9th June 2007
At the moment I don't know whether to scream or jump for joy. I have been feeling what Dan calls "off'" for the last few weeks and yesterday I went and bought a home pregnancy test and guess what? We haven't told the kids yet. Anna-Louise wanted Rhys to be a girl and I must admit it would be great if this was a girl, but I don't really care that much as long as its healthy. I told Mama and she was delighted. She thinks most modern people don't have enough kids. She should have had six but she lost two inbetween having Erik and Gisela and me and Georg. She nearly lost me too because I was at one one point lying sideways or something and then I was born breech and one side of my head was completely flat or at least odd in some way. I still have a few problems with the muscels on the right hand side of my face. They are weeker than the left side which gives me a slightly lopsided look at times.
I was convinced when I was young that this would stop me getting boyfriends and getting married etc but it never seemed to bother anyone. Dan, in fact, told me once it gave me a real interesting look which fascinated him from the start. Well! It never seemed to bother anyone except me so after a while I forgot all about it most of the time. Then I look at some of Gisela's old photos {she never throws anythings away or looses anything} and there it is, me with one side of my face all screwed up because of the sun or because i"m mad or something and the other side is totally unmoved.
Everyone is healthy at the moment and Anna-Louise has pictures and writing all over her plaster and is delighted with them. Rhys is walking better and looks less like a penguin and we are getting ready for Harry's 13th birthday. He'll be a teenager! Help! Rhys will be 1 year old this month too. I told Gisela about the baby and she said she hoped we could afford it!
Talking about affording things Dan's NEW PC stopped working and we had to take it back to where we bought it. They have given us another one. There was a bit of a fuss about it and I had the impression that they thought it was our fault it had failed. However Dan can be very persuavive when he likes and it was soon sorted out. We lost some data because Dan hadn't gotten around to backing anything up.
Rhys has more hair now and its blonde and very curly just like mine. Everyone keeps saying how gorgeous it is. I hope he thinks so when he's older. I've never been that enthusiastic about mine. When I was younger I tried all sorts of things to straighten it and change the way it looked. It was all a complete waste of time. As it is I go to the hairdressers, when I have time, and have it cut and then my hairdresser spends ages straightening it out so its just wavy. I admire it, but two hours later its a heap of curls again going its own way. I remember a friend of mine saying to me one day that my hair looked nice. I'd just that moment come out of the hairdressers. I told her wait for an hour or two. We went and had a coffee and a chat and by the time we'd finished it was already going its own way again. If I'm going anywhere smart I have it done and then put piles of hair spray on it. With luck it'll last for a bit longer then!
10th June 2007
Well, most of the family watched ADWD and the result was what I expected. Rhys and I didn't watch. We both went to bed! This morning I heard all about it from Anna-Louise who was sad that Keith didn't win. Anna-Louise is a great talker, in fact, she hardly ever stops! While I was nibbling on a piece of toast and telling myself I was fine, I had a sudden rather malicious thought. We have all been lead to believe that ALW takes a great and personal interest in everything to do with the shows he has written. If this is true he MUST have at least heard of Lee before ADWD because he is a professional and was the understudy to the Phantom of the opera. ALW may even have met Lee before. This reinforces my opinion that the whole show was a fix from the start, designed to publicise the show and make people want to go to see what is, in fact, a rather poor and not very well written piece with only one song in it that has any merit. This opinion of the show is not only mine, it was reviewed extensively at one time and I researched the reviews.
I only started watching the thing because JB was a judge. However, he never got to do much and Graham Norton hardly ever even mentioned his West End credentials, which was irritating. So the result is they haven't found a new unknown they have someone who was considered only good enough to be an understudy. Also, as someone with an Honors Math degree, I cannot work out how any system could deal with the amount of votes in the time that they specified. Of course, being pregnant could be affecting my thought processess. It did before!
I was eager to tell my friends the news and the first people I was going to tell were Anna and Will because I saw them when I was shopping and we went for a coffee. I had Rhys in the buggy and Anna and Will were admiring him and talking to him when Anna said "You'll never guess J, we're going to have one of these''. Those were her exact words. I was surprised. They've been married for ten years and no sign of any offspring. My news fell a bit flat as they say. Will just said something about the average family consisting of 1.8 children. You can tell that my brain has gone a bit weird because my first thought when he said that was- -what the hell is 0.8 of a child? Then common sense prevailed and I said I was trying to help improve the birth rates and we all laughed.
