Graduated elderberries

[janey1234]

Hello all..,
Let's clog up a brand spanking new club over here

(By hello all, I guess I mean hello hazle. Hopefully the others will join us soon...)

Whoops, bit long and ranty, sorry!

Purple I think it's just a man thing. It's in their blood. When I had a broken foot DH would sit on the bed while I hopped around the bedroom putting the ironing away and then moan at me for trying to do too much.

I have just started getting shopping delivered from Sainsbury's. I have always thought it a bit lazy but now I think having a baby is a perfect excuse and have to admit it really is lovely when it just turns up at your front door.

I have started this early so I (hopefully) will become a complete wizz at knocking together an order so by the time baby arrives it will be a 10 minute job. The first few orders have taken bloody ages though!! I have no intentions of ever doing a full supermarket shop on my own with a baby and I can't send DH as goodness only knows what he would come back with. I will inevitably still end up shopping but hopefully the bulk of it will be delivered.

Who gives a toss how big Kate's bump is, she's not even a real person!

DH usually does our shopping, but he forgot my clementines today. Sulking now. I need clementines.

I sometimes have people telling me I can't lift things at work. Like folders. I try to explain kindly that I'm about to go to gym and lift 20 kilos over my head a few dozen times, I think I can manage a folder
But people and pregnancies are different of course - a colleague who is just 2 weeks ahead of me actually has a risky pregnancy and is not allowed (by her doc) to do anything. Must be annoying for her to see me carrying on as normal.

Lol at the beer baby protector Purple mine would be the same, but probably more worried about the beer getting dropped!

I'm heading to a hen-do over Easter and got 'the talk' last night.
'You won't do anything stupid will you?'

• 'Like what? I'll be visibly pregnant, I have the perfect get out of jail free/go to bed early card, I'll be fine!'

'Well people will be drunk. People are stupid when they're drunk'

I reassured him that I wouldn't be paintballing/Go Aping/downing shots of vodka and he huffed that I need to make sure I'm careful!

Had to laugh at the broken foot hopping Rache they are simply hilarious. Usually useless. But still adorable

And very sorry to hear about the clementine emergency Hazle hope you figure out a suitable chastisement...

Your mention of the Royal Incubator Purple reminded me that if we think it's tough picking out names then that's one girl it has to be worse for - poor woman, bet there's a committee deciding the Royal Baby Name!

Um...DH is now excited and has decided that the best ever middle name for DS would be...Leonidas. (After the movie 300, of course. We have no Greek roots or connections whatsoever).

As it's middle name, nobody would ever use it, so honestly I don't even care that much, but do you think people will laugh when they find out?

Honestly Hazle? I would never judge but if my OH suggested it I would be saying a firm no. But that's only my opinion and as I have said before, I am VERY boring and traditional in my opinions when it comes to names so maybe I'm not the person to comment!

Today's rant is that my stupid beautiful impractical sports car inevitably failed its MOT today, of course due to the cracked windscreen (I saw that one coming) but also due to completely bald front tyres. That means I've got to replace two front tyres (it had new back tyres about 6 months ago when I punctured one) AND a new windscreen on a car I'm going to have to sell in about two months. ARRRGGGGHHH!!!! and I've got no bloody money and stupid sports car tyres are bloody expensive. Stupid car that I absolutely love and could cry because I have to sell it because you can't fit a pram in the stupid small boot

Possibly but isn't that what middle names are for?

Oh Purple that doubly sucks.

Could you get remoulds on the tyres? They'll last a couple of months at least, and while not a very sexy selling point, least they'll be legal. And is claiming windscreen on insurance a possibility? I have a huge excess on mine, but sometimes it's worth it. Depends on NCB really I guess.

Hazle I think there's some barter room there if you're not 100% on the full whammy. It also depends on which country you'd be living in as cultural things change from place to place. Ie it may be more acceptable on the continent than in the UK, or more suited to southern Europe than eastern Europe etc.

