31 Weeks Pregnant

I mentioned last week how busy I was. Well, my weekend only got busier!

Last weekend was probably the busiest I've been in one go since the start of this pregnancy. I guess I kind of warmed up to it with the visit from my mum, but a lot of that busy was midwife appointments and we did have a bit of downtime in between. No so much last week!

After meeting up with my cousin and her kids in Glasgow on the Friday, it was time to do some local shopping on the Saturday. My work has a raffle for staff members in the run up to Christmas and I've been one of the people organising it.

And I needed a haircut.

So I killed two birds with one stone, so to speak, and wandered around town picking up the vouchers I'd ordered. We also dumped a car load of stuff in to charity and had lunch out. It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday.

Mr Click and I are talking about making a weekly lunch date when Bo is born, perhaps sampling different cafes each week. It'd be a nice excuse to get out the house and a good way to show the baby off too.

The evening was spent decorating our Christmas tree and being generally festive.

I have to admit, I got a little emotional decorating the tree this year. I pulled out a bauble with Tara's teeth marks in it, from the first year we had her when she liked to help herself to shinies from the tree. And that set me off, just imagining next Christmas, decorating the tree with our ten-month-old chewing on the decorations instead. I could just imagine him sitting on the floor, nomming on a bauble and finding the whole thing highly amusing. In my head he's got these big blue eyes, his dad's slightly sticky out ears, sandy blonde hair (but not a whole lot of it) and a big, dribbly smile. It'll be interesting to see if he looks the way I imagine him to.

I'm looking forward to this Christmas, but I'm looking forward to next Christmas more!

We have got Bo's tree ornament for this year as well:

And then there was Sunday, which started like a normal Sunday but then we headed home early for the Mount Stuart Christmas Fair. The Community Band were playing at it so we took an opportunity for a wander round.

I'd have liked to have seen more of the fair but it was pretty busy, I was tired and wanted a sit down, and every few steps we bumped into someone who I hadn't seen for months who had to tell me how well I'm looking. It's true, I am looking a lot better than I was, but the feeling tired and wanting a sit down didn't really put me in the mood for having variations on the same conversation a dozen times.

The band played in the (freezing) marble chapel and it sounded great. Baby Bo went wild for some of the songs, which was kind of distracting. I spent as much time watching my belly as I did watching the band! All I Want For Christmas is a particular favourite of his. In fact, I made an effort to video the performance and watching the video back it occasionally jumps, those were the moments my son laid a particularly good kick on my arm!

As of yesterday, I'm feeling pretty big and I know I'm only going to get bigger from here on in.

I also took a photo of myself in just my underwear when I borrowed the shower at my in-laws' house this week. Pregnancy has made me feel surprisingly body positive and I'm toying with the idea of writing a blog post about my feelings there. I have a lot of feelings about my body right now and it's just a question of forming them into actual words.

Yesterday also saw us take a Snow Afternoon when we woke up to a fair covering of snow, made it down the hill from our house and realised getting home could be problematic. Mr Click made the executive decision to come get me from work at 3pm so we'd be attempting it in the daylight rather than the dark. After our second attempt to go home (I left my phone playing Christmas music to my colleagues, baby brain, and we had to go back for it about five minutes after leaving) we made it to the house and had a much needed relaxing afternoon.

I've washed a bunch of sleepsuits and three more blankets so now my thoughts are turning to the hospital bags. I really need to get those sorted in the next couple of weeks. I'm kind of holding off until my consultant appointment when we should find out when to expect the little guy, but perhaps Bo won't get that message and I don't want to be panicking about packing a bag whilst panicking about preterm labour.

Plus this week I've had a stinking cold. Bo's been fine, apart from winding me up with a quiet day when I spent much of my time second guessing whether I should call the midwife, only to have him spring to life each time I thought maybe I should. He's been rocking and rolling ever since (and is having a good squirm as I write) so it's nice to know I'm the only one who's been suffering.

