The ramblings of Keane Ingram

Back to normal

2012-01-25T13:14:00.002Z

After having a few days of reasonable sleep, the last week has seen a return to being woken up in the middle of the night. This is despite doing our best to wear Nicky out, especially on Sunday when we went geocaching for the first time. We walked two and a half miles around Hockley Woods and found three caches, it was quite fun.

Not much else of interest is going on apart from that. Feeling pretty tired ahead of squash tonight, although at least Jonathan will be playing tonight so I'll get a rest between games!

Up and down

2012-01-19T15:11:00.003Z

We've had a really nice few days, the weekend was nice and the kids have been well behaved (and more importantly have slept - mostly!), but last night saw Nicky back to his old tricks, and Anna woke up feeling really unwell. Oh well, at least I had a few nights sleep to fall back on!

Saturday was a really nice day, we went to Barleylands as they were offering cheap tickets on their website. Nicky had a great day, despite mostly ignoring the animals, he got to go on a miniature diesel train, various tractors and the big soft play area that they have there!

Nicky on a tractor

We'll definitely go back at some point, hopefully Kitty will appreciate parts of it more when she's older, although she also liked the soft play. The only downside is that lunch cost us more than the entrance did, but we'll take a picnic next time.

I have played squash the last two weeks, but it's only been me and Will - and last night we had booked a double session, anticipating that some of the others would play, but no, so we ended up playing for over an hour, and we're both paying the price today! Hopefully it will stand me in good stead for next week, I really want to get fit - I had thought about starting jogging but I think instead I'm going to get a bike, following my new-found interest in professional road cycling I definitely feel motivated.

Reasonably awake

2012-01-11T13:25:00.002Z

I've actually had a reasonable couple of nights of sleep, so not feeling too bad. I'm still a bit stressed about the amount of work I have to do but I'm making progress. Playing squash tonight, just me and Will so it's going to be pretty tiring playing without breaks between games, but it'll be good for me.

The kids' spots have all scabbed over now and seem to be clearing up slowly, although Kitty seems to be teething again! Nicky also had his two and a half year check yesterday and passed everything with no problems.

Right, I need to look up giving blood now before I forget.

Stumped

2012-01-07T19:51:00.001Z

Nicky just stumped me with a clever question. He was complaining that I was putting him to bed instead of Anna, who was settling Kitty. The conversation went like this:

Nicky: "Why can't you put Kitty to bed?"
Me: "Because I can't feed her"
Nicky: "Why do you have nipples then?"
Me: "Er..."

I know, but being put on the spot like that caught me off guard! I'm sure it's the first of many similar questions, I'd better brush up!

Slog

2012-01-05T15:29:00.002Z

2012 has been pretty exhausting and stressful so far. Kitty developed chickenpox on New Year's Eve, and Nicky followed shortly after. Thankfully most of the spots have scabbed over so they won't be infectious soon and can mingle, but we've had a couple of sleepless nights. On top of that I've had loads of work to do - normally I'd be happy about that but piled on top of the lack of sleep means I've been pretty stressed - thankfully I'm almost on top of things again now.

I've not even had time to think of resolutions etc. For now I'm just trying to work my way through all the junk food still in the house - including one and a half hampers that I've got, and the boxes of chocolates downstairs, plus cheeses, nuts, crisps... good thing I wasn't planning to diet! Not that I needed to after getting down to 12 stone over Christmas...

Losing track

2011-12-30T19:19:00.001Z

I always lose track of what day it is over Christmas, and this year is no different. The time seems to have gone quite quickly. Thankfully I'm mostly recovered from my upset stomach, just the odd cramp here and there now.

We're up at my mums now, and will be heading back home tomorrow some time, depending on how the kids are. We're trying to take things fairly easy, and the kids are enjoying themselves which is the main thing.

It's almost the new year, so time to think of some resolutions. One I must definitely do is start giving blood. I haven't done it for years, at a time when having acupuncture made you unable to donate, but I haven't had acupuncture for many years now. I did want to get fitter, so was going to start jogging, although I may try to do Anna's 30 day shred DVD instead...

Christmas

2011-12-26T14:44:00.001Z

So, it's over with for another year - we now have a mountain of food to get through!