We have had the big TV fixed and so we all watched Dr. Who on it, except Harry, who was at a friends house and Rhys, who doesn't watch much TV yet! I sit on the floor with him and sing nursery songs in German to him. He loves them. Harry is learning German at school and is somewhat scathing of his teacher's pronounciation. Anna-Louise says when she's older she wants to learn Chinese. When I asked her why she said that there are a lot of Chinese people about, which is certainly true around here.
Anyhow, it's very hot today again and Dan is in the garden. He is supposed to be hosing some plants but I looked out the window just now because of the noise and saw he was actually hosing the kids and the plants and himself. I hope he doesn't hose the cats or the rabbits! Rhys is having a nap. Its a bit later than usual but he doesn't like the heat and it makes him grizzly {I think that's the right word]. I'm going to go and make a salad now. We had a tree fall down the other week and it had to be removed. More expense. Oh dear. Why is everything so expensive? Harry needs new shoes and there's his birthday next week! Off to the kitchen, here I go!
13th June 2007.
I am, quite illogically, still very irritated that Lee won ADWD. Anna-Louise is cross too because she wanted Keith to win, but she is only 8 years old, I'm older, a lot older! Harry came home from school in a bad mood. Eventually Dan found out that he had had a row with someone about his parents, ie Dan and me! He insisted that we are both British and whoever it was said we weren't. Dan and I sat down with him and showed him our BRITISH passports. Of course, neither of us were always British. However, unlike most people we actually had a proper ceremony where we became British! Yes, I am very proud I'm British. I love Britain and I've lived in other countries so I know what I'm talking about. As it is I can go out of the front door and within moments I can meet people from literally everywhere and we're all doing the same sort of things and we're all [mostly] friendly. How many other countries can say that?
At the minute I feel fine and full of energy. I got up this morning and I was so happy I was singing loudly as I bathed Rhys. Luckily he seems to like my singing. I know I sing in tune anyhow. When I was very young at school I was coerced into the choir with alarming speed. We all had to sing a line from some folk song one after the other and those who sounded O.K. were told they were in the choir. I liked the choir though. Evidently I could sing in tune when I was very young indeed. Then they discovered I had perfect pitch. This is not a good thing to have because you notice every little error in pitch everyone makes and have to teach yourself to ignore it. This is not easy to do and has taken me years to learn!
It's strange how you have an idea of yourself and how different the reality actually often seems to be. Whenever I see myself on a home DVD or something I always notice how terribly animated I am compared to other people. I wonder how Dan can stand it. I'm constantly rushing about and when I talk I wave my arms around and my face reflects my every thought. I can see now why as a kid I was such an ineffective lyer. My brother Georg is just like me too. The two of us together having a conversation must be quite frightening and dangerous to passers by as well!
Harry has his brown belt in Karate. He doesn't like us to watch him now, so we have to do it sneakily. He is very good indeed, even though he's small for his age still. He's growing fast now though and is almost as tall as I am. He's very pleased about it but I'm only 158cm! He will be 13 on the 16th. HELP! A teenager in the house! I remember what I was like and I'm real worried! He hasn't gotten involved in any more fights thank goodness! He is very strong for his size and because of the Karate could probably kill someone just with his feet if he wanted to!
I'm writing this while Rhys has a nap but he's wakened up so that's it for now. I have to go and fetch Anna-Louise from school too. More later. I can't seem to write anything long at the minute. That's probably signifcant!
17th June 2007
Well, we managed to survive Harry's 13th Birthday. More on that later. I went to the Doctor who spent some time trying to scare me by going on and on about my age. By the time I left I felt like I was 99 not 39! Anyhow I have a whole list of Hospital Appointments and dates etc etc.
Rhys will be a year old next week. We are having a small party and some kids from his nursery are coming. They are all around his age so it will not exactly be a social gathering. They are mostly at the stare and grab stage. Stare at the other infant-grab at the toy he's holding! Mama informed me seriously that disposable diapers were ruining the environment when I spoke to her on the phone yesterday. I'll have two under two so it's disposables all the way. What did folk do before they were available? A lot of washing, I guess!!
