Tag Archives: Family

Shopping

The generosity of friends

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There are quite a few of our friends who are similarly prepping for the arrival of little ones at the moment. Inevitably they’re more organised than us and people tell us of the money they’ve spent at John Lewis, Mothercare et al, and with the prospect of the move imminent the costs ahead frankly are terrifying.

That said, a few friends have already been incredibly generous. Gifts have arrived in the post, been hand-transported from Texas, and tonight one colleague invited us around to raid his baby supplies – and we came away with a carload of awesome kit perfectly suited for Hippo’s arrival.

Hippo’s the first grandchild on either side of the family (there are a few grand nieces and nephews about, but not that many), so we’re the first ones to have to get this stuff since we were kids. So we’re unbelievably grateful to you all. Please, take a bow. And our thanks.

Dadblogging, Personal

Planning for Hippo

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10 weeks till I become a Dad. I’d be anxious if I wasn’t so busy getting stuff sorted. It’s weird, only a few years ago and I’d have thought this wasn’t something I could do, and yet here I am, more excited than I have been about pretty much anything in my life (with the exception of my wedding). My brother and sister and brother-in-law are getting used to the idea of becoming uncles and aunt. Our parents are getting used to the idea of becoming grandparents.

I’ve made endless spreadsheets of things we need to do and buy before the little one, code-named ‘Hippo’ until s/he arrives, which Amanda is doing her best to ignore (the spreadsheets, not the nickname – Amanda came up with that).

And we’ve had dozens of lovely conversations with interested friends and family about the new arrival. I’ll answer some of them here for you, beloved readers.

1. Do we know if it’s a boy or a girl?
No. We’re excited about the surprise, and would decorate neutrally anyway!
2. Have we discussed names?
Yes, we’ve started to, anyway. No final decisions taken as yet, except definitely *not* Hippo.
3. Are you telling?
No.
4. Are you going for the classes?
Yes, we’re doing the NCT classes in Basingstoke in a few weeks time.
5. Basingstoke?
Yep, we’re moving. S/he will be a Hampshire Hippo. I’ll still be commuting into London as I love my job.
6. Are you going to get any sleep when s/he arrives?
Probably not.
7. Will you go running with the child?
No. See this post.
8. Are you anxious?
As above, kind of too busy to be anxious. Recent experience babysitting my cousin tells me that I will be anxious, but as the Hippo’s Mormor (Danish for ‘mother’s mother’) will be 5 minutes away, we’re reassured that experienced wisdom is nearby.
9. Have you bought/chosen…?
Virtually nothing yet, except for the car (my fault). Our friends Farrah & Vik sent some lovely gifts and we’re getting some lovely offers from some of my Brands2Life colleagues for the kit you only need for the first three months. I am seeing the pram as yet another car purchase, but this one Amanda is leading. Advice on everything appreciated.

More fatherhood posts will ensue in the fullness of time; in the meantime if you’re interested in parenting blogs, my friend Ricky Bobby has started one over here.

Food

Christmas season cooking

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Updated: Select photos available here.

Inspired by too much Saturday Kitchen reading too many food blogs, a desire to reciprocate my mother-in-law’s amazing culinary generousity, and a bit more time than I should have, I collaborated with my brother-in-law James to create a three course meal for Amanda and Ulla between Christmas and New Year. After 6 hours of shopping and cooking, the courses were:

Roast butternut squash soup

Roast loin of pork with crunch crackling with a port gravy, served with
Roast potatoes
Stewed red cabbage with apple and red wine
Shredded and whole stir-fried brussel sprout leaves in a Vichy-style sauce
Golden-syrup glazed roast chanterey carrots

Stewed apples and blackberries with chewy meringues and vanilla ice-cream

It was a fairly spectacular meal and James and I had huge fun creating it – from traipsing up and down Portobello road sourcing all the ingredients (highlight; my not realising a butcher was halal and asking if he had a loin of pork… to be served with the friendly rejoinder “quick, shoot him!”), to managing multiple ovens in the house to get everything cooked on time, to James’ handy timing schedule.

Of course, given my affection for soup I thought I’d give you the low-down on Mr Worral Thompson’s soup recipe from the BBC’s food archives (btw, Pob (my friend who works on the BBC food site!) , if you’re reading this, your search still doesn’t work! I had to dig it up via Google!) — it is awesome. Whilst I’m not sure it was necessary to roast he butternut squash in multiple segments (halves would have worked and reduced cooking time) the final result of the soup was rich, sweet and savoury in one, perfect consistency and really, really moreish. Next time we make it, I might try adding some curry flavouring to add an exotic hint to a very British winter soup. Served with a “cheffy drizzle” of olive oil, this was a perfect winter warmer.

If you’re curious about the rest of the menu, let me know and I’ll write more!

