Merry Christmas

I would just like to wish everyone who has stopped by this year to read my blog, a very Happy Christmas.

Best Wishes to you all.

How to make your employees feel wanted

Its that time of year when we are all looking to have the little break from work for Christmas.

Just before Christmas in work we are usually given some shopping vouchers as a little thank you for all the work that we do during the year. Its not a lot, but it just makes you feel wanted, and that your work is valued.

Well, not this year. Instead of £20 in vouchers, we are going to be given an extra £15 in our pay. We’ll be getting in our January pay because they forgot to include it in December’s, and of course we’ll be taxed on this. So, instead of the personal touch of £20 in vouchers and a thank you, it is a bit of a let down with us getting a greatly reduced amount. After tax it works out at about £11, equivalent to 23p per week. It sucks really.

The biggest complaint that we have is that no-one in senior management has told us that we won’t be getting the vouchers. Just a simple explanation would suffice. That is all we ask, a little bit of honesty.

If you look after your employees, then they will look after the interests of the company. It’s not a hard concept to follow.

Merry Christmas

Gemma’s Pregnancy - Week 12

Gemma’s pregnancy has reached the 12-week stage, nearly the end of the first trimester.

I took Gemma to her first proper appointment with the midwife last Wednesday. This went fairly well, the only issue Gemma had was that she had to have some blood taken. Gemma’s not too good with needles. Oh, and the fact that the midwife couldn’t get her weight right! The midwife read the scales wrong, assuming that the figure was kilograms rather than pounds that was actually shown.

We have had our first ultrasound scan this week, as revealed yesterday. Everything is looking good at this stage, there is a strong heartbeat, and only one thankfully! Don’t know how we would cope if we were expecting twins.

It is a huge relief to the both of us to know that everything is alright. Things will be easier when we can feel the baby kicking. It will be easier for calming the nerves and stop any fretting.

Our next scan is not until the beginning of February, which will be a much more thorough event. Before that though, Gemma will need to go back to the midwife to have more blood taken, for more tests. I can hear the groans now, and feel her blood pressure rising.

Gemma’s “morning” sickness has not eased as of yet. If anything it has probably got worse. I feel so sorry for her, I can’t really imagine how bad she feels. We can’t quite see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. If it carries on too much longer, Gemma will have to go back to the doctors. Something will have to ease the nausea.

I don’t envy Gemma feeling sick over the Christmas holidays.

Until the next update………..

Gemma’s Pregnant - The Official Announcement

As you might guess from the headline Gemma and I are over the moon. We are expecting our second baby in July 2008.

We are both so very, very happy.

We’ve kept it quiet up until now, only telling family, as we wanted to get to the end of the important first trimester. We have had our first scan today, and all is well.

Good news is that there is only one baby! There is a history of twins in Gemma’s family, so we were anticipating the sonographer saying that there were two heartbeats.

I have been writing about the pregnancy privately up until now, but as the news is now out in the open I’ve made these posts public now.

Baby Number 2 is on the way

Gemma’s Pregnancy - Week 9

Gemma’s Pregnancy - Week10

I hope that you’ll come back and see how the pregnancy is progressing from time to time. Until next time….

Our Christmas Tree is Up

Yesterday, Ellie and I put up our Christmas Tree and decorations.

We didn’t want to put them up to early, because we didn’t want to get bored with them. Putting all the decorations up too early is a bit of a pet hate of mine, as I’ve said before in two previous posts, First Christmas decorations and More Decorations…

Ellie was a great help putting all of the baubles and ribbons on to the tree. I was very impressed with the way she managed to get the finicky loops on the tree’s branches.

When the lights were switched on, her little face lit up, as she screamed, “Ooh, lights! Look, Dad, lights!”

Ellie is so cute when she gets excited.

Now that the decorations are up it feels a little more like Christmas.

An Afternoon at the Park

Ellie and I had a great time yesterday afternoon. We ventured out into the cold and went to the park to have a play.

We set off, both of us wrapped up against the cold and walked to the park. Although Ellie didn’t walk too far as she insisted on having a carry! We got to the park and Ellie ran off towards the play area. She soon turned around as the local ducks and geese headed towards us, as they were expecting to be fed. Ellie ran towards me shouting, “Daddy!”

She practically jumped into my arms as the army of birds began to surround us. One goose in particular was a bit braver than the other, and stretched his neck up to have a good sniff.

After a few sniffs Ellie got bored of the goose’s company and headed to the swings. I lifted her on to the swing and set Ellie on her way. Ellie was having a really good time. She looked so cute wrapped up in her hat and scarf squealing on the swing, “Woo!”

The next place Ellie wanted to go was the climbing frame, so we headed over to it, where Ellie bounded up the steps so that she could go down the slide. She spent a good time on the climbing frame going up the steps, down the slide, all the time shouting “Again!”

On the climbing frame was a fireman’s pole, which she spotted and shouted to me “Sam!”, as in Fireman Sam. With a bit of help from me, Ellie had a few go’s at sliding down the pole. “Wee!” was the cry.

After a time, a group of other children arrived from one of the local nurseries. I was impressed with how Ellie handles herself with all the other children. Not once did she get all possessive over the play area. She always waited her turn to climb the steps and go down the slide. She had a really great time, following some of the other children around.

Ellie went back and to between the swings and the climbing frame. At one point on the swing she said to me, “This is fun!”

I’ve never heard her say anything like that before.

After a good hour of being out in the cold I suggested to Ellie that we go home. But she was having none of it, she wanted to stay out and play. Can’t blame her really, even if it was freezing cold. After a little persuasion, and the promise of a drink of juice and a biscuit when we got home, Ellie reluctantly agreed to head home.

As we left the park, Ellie didn’t seem to keen on walking, so I gave her a lift on my shoulders. She really enjoyed this, bouncing along on my shoulders.

By the time we got home, Ellie was absolutely knackered. We both had a great time, in spite of the freezing cold.

This doesn’t work out…

Each day on my way to work I keep passing this sign:

It is for a housing development, which has 6 houses on this development. And according to the sign they have sold 75%.

Now, by my calculations that works out that they’ve sold 4 1/2 houses! Someone didn’t do their calculations correctly, did they? I really can’t see why someone would buy half a house.

Gemma’s Pregnancy - Week 10

It is now week 10 of Gemma’s pregnancy.

The “morning” sickness shows no signs of stopping. This is making Gemma incredibly frustrated and very down. There is not a great deal that I can do, just be there for her and give her the support that she deserves. I feel for her, being in this condition having to look after a very active 2-year old, and having to worry about looking after Max as well.

I know that Max is really getting to her at the moment, and we are now looking at re-homing him. He has begun to challenge Gemma’s authority every chance that he gets. This is causing her untold stress. It even had her in tears the other night. I’ve put him on the waiting list of a few rescue centres but there are a lot of unwanted dogs out there, so its not going to be very soon that we find a home for him.

Yesterday she received her prescription exemption certificate, which is a good thing. This means that Gemma will not have to pay for any drugs while she is pregnant. Always a bonus when you get something for free.

We’ve still not received a date for our first scan, which could be due any time between Week 11 and Week 14. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer. Gemma, and me, both want to know that everything is going to plan. It seems to be at present, but that’s all we can say, as we can’t see through Gemma’s skin to see for ourselves.

The pregnancy seems to be progressing well. Gemma is developing a slight bump, which occurs earlier in the second pregnancy. We’ll be off to buy maternity trousers, I’m sure of that.

Apart from the “morning” sickness, there is not a great deal extra to report.

UPDATE : We’ve now got a date for our scan. It is on 17th December. If we get any pictures I’ll get them on here.