Anna-Louise informed me on Friday that she had written a letter to JB. She wrote it, got a stamp off Harry {how she managed that I'll never know} and posted it without any adult input at all. Evidently it was addressed to Mr J. Barrowman, BBC London. I wonder if it will get to him. Because of Harry's birthday we recorded Dr Who and Confidential and watched it earlier this afternoon while Rhys was having his nap. Anna-Louise was not at all happy about the professor turning into the Master. I must admit it gave me a bit of a shock too and I was expecting something like that to happen. We all agreed that it was very good and that it was great to see Captain Jack back with the Doctor again. I feel that as a family we must be very easy to please. We sat and watched it and the kids and Dan ate those little hoop things throughout. Anna-Louise puts them on her fingers like rings. Only a week ago Harry did that too but today he said he was too old for that now! I know how he feels. After seeing my Dr I felt old too!!
It seems everyone at Church knows about my condition. I don't know how. People do gossip around here. Several people asked me if it was planned! I felt like saying-of course it wasn't planned, Rhys isn't a year old yet- but I didn't, naturally. Anyhow, they all know. Alice came up to me and after staring at my middle for a while in silence said loudly--are you going to get fat again now you have another baby in there? She is six years old. I can't even start to think how her parents must talk to her for her to say something like that.. A friend of mine had a craving for donuts when she was pregnant and it nearly drove her poor husband insane. It also caused her to loose several teeth and being pregnant is not good for your teeth as it is!
Rhys is awake so I'll write about Harry's birthday another time.
27th June 2007.
Finally have had a good day. Got up full of energy and didn't feel nauseated. We seem to spend a lot of our time lately at the Docs or the Hospital. They are satisfied with Anna-Louise's arm and she may have the plaster off at the end of next week. She won't need physio evidently. I thought she would but they don't usually need it at her age we were told. Sent some of the photos we took at Harry's birthday to my Mother. She doesn't have E-Mail which is a bother. We all went bowling together with around twenty of Harry's friends plus some of Anna-Louise's to keep her company. The adults mostly watched but I had a turn at Bowling and much to everyone's surprise {including me} proved to be extremely good at it. When I got four strikes in a row I could tell even Harry was impressed. Two days later I started to feel real sick which goes on nearly all day. Ugh!
Rhys was 1 year old on June 21st. We had 8 kids from the Nursery aged 1 to 3 for a small party. I felt sick the whole time and Rhys actually threw up so it was a fun day all round. Molly next door helped plus Anna {Will was at work luckily} and various parents including Joshua whose son is 18 months. Joshua is very tall and has red hair and a beard. You can't miss him in a crowd. He looks like a wrestler but is a soft as butter and great with little kids. Rhys likes to pull his beard. He doesn't seem to mind. He also clears tables and fills dishwashers etc. He's great. His kid has red hair as well and looks just like him and to confuse things is also called Joshua. He doesn't have a beard yet though!!
Finally got my Gif animator working again. Evidently the site was down for a while so I couldn't get any info from them. In the end I removed the Vio files and put them in a separate folder on the desktop. It worked then. I had to figure out what to do myself. I never seem to be able to find any info anywhere when I have a PC problem and Microsoft is useless. Rhys and Anna-Louise are asleep now and Harry is out. He is supposed to come in at 9. If he isn't in by then Dan goes outside and waits for him and there's BIG trouble. Oh great, I've just heard him coming in! I'm so relieved. I hate any trouble and I'm no good at disciplining the kids anyhow. I just keep thinking that I was worse at their age, and I was too! MY poor Mother. What she must have gone through with me!
Going off to make Dan a sandwich now. He has to be fed round about now. We had dinner at 7 but he's quite a big guy. He's not fat or anything though. Just muscular. Must try to get Harry to get a hair cut too.
Diary. 29th June 2007.
