Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

Today I lost my wallet. Don’t know exactly where, but it is was somewhere between paying for Petrol at Donabate Garage and the Aldi store in Coolock; and I am royally angry – mostly at myself. I remember paying for petrol from the wallet; I remember being in the store in Aldi and thinking “where is my wallet” and being horrified that it wasn’t in my pocket. The real fustrating thing is that it wasn’t in the car either!!! so I either dropped it when getting into the car at the petrol station, getting out of the car at the Aldi shop – or I was pick-pocketed in the Aldi shop when I got there. In any event I have lost the wallet which contained 150 euro, my credit and ATM card, my Library card, my Automobile Association card and a nice picture of my daughter. I don’t really mind loosing the money, its the inconvience of it all and the thought “where the bloody hell did I loose the wallet”.

Naturally neither the Store or the petrol station had the wallet, so its down to the luck of the draw and some one handing it in with at the local police station – not that I am going to hold my breath at that likely hood. Anyway within 90 minutes I had cancelled my ATM and Credit cards, and I don’t keep my PIN numbers in the wallet (just my head) and my driving license in the wallet either; I am not too sure if Automobile Association card had my address on it – which would have been useful for “Identity Theft” reasons. But why does it take 14 working days to get a new card to me? And why do I feel so dumb. Such is life I suppose. It’s not that I havn’t lost my wallet before (twice to my memory), but everything is based around those little bloody pieces of plastic.

Maybe I will finally get an ATM/Laser card that will work in all shops – that will be something worth waiting for.

Its been just over a week since Maeve Grainne Leeson’s birth and both X and I are still totally enthralled by the cute bundle of joy that is our daughter. My wife and baby returned home last monday after 5 days in hospital, and the cycle of life is defined around feeds, burping and nappy changing. X has been taking the “night shift” sleeping a few hours in the morning and afternoon when she can.

So what have I found that I can pass onto other newborn fathers:

1. Babies can feed whilst asleep.
2. Always burp after a feed.
3. Get a Prince Lionheart bear which makes womb sounds which makes the baby go to sleep so much faster.
4. Be attentive to your wife – they have been through the mill giving birth so need some tender-loving-care.
5. Sleep when ever you can. Reminds me being back in the Army when were were in the field; you were so tired that if your platoon stopped for more than 10 minutes the first thing you did was to catch some sleep since you never knew when you would catch any more zeds.

Well its time to feed the baby

Its hard to believe, but at 43 I am a first-time father today. My wife gave birth to a 9lb 3oz beautiful red-haired, blue-eyed daughter at 14:15. Mom and baby are doing well – here are a few photos I took earlier; and already she hates the paparazzi

My old company Apple Computers have again come up with a jaw-dropping drooling piece of kit called the “Mac Pro” – Dual Quad Core Processors – thats 8 running at 3.2GHz!!!!! Gimme gimme gimme.

Well X and I would like to send a whole “Happy New Year” to all you net folks…I hope that the next year will be better than my last – I still find it hard to come to terms with the death of my beloved father last march. But there is not too much anyone can do about death is there…

Anyway onto a more positive note we are into the last week before our Baby is due. X, poor lass, is suffering from tiredness and back-ache (not surprising), and when the baby moves you can really feel it when you lay your hand on the bump. I think that the baby is taking after her mother in that she does not seem to be like me in as much as I am a “morning” person. The baby only seems to wake up in the late evening – pretty much like its mom.

Were so excited – although this is tempered by some anxiety in hoping that the baby will be “normal” and healthy. I will post more when the event happens.