This weekend is going to be spent resting, wrapping presents and, of course, getting more laundry done. I have a feeling it's going to be a good one.

Get rid of the smell of burning vacuums (and other odors) with Air Wick Life Scents Plug In

You may have noticed that we’ve been on a bit of a spring cleaning kick over here at Chez Click. It started in the spare bedroom when I decided to excavate the bed and put away all the Christmas stuff and clothes that had been hanging out there for way too long. I even dusted the spare vacuum cleaner in there which we’re planning on getting rid of soon.

The following week I decided to tackle my bookcases and reorganised all of those. We’ve been doing some general sorting and organising and tidying around the house. I suppose it’s the season. The snowdrops are blooming and the weather is starting to get warmer, it’s the time of year when you want to make everything fresh and new.

When I received the Air Wick Life Scents pack from Bzz Agent I couldn't help but think that it's not the sort of thing we would really use that much, after all, we moved into our house nearly four years ago and have had the same plug in air fresheners since then and haven't needed to replace them in all that time. I don't like to think that we're a particularly smelly household.

And then I cleaned out our pet rats (who were not particularly smelly, I hasten to add) and tried to vacuum up their paper litter. This was a mistake and I almost set the vacuum cleaner on fire. There's nothing quite like the smell of burning rubber.

That coupled with the dog deciding to throw up this morning meant that I really had the perfect excuse to try out the Air Wick Life Scents plug in.

And I was impressed. I could smell the scent as soon as I opened the box and I'll admit that I was a little worried it would be overpowering. The air freshener we've been using has a tendency to make me sneeze because it is very strong smelling.

I needn't have worried. The plug in has a dial so you can adjust it from full strength right down to a more subtle release. I imagine I'd use the latter to give the house a nice smell if we had someone coming round, whereas the 'full blast' setting is perfect for getting rid of more immediate odors.

It was fairly easy to set up; there are straightforward steps to follow on the back of the plug in part though it's fairly self-explanatory, although I will admit that I needed a little bit of help from Mr Click to get the caps off the scent bottles. That's more about me being a weakling than about the effectiveness of the product and at least I can be safe in the knowledge that the caps are unlikely to come off and leak before I can use them in the plug in.

It might just be mine but the left hand scent bottle seems a little bit looser than the right. It seemed to wobble around a little more than I think it should but it's secure enough if I don't touch it.

The scents, as I said above, aren't too overpowering. I'm not entirely sure how it works but there is a nice mix of scents. With our old plug ins we noticed that they changed every ten or fifteen minutes so you noticed when they changed. With the Life Scents you don't notice the change, one minute you're smelling melon, the next vanilla, and then there's the other scent which is obviously white flower. I have to admit that the melon could be a problem, every time I smell it I crave the fruit!

I'm really pleased with this plug in and I foresee us replacing the elderly one in the bedroom at some point with one of these. They seem nice and durable and as the old Air Wick plug ins we use have lasted so many years, I suspect that these will last just as long.

It definitely gets the vote of approval in our house, losing just one star for the slightly wobbly connection on one of the plug in bottles. It's not such a problem in our house, but it might be if we had little people who might fiddle with it. As it is we just have a labrador and although she was interested in it, I don't see it being a huge problem. I like the refreshing scent and I can see it being quite handy in our house, I'm just going to try not to burn out any more vacuum cleaners, even if I do have a way to clear away the smell!


I received this item free of charge through Bzz Agent in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way, other than receiving this free item.

Weekly Rundown: Musical Bookshelves

One of the jobs on my imaginary To-Do list has been to reorganise my bookshelves. I should clarify the imaginary part of my To-Do list as saying that it isn’t something I’ve had written down anywhere, just that it’s a list of things I’d like to get done at some point. It means there’s less pressure to get those things done and if I forget about then, it doesn’t really matter.

