tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992897954263755382012-02-02T06:47:13.126ZHolding it together in HerefordshireValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-84935345718036897612009-07-29T10:55:00.004+01:002009-07-29T11:13:38.930+01:00

I was thrilled this morning to fit into some pre-baby cords, until I realised it was in fact the end of July and I should be wafting about in linen shorts, not wrapped up in cords and a jumper. My daughter's school summer dresses remained in the wardrobe undisturbed all term, the same tube of suncream has languished in the first aid drawer for the last three years and the cute little

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-49851684899784484502009-07-10T10:07:00.004+01:002009-07-10T10:41:38.795+01:00

My daughter had to give a presentation at school yesterday, and she decided to do it as a computer slideshow. We duly saved the work onto her USB memory stick, and as my daughter is only seven and a memory stick so small and losable, I sought out the teacher myself. As I handed over the memory stick I explained that the presentation was saved in two different formats as we weren't sure which

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-89948289019278109742009-06-26T18:53:00.004+01:002009-06-26T19:10:21.374+01:00

I do hope any tennis fans haven't been lured here by use of the word 'set' - this is a Wimbledon-free zone. Oops, there I go again with the keywords-du-jour.Anyway, now you're here, chasing strawberry juice down your chin and watching the goosebumps crawl up your arm, stay awhile and have a quick read - you may be able to say you knew me before I was famous, but realistically everyone I know til

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-1675825632705420992009-06-23T11:24:00.002+01:002009-06-23T11:44:50.448+01:00

As I changed sheets and amused the baby this morning, I listened to Radio 4's Book of the Week, The Junior Officer's Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey. I was struck by the parallels between motherhood and elite officer training at Sandhurst.The similarities came thick and fast: the fickle and raging colour sergeant/toddler; the one-upmanship; the 'who's had the least sleep' competition; the sense

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-59422815559755746212008-12-26T21:48:00.002Z2008-12-26T22:06:41.951Z

I'm still pregnant: overdue, overwrought and overcompensating for the life changes I'm about to inflict on the rest of the family. Well I say 'I' - I don't think I can shoulder the blame entirely alone and I feel this might come out as a topic of heated conversation when the moment finally arrives for our son to make his oh-so-eagerly awaited appearance.The end of pregnancy, well the bit just

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-77131837220170140912008-11-27T22:18:00.003Z2008-11-27T22:32:20.863Z

I was struck last week, when 'my husband and ai' were in a retail-outlet-that-shall-remain-nameless, just how shockingly easy it is to spend money. I don't mean how tempting the seasonal goods on display or how greedy we all are, really, underneath it all, for Nice Stuff. No, I mean just how facilely simple it is to conduct a transaction.I had spent a quite frankly silly amount of time trying to

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-80661419950966103032008-11-20T10:09:00.002Z2008-11-20T10:24:23.136Z

It's probably the hormone soup that is coursing through my veins at nearly 36 weeks pregnant, but I found myself this morning ranting at the radio as I drove the children to school. The teenagers sat silently and cringed but my six year old joined in enthusiastically, echoing my comments which I had fortunately managed to bowdlerise.It was Today that had raised my blood pressure so unwisely for

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-49082611886302383952008-09-01T15:29:00.003+01:002008-09-01T15:56:43.439+01:00

The supermarkets are much in the news today, in particular for two issues close to my heart: grammatical correctitude (English like wot she should be spoke) and promotion of crappy foods.The first is clearly of far greater significance. As I sat in Starbucks on Friday, just after a shopping trip to NEXT on a day dedicated to the furthering the cause of global consumerism, I pondered the epithet

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-64558676573575853312008-08-27T20:09:00.002+01:002008-08-27T20:40:21.198+01:00

...more commonly known as school-parent 'communication' - I use that word loosely. As of next Wednesday I resume my role of necessary evil as far as my stepson's high school is concerned. As begetters of the school's client base parents can't be entirely ignored, but the school does its best. Perhaps if teenagers both paid attention to the information school gives them and then saw fit to pass it

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-13905997391529327792008-08-19T16:25:00.004+01:002008-08-19T17:00:15.683+01:00

I have just had a very heartening coversation with our midwife, and a very predictable one with my mother, both - unsurprisingly - on the subject of childbirth.I had emailed our quite fantastic midwife last week following a consultation at the hospital. I'll spare you the gory details, but essentially if I am to deliver this baby via the usual route, I'm expected to be monitored for the duration

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-7282652285227608382008-08-19T14:51:00.004+01:002008-08-19T16:25:14.936+01:00

I knew it, and now Philip Eden has been kind enough to publish the stats to prove it on the BBC News site: the British summer has always been a distinctly mediocre affair.Not news really, is it?And yet in our uniquely British way, the state of the weather continues to be a constant feature of any conversation with anyone, any time, anywhere. You'd think we might have accepted by now that we can

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-4745983917899383182008-08-12T15:58:00.007+01:002008-08-12T16:38:56.678+01:00

Except it's not funny at all: it's nonsensical, fustrating and totally flies on the face of currently expounded transport policy. I am, of course, talking about provision of public transport in rural areas.I'm currently recovering from a bout of bashing my head against my desk while foaming at the mouth, brought on by seeing if it was feasible for my stepdaughter and my niece to travel by public