The kids had a great time yesterday which is the main thing, and Anna said she felt like she'd had a rest (strange, considering she did most of the cooking) but unfortunately I woke up yesterday with what appears to be a milder version of the bug Anna had last week, so I've been having stomach cramps and regular toilet visits. This means I'm eating less than usual, just at the time when the house is full of tasty treats!

As predicted, Nicky was very pleased with his double decker bus, and Kitty really likes her walker (she's going to be walking unaided very soon). Anna and I got everything we wanted as well. The only real downside to the day was Kitty's refusal to sleep until ten, meaning we haven't watched Doctor Who yet (the only thing I wanted to watch really, apart from Outnumbered).

We're at the inlaws today, Kitty is asleep so I'm having some rest time...

Very long week

2011-12-23T10:38:00.003Z

It's felt like an extremely long week, thankfully it's almost over. Anna has been ill since Monday, although she's mostly better today, but it has meant been working quite late every day as I've been helping out more during the day. On top of that Kitty isn't sleeping for some reason, presumably teeth, adding to the lack of sleep of everyone else. We could have really done without all this additional stress on top of the usual Christmas stress!

Speaking of Christmas, most of the shopping is done - although thanks to Waterstones' complete lack of communication I now have to go and look for a present in a shop, as ordering through their website has completely let me down. Sadly the only place I'm realistically going to find this book is Waterstones, so I'll have to go in there, but afterwards I won't be giving them my custom again.

Sat next to my computer is a huge hamper of stuff that my brother and his girlfriend kindly bought me - they got one for Anna too. Apparently one of Jonathan's ulterior motives is to make me fat again! I'm going to do my best to get through it all. My gum is still aching a little but the pain has lessened quite a lot now.

Manic Street Preachers at the O2, London

2011-12-21T14:47:00.001Z

Saturday saw Anna and I out alone together for the first time since Kitty was born, and what better way to spend the time than seeing the Manics playing every single they have ever released?

We got to the O2 at around half 4. It was my first time there, and Anna hadn't been since it was the Millennium Dome in 2000. The view as you come out of North Greenwich tube station is quite pretty.

The view of the O2 as we came out of North Greenwich station

We entered the complex and found some Manics fans that Anna has been talking to on Twitter, and spent the next few hours swapping Manics stories and drinking Brothers cider (which was on tap!) I also caught up with Adam and Brad, and Alex (very briefly!)

There was a long queue to get into the standing section, which is the last thing you need after a few pints! But thankfully it moved fairly quickly and we were in at around 7.15pm. We'd all received several emails from See Tickets and the Manics newsletter saying that we had to be there before 7.30 as that was when it would all start - needless to say they didn't come out until 7.50pm! We positioned ourselves on Nicky's side, as per usual, about 10-15 metres back so we had a great view. Simon Price was a few rows in front of us. It was all fairly spaced out during the first half, and we were definitely amongst proper fans (rather than casuals - are there any of those left? Probably not) who knew all the words.

Nicky's side, near the front

It's difficult to choose highlights, but from the first half mine would be Love's Sweet Exile (hadn't seen it live before), Motorcycle Emptiness (which James introduced by saying 'There's many songs that some of you might go to the bar for - but this one I think everybody stays for!'), Stay Beautiful (with crowd singalong during the chorus) and Faster. Some songs featured the video playing behind (sadly a little out of sync at times, especially during Faster when James came in early), others had various different arrangements. Gruff Rhys came on to do Let Robeson Sing (not entirely sure why) but even the bad songs were alright - and James and Nicky were very aware of how some songs were going to be received!

The Wire on the big screen

The 15 minute interval allowed just enough time to get to the toilet and back, before they launched into the second half of the set. Again, it's difficult to pick highlights, although the absolute best moment was Revol - being in a crowd all shouting 'lebensraum, kulturkampf, raus raus, fila fila' is surreal! Nina Persson came on to do Your Love Alone which was also great, and we also managed to find a random next to us who danced like a mentallist to both So Why So Sad and The Love of Richard Nixon!