I think the last time I did this was probably about two years ago, around the time that I got my white ‘children’s bookcase’ because I suddenly had a lot more space for my books so used it as an excuse to get a lot of the books that were hidden away in boxes and cupboards out on display. I’ve moved things around a little since then as I finished all the Terry Pratchett books and moved those from my main bookcase into the cupboard in Tara’s bedroom, but that’s about it.

In the last couple of months I’ve finished reading all of the Harry Potter novels as well as the last few non-Discworld Terry Pratchett books, so it seemed as good a time as any to update my bookcase and exchange those books for some which I’ve been planning to read for a while but haven’t gotten round to as they’re not easily accessed.

But this isn’t a small undertaking by any means, which explains why I’ve taken a while to get around to doing this. I think Mr Click was a little bit surprised as I came downstairs with a shopping bag, a big blue tub, a big cardboard box, a collapsible crate and two big 48-litre plastic tubs. When I proceeded to unload all of these books into piles on the floor, along with the contents of the cupboard in Tara’s room, I think he may have been beginning to regret agreeing that this was a good day to do this.

It took about an hour and a half to sort all the books into various categories (children’s, fantasy, Tolkien, classics, mystery/thriller, Mr Click’s books, non-fiction, and chick lit), along with working out which ones I actually wanted to read at some point in the future. Then I had to take off all the books I’d finished with from my bookcases and put all the ones I was going to read back on.

I also planned to weed out some of the books that I no longer wished to keep. A good plan but one which I ultimately failed on. I managed to select precisely one book to pass on to my Mum-in-Law, purely because it’s a duplicate. That’s not to say that other duplicates have been weeded out, certain books are special enough to warrant having multiple copies, just not this one. So, yeah, that’s one less book to have to sort in the future.

That picture up there kind of makes me smile because those are the books which have been returned to the boxes and stowed away upstairs in the cupboard. With the exception of about three piles, they’re all book that I have read in the last three to five years. It’s kind of scary. I wonder how many hours are contained within those books. And that’s not even including all the ebooks or borrowed books I’ve read.

Moving the boxes back upstairs was not the most sensible of jobs to take on as I’ve been suffering from a sore neck the last couple of days. I suspect that lugging boxes upstairs was not the most effective remedy for this. I’ve recruited Mr Click as chief neck massager and so far that seems to be doing the trick.

As has lying in the bath reading Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley’s Frankenstein, my current Reading Challenge book. This week we’re onto Week 6 ‘a book by an author under the age of 30’. I was tempted to look for a more modern book for this week and I did get as far as going through the books I had on my bookcase to check the ages of those authors. I never actually made it that far though as Frankenstein ticked the box of one of those books I’ve been carrying around on my Kindle for years without actually reading.

It’s not quite what I was expecting. The monster didn’t actually seem to play much of a part until nearly halfway through, there are three different voices narrating the story which I wasn’t expecting, and it’s really really depressing. But I’m pleased that I chose this book for this week.

Now I'm reading a book that I've borrowed from a colleague, it's called Nightfall (by Stephen Leather). He wrote for the TV series Murder in Mind which we watched a few years ago and although I'm only two chapters in, it's compelling reading.

Plans for this week? I don't really have any. Aside from my reading, obviously. Oh and knitting. Despite not finishing my socks that I have on my needles I've started a little teddy bear. And I'm still working on a cross stitch as well. Perhaps this week I should try and finish some of what I've started...

Weekly Rundown: The Bathroom Saga

We’ve been having some bathroom issues this week. No, nothing quite like that. Just that the shower appeared to come to the decision to drain via our kitchen ceiling!

We had this problem a couple of times before, about 18 months ago, when we had to get get sealant put around the bath to stop the damp patch that had appeared on the kitchen ceiling. Luckily our landlord is fantastic and both times sent someone out to deal with the job. On the last occasion I mentioned that when we turned the shower on there seemed to be a small trickle of water running out the bottom, I was reassured that this was nothing, and after all, it was a teeny tiny trickle so we ignored it.