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-54628280445249631782008-08-11T15:47:00.002+01:002008-08-11T16:13:54.566+01:00

I wholeheartedly applaud Christine Jeavans' attempts to live a plastic-free life, especially as she has a small child - this to me is real proper attempt: Christine Jeavans has to go the extra mile (literally, it seems) while also managing the needs of a toddler who, let's face it, isn't going to be overly sympathetic to Mummy's ethical stance if it means no apple juice when it's become a pretty

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-88484433576288646302008-08-11T14:55:00.004+01:002008-08-12T16:48:05.561+01:00

We had the incredible experience this morning of seeing our unborn child in its full glory. It has ten perfect little toes, its heart has four perfect little chambers (okay, everything's little), all the required innards...and a willy.Yes, it's a boy, or as the sonographer said with overtones of Nursey, she'd be very surprised if it turned out to be a girl with a willy like that! When she said it

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-53645027914779899882008-08-08T11:36:00.007+01:002008-08-08T18:08:01.213+01:00

We daily commit that cardinal sin of incomers to the countryside: we live in one place and blithely drive through it, insulated from its charm and inhabitants by our ton of metal, to go to work, play and educate the children many miles away. It's not strictly accurate to describe ourselves as new to the countryside, having moved here last year from a hamlet only seven miles away and much further

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-41241588741521778892008-08-06T16:09:00.004+01:002008-08-06T16:55:01.819+01:00

Holiday jobs have loomed large here lately. My stepson had a burst of enthusiasm a couple of months ago, much to my astonishment as he isn't usually given to initiative of any kind - harsh but true. He had noticed a local company whose area of work he thought would interest him, so in the absence of his father (who was away fondling those servers again) I offered help with putting together a CV

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-69456131907488468712008-07-30T17:50:00.007+01:002008-07-30T20:52:03.879+01:00

We needed tea towels so I went and bought tea towels. So far so deeply unexciting. My criteria were minimal but rigid: they had to be predominantly blue as blue tea towels are kitchen tea towels and any other colour is a rag for grotty jobs, and they must be smooth rather than towelling as an irrational part of me (that'll be most of me then) can't bear the towelling sort. eBay let me down but,

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-60823826688253716972008-07-30T13:09:00.004+01:002008-07-30T13:59:21.363+01:00

Carrot & Butterbean is the new Chicken, when it comes to soup at least. It's nothing to do with the benefits of copper, manganese, potassium and betacarotenes versus 'penicillin in a bowl' and everything to do with patching up my relationship with my stepson.I'm a woman of a certain age, he's a 15 year old boy. We suffer from vastly differing priorities, thrown into stark relief during these days

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-77807171036583681982008-07-28T15:55:00.008+01:002008-07-30T20:59:32.909+01:00

We have the loveliest midwife I have ever met. When I mention her to friends a dreamy look appears in their eyes and the general consensus is that she is 'absolutely lovely'. I agree. She also has the inestimable advantage of being middle-aged and a mother of three, thereby generating automatic respect.And, most importantly, confidence. The first midwife we had when DD was on the way I must

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-734300610801793082008-07-21T21:30:00.000+01:002008-07-21T22:11:04.641+01:00

My 14 year old stepdaughter wasted no time in taking advantage of the dawn of the summer holidays - and dawn is the word. On the last day of term I went to the leaver's service at my daughter's school (although she is far from leaving herself), and marked the end of term by baking all afternoon to provide a Just William-style scrumptious afternoon tea for the children of iced fairy cakes, coffee

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-48836253787801784532008-07-21T21:04:00.000+01:002008-07-21T22:12:48.025+01:00

I sat down to write about my stepdaughter's rather confused view of home life, but I am being continually bugged via Skype by my husband, who is just at the end of the corridor. This avoidance of prising himself out of his chair and toddling down the hall could explain why he is 4 stone overweight and definitely summarises a modern life which sees each family member focussed on his own personal

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-79628344585030326062008-07-13T18:27:00.000+01:002008-07-13T19:23:08.174+01:00

We should find out at our 20 week scan next month whether our bump is pink or blue. My six year old daughter has placed an order for a boy so we have even numbers of each in the family. My stepson has told his father he can't cope with any more sisters so to make sure this one's a boy please, which at least demonstrates a basic understanding of how these things work - if only someone could have

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-75526716196909579222008-07-13T16:36:00.001+01:002008-07-13T16:59:12.544+01:00

No, it's not time to liberate Brian yet, he/she/it should have another 23 weeks or so staying just where he/she/it is. I'm talking about free of charge, gratis, cost nuffink. It looks like we're having this baby for free, and what a huge relief it is.I mwntioned in my last post that we've been offered more or less everything we're going to need for this baby, and it set me thinking about the

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-799289795426375538.post-25893452735133790512008-07-08T14:01:00.000+01:002008-07-13T16:35:40.575+01:00

It's been a rollerocaster recycling day today. This morning I was complaining about the lack of interest in the maternity clothes I advertised on Freecycle (I've got to find some other way of getting rid of them now, grumble grumble) and the zero response to my request for maternity tops, although on the upside someone who recognised my name but didn't know I was pregnant dropped me a

ValleyDollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618738117206073948noreply@blogger.com0