James' turn on the screen

Unsurprisingly, Nicky managed to do his shoulder in (whilst jumping around during Revol), leading to him saying 'Should be doing fucking yoga or Pilates like Coldplay, shouldn't I?' Somehow though they managed to get through all 38 songs without any other incidents - I don't know how Sean drummed for so long, and James remembered all the words (apart from the one line in Faster he never sings properly!)

I can't really describe just how wonderful the whole gig was - it was the 18th time I've seen the Manics live and this is right up there with the best. The band were on top form, the crowd were on top form and everything just felt great. I can't wait for gig 19!

Sorted (mostly)

2011-12-19T08:33:00.001Z

I've finally got all my Christmas presents sorted! Still waiting for a couple to be delivered (I was going to buy one present in HMV but the store price was double their website price - sod that) but that particular source of stress has been dealt with. I've also sent out most of my cards. Just work and a lack of sleep (have been up since 5, had about 4 hours last night) to sort out now!

I had my troublesome tooth extracted last Wednesday and it still really aches, I thought it would never stop bleeding on the day but it appears to be healing properly. It's really affecting my sleep though...

Manics on Saturday was awesome, will write a separate entry on that later if I stay awake that long!

Humbug

2011-12-13T09:53:00.002Z

I remember what I dislike so much about Christmas - choosing presents for people! Thankfully I've got Jonathan's sorted now, but still struggling for something for his girlfriend. Still not done with Anna's either. Plus something that we bought for Nicky doesn't work, so either going to have to try and fix it or buy a replacement, not what we need with less than two weeks to go!

Going to the dentist first thing tomorrow to have my troublesome tooth removed. I really didn't want it taken out, but walking down the high street on Saturday in the wind really made it hurt, so there's nothing else for it really.

The weekend was OK, went round a friends house on Sunday which was nice, and got a few more Christmas bits sorted. Still feel like I've got loads to do and not enough time though.

C8H10N4O2

2011-12-08T11:13:00.001Z

I've had two terrible nights sleep in a row - had 5 hours (in 3 blocks) on Tuesday night, last night was slightly better but still only around 6 hours in 2 blocks. Hence my need for caffeine today, definitely need coffee rather than tea. It really affected me last night at squash, I only won twice against James but lost all my other games, including an 18-16 epic against Pete which left both of us exhausted for the rest of the games.

My tooth isn't as bad but it still doesn't feel right - I'm going to leave it for another week or so before deciding whether to go back to the dentist. I don't really want to have it extracted but I don't really want the pain either.

I'm struggling a bit with buying presents for Jonathan and his girlfriend. At least the kids are sorted, and Anna is almost sorted. Got quite a bit of work to do to get Anna's mum's present sorted, although it's waiting on a couple of bits from eBay first...

Steam train

2011-12-05T06:58:00.001Z

We had a reasonable weekend, despite Kitty being unwell and Nicky being prone to silliness. On Saturday I took Nicky into town so he could buy presents for Anna and Kitty, thankfully it wasn't too crowded and we finally found something for him to get - although he then promptly forgot it was supposed to be a secret and told Anna what he had bought!
Yesterday was Anna's mum's birthday, so we spent most of the day there, but we stopped off on the way there to take Nicky on a miniature steam train and to see Mother Christmas (Father Christmas is apparently very busy at the moment). We had kept it as a surprise for Nicky and he seemed to really enjoy it.

Dentist

2011-11-30T10:50:00.001Z

I can barely remember what we did at the weekend, days just seem to all blur into one. It was fairly quiet by our standards I think. We went to a boot sale on Sunday, but it started raining just as we got there so everyone started packing up, meaning Nicky got a few free cars off a seller, then just as we left the sun came out again.

I went to the dentist yesterday to have my troublesome tooth looked at, despite the root canal and crown it's still sore, so yesterday I had the top bit drilled off, so there's not so much pressure on it when I clench my teeth. I'm also on amoxicillin for a few days, if that doesn't help then I'll probably have to have the tooth taken out which is annoying after going through all that pain in February!

Squash tonight, I almost had a reasonable amount of sleep tonight so will hopefully be in winning form again!

