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Yes yes OK so I took a break at Xmas and it's gone on a little longer but here, I've been busy!.. no really busy!.. let me just catch you all up on a few bits.

So, most importantly bubs... nope not here yet!.. but we're one week away from the official due date, which is really just the medical professions bast guess, so we're officially due on good Friday. As it turns out, Doctors don't work on public holidays!.. I know, who new!?.. may be if they did the waiting lists would be shorter but there you go.

So we're going in this week to talk with the doc's while they are there for them to decide if junior should arrive before or after Easter, now from my other half's point of view, and I'm sure all mum's will agree, this is a stupid conversation to have to have, OF COURSE IT'S COMING BEFORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but we shall see, I just hope the doc explains their view point from a distance!

We're pretty much as ready now s you can be for a 1st child. We've got somewhere for jnr to sleep (got both a bassinet thingy that we can move around but will initially be in our room, got a cot for later down the road as well) we've got clothes aplenty. My mum has been knitting up a storm and shipping us over clothes parcels from Scotland. They are all very cool, it's been hard as we don't know if it's a boy or a girl so everyone is having to go whiles, lemons, creams, greens etc, Ang's mum here has done stuff as well, some fab booties and mits and hats etc... all very cool. We've also been buying a bunch of clothes as well and friends have given us some lovely stuff. Apparently with babies it's all about layers so these things will all be used, it's also about being able to get the clothes on and off with minimum fuss... so yes the ENGINEER in me kicks in with the hmm... the optimal design for clothes must be snappers at the bottom and up the legs, in fact why not just Velcro?.. I;m sure there will be lots and lots of pondering about this in the very near future (by pondering I mean rants, bu rants I of course me explosions of frustration... stay tuned!)

OK so what else, oh yes the pram, this we have, we got a Mountain Buggy which is a bit like  a transformer robot, you want a carry cot top bit, no bother snap here snap theye, fold this, done. Can't take it all in side, no worries it unclips and you can carry the cot, buggie? gain a couple of clips and off you go. We went for the Urban elitle version as it's got some extra sturdiness but it folds down into almost nothing and it does it easy. This is important when your wrestling with jnr in one arm and the pram in the other I think. From an Engineer point of view... it's fab, someone has obviously listened to a coffee group of mum's (from now on I have decided that 3 or more mums hall be called a coffee group as in a flock of birds, pride of lions, coffee group of Mums) and thought hmm..best we do what they want or we'll be beaten with our rulers and assorted engineering implements of which there are many. I'm also keen on it , it's got pneumatic tyres (a Scottish invention!) and it's all set up for me to take jnr on great walks / runs around the park when mum needs some time to herself or, I need some bubs time after a week of work.

So only 2 days of work left and then it's holiday time, Christmas to be exact (like you didn't know) It'll be good to kick back and relax after a fairly long and hectic year. However... as you may know (if your reading the blog... and if your not then it's time to catch up!) I'm going to be a Daddy in April for the 1st time. This means of course that the nesting has to be done and in NZ Xmas is summer time and that's when we have our break.. so my 3 weeks off work is going to be filled with DIY.

The list isn't so bad really, and to be fair I've put a few on there myself... mainly cos I never finished some under floor insulation I started a few years ago. You see the house is built on stilts of about a meter as Christchurch is mostly built on old swamp land it stops the dampness, it also lets air circulate but means that there's little in the way of under floor insulation. When I did the 1st batch it was all plastic lined on the ground and then you put polystyrene between the floor boards and hey presto but the house was actually moved about 15 or so years ago and so the floor joists aren't even which means lots of additional work. After 3 straight days under the house I think I sickened myself and haven't been down there since... so I'm thinking that may be job No1

That is good as that's an 'inside' job which means I don't get wet when it rains.... but once that is done I can finally fix the floor in the laundry which is where the hatch is to get under the house. But it's uneven so the washing machine shakes a lot, so that needs levelled to reduce that racket from that... which lets me build a frame to hold the tumble dryer which has lived in the kitchen / dinning room for 2 years ... again inside jobs...

As is of course painting Bub's new room... for which we'll need to decide the colour but that's a bit tricky as we don't know if Bubs is a boy or a girl so it's got to be neutral which is ok.

I also want to get the roof painted as it's looking a bit tired and I've never been keen on the red roof... we have a corrugated tin roof by the way, which is great for laying in bed listening to the rain (which we're getting a lot of just now). Then there's the deck which cold do with a bit of a sanding and staining, the guttering needs doing as well.