FWIW 300 is a classic story of resilience which I'm sure would be a positive for any child - I used to do a martial art which cited the legend of 300 and the ensuing 'indomitable spirit' as a key value.

I've always been proud of the fact that my middle name means 'warrior' - even though the name itself sucks to high heaven (IMO).

For the near future, we'll be living in France and the first name will certainly be boring and traditional. I don't have a middle name either, but true, pretty much nobody knows DH's, so he might have a point.

My boss is back from holidays, there goes my blood pressure again..

Ouch Purple that sounds like an expensive MOT fail.

I really resent spending money on things which I don't really feel i'm getting much benefit from. I get quarterly commission and am having to spend most of this quarter's getting the fascias replaced on my house. I mean, I can't even see the bloody things unless I'm standing in the garden so replacement is so my neighbours don't have to look at the shabby mess they are now. It makes me want to cry when I think about it. But such is life.

On the plus side, this quarter's commission falls into my 8 week 'qualifying' period for SMP so the first 6 weeks of my SMP supposedly @ 90% will actually work out at £120/week more than my regular salary.

Oh brave the name I've thought if it's a boy means warrior too (though it can also mean brave). Couldn't think of an equivalent one for a girl. unfortunate as I probably admire that quality more than many others.

I suppose it is different for middle names although I can't speak as 90% of people actually know me by my middle name rather than my first name because I didn't like what people shortened it to. My mother has never quite forgiven me but I'm glad I had a normal common middle name to resort to! When it comes down to it as long as you and you DH love it you gotta ignore everyone else. My mother has been extremely rude about a couple of the names I'm considering which I thought were completely inoffensive and ordinary so you can't win anyway!

We haven't actually decided on names yet but when we do we have both agreed we won't be telling anyone what the possibilities are because if anyone so much as raises an eyebrow I am likely to punch them full in the face.

My friend is pregnant with a boy and is pretty set on Elijah but everyone she tells is really negative towards it. FFS people are so rude! If someone likes a name enough to consider it for their child then at least have the courtesy to pretend you like it even if you actually think it's awful!

I might consider running our possibilities past you MN ladies though when we finally have some

Yes, any comment from strangers on names other than 'oh how lovely' really shouldn't be allowed unless you actually ask for an opinion then again, the same should be true of people commenting on your size which is beginning to really piss me off. Yet again today I was told by various people that I was either absolutely enormous or really small. I didn't ask any of them to comment and one lady who went on and on about how big I am really should have known better as her youngest was only 8 months! She wouldn't let it drop and was saying she could t believe I was only 21 weeks and I was huge and she didn't even show really until she was 35 weeks, I was there in a professional capacity so couldn't tell her to fuck off but eventually politely pointed out that she was nearly a foot taller than me. Grrrrr.

A bitter sweet end to the day. A friend of mine has won the lottery tonight - over 3 million and i'm not even joking. Obviously I am over the moon for her but WHY WASN'T IT ME?!!!

Holy shit! Well I was all excited because you can now feel my baby moving from the outside (OH jumped like he'd been bitten even though he was expecting it, very funny) but somehow it's just not quite as exciting as being a millionaire!

Yeah I agree it's kind of taken the edge off my baby excitement tonight. I can't stop myself from dreaming about how I would spend it. This coupled with me being off work today and having a massive afternoon nap means I have zero chance of getting to sleep any time soon so I am lying awake mentally spending the 3 million I haven't got.

My DH felt baby kick from the outside and asked me if it was wind. Men!

Three million!
That would certainly make life more comfy (and I'd tell my boss a thing or two).
I would never tell anybody else though, if I won the lottery. Can you imagine all friends of friends, old schoolmates and distant relatives who will now show up asking for a "loan"?

Wow, three million? That's amazing!! Are they a close friend? If so, maybe you'll be in the running to get some! If I won £3m I would definitely give my closest friends £20k or something - small enough to not make a real dent on my fortunes, but large enough to make a small but nice difference to them... Fingers crossed you get something!

