Unless of course I wanted the medication they prescribed me, in which case I had to wait 2 hours because of the strikes, or buy it over the counter. I bought it at the chemist and came home to sleep. So all in all, not a great experience. I'll never take my mini-migraines for granted again - I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

And to the weirdos who try to ring an ambulance for a tummy ache and such (Rich's dad is and ambulance phone man, we hear it all) trust me, get a cab or a bus.

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!