Felt fine this morning so I was able to take my turn on the rota for ferrying the kids to school . Turned into the main highway and got stuck in an almighty big traffic jam. After a few moments I felt like I might throw up. I swallowed hard but that didn't help so I pulled into the side of the highway which unfortunately put me in a bus lane. I opened my door and leaned out into the road and after a moment or two actually did throw up. I was just wondering if I was O.K. to start driving again when a POLICE car came along. When you want them they are never around but here was one.
''Mummy" shouts Anna-louise helpfully from the back seat ''is having a baby.'' Before pandemonium ensued I quickly added "not yet, I'm not. I'm just a bit sick.'' Well. The upshot of all this embarrassment was the kids went to school in a POLICE CAR and the other policeman sat in my car with me and chatted non stop about his wife. Evidently she is pregnant and has morning sickness. It is their first too. I felt better and we had quite a chat before the police car returned. I drove home with a greatly improved opinion of police in general. I picked up Rhys from next door {Friday isn't a nursery day for him] and told Molly all about my exciting morning. She seemed to think that these things only happen to me. Her life, she told me, was boring compared to mine. I tried to remember how interesting my life is when I was sorting heaps of washing later in the morning. The Policemen I was chatting to was a Muslim too. He told me right away. I told him I didn't care. One of my second cousins is married to a Muslim anyhow and has three kids. She is a red headed catholic. Their kids are all gorgeous. His parents originally objected to them marrying but as soon as a grandchild arrived they suddenly became real friendly. I had a similar problem with Dan's Mother. She thought he ought to marry ''a nice Jewish girl.'' It's not as if he ever practises his religion. He doesn't at all. Anyhow, January 21st 2008 is the GREAT DAY. Roll on January. Whatever it is its going to get Rhys's cast offs. Some of them anyhow.
I'm now going to wash my hair. So I'll have to spend some time trying to sort it out afterward. I wish it was straight. Rhys's hair is going to be just like mine. Oh dear. Already people are fondling it and saying how pretty it's getting. Luckily he's only a year old!
Diary. July 2nd 2007.
Had an enjoyable weekend. Wasn't sick once. Dan got a phone call on Friday evening. A friend of his from N.Y. was in town and wanted to meet up of course. He is supposed to be here on business!! On Saturday morning Dan went off and he and Julian went to see the Pride London march etc. Julian is gay and evidently had a ''thing'' for Dan at one time. They've known each other for years. Fondly expected Dan to come home with photos at least, but he forgot his camera! Julian had one and I've already seen some of his photos which he is putting on various sites. Dan took photos on his cell which mostly show heads and umbrellas. However, they did see JB. Twice! I wish I'd gone with them. The weather was disgusting though. Dan got soaked more than once and naturally didn't have any Regenmantel. He told me he shared Julian's which must have pleased Julian a lot. They both arrived here at gone 11pm. They both smelled of drink although they weren't drunk. Dan gets all romantic {at least that's what he calls it} when he's been drinking and kept hovering by me and kissing me and making suggestions. As soon as Julian left Dan said ''let's go to bed'' and we did and he fell asleep right away and snored loudly. So much for romance.
Had to have a woman to woman talk with Anna-Louise because she kept running to get the mail thinking that JB was going to respond to her letter. I explained that he will reply but it might take a long time because he is a very busy man. She listened carefully and then said ''longer than another week?'' I feel that her sense of time is somewhat divorced from reality.
Rhys had his year old check up { or whatever they call it here }. I was told that he is below some percentile or something. He is too small evidently. I said he's like me. They didn't seem to appreciate that small people have small kids. He's perfectly healthy and doing everything he should be doing at his age and more. I think they were looking for something to complain about. However, it must be very upsetting for very young Mothers if they are told their kid is too small or too big or something. Dan said don't take him for the next one, we know he's O.K, we aren't idiots. All the time she was saying this stuff about him being below weight and height he was trying to grab her glasses and he finally actually got them and promptly threw them on to the floor. They were those half ones that people wear perched on the end of their nose. I nearly laughed because it was funny. There she was more or less criticizing him and he got his own back!
