I am very very excited.

Today, we took the first step into making the decision to extend our home. We’ve been thinking for a while that we need some extra space and have looked into getting a conservatory. However, there’s issues about whether we’d be able to use one all year around (too cold in winter, too hot in summer) and then we found out how expensive they were! For half as much again we have discovered we can have a “proper” extension and have three times the extra space.

So, the plan is to have a downstairs half as big again, with a play room, utility room and breakfast room added on to the back of our property. Next door have had a very similar extension done recently and it looks absolutely fantastic. Also, the very same neighbour is an architect so we’ll be buying detailed plans from him and be able to get lots of detailed advice at each stage.

It’s going to be a bit of a hard slog – it’s not really a quick fix to space issues and there’ll be a lot of disruption for a long time while the builders/plumbers/electricians and kitchen fitters are here, especially with a very young baby around. However, it’s going to be worth every tiny bit of stress.

Just the little detail of speaking to the mortgage company now!

Packet containing The Italian Job sountrack arrived this morning – Royal Mail must read my blog and have sorted out its act!!

Thank you again yidaho!

… seeing as how wine is made from grapes, how big a glass do you think I’d need to count as 1 portion out of my 5-a-day fruit and veg intake?!

*grin*

SHOCK HORROR!

Booze spending tops fruit and veg.

Now is it me, or is this the biggest non-story of all time? On average, most UK households spend £5.90 a week on beer, wine and spirits whereas they only spend £5.40 a week on fruit and veg. This is used as yet another proof that we in the UK have lousy diets.

Um, excuse me? Newsflash: BOOZE COSTS MORE! £5.90 will just about buy you one bottle of wine and a couple of beers if you’re lucky, whereas £5.40 buys quite a substantial amount of fruit and veg. Neither quantity being unreasonable for a balanced diet. How on earth can you compare and make any conclusions whatsoever?!

I’m just waiting for tomorrow’s headline… “Cars More Expensive Than Shoe Leather!”

… I didn’t post yesterday. Still got a horrible cold and it’s dragging me down a bit. I’m actually on the mend and feeling more human in the day, but feeling very lethargic and unmotivated by the evening. Hopefully normal service will be resumed in a day or two.

For the last couple of months, I’ve been participating in the monthly secret present swap over on Mumsnet. It’s a sort of secret santa only every month instead of December – we have a budget (usually under ?10) to send a parcel to another mumsnetter. It’s great fun, as it’s only a small amount – I have as much pleasure (if not more) choosing something for the other person as receiving my parcel.

There’s only one fly in the ointment: Royal Mail First Class post. It wasn’t until I started expecting parcels on a regular basis that I realised how unreliable it has become. Today’s parcel had the 9th of February on the 1st Class label (you get printed sticky labels rather than stamps these days if taken to the post office) – that’s EIGHT DAYS it took to arrive here. One of last month’s parcels (it was a double event – a swap for kids and a swap for mums) took over THREE WEEKS to arrive here. Both of these parcels originated somewhere else in the UK.

You know, when they say x% of First Class items arrive next day, I really expected that the rest would arrive the day after. I was obviously very naive. First Class post isn’t that cheap – so why are we getting a third class service?! I now wonder about all the parcels I’ve sent out – particularly for special events like birthdays. I always try and post them a couple of days before the big day – should I be allowing a couple of weeks to be on the safe side?

Watched The Italian Job last night. I’d never got around to seeing it and I was really missing out. What a great film! I so want a Mini Cooper now…

Can’t put my finger on what I enjoyed most. Was it the great performance by Michael Caine? The perfect example of understated British humour? Or could it be the ultimate in cliffhanger endings?! No, it was defintitely the car chase. I so want a Mini Cooper now…

Plug Pulled on ‘Angel’

Continuing on yesterday’s theme, despite both Akra and I developing attrocious colds (one which our son was so giving and eager to share!), we went over to my mother’s house to pick up all the baby stuff we’d been storing in her loft during the house move that had never actually been retrieved since.

Good news. Our memory of the car seat not fitting was a false one (thinking on it, it was the next stage car seat that was the issue, not the newborn seat) and the old Graco pushchair (the second purchase) just about fits in the boot of the Micra if we really wriggle it about and don’t expect to fit any shopping in along with it! Not ideal, but for the few times I actually go into town I can live with that. So money saved after all!

Akra Jr had actually forgotten about the existence of all his old toys and belongings. It was like discovering a whole treasure trove of goodies as he marvelled at the old baby bath and bouncy chair, and squeeled with delight at all the baby playthings. I don’t think baby no. 2 is going to get much of a look in! We eventually managed to distract him and safely stash everything in the garage (as if we didn’t have enough boxes in there) until nearer the time, so we feel a little more prepared with the “bigger” items at least.

I suppose at some point we need to start thinking about decorating the nursery. All very exciting!

We went to a Mothercare World shop today in an attempt to spend some money or at least do some initial research on things for The New Baby [tm]. One thing we’ve discovered, we’re a lot better at being frugal this time around! Mainly because we can see all the pitfalls and ripoffs straight off rather than falling for the salesdrone’s blurb.

Today we have successfully not bought:

• a carseat/carrycot (there’s a question mark whether the old one will fit in the back of our small car and it was very heavy – however, none of the new ones were any slimmer or any lighter – more research definitely needed)
• a pushchair (our old ones all have various character flaws most of which involve being either unsuitable for a newborn or boot-fitting issues – unfortunately, most of the other options have similar flaws or are too expensive to justify the 6 months use we’ll get out of them before switching back to the super light one we use for Akra Jr at the moment).
• a change table (Question: how hard can it be to find a white chest of drawers with space for a change mat on top for under £200?! Answer: very)

So all in all, a very cheap shopping trip. Not very productive, but very cheap.