Sunday 19 February 2012

The dreaded cold has struck! And other stuff

I am so glad to be sat at Chopper1 typing this post -- it's been a trying couple of days.

Operation De-clutter has sloooooowed right down as the Plate is virus-fighting and taking heavy fire. Poor bub. Usually, she's quite chipper despite a dribbly nose and a 60-a-day cough. But on Saturday,  she cried at the slightest bump and clung to me like a sucker fish that had been starved for weeks. So she spent most of that day asleep on me. I suppose with a nose like a leaking tap, possibly a pounding head and a sore bum, comfort was all that mattered and mummy's boobs were the best. Plus, I soaked up the snot2. Unfortunately, that meant that I too slept and was thus sleepless in Mepal at 3am on Sunday. But it was worth it - Plate was feeling much better today - especially after the two-hour nap this morning (which she had done only three times since she was born). However, that meant that we had got nothing done.

The delay was further compounded by the discovery that our washing machine had sprung a leak and our utility room was now a puddle. Albeit a fuzzy one3. The Men (FBB and Granddad A) braved the cold and managed to fix it -- luckily for us, it was just frozen pipes coming apart after the thaw, so easy to put back together again. FBB and I had nightmare visions of something broken inside the machine. Phew!

Sadly, FBB is also now bunged up, but is valiantly pressing on with Operation De-clutter along with an equally bunged up Granddad A who came down with Plate's cold a few days ago.

And I had this lovely post planned: what's in my nappy bag and a few words about my sling. I guess they would just have to wait till things have returned to normal transmission. Well, I say 'normal'...Anyway, I just wanted to share two TV pleasures4:Lie to Me on Pick TV (*ptui!*5) and Inspector Montalbano on BBC Four. 

My midweek pleasure is Lie To Me. It is simply superb and its excellence is mostly due to Tim Roth. He just draws you in and I can't help but be completely enthralled by his Lightman. The stories are not bad but its real strength is the characters and their relationships with each other. They make me care, dammit!

Saturday nights is the absorbing Inspector Montalbano (Il commissario Montalbano) an Italian detective drama set in a fictional city in Sicily. Again, character-driven with great performances all round. It is the usual maverick detective type show, but the difference is he's charming and likeable and his vice is good food (he forgets his girlfriend is arriving to visit for a plate of lobster!). There are spots of humour, plenty of Italian shruggings and geticulatings. But I like that there is none of the darkness that edge the British equivalents (the hero/heroine are nearly always hovering on the verge of depression)6.

In other news, the new Sainsbury's is quite beautiful in a stylish modern airport way. Yup, that was the highlight of our weekend. Exciting, huh?

Back to work tomorrow. Ayah.


1. Chopper is my MSI Wind Netbook. My iPod is called Plumbelina and FBB's is called Barney. I am so sad like that.

2. Yes, that really as disgusting as it sounds.

3. The stone floor is partially covered in carpet. As the room itself is not insulated, our toes are quite grateful for it.

4. Not so oddly, I now barely watch TV since I left the broadcasting industry. And since I've had Plate, there are whole days where the telly has not been on at all. Shocking.

5. Pick TV is a Sky channel and its 'shop window' on Freeview. The idea is to try to get Freeviewers to convert to Sky so that they can watch excellent shows like Lie to Me. Sky is EVIL. Don't fall for it.

6. Which is not a bad thing. It's what makes British crime dramas so good!

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