A bed of roses

Daughter was sent to the Women's - and then sent home again. She appears to be in slow labour but is booked in to be induced on Monday, if baby hasn't made her appearance by then. We all just want our little one to arrive! With perhaps the exception of younger grandson who a) doesn't really have any idea what's going on and b) will find his world changed quite a lot <3

An early start meant a looong day but I found enough stuff to poke around at to fill the time. I did send out some meeting invites for another project board with RAPID meetings in between and found myself wondering when I'll be able to take leave between now and Christmas! Summer may be quiet but the autumn promises to be a veritable merry-go-round of meetings. I think I shall have to be creative... But we're getting a solid two weeks at Christmas this year - the uni closes on 23 December and doesn't reopen until 6 January, so I won't need to use any leave then.

I've just finished watching Becoming Elizabeth, which ended on a bit of a cliff-hanger. They portrayed Jane Grey as a bit of a bitch but I'd always thought of her as just another woman being used by the men around her. Maybe she had more of a hand in it than I thought. But she came to the same end. And Elizabeth really did outlast them all by some margin! Such a tightrope she walked for all her life.

Tomorrow promises to be an even quieter day and I'm really struggling to know how to fill it *sigh* I'm sure I'll find something...

It's one of those days where it seems like a VERY long time since I got up but the day hasn't dragged at all.

Started with a bath. When I got downstairs husband was having a nap, so I cleaned the bathroom. When that was done he was awake, so we had breakfast - filter coffee and crumpets with butter. <3

Quick clean of the living room in preparation for daughter and grandson #2. He takes sooo much energy, even when he's sitting still :D He's also learned to climb the stairs, so that's going to be fun going forward.

We still don't have a name for granddaughter. The two new ones daughter mentioned today were... well, I wouldn't have chosen them. One of them was my maternal grandmother's name, FCOL! Who was born in 1905! And she hadn't chosen it BECAUSE it was my grandmother's name because she thought that was something similar but different. Anyway, at this rate she'll only have her middle name, which is my name :D

And daughter has less idea of what to get grandson #1 for his 18th than we do >D

I played an hour of Tunic and hit a very nasty boss. Again, I'm playing on the easier setting. Again, the game's definition of 'easier' is different to mine. Again, I will give it another go, but really...

Then I watched Doctor Who on iPlayer. OMG!!! The best episode so far by a country MILE. And written by two women. Just sayin'... Sharp dialogue, LOL comedy, tears, ol' skool monster of the week, another glimpse of Susan Twist... Just wonderful. Won-der-ful!!! My only down (channelling Whoculture!), was The Kiss. Not because I'm homophobic (obvs) but because, for me, The Doctor and romance don't work. Whilst I liked that Rose got her 'own Doctor', if Rose and The Doctor had been 'a thing', I wouldn't have enjoyed it. Plus, he already has the TARDIS AND River. There's being polyamorous and there's being... whatever The Doctor is being :D

The thing with the psychic paper is bringing back memories, too. Was it something with River...? Don't know...

So, after DW, I went down and made tea for me and husband - ham with cauliflower cheese. Which was tasty and perfectly edible but the husband is one of those people who eat with their eyes and I hadn't drained the cauliflower enough and it put him off, so he didn't eat it. Then he made himself a sandwich so he could have his tablets and insulin and it was one of those occasions when I hit a nerve with the needle. I decided discretion was the better part of valour and made myself scarce to do the washing up and clean the kitchen.

And after THAT, I watched Mrs Harris goes to Paris, which was just delightful.

Husband came up to bed half-way through and we had a nice goodnight kiss and cuddle. His days of holding grudges and sulking for days on end are very much behind us - one of the positive results of the memory loss.

So, an event-filled day!

Next week, I will swap out my editing sessions for writing a talk on mustard seeds for St M's on 16 June. There's the version that says the kingdom of heaven starts small and grows to be enormous. And there's the version that says the mustard bush is a weed and the birds nesting in it are pests - and the kingdom is FOR the pests (the outcast, the lost and unwanted, the people on the edge). And is there a person in the world who has NEVER felt like that? Hmm... Something to run with there, I think...

My Athena belt from Holy Clothing arrived, two days earlier than expected! I can't wait to actually wear it.