Down with the sickness

2011-11-25T13:11:00.001Z

Everyone in the house is ill to some degree, and as a result everyone is also sleep-deprived. I'm surviving by drinking lots of coffee, but it's not helping my stomach which is still not feeling better.

Despite sleep deprivation and illness I somehow managed to win at squash on Wednesday, winning 7 out of my 8 games (although I got thrashed 11-3 in the one I lost, somehow). I need to find somewhere to get my racquets restrung, as the 12 year old strings on my spare racquet finally gave up.

I've spent this week checking Amazon's Black Friday deals and have mostly been disappointed, last year they had PS3s and Wiis going cheaply, this year they have socks, watches and David Walliams books. The website is much more robust at dealing with these deals, but sadly there's nothing worth going for.

Somerset

2011-11-21T14:49:00.001Z

On Saturday Jonathan and I went down to Wells to see our Aunt and Uncle and Granddad. The journey down wasn't too bad, apart from Jonathan's terrible taste in music - thankfully he had 'Driving Rock Anthems' which gave me a break from Glee, Steps and Justin Bieber. We went via Haycombe Cemetery, and armed with the location this time we managed to find the plaque put up in memory of Granny.

Granddad seemed as well as might be expected, and we talked for almost two hours before he started getting tired. He always seems so happy to see us and tells us he feels humble, which is ridiculous really.

The journey back was OK too and we were home by around 7.30ish. Anna and the kids had gone to stay with Anna's parents, so I made the most of the quiet by finally getting to play Zelda. It's a bit slow to start, but I've made to just after the first dungeon and am really enjoying it - who knows when I'll get to play it again though!

I've been feeling a bit unwell since Friday, my stomach seems to complain when I eat anything, and I was almost sick this morning. My body seems to be conspiring against me...

Long week

2011-11-18T10:38:00.001Z

I don't think I've stopped this week, can't recall sitting down and relaxing at any point! Kitty's teeth seem to have all come through, but the 8 month sleep regression/growth spurt is in full flow so Anna is getting much sleep, and Nicky is still waking up in the night for some reason so neither am I.

The fan in our oven had stopped working, so the oven was very slow to cook anything. I had a go at trying to fix it (after clearing out all the cobwebs and spiders behind it, which took longer than actually trying to fix it), got it working for about ten seconds but it stopped again. I was actually very pleased with myself in those ten seconds, as the fan was powered by an electromagnet, bringing back memories of GCSE Science, but I guess something had worn away which was causing it to stick. The landlord has replaced it now so hopefully the oven will work properly again.

I did pretty well at squash on Wednesday, although I lost to James near the end I think I won overall, despite feeling knackered - as we had two courts but not enough people to warrant it, we ended up playing more games than usual - probably better for me in the long run.

My copy of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword arrived early (yesterday rather than today), but I probably won't get to actually play it until Sunday at least. Oh well, I've waited the best part of five years for it, another couple of days won't hurt. The reviews have been universally positive so really looking forward to it. For now I'm enjoying the Zelda Symphony CD which came with it.

Notice

2011-11-12T20:19:00.001Z

Dear people setting off fireworks near us, a full week after Guy Fawkes night - you're a selfish bunch of idiots (resisting the urge to use a far stronger word here).

Apart from unsettled kids, today has been good, walked four miles with them this morning, although now my arms and feet are paying the price - presumably pushing the pushchair is affecting my arms? Oh well, it'll be good for me in the long run.

Can't believe England beat Spain! Would have liked to watch it, although sadly Balamory was on the TV instead...

Poppies

2011-11-10T10:10:00.001Z

All the arguments about whether the England football team should wear poppies on their shirts this Saturday seems pretty overblown to me. As far as I can tell, we've never worn poppies on England shirts when games are played around Remembrance Sunday, so why all the fuss this year? Is there really nothing else worth reporting on?

We played squash at an earlier time than normal yesterday, and didn't get all of our games played. I did reasonably well, but could do much better. My current aim is to overtake Will in our personal head-to-head, as currently he has won 3 more games than I have...

Jealous

2011-11-08T12:02:00.002Z

Today saw the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and sadly due to a lack of time and money I'm not one of those who was queuing up at midnight to get it. Realistically I know I would never have enough time to play it at the moment anyway, but seeing people tweeting about it makes me a bit jealous! I know I could have ordered it anyway, but the new Zelda game is out next week which I'm a lot more excited about overall.

