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Posts Tagged ‘life’

  1. To the future

    April 30, 2011 by Amy Hansford

    As many of you know, I have a dislike for the phrase ‘grown up’. When we bought a house and when people found out we were having a baby, the same thing kept coming up; ‘Ah, you’re a proper grown up now…’. No, actually. I’m an adult, but I don’t wish to be a grown up. That would indicate that I have to behave myself and lose my sense of fun.

    It wasn’t until I saw this post by the wonderful XKCD.com a few years back that I would even entertain the phrase.

    So what does my age and current situation mean to me?
    It means I am comfortable with bumbling along. I have a child – I am now a mother. I have a silly sense of humour entertained by my brilliantly grounded friends. It means security without feeling tied up. Being able to combine sponteneity with family timetables. It also means, admittedly, that I’m no longer just thinking about my future, but that of Alex and Little L.

    I had a moment today. One of those flashes where everything suddenly seems terribly important and, dare I say it, grown up.
    I was holding Little L and looking out the window at the swan and her newly hatched today cygnets, enjoying the quiet time. I started thinking about the circle of life, moving alarmingly from the joy of birth and babies to the horrible truth of death. How at the age of 59 my mum was taken by Cancer, leaving me to cope with it all (but thankfully at an age old enough to sort myself out and with wonderfully strong people around me). How cruel that she would not get to live her life, do the things she wanted to do and see the things she wanted to see.

    Immediately following this I had a realisation – I could not bear for anything to happen to me that would result in Little L not having her mum. The absolute terror that one day I could get Cancer or something else and be taken away from her.

    I’ve been putting off having that regular lady test we all get every couple of years. I say ‘I’. It was more Little L’s influence. But after that lightening strike of a ponderation earlier, I think I’ll be making an appointment with the doctor soon. And making sure I’m exercising at least a bit. And taking my vitamins.

    I now accept a bit of grown uppedness – taking care of myself so that I can take care of everyone else. How about you?

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  2. May I present… Little L!

    April 6, 2011 by Amy Hansford

    Been a while, eh?

    Last time I blogged, our baby was pretty much due. But there was no exciting birth for a good while – after a week of contractions, I was taken into hospital for the big event, waving goodbye to the inflated (and HUGE) birthing pool in the comfort of our living room. Wednesday night on the labour ward floated by on a bed of Epiduralness, followed by one heck of a heave ho on Thursday morning. Two hours, a wealth of contraptions and a fiance’s fully squeezed hand later and Little L was born!

    Little L was born at 10.03am on Thursday 24th March 2011, weighing in at 7lb 4.5oz.

    We were allowed home on the Friday to start life as a new family; The Hansfords.

    It’s taken me this long to blog for obvious reasons – babies are incredibly tiring. They wake for feeds at 2-3 hourly intervals, and while you intend to nap when they nap you often find yourself catching up on chores instead, making you knackered. Additionally, I was pretty poorly after the event and it’s taken me until now to be able to operate as a normal, mobile human being. Alex (my partner) has been looking after Little L and I for the past fortnight – an absolute rock. He is an amazing man and – sorry ladies – he’s mine.

    At two weeks, Little L is getting used to life with her slightly silly parents. Alex’s dad jokes are coming into bloom, as are his gurning skills. I’m enjoying cuddles and building up the bond with Little L that I didn’t quite manage to forge in the early days.

    I will try not to make this blog entirely baby/child-centric. Normal people lead normal lives and have things to talk about. I’ve been encompassed by babyness and little else the past month, so that’s my subject area of knowledge. The more inane and odd topics will resume in due course, I’m sure. But until then…. awwww, ain’t she a cutie?

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  3. Sad Kitty

    February 15, 2011 by Amy Hansford

    Barney the kitten is not good at retracting his claws. At 6 months, you would have thought he’s got the hang of it by now, but no.
    Barney the kitten enjoys generally terrorising our cat Echo (who you may rememeber from here and here), mainly consisting of chasing her round, jumping on her, swiping at her face etc.
    Add the two togehter, and you end up with a violent kitten and a stressed out cat.

    Over the weekend, Barney the kitten quite literally got his claws into Echo and would not let go, leaving a little wound. She kept it clean – ‘fine,’ I thought. But with the wound getting bigger and sorer and the little shit kitten getting nastier and nastier, I had to take Echo to the vets this morning for an anti-biotics shot. She now has a shaven rump, is condemned to the Cone Of Shame for at least a week and is therefore a sad kitty.

    Echo carefully considers the cards that this cruel life has dealt her. And how to deal wih the evil kitten downstairs.

    So the dilemma continues. If Barney is like this with a cat which can (or should be able to) protect itself, what is Barney going to be like with a newborn baby?

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  4. Bump update

    January 24, 2011 by Amy Hansford

    I know I have a baby growing inside me, but which idiot gave it a crayon?

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  5. Tis the season…

    December 27, 2010 by Amy Hansford

    …to catch up with people and eat lovely food.

    Yep, I’ve been rubbish at blogging of late. I have all the usual excuses – pick the one you prefer.

    On Christmas Eve, we chauffered our friends Dee and Richard for their wedding. A Christmassy spectaular, with ‘Sleigh Ride’ as part of the service and balloon model reindeer on all the tables. It was a brilliant day, fantastic to see everyone and special to have been able to contibute a favour rather than a traditional wedding gift.

    Speaking of favours and gifts, every reception attendee was met with a goody bag. Lovely Christmassy bits in them, but I won’t spoil the secrets within.

