Remember, Remember (or don't)

I have a strange urge to hop on the old Velociped this morning and cycle around most of Suffolk. I don't know where this has suddenly come from. Maybe it's all the nervous energy coursing around my body as I await The Imminent Arrival. Maybe it's the fact that I haven't even looked at the bloody thing in months, much less sat on it or made it move through the power of my legs. Maybe it's the paunch around my waist that has started expanding as work has become quieter now and I have more time to pick at unhealthy snacks during the day. Whatever the reason, I have a good excuse not to act on the urges because I have a series of meetings today about setting up bits and bobs for Christmas. So that gets me off the hook a bit.

Philippa panicked last night because her little 'Baby Bag' had been moved. It's her little hiking rucksack that contains everything she will want to take to the hospital with her when her waters break, and Philippa being Philippa (and being an ultra-prepared type of person) it has been packed and ready to go since July. It has lived very close to our front door for the best part of three months, but last night it 'had gone' and induced such a strong, strange sort of mental meltdown in my wife that I'm amazed it didn't induce labour. It turned up in the kitchen about 3 minutes after she noticed it was missing, but in those 3 minutes she acted as if we were about to be nuked.
I think her mum had moved it when she did one of her 'helpful tidy-rounds' yesterday morning. I don't know why - and I hope this doesn't come across as sexist in any way - but all the women I know seem to deal with the late stages of pregnancy (in themselves, or others around them) by cleaning everything to within a millimetre of being transparent. 

I had a little lunchtime walk on the beach near work on Thursday. The waves were crashing and the wind was whipping along the sand. It was like being slapped in the face by Winter. October had been so mild that I had forgotten we're approaching the end of the year.  But it all popped into my head as I fought my way back to the footpath over the dunes, dressed completely inappropriately for a Winter walk in my office trousers and a thin jacket! And the main thought I had was - "Shit, another month and the Christmas tree goes up!!!!"

RC 5-11-22