Found out that Keith Jack from ADWD is going to make a CD. This is good news. He is so talented. He had a bad throat during the last ADWD and thus wasn't at his best. Naturally no one was told this. I can't help feeling that if it had been Lee everyone would have been told right away. I watched some of the programs again one evening last week when I couldn't sleep and was surprized to hear Lee singing flat two weeks running. I had forgotten this in all the publicity making out he was so perfect. I hope he doesn't make a complete cock up of the show. Not for his sake but for all those folk who are paying to see it. I have this feeling that he is going to be much less successful than people seem to think. He wasn't an understudy and not a star for no reason.
Had a seriously weird conversation with Mama last evening. I found a photo of her and her older brother with her Mother and some very very dark woman who I didn't recognize. I described the photo to Mama and she said that it was her Grandmother. I said she was very dark and Mama said that she would be as she was an Indian! She was from Calcutta, Mama said. Oh, hell, I thought, now I'm part Indian as well as everything else. You wouldn't think so though since I'm very fair indeed. I have added her to the family tree, which now contains the following nationalities: German, Scottish, English, Welsh, Irish, French, Polish, Iranian, American and Indian. We are trying to establish our own little United Nations, I think.
Harry got into more trouble at school for arguing with his German teacher. Harry told me he was sorry and I managed to sort it out by getting him to apologize to the teacher as well. The trouble is Harry already speaks fluent German but his written grammar is not good. He thinks because he speaks it he knows everything there is to know. Dan and I sat down with him and we all had a long talk. The result of this is that Harry still thinks his teacher is a bit of an idiot but he's not going to let him know that's what he thinks! This is a result I think. I can remember thinking my History teacher was an idiot. One day she told me off for looking out of the window instead of working. She asked me if there was something more interesting outside than learning History and I told her that there was, there were a load of boys out there on the sports field wearing shorts. I made it plain that that was much more interesting than boring old history. This was not a good idea at the time!
.
Diary. August 17th 2007.
Well, we are back! We have all had a great time at home with Mama. After some time without the kids and Dan I was ecstatic to meet them at the airport. Anna-Louise cried and so did Harry, although he insisted he wasn't crying he just had a piece of grit in his eye. Mama's birthday was a surprisingly rousing affair with over eighty guests. I suddenly saw a side to Mama I didn't know existed. At one point she actually sang! We had a band and Mama sang with them. I hadn't heard her sing since I was small and I had forgotten that she had a nice voice. Even at 75 she still sounded good. She told me that when I was very tiny she realized I was musical and that I had got it from her, since Papa was tone deaf. Papa died when he was quite young and I can't recall whether I ever heard him trying to sing. I can, unfortunately, only recall him scolding me.
Being without Dan for a while made me think how it must have been for Mama when Papa died at the age of 49. She must have been heartbroken. I looked at her with new eyes and realized that she must have been very strong to carry on as she did. I was only 12 when he died and Georg was just 10. It had to have been terrible for her. I was very surprized too when she told me that she had to be strict with me and Georg then because she realized we were both exactly like her. Uncle Franz produced some old photos of the family and showed everyone. He had had them blown up and I looked at Mama and saw myself. It was eerie. People used to tell me years ago that I was like Papa and he used to say I was like Mama and I never could see it. I looked at Gisela and she looks nothing like Mama so I think she must look like Papa.
Erik came to the birthday of course and I was shocked at how OLD he looked. He is 10 years older than me, but even so! Gisela, Tom, Mair and Gareth came too. Mair is starting at Cardiff Uni later this year and Gareth was missing some school to come. Perhaps I should have gotten permission for Harry and Anna-Louise to miss some too. I felt a bit guilty that I hadn't even tried. My goodness Gareth is good looking! He has the best looks in the Family. Poor Mair is lovely but quite plain. They all sounded terribly Welsh even Gisela. When they spoke German they still sounded Welsh!
It is strange to be back in England and doing things in English again. While we were away we all spoke German nearly all the time, since Dan and the kids speak it too anyhow. Even Rhys started to say something that sounded like ni, which Dan insisted meant nein. Leaving was a bit of a wrench. I suddenly wished Mama lived closer. We were getting on better this vacation than we ever have before. We all cried at the airport even Dan. It was awful to see Mama crying and having her say she wished we weren't going. I had to promise to be back soon. With the baby on the way I don't know if we can afford it though.