Personal

Family blogging

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My Aunt has started blogging about her experience with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) – a terrible affliction she’s suffered with for many years.

Have also discovered that two of my cousins are writing great blogs. Here’s Shayna on puppies and life in KL, amongst other things, and Geets on her weight loss efforts and more.

Glad to see you online family, and really enjoying your posts. I’ll do my best to shout digital encouragement your way, very proud, impressed and pleased to be reading your (various) accounts.

Personal

Christmas Holiday Craziness

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Christmas has been amazingly busy so apologies for the lack of posting and hope you all had wonderful seasons and enjoyable new years. Some of the things filling my time:

1) Flights to and from Malaysia

2) Introducing Amanda to about 30 people in my extended family, another 20 in my extended extended family, about 20 additional family friends and a number of randoms and associates. She did amazingly well in overwhelming circumstances and I think mostly had a good time!

3) Visiting Taman Negara in Pahang, where we jungle walked, I spoke Malay to Orang Asli, and we stayed in the delightful Traveller’s Home.

4) Visiting Malacca for a dim-sum fest, travelling on a ferris wheel at the Malacca River Pirate Entertainment Park (consisting of four rides), an interrupted swimming session on the 9th floor of the Ramada Renaissance caused by a brief monsoon shower.

5) Reading: The Reluctant Fundamentalist, finishing the brilliant Bad Science and diving into the Inkheart trilogy, as well as devouring the brilliant ‘Invincible’ Ultimate Collection 1&2 which Arvind bought me for Christmas.

6) Saying “I’m Batman” a few times following Sheila and Dave’s purchase of a full Bat-costume for me for Christmas.

7) Shopping with Amanda for the ‘ring’ and learning from my Aunty Ann about the four Cs of diamond shopping.

8) Three days in the ‘honeymoon’ suite of a less good hotel in Pangkor, including a scenic tour of the Island, some slightly grotty beach, and the most awesome clamshell poolside showers. Flickr will soon have photos. Despite grottiness, was a lovely escape and involved driving down some wonderful plantation road and all the adrenaline that entails (overtaking the lorries involves finding a window and then accelerating into oncoming traffic).

9) A lot of food, including Roti Canai, Dim Sum, Cantonese & hokkien mee, peanut-free Satay, Bhatura, Dhosai, Appom (sp?), and even fish and chips and lamb chops for good measure.

10) Tourist visits to KL Tower, Central Market

11) Shopping visits to 1 Utama, KLCC

12) A lot of jetlag

13) A fantastic Christmas eve featuring the increasingly infamous hat game and the family’s first Secret Santa, a resounding success (I got a Superman Belt Buckle which I failed to work out was from Geets, but she didn’t clock that I’d given her Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker DVD either, so we were even)…

14) New Year’s Eve on Asian Heritage Row in Central KL

…and a great deal more. The first couple of days back have been characterised by jetlag, kitchen construction, a cold, and initial attempts to improve healthiness through swimming and resisting completely unhealthy food. This will be helped by the completion of the kitchen…

Anyway, if you want to know more on any of the above points, let me know and I’ll find some time to write further.

Post holiday email count: 960 in my work inbox, down to 560 after initial pass on Sunday and down to a mere 368 after a second pass early this morning. Fingers crossed for a sane January, but it seems doubtful!

Personal

Parents

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At some point, growing up, you turn against your parents in a small way. Or at least, I did — it felt occasionally a duty rather than a pleasure to see and hang out with them and a distraction from the every day business of going out with friends and generally tearing up the world.

Maybe I’ve matured, or its the stabilising influence and general inspiration of going out with Amanda, but over the last few weeks with my folks visiting, it’s just been amazing to hang out with them. My folks are talented, funny, interesting and brilliant (what else, I guess, would you expect when their progeny includes, well, me), and I’m pleased to have reached a point where I can enjoy and appreciate them as people, not just as their son. Of course, they’re not without their limitations but everyone is, and there genuinely feels to have been a change in me that I am more able to accept them (and others) as they are.

My Dad used to talk a lot about shifting your perspective when I was younger. Speccifically in the context of wasted food much of the time, or in addressing complaints that I was ‘starving’ (“Think of the children in Africa… are you really starving?”) — but something seems to have shifted recently. And it feels good.

Film

French Film

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Long time readers will know that whilst I work in the world of technology PR, my brother has a marginally more glamorous career – he’s a movie producer. His next film, French Film, should be out later this year and the website has just gone live here.

Starring Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill), Anne-Marie Duff, Eric Cantona (Manchester United) and Douglas Henshall (Primeval) amongst others, it is very, very entertaining and I hope you get a chance to see it, join the Facebook group etc. Definitely check out the trailer at the French Film website.