Purple that lady was jsut massively rude! I'm having the opposite experience - people I see pretty much daily sho have been told I'm pregnant and they all drop by my office to exlaim that they had no idea! You would think it's a compliment but honestly, I'm BIG. I can barely cut my toenails any more. So they're basically saying I normally just look like 6 months pregnant??

Oh and I have a name, you can be honest now, as I'm sure most of my friends and family would just do the "oh how lovely" thing, no matter what I choose. Victor. DH and I are both OK with it, the only other Victor we both know is a great guy, so no bad associations and it works in all 3 languages. What do you think?

Victor is fab. Honestly. The only Victor I knew (apart from the elderly Vic types who have all been charming) was Anglo-Portuguese and a good advocate for the name. It has a certain regal air to it, too.

Congrats on finding one you both like!

And woah - 3million squid that's awesome, good for her. Hope it only affects her in good ways.

Oh hazle I really really like it.

I have known two Victors. One was a friend at uni, and a LOT of fun - never got home before 4am when I went out with him, and always had me in stitches. The other is a friend of a friend at work, and he's a professor and incredibly polite and charming. So BOTH of them are lovely, in completely different ways, hence I think it's a lovely name.

Funny how the people you've known affect what you think about a name...!

Hazle I think Victor is a great name. I would say it is timeless. As long as you and DH are ok with him being Vic to other people? I know a Victor my age and he has never been anything other than Vic. I can't believe you have a name already! I really must make this conversation with DH happen!!

I would try not to tell anyone if I won the lottery but I can imagine it would be really hard. How would you explain suddenly moving to a mansion with an Aston Martin parked in the drive? Wealth is quite difficult to disguise unless you are very frugal with it. We are nowhere near rich but I still feel almost embarrassed about how much some of my handbags were when I catch people staring at them!

I have only spoken briefly to my friend about it so I don't know her reasons for spilling the beans. Janey I know her reasonably well but I can't see me being in line for a windfall. If you think about it logically, once you've bought your nice house and car you would need to invest the rest to give you a decent income for life so there would't actually be much 'spare.' It would certainly be a nice problem to have though.

I feel a rant coming up - I need some more clothes for work and the selection is just ridiculous. Ok I understand that most people don't want to spend too much money on clothes they only wear for a few months, but hello, the people who are likely to need decent office wear are probably also willing to spend a bit.

But what do you have - tons of flowery sleeveless tents and tons of funny shaped casual jersey sweaters. Even if you specifically look for maternity work wear.

This is what you find under "workwear" in Gap for example:
www.gap.eu/browse/product.do?cid=73951&vid=1&pid=000373859000
www.gap.eu/browse/product.do?cid=73951&vid=1&pid=000298346000

Yes I'm sure some people do indeed wear similar clothes when working, but wouldn't most people understand workwear as suitable for office? You know, decent trousers, pencil skirts, tops and dresses in non-see-through material, normal colours, no cleavage on display, with sleeves? Sigh.

I think Victor is a nice classic name Hazle and on the plus side, I don't know anyone called that so perhaps it's not overly common either which is nice (unlike all the names I like which by all accounts there are likely to be several in each school year etc which is annoying).

I get what you're saying with work wear, it does seem to be hard to come by, especially on my limited budget. One of the pregnant girls in our office keeps coming to work in leggins and t-shirt, not QUITE sure how she's getting away with it but I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable being in an office environment dressed like that and I'm way down the pay scale so it's not like I have to wear a suit! I am going to have to hunt out a few more things though as I took the washing that had got stuck in my broken washing machine to my Mum's to re-wash and said I'd take it home and dry it myself but she took it upon herself to be 'helpful' and threw everything in her tumble dryer, including the t-shirts/tops that I don't tumble dry and they have ALL shrunk.