The garden looked OK when we got home and I'm sure Molly was happy to hand over the cats and rabbits into our care. The cats immediately sulked. Cats do sulk. People who have never had cats don't believe this but they do. It was irritating that the cats seemed to love the kids just as before. They only sulked with me and Dan. The kids missed going out on trips like we did in Germany so we all went to Alton Towers and it rained all the time we were there. We arrived home looking wrecked but the kids seemed to enjoy themselves anyhow.
Lovely to have a Dryer. Mama hasn't got one. Rhys keeps trying to climb the stairs and yesterday Anna-Louise forgot to shut the gate and he got right to the top. He can't get down again. I was in the kitchen and I heard him crying because he couldn't get past the top gate which Anna-Louise had shut. So he was stuck on the top stair. I looked up and there he was right up there. It was frightening. He could have fallen down the whole flight. I went and fetched him down and Anna-Louise came out of the bathroom and saw me going down with Rhys in my arms and started to cry. She said she had forgotten to shut the bottom gate. She was so upset I didn't even tell her off. She is a very sensitive child and we can't discipline her the same way we would do with Harry. It was partly my fault anyhow because I should have been watching what he was doing. They are so quick. One minute he was in the kitchen with me and the next moment he was gone. One of my numerous cousins actually fell down the stairs and broke her leg and had a concussion when she was two years old. I would die if anything like that happened to one of mine.
Dan is back at work on an extension. Everyone around here is getting extensions. It makes for a lot of useful work for builders. We are all fond of extensions. I had around 1500 emails when I got home and Dan had over 600. I just deleted all mine so I hope there was nothing important in any of them! I must get back to Heimat now. When I was away I wrote two fics. Owen's birthday and Blobs. When they have been checked I might post them someplace. Blobs is very strange. Being pregnant is my excuse for this. So much for going on a diet. One moment I start on a diet and then I find I'm pregnant! Oh well, there's always later---much later.
Diary- 29th August 2007.
Have been very busy since we came home from vacation. Gisela gave me some very old family photos {copies in case I lost the originals} and I will post them here for anyone who is interested in history and old photos! Rhys has started to say words. He says Dad-Dad- and An and no. His favorite word is no, of course. His nursery had a party. They had some sort of chocolate flavored play dough stuff which the kids could mold into shapes and eat as well. I can't recall what its called. Rhys was covered in it all over. Luckily they wear aprons which cover all their clothing. What a pity Rhys didn't have one which covered his head. His curls were chocolate flavored! They took photos which are very funny.
On Saturday Anna-Louise and I had a girls shopping day. We left the three males to fend for themselves and went out. We had lunch out too and went in as many stores as we could fit in the time. We are both shopaholics. I was looking for underwear. I don't wear any usually but when you're pregnant you start to need support, otherwise you end up flopping in all directions and don't get back into shape afterward. I got some in various sizes and Anna-Louise got new shoes {for school} and a very nice shirt and skirt set in lime green. It really suits her. I got some new underpants for Harry in a variety of hideous colors {requested by him before we went out} and a cap for Dan. He wears them for work so plaster etc doesn't drop in his hair. We ate a pile of fries and other unsuitable food in McDonald's. I didn't feel nauseated all day. It was hot and we had a real good time together. I am starting to hope the new baby is a girl. Then it would be two of each. Not long before I might find out though. They ask you if you want to know.
We have a new lawn mower. Our old one developed a fault of some kind. It wouldn't work!! Gardener is very happy with the new mower. Luckily it wasn't too expensive. We have a lot of grass. Its good when you have kids to have grass. Some of my friends have gotten rid of their grass. We like ours. It has daises and buttercups and things but we like it anyhow. Just spell checked what I'd written so far and found 21 mistakes. This is an improvement on my usual. I'm pleased with myself.
We have had to buy new clothes for school. Harry is growing fast at the moment. He is now taller than me and is very pleased about it. He suddenly seemed to get taller in a few weeks. This means his school clothes don't fit. Unfortunately. Anna-Louise will be 9 on the 15th October and is already planning her party. She and her friends seem to spend ages just talking about what they are going to do for their various birthdays. They don't consider the COST at all. To hear them talk you'd think we had trees in the back yard with money growing on them.
I wish we did.