Had a terrible day yesterday due to lack of sleep, but last night was a bit better, Nicky feel asleep during dinner at about 5.30 and apart from falling out of the bed a couple of times stayed there until 6am.

No idea if squash is going to happen this week as all the courts are booked when we normally play, so we might play a little earlier than usual.

Fireworks

2011-11-06T18:21:00.001Z

Last night we went to a fireworks 'display' at a pub, followed by a 'chilli-off' round a friends house. The fireworks weren't all that, it seemed to be two blokes with a van full of cheap fireworks, but was nice to be able to socialise with the kids. Kitty seemed interested but Nicky mostly wasn't!

We had some more fireworks at the friends house, which were actually better than those at the pub, but the main event was the chilli-off - 3 friends claimed they made the best chilli, so some impartial judges were called upon to taste. Sadly, one judge seemed to take it all too seriously, leaving one cook in tears, which was unnecessary, especially as her chilli was pretty good anyway and undeserving of such harsh criticism.

Both kids behaved themselves (and made a few people broody!) and seemed to have a good time. More miraculously, despite getting home at about ten, both kids were asleep within ten minutes and they both slept through! All in all it was a good night.

Hopefully that's it for fireworks this year - having fireworks go off at stupid o'clock when you've spent ages settling kids to sleep is the last thing you need!

Teeth

2011-11-03T10:46:00.003Z

Kitty's teeth have finally broken through, so hopefully we'll get a bit of respite from the sleepless nights for a while now, until the next ones come!

I did OK at squash last night, coming joint-top in terms of games won but coming second when points were taken into account. James wasn't feeling well but did OK considering.

We managed to get through Halloween without any trick or treaters - I'd printed out a poster to put on the door for when we'd settled the kids in bed, but we'd stocked up on some chocolates in case anyone came before. We only got one knock but it was just as we were serving up dinner so we had to ignore it. The upshot of this is that I now have two bags of chocolates to enjoy!

Clocks

2011-10-30T16:00:00.001Z

This used to be what I considered my favourite time of the year - when I would get an extra hour in bed! Sadly, the kids aren't aware of the machinations of British Summer Time, so today has been very long. We actually had a reasonable nights sleep, but today has really dragged. Not sure if tomorrow will be any better!

Dave Gorman on Thursday was enjoyable, not as good as the Googlewhack show but still funny. There was a bit of over reliance on things found on Twitter and the Daily Mail website, but it was all good material, and educational too - I didn't believe the thing about the clock hands and HTC phones but checking the catalogue this morning I found it to be true!

The support act was Jay Foreman, who has a song about moon chavs, which once remembered will stay in my head for a while, although this weekend it's competing for headspace with 'Jimmy Savile's Got My Album' by Mik Artistik, for obvious reasons...

Return to form

2011-10-27T15:01:00.000+01:00

This week hasn't been brilliant sleep-wise, but compared to last week it's been relatively good. I even felt refreshed enough at squash last night to win 7 out of my 8 games, with the loss purely down to lack of fitness (I played three games in a row at one point and lost the third). It's been a long time since I played that well, it can't purely be down to sleep but I really want to try and get fitter, I'll either attempt Couch to 5K or try the press-ups challenge again.

We're off to see Dave Gorman tonight, it's our first night out alone together since Kitty was born (we had planned to go out last Thursday for a meal but that plan was scuppered by a lack of sleep). I hope it's as good as his Googlewhack show was, the big reveal in that show was one of the funniest things I've ever seen!

Sleepless week

2011-10-23T19:56:00.001+01:00

We've not had a really good night since Monday, with one or more frequently both Nicky and Kitty waking up. With Kitty it's to be expected as she's now 8 months old and this is normal behaviour, but we've no idea what it is with Nicky.

Thursday and Friday were particularly bad, last night was relatively much better but still not brilliant. Hopefully Nicky should be nice and worn out after walking through the woods today and then walking to the shops this afternoon. We started making a den in the woods, given a bit more time I think it could have looked ok!