Our fuse box has a label on it saying it was installed in 2015 and should be inspected in 2020. Yeah... we missed that... It was installed by our then landlord who are a housing association. We bought the house off them in 2016. We knew about getting the boiler inspected every year but missed the bit about getting the wiring done every 5 years. Anyway, I got in touch with the electrician who put the lights up in the kitchen last year and he dropped a bit of a bombshell. In order to comply with current regulations and, for example, make a claim on our insurance in the event of a problem with the electrics, we should have a metal fuse box. Ours is plastic. Apparently, the new regulations only came in a few months ago. I've sent him some pictures and he's going to get back to me with a quote - with a discount as existing customers. I have NO idea how much it would cost. However, as he pointed out, the fuse box could be good for another 15/20 years - we just wouldn't be compliant. Anyway, we'll get the quote and see where we go from there.

In MUCH happier news, grandchild #3 is a girl! Of course, the most important thing is having a happy, healthy baby - but there are quite enough boys on both sides of the family. We need some maiden energy <3

I watched 'Shirley' tonight, a slice of American history I really knew nothing about. A lot of the technicalities went over my head. The whole thing with 'delegates' makes zero sense to me. I understand why they were introduced way back when, but I don't get the whole 'release the delegates!' thing. And please, don't worry about explaining it :D It just feels like an important moment that should have received more attention over the years.

I also did some mopping up of sidequests and hunts in FFXVI. I hope I NEVER get on the wrong side of Charon... I have a full party - for the time being. And I've changed the appearance of all the members, except Clive - he looks too good in his father's gear ;) - but I have changed the appearance of his sword so he has a strong sword but it looks like the family heirloom. 

Also some cleaning and some shopping. On the whole, a successful day, I think.

The other day when I was in the garden, I noticed the ground under one of the shrubs was quite bare. In a few weeks, there will be leaves and flowers aplenty and you won't be able to see the ground - but right now it needs Something. 'Primroses would be just the thing,' I thought. In Tesco today I bought two trays of primroses - one white, one pink! Weekend task is to plant them out.

Got a phone call from daughter asking if we'd like to baby sit grandson #2 for an hour on Friday. Normally we'd jump at the chance but I'm in the office on Friday because husband has appointments tomorrow and Wednesday, so I've had to switch my days round. :( She's going for her first scan for grandchild #3, just to make sure everything's progressing properly. Grandson #2 will just have to go along. He won't have a clue what's going on, anyway. And sil will be there, so at least daughter won't have to manage on her own.

Had a meeting with my spiritual director. Lots of church-talk, of course. They got me to think about what I want the new Rector to be like. The word that comes most to mind is 'open' - open to the gifts of laity, open to the gifts of diversity, open to the truths in the Bible, open to the facts of science. It was a helpful exercise.

Otherwise, I spent the day at my desk poking at the training materials for a PM qualification I'm going to take later in the year.

Oh, also got to watch Dave continue his journey with FFVII. He fought the Turks - Reno <3 <3 - and got to Cosmo Canyon. Absolutely the best music in the whole game! And he now understands Robs references to 'lifestream' and why he's wearing a blue cape and dark glasses :D Lots of people in the chat got upset with his pronunciation of Nanaki - he said it differently to how I read it but at this point, who knows? So, he had a bit of a rant, which was probably the purpose of the comments because he is VERY easy to wind up :D 

Dave chose Barrett and Red XIII, and then Cait Sith, for his party, so in Gongaga he met Zack's parents but didn't understand the significance. With Aeris in the party, of course he'd have got more story. But as Rob pointed out, he has to play it his way, which is how we all first experienced FFVII back in the day. I still aim to get through my first playthrough of any game on my own - and if I do look up one or two things, it's after I've tried everything I can think of to get through. I certainly don't use a full walkthrough unless I do a second playthrough. And it's a VERY long time since I did a second playthrough of anything because there's so much new stuff to play!

When I replay FFXVI I won't bother with a walkthrough. I had no problem getting through it the first time and I'm not trophy hunting, so there's absolutely no need.

No Fenyx tonight, and probably not tomorrow, either - but I think there's football on Wednesday, so I'm hoping to finish off Aphrodite's section then.

An early night wouldn't be a bad thing. I got woken up at some ungodly hour by the police helicopter, which sounded as if it was hovering right over our house, then again at 4am by police sirens. A nice solid night would be lovely!