There were no more puddles on the bathroom floor, so the sealant obviously did the trick and the damp patch on the kitchen ceiling dried up. All was right in the world again.

Until a couple of weeks ago.

I couldn’t help but notice that the mark on the ceiling from the last leaky shower incident seemed to be more visible. I pointed this out to Mr Click but we decided that it was the same mark as before, that maybe the light was making it look different. As we usually have showers and go straight to bed, there’s not much time for kitchen-ceiling gazing in between times. There were a couple of times when I jumped into the kitchen to try and catch the damp patch looking, well, damper. It was sneaky and never did.

Until I noticed that it had brought a friend along who was hanging out directly underneath the far corner of the bath. This was definitely a new damp patch. So once again the plumber was called out.

And he spent about half a day hanging out in our bathroom, dismantling things, drying things out, putting things back together, scraping bits off and resealing other parts. Turns out that teeny tiny trickle (which had become more than just a teeny tiny trickle over the last few weeks) was also trickling down the inside of the wall and coming out into the kitchen ceiling.

The next morning we decided to tackle the funky mark on the ceiling but managed to brush off a piece of paint and found a hole where it came off. Another call to the big house which was swiftly followed by another visit from the plumber who had received a message about our kitchen ceiling falling in. Luckily this is not the case and rather than rebuilding our kitchen we just need a bit of filler and a lick of paint.

Suffice to say everything is now pretty much dried out and there have been no more leaky bits this week.

We’ve also been having a bit of a belated spring clean at home. We cleared out two cupboards in the kitchen to make a box to go to charity – we’ve had a ‘junk cupboard’ in the kitchen since we moved in, most of the things in it haven’t been used in the intervening three years so the time has come to make way for things we actually want to keep in it. Like food.

I’ve also finally gotten around to listing loads of things on eBay. I’ve been hanging onto my OU books from my last couple of courses. The Reading and Studying Literature books because I might have wanted to refer back to them whilst doing Children’s Literature, and the Children’s Literature ones because it seemed a bit premature to get rid of them before I had my results in. Well, it’s been a few months so the time has come to wave goodbye.

It was actually quite interesting listing them all. I’d forgotten I’d studied some of the texts! I don’t really mind what they go for, but I’m hoping to put whatever I get from them towards Christmas, because it’s not long to go now. I’ve already bought Mr Click’s present as well as a couple of other little gifts. Let’s hope I can stay ahead of it all.

In other news, I’m still reading The Three Musketeers. I’m enjoying it, but since I switched my Kindle screen to white text on a black background I keep dozing off while I’m reading. I should finish it this week and then I’ll be going onto Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. TV-wise, we’ve started watching Ripper Street and I’m enjoying it so far. I do have to admit I’m missing Criminal Minds a bit. I’m looking forward to rewatching that already!

And this week? Well, we’ve got to reorganise the spare bedroom (which is currently full of things that should be in the upstairs cupboard but which I’d left out in order to reach the OU books I wanted to eBay) and I’ve got even more books to get listed as well. It’s going to be another busy one.

Weekly Rundown: Short Weekend

You’ve heard of long weekends. That’s where you don’t have to go to work/school/some other commitment so you can go on trips/adventures/have a lazy day. Well a short weekend is the opposite, that’s where you don’t go on any trips/adventures/have any lazy days, instead you go to work/school/some other commitment.

I’m not complaining. It was a day well spent. That said, after one week of getting up early to travel off the island and spend the whole day shopping, and another of going to work for an extra day, I’m quite looking forward to Saturday next week when I will hopefully do neither of these things.

And typically, this weekend the sun was shining, so we can pretty much predict that it’s going to rain next Saturday.

Speaking of the weather, how awesome has the weather been this week?!

I’ve got to the point now where I’d done all the laundry. There’s really nothing left for me to wash now, except onesies. It’ll be getting cold soon and we might want to wear those. I think I’ll stick those in the machine later…

We’ve also had a hypochondriac labrador to be dealing with this week as well. Well, that’s a bit unfair. I kind of helped her pull a muscle in her back. On Friday we knew that she was feeling under the weather although everything was normal but she wasn’t herself. We figured it out in the end and as of yesterday she’s almost back to normal. We knew as soon as she jumped up onto the bed for morning cuddles yesterday morning!