    Another great bit of fun for the tables was the introduction of a ‘pass the parcel’ only with instructions on who should open the next layer rather than relying on music, i.e. the person with the smallest shoe size, the person with the shortest hair etc. I think our table pretty much trampled over everyone’s attempts at doing the loudest animal noise.

    Also, the wedding contained probably the best first dance I have ever seen. You’ve watched the videos of people dancing down the aisle, people re-enacting Dirty Dancing, people slow dancing only to break into Mc Hammer’s ‘You Can’t Touch This’. Rich and Dee not only acted out clips from at least 30 songs, they’d managed to construct it so as to tell the story of how they met. Brilliant.

    Rich and Dee’s first dance

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  6. My Sunday

    September 26, 2010 by Amy Hansford

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  7. Little Big News

    September 5, 2010 by Amy Hansford

    As I said before, I’ve not been posting here for a while. That’s because the things I wanted to post were so secret I had to post them somewhere else. But finally, our big secret is below. May we introduce Bump.

    That’s right, Alex and I are having a baby! Bump is due in March 2011 so while we have a long way to go, we are so pleased to finally be able to share our good news with everyone.

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  8. The Modern Office

    July 17, 2010 by Amy Hansford

    I love Asda’s outlook on life. According to the photo used to accompany their ‘Business’ shopping section, all you need to run a successful modern office is some soup, colouring pens, a Casio calculator and a good ol’ cup o’ Joe.

    Ah, the simple things in life :o )

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  9. When things go bump in the night II

    June 21, 2010 by Amy Hansford

    I first became aware of the ghost at The Lodge when I was about 15. My parents were at the pub for the night and I was relaxing in the house’s original bath tub. The door was open so I would be able to hear my stereo in the next room (this is 1996, pre iPod), so I was looking out into the hall way. Completely alone in the house, I enjoyed my music as I snuggled in the hot water.

    Without warning, I saw her.
    Baring in mind my position in the bath, I couldn’t see past the waist so I have no way of telling what was going on for that part of the body. But from the top, I saw a figure glide past the doorway facing in my direction. It was black with what seemed like a secton of white on the top, a faceless head with hair pulled back off from it. I say head – it was a blur given the speed it moved. But I felt, given the shape of the torso, that it was a woman.

    That was me getting out of the bath, running downstairs to the telephone and calling my mother. “Mum, please come home, there’s someone in the house!” For all I knew, it was an intruder and was no longer alone. My mother, knowing the history of the house and what it was that had interrupted my bathing, convinced me otherwise and suggested I get back to my relaxing soak. Slightly jittery, I returned to the tub, sunk back down and tried to put it out of my head.

    No sooner had I relaxed, she was back. Once again, she glided past the door. I say glided – there were no footsteps heard nor bobbing motion seen. Purely moving swiftly past the doorway, again going from right to left, once more looking in my direction. I’d had enough – there was someone… or something… in the house with me and I no longer wished to be alone. I rang my mother and begged her to come home. She came straight away, it being odd that the ghost should manifest itself so frequently on one occasion.

    So, who was the vision in black?

    A story for another time…

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  10. My beloved Facebook and me

    June 5, 2010 by Amy Hansford

    I am taking a Facebook holiday.

    There?s been a lot of talk lately regarding the privacy of Facebook. I?ve been tempted to follow the suit of others by deleting my account, but I know I wouldn?t be able to go that far. I would miss the interaction, the photos and keeping up with the latest events. Equally, there are people who DM me through Facebook whose emails I don?t have, so I would lose this communication line.
    While my Facebook account will remain active, I won?t be around so much.
    To a lesser extent, I’ll also be giving my Twitter feed a rest until everything’s out the way too.

    I am busy costuming ?Our House? for the Griffin Players. It?s taken up an immense amount of my time ? if I?m not working, I?m searching shops or surfing Ebay or (yes, it?s true) actually sewing to make theatre magic happen. I?ve found my emails are building up and my other projects suffering as a result, with my attentions turning to Facebook for relaxation in between crafting sessions. As an aside, it really is a cracking show. The Griffins sound amazing and I?m genuinely impressed at the rehearsals I get to. Definitely worth seeing, especially so if you like cheery musicals (we need them right now, right?)
    It?s on from 16th – 19th June at the Library Theatre in Luton. Friday/Saturday are nearly sold out, so phone the box office 07906 075455 for your tickets. And mine?s an orange and passionfruit J2O afterwards in the bar, thanks.

    Also, I?ve just started my new job! Well, I?ve been doing it as a temp for a couple of months. Having completed the interview process, it?s now official and comes with some extra responsibilities, so I?m finding myself working longer hours than normal. While 9am-6pm isn?t a patch on the old teaching hours of 7.30am-6.30pm, it?s tricky when I?m trying to do everything else at the same time!

    I feel for my poor websites ? www.ehos.co.uk really needs to be updated with all the great stuff going on with their production of Little Shop Of Horrors; www.awakey.com – well, the first update that?s had in a while will be this one; As If By Magic could do with a scrub up and pictures of the divine things we?ve been making recently, plus I?d love to be more active on our Twitter account, www.twitter.com/aibmcostumes.

    Don?t worry ? I have my Facebook set up so I will still receive your emails and messages, just to my inbox instead. But I may not know if you?re inviting me to an event (hey, occasionally, it happens) so give me a shout.

    * Extra props if you get the title reference

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