Have to close now as we are going to our friends. The ones with the St Bernard. Boris the glue stealer. They have four kids and it should be a lively afternoon. Rhys is having an early nap at the moment so he and their youngest, who is three months older then him, may actually interact a bit. They usually stare at each other and then try to snatch each others toys. The next oldest, Sophia, is four. She follows Anna-Louise and Phoebe {who is almost eight} about. They put up with her but I think they'd rather play without her. She is inclined to scream when excited too. Enough said.
Diary 5/9/2007
I am very happy at the minute.. Last week, just before he went off to the building site Dan gave me an envelope. I opened it and found CASH!! ''I love you and this is for your hair'' he said. I am always complaining about my curly hair. Its my biggest fault I think, I hate my curls. I left Rhys with Molly and went straight off to my hairdressers. I didn't even have an appointment but she fitted me in and I had my hair properly straightened. It is GREAT!! It just waves on the top and the bottom is loose curls. I am SO pleased with it!!!!
Anna-Louise is very happy as well because she received a signed photo in the post from JB himself. She didn't even write to the address on the web site, she wrote to the BBC. The envelope had on it Mr J. Barrowman BBC London I think. My opinion of the BBC has risen enormously because someone must have gotten the letter and sent it on to JB's manager. People are so kind and thoughtful.
Had a very weird experience with the mother of one of Anna-Louise's friends. She told me that she could identify the sex of an unborn baby by a magnet on a string or something like that. I am going for a scan and other tests next week and I may find out then so I didn't let her experiment with the magnet. It was weird though. She is from Slovenia by the way. She is very pretty and has straight hair.
Rhys's hair is now just like mine. It's very curly and very blond. Everyone says how pretty he is. I don't know how he'll feel about being pretty when he's older! However, when I take him out we always get lots of attention and he smiles at everyone too.Sometimes people give him money. This could be useful. Perhaps we should train him as a professional beggar! {Joke}. Harry has grown so much just lately he is costing us a fortune. Why is everything so expensive? Kids shoes for example and their clothes and everything. If only they would all stop eating too. Harry is obsessed with his hair and spends ages every morning straightening it with an electric straightener. By lunch time it is curly again and when he gets home from school, if he's going out, we have the whole rigmarole again first. It is my straightener he uses. I told him the results don't last. I gave up using it. At the minute he has only one girl friend who is in his Stagecoach class. She is very nice and has long blond straight hair. He got a certificate from Stagecoach in July for completing five years in the school. It is part time theatre arts school. They do singing, acting and dancing. He also had certificates at the end of last term for IT, History and languages. Well he ought to be good at languages as I was born in Germany and Dan's mother was born in Poland.
On the animal front we have another cat. Actually it is an eight week old ginger kitten. It was Anna-Louise's turn to name the new arrival so that's why we now have a kitten called JB. Herman ignores JB completely but Ringo plays with him. They chase each other. Usually around the house. Knocking things over. Rhys loves it when they run. He laughs and claps his hands and shouts his latest word, which sounds like Cad {it rhymes with cab]. I suppose he's trying to say cat. Sometimes he tries to run after them. He isn't very good at running and falls over and cries. Then I have to comfort him as well as preventing the house being damaged by cats. Who says life at home is boring? Molly next door gave us the kitten. Her brother's cat had seven kittens. She promised in a mad moment to help find homes for them. She is so good to us and the greatest neighbor ever so we had to help her and have one.She didn't want the kittens to go to just anyone. She knows any animal that arrives in our house will have a fun time!
September 19th 2007. Diary.
I am officially bursting with health. I have had all the tests the medical proffesion advises for elderly {?} pregnant women and passed them all. My blood pressure is magnifiant, my urine is almost drinkable it's so great and everything else is wonderful. Did we want to know the sex of the baby? Yes, we did. So now we do. He is a boy. I know Dan is slightly dissapointed but it is his doing after all. Anna-Louise is dissappointed as well. I told Harry and he said "as long as you're O.K.'' which I thought was very nice. If only he'd get something done to his hair. Still, you can't have everything. He is thoughtful and is doing real well at school too.