This week has also seen me working on my plotting for this year’s NaNoWriMo. I’ve got the sketchiest of sketchy outlines. I know I’m writing mainstream, I know there’s going to be a hint of romance and a love triangle (because I’m good at those), and I might throw in some magic realism because I read The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman and bits of it have lodged in my mind.

I found a neat list on the NaNo forums which I’m planning on working through during October to help me plot out my story, for now I’m using another one to help me get used to writing every day. Except I’m not actually doing it every day yet. I’m working on it. That’s another thing I’m planning on doing next week.

I've just this week finished the book of Robert Frost poetry I started a couple of weeks ago. I used to read poetry as a child because it was a quick and easy read, but now I’m older (and I’ve studied a lot more poetry) I’m reading it a lot slower. I’m taking my time and digesting each poem. It’s different to how I’ve read it before but I think I’m getting more from it. I'd originally planned to go onto Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince but then I got a recommendation of The Three Musketeers which I downloaded onto my Kindle months ago with the intention of reading it, so I've gone for that instead.

This week we’ve finished watching Criminal Minds. The box set Mr Click got me for Christmas last year is only up to the seventh series. We’re not buying the next series until they come down in price a bit because we have plenty of other DVDs to be watching. I was a little bit worried as Criminal Minds has a habit of ending its series on cliffhangers. Series seven does have a bit of a cliffhanger, but on the whole it’s relatively upbeat so I can handle leaving Rossi, Hotch, Morgan, Reid, JJ, Emily and Penelope there for a while.

Next on the list is Ripper Street (which I got for my birthday), it’s a relatively short series so we should be done with it in time to start on our traditional Christmas viewing schedule.


I’m hoping we have lots of nice sunny weather again this week. The better for lots of nice walks and playing with my shiny camera.

Project 365+1 Days 65 - 70

Tomorrow I'm off for my little operation (and I'm doing a pretty good job about not freaking out about it, in fact, the main thing that's bothering me right now is the fact that I can't have a cup of tea tomorrow morning... or breakfast for that matter - never mind not signing any legal documents for two days after the anaesthetic, I won't be able to function tomorrow morning without my cup of tea!).

But anyway, I've been busy taking photos this week. I can't believe that I've managed to keep going for 70 days. Apparently I'm now 18% of the way through my project!

Day 65: House Warming

On Monday we had a friend come round for tea. We'd not really see each other very much during the last year or so, and aside from odd messages on Facebook and text messages we'd not really had the chance to speak much either. So when we moved in, we invited her round. And what with one thing and another we didn't actually get to have her round until last week... only about eight months after we moved in. Oh well, better late than never.

Mr. Click rustled up some fabulous omelettes and we sat and chatted and chatted and chatted. For about five hours, until we realised how late it had gotten and we called it a night. My picture for Monday is actually a photo of a photo. Our friend got one of her photos framed, it's a lovely shot of one of the local lochs, all in blues and greys (she also brought wine, which is always nice, we've got so much in the kitchen that we're going to start looking a little bit alcoholic... though if we drink it all, then we really will be!). We've got to get another hook put up for the picture, I'm thinking it'll look nice opposite the front door, so you see it when you come in through the door.

A few months ago I signed up for an account with The Book People. In the past we've had books from them through someone else with an account, and I decided that, despite my promise to try not buying as many books (at least until I've caught up with reading the ones I already have) it couldn't hurt to get a few more. Well, we've been getting the little booklets with all the books they've had on offer, but there's never really been much that we fancied, so we've never placed an order.

Until this week.

