Remember me?
Jesus, my last update was when Ellie was born. That's now quite a while ago. Needless to say, much has changed. A potted version:
Ellie is doing well. She is the smiliest baby I have ever seen; constantly grinning from ear to ear. She's very relaxed and easy going as well. We've managed to get her sleeping from 8pm til around 5 or 6AM, which is pretty good going - she'll shortly be moving onto solids, which I'm hoping will herald the night sleep pushing through til 7ish.
Jess is also doing well; loves playing outside and is talking non-stop, even if a lot of it is incomprehensible (to us). His capacity for parroting words and phrases has very rapidly become terrifying; cleaning up my language around him has become somewhat urgent as a result.
I have recently found out that my firm will not be keeping me on come September. This was not a huge surprise, and not unwelcome either. I was explicitly told in my last seat by one of the major partners that I had ruined my chances by taking paternity leave, so I pretty much knew what to expect. Having been worn down by nearly 2 years of extraordinary internecine fighting between the partners and a constant background of racism, sexism and homophobia, the paternity leave thing was the straw that broke the camel's back; I'm looking forward to getting away. Weird how places confound your expectations - I thought that being near London would make the town quite cosmopolitan; quite the contrary. It appears that all the cosmopolitan people have actually moved to the capital, leaving behind some breathakingly ignorant people.
So, we are going to relocate back to the West Country. If I'm honest, this is a huge relief. The past two years have been hard for both us, but an especially huge struggle for Ali. Two kids (plus the pregnancy and complications thereof) without any nearby family support has been extremely difficult and tiring; to be close to her parents, brother & sister etc will make a huge difference. To know that that move is coming sooner rather than later is a relief.
So the plan is to hit the applications and sit out the wait here. Once something comes up we'll up sticks and move back over and get settled, hopefully for good.
I totted up that we've moved 8 times in the last 10 years; safe to say we're both pretty tired of it now. It is, therefore, a big relief to finally see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.
And if the worst comes to the worst, I'll get a few months off between finishing this job and starting the next; time to spend with Ali and the kids. That really wouldn't be such a bad thing :)
Also, I should have more time to actually do some updates on here.
Ellie is doing well. She is the smiliest baby I have ever seen; constantly grinning from ear to ear. She's very relaxed and easy going as well. We've managed to get her sleeping from 8pm til around 5 or 6AM, which is pretty good going - she'll shortly be moving onto solids, which I'm hoping will herald the night sleep pushing through til 7ish.
Jess is also doing well; loves playing outside and is talking non-stop, even if a lot of it is incomprehensible (to us). His capacity for parroting words and phrases has very rapidly become terrifying; cleaning up my language around him has become somewhat urgent as a result.
I have recently found out that my firm will not be keeping me on come September. This was not a huge surprise, and not unwelcome either. I was explicitly told in my last seat by one of the major partners that I had ruined my chances by taking paternity leave, so I pretty much knew what to expect. Having been worn down by nearly 2 years of extraordinary internecine fighting between the partners and a constant background of racism, sexism and homophobia, the paternity leave thing was the straw that broke the camel's back; I'm looking forward to getting away. Weird how places confound your expectations - I thought that being near London would make the town quite cosmopolitan; quite the contrary. It appears that all the cosmopolitan people have actually moved to the capital, leaving behind some breathakingly ignorant people.
So, we are going to relocate back to the West Country. If I'm honest, this is a huge relief. The past two years have been hard for both us, but an especially huge struggle for Ali. Two kids (plus the pregnancy and complications thereof) without any nearby family support has been extremely difficult and tiring; to be close to her parents, brother & sister etc will make a huge difference. To know that that move is coming sooner rather than later is a relief.
So the plan is to hit the applications and sit out the wait here. Once something comes up we'll up sticks and move back over and get settled, hopefully for good.
I totted up that we've moved 8 times in the last 10 years; safe to say we're both pretty tired of it now. It is, therefore, a big relief to finally see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.
And if the worst comes to the worst, I'll get a few months off between finishing this job and starting the next; time to spend with Ali and the kids. That really wouldn't be such a bad thing :)
Also, I should have more time to actually do some updates on here.