Saturday morning I woke up late, which is very unusual for me. I found Anna-Louise with Rhys on the patio. He was holding on to a chair and saying ---nein, nein---very loudly. Was tust du jetzt? I asked Anna-Louise {I'm never at my best in the morning and just lately this has gotten even worse}. "I'm teaching him to stand on one leg, Mummy" my daughter informed me. I explained that she ought to wait a while, until he was older. I think she was bored. This is a typical verbal exchange in our house, sometimes enlived by Dan swearing in Polish. It makes life interesting. Dan's Mother was born in Warsaw. They left when she was very young which is just as well knowing what happened to Jewish people there later. She wasn't happy about Dan and me and now I'm older I can understand why. However, what happened more than thirty years before I was born can hardly be deamed to be my fault, can it?
Anna came over this morning. We sat around having the type of thrilling conversations that pregnant females probably have the world over. The sort that revolve around things like our breasts and how much weight we've put on etc. We also discussed our men in detail and things of that ilk. { I think that's the correct word, I like it, it sounds interesting---ilk--ilk }. Rhys was sitting on the floor most of the time playing with this pirate ship he had for his birthday. It is supposed to be for kids older than him but he likes it a lot. He does bite the pirates heads and feet though. He sat there saying -hmm--and nein----his favorite words. He also says Dad-Dad, An, no and Cad. He mutters a great deal and sounds just like his Daddy when he's watching sport on TV. Harry and Anna-Louise were at school, Dan was over in Harrow building an extension { another extension- I love them } and Will was at work in his office, at least I supposed he was. Anna told me she is having a girl. She and Will were hoping for a boy. Oh well, that's life.
Phoned Mama and told her the baby is a boy. She seemed pleased and is hoping we will name him after Papa. His name was Gottfried. I just just picture it. Gottfried Sierakowiak. Dan has his mother's birth surname because on his birth certificate no Father is listed. He has never been able to find out who he was. His older brother has his mother's husbands name. He died over a year before Dan was born. I told her we hadn't thought of any names yet but we have. We will almost certainly call him Benjamin John. However, I may be able to persuade Dan to add Gottfried. This will please Mama. It's a bit of a mouthful Benjamin John Gottfried Sierakowiak, but there are worse things to be called, somewhere, probably. Dan is proud of his name and refuses to alter it in any way. This is why I often use my own name though. Of course we aren't in the telephone book. People would find us instantly if we were with a name like ours!
Gisela sent me some more photos. They are all old. One is of Mama's parents with her and her brother Franz. Her Father was Scottish and is wearing a kilt in the photo. Franz is also wearing a kilt and Mama looks very pretty but bored. There is another photo of Mama's mother taken when she was about two. She is sitting on a cushion and is wearing a hat with a feather. Evidently just after the photo was taken she fell in a rain puddle and got soaked and ruined the hat. Then there is the photo of Mama and Uncle Franz outside their apartement block. They are both wrapped up in thick coats and hats. It must have been winter. They both look very solemn. Evidently having your photo taken in Hamburg in 1938 was a serious business. Mama's Father was a fireman in the war. He must have been very busy. Mama and Uncle Franz were sent to the countryside for a while and Gisela sent me a photo of them sitting on a Farm Cart with a number of other kids. They all look very happy. While they were enjoying themselves the adults were all trying to kill each other. What a pity Hitler didn't die in 1916. While all this was going on Dan's Mother and parents were trying to get along in the US. They evidently arrived with very little money or anything else. They left behind Dan's Maternal Aunt and her husband and two children. They lost contact with them later and never found out what happened. They have no graves and no records of them. They just dissappeared. When I found out about that I felt differently towards Dan's Mother. I thought how I would feel if something like that happened to Gisela and her Family. How could I bear it? Never knowing. We are all so lucky to be alive now.
I met Louisa and we had a snack together. She had her three year old and her new baby {born last month- another boy] and I had Rhys. We sat chatting and I looked around and I was very happy with everything. The kids are healthy and Dan is working and I'm fine. We are so lucky. Leben ist das, was an uns vorbeizieht, während wir damit beschäftigt sind, andere Pläne zu schmieden. Das war's.
PS I feel I ought to say that Dan's Aunt was his Mother's half sister. She was 18 years older than Dan's Mother.