Normally when it comes to books that everyone is raving about, I avoid them on principle. I'm always disappointed when the reality doesn't live up to the hype (as was the case with the Dan Brown books). It's the reason why I avoided reading the Harry Potter series for as long as I did (which, of course, I loved as soon as I first read them). One of those series I've been holding off on is the Hunger Games books. But I've been hearing things, and I've learnt my lesson after Harry Potter, so when I spotted them in the Book People magazine, I decided to go ahead and order them.

Day 66: Book List

And War Horse, and a book about sewing, and set of books about the English language. Which took me up to about £18.something, and it would only be another £7 for free delivery, so I let Mr. Click pick out a set of crime/mystery books that appealled to him. So that was enough to get me ordering, I know I'm ridiculous, I can't justify spending money on a Sky package or an iPhone, but I'm perfectly happy to drop £30 on reading material!

This week I've been on my favourite shift, it's an early start, but you have plenty of time in the evening for watching TV (now that Spooks series 9 has arrived), catching up on OU and reading. Now that we're back home we've also been playing with our new washing machine. There's a bit of a race to see who can get to it first... I'm wondering how long it will be until the novelty of the thing wears off.

Day 67: Before...

Day 68: ... And After

Seriously, laundry is my favourite of all the housework jobs. I love the fact that you can just sort the stuff, stick it in the machine and go and relax to do something else for a couple of hours. Then you sort it, hang it out to dry, then relax for a couple of hours until it's dry and you can fold it and put it all away.

One of the books I've been reading this week was Inkheart, it's something like Book 22 of 2012, so I should get caught up with the reviews for it soon. I won't say too much about it just now, but it is a lovely, beautiful book. There were nights this week when I stayed up far too late reading (considering how early the alarm was set to go off) purely because I didn't want to put it down. Of course, the best fuel for a late night reading is hot chocolate:

Day 69: A Hot Drink and A Good Book

And then yesterday we ended up with a mammoth postal delivery. You see, we've been waiting for things to arrive, but weren't really expecting any of them yesterday.

Day 70: Special Delivery

Firstly, there was our passes for Red Cross. We've been waiting for those for quite an idea and had an idea that they were on the way, but weren't sure when to expect them arriving. I've been paranoid that I'll get it muddled up with my work pass, but luckily the lanyards are different colours, so hopefully I'll manage not to.

Then there was the Professor Layton game which Mr. Click has ordered me. I've been a massive fan of those games ever since I discovered the first one. They really appeal to me, I love puzzles and I love the sense of satisfaction when you solve one (I'm holding off playing it tomorrow, so I've got something to look forward to when I'm feeling all nervous before the op and uncomfortable afterwards), so I decided to crack out the first one for a play yesterday (I have this terrible habit of putting DS games away in the wrong cases, and it took me ages to track it down, of course it was in the last box that I looked in). Mr. Click had been sent a message to say it wasn't going to be delivered until the 13th, so it was a very pleasant surprise; he'd also got it gift-wrapped for me as well. Which was lovely.

And then there was the Book People order. Again, wasn't really expecting that. When I'd placed the order on Tuesday it'd said that due to our location it would be 3-5 working days. So I figured it'd get here on Monday. When we'd ordered from them before, I was sure it'd come by courier rather than by post, so it's arrival yesterday with the postman was a big surprise.

Of course, now I need to find a home for all those books. We've got our bookcase absolutely jam-packed right now. I rearranged it a little while ago when I realised that I'd read a great deal of the books on the shelf and so needed to get some that I was wanting to read. Right now I've got about nine more of the Terry Pratchett Discworld books to read (though I still have to get hold of Snuff) and then there's still a bunch of other Terry Pratchett books left to read after that (so they won't be going anywhere soon); there's the Stranger Than Fiction books, still have about five of those left to read; it's not even worth mentioning the Kathy Reichs books because there's so many of those still to go.

I've finished working my way through the Tolkien books now (so some of those can go away I suppose). I can probably squeeze Hunger Games and War Horse onto the bookcase, but perhaps we should just suck it up, take some measurements and order a new bookcase.