Wednesday, September 24
they seek him here...'The next day Saddam sneaked out of his bunker again and boarded a high-powered boat, disguised as a watermelon barge.'
From the Daily Mail, 21 September: 'How Saddam fled in a boatload of melons'
Saturday, September 13
a pregnant pausePhotos of non-pregnancy-related things have now been added here. Enjoy. We're off to Edinburgh for a week. And London. See you soon!
Tuesday, September 9
gratefulGot the results back by post from the scary antenatal blood tests done last week. They say our baby 'is not at high risk' for Down's syndrome or spina bifida. Thank God. Like any expectant mother, especially those of us on the wrong side of 35, I'd been fretting about this test, and even whether to take it, for weeks. You're given the choice and its a pretty tough decision to make. And thank God I now won't have to have an amniocentesis.
Monday, September 8
WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO GIANT GONAD: PICTURES AT 11Came out at work by waving my scan pics at people. Surprise and delight all round, although general incredulity not shared by the woman who sits opposite me - apparently my sudden Ryvita habit, poetic pallor and frequent dashes to the bathroom gave the game away. Another workmate, after inspecting the photo of little Godric/Etheldreda, observed that it resembled - let me see it I remember this aright - 'a single, giant testicle'. Cheers Alastair.
Rather less amusingly we had a round of redundancies last week - four people from our division of 50 and a total of 13 from the entire Cambridge office were given the bad news on Friday. I still have a job and am very relieved about this as I didn't fancy my chances at getting another while pregnant, and wasn't all that keen on starting maternity leave six months early either.
Went for the scary antenatal blood tests on Thursday morning. The needle popped out after the first small syringeful had been extracted and the nurse had to put another one in the other arm. At least I thought she was a nurse until she said 'Oh, I always get so nervous doing these - the nurses just trained me but I'm still quite new at them. I used to work on reception', and laughed a merry, tinkling laugh. Oh really, thinks I to myself, so remind me why'm I letting you stick needles in my veins? When I took the plaster off later blood had leaked out around into the tissue around the injection site and was turning an attractive aubergine colour. Just as well I'm not needle-phobic really.
Went to Lisa and Paul and Jasper's housewarming party on Saturday. By way of a house-warming present we took them a small fondue set. I can't remember whether we were being ironic or not, but Lisa seemed v pleased, and anyway sincerity is the new irony according to Alastair from work, aka Gonad Man. We had a lovely time, even if we did have to leave at a grandmotherly early hour due to pregnancy-induced feebleness, and there should be more parties where there are both babies and puppies. Felt strangely honoured when twelve-week-old Aidan sicked up over my new skirt.
