Junior Gammons!

A more usual post.

2012-01-29T09:03:00.000+03:00

Here you go - this post is a bit less self-indulgent, and more of what a post on a family blog should be, I think!

E is a smiler! She is very quick to crack a gummy grin, and smile up at us. It makes it easier to get up at 3am when you know that she's going to be be looking up at you like this. (Sorry for the flash of M's nursing bra in the background of this one)!

And Louis is more of a smiler than most pics of him suggest! Here he is in his wendy house, rocking some good mosquito bites on the forehead! (The hoodie came from Todd & Kara, and is a good fit - he likes it.)

E has interesting poo-ing habits - nothing for ages, then.... Well, last night, she did a poo.... I... I don't know how to.... It was... impressive! We'd just put Louis down, E produced a poo that required the changing of her nappy, her onsie, her sleeping bag and her blanket! We just (well, I say 'we') stripped her and threw her in the bath! She's still not the biggest fans of baths, but she's getting better, and quite enjoyed this one. Again (and I'm saying this a lot at the moment!) despite what the photo seems to show!

Then out, wrapped, warm, dressed, and snuggly again.

And this last pic was meant to be a smiling pic, but at the last minute, it turned into a yawn! Ah, well.

Thanks for looking.

Odds and sods.

2012-01-29T08:39:00.001+03:00

A real hotch-potch here. No real theme, no thread, just some accumulated pictures from the past week. There will be a better post along soon, with some nicer pics of the kids, but until then, you're stuck with this!

Went shopping with Louis to LuLus - it seemed appropriate. He's happy when he's running around a department store - he's a born consumer. But we also found him one of the car-trollies. His first ride around in one, and I think he enjoyed it, though it's hard to tell from the pics sometimes. (Louis continues to be a happy boy who takes fairly serious photos. Not sure what the solution to this is, if even a solution is needed! But it's worth bearing in mind that he's usually happier than the camera lets on!)

I put this sticker on the wall in the staff gents last week, and no one has followed the instructions.

Louis watching a bit of TV. He still crosses his legs at all opportunities. (He loves those socks, but they don't half leave a lot of fluff between his toes!)

Some magnetic fridge poetry for parents.

Milly with E, although E looks a little stunned here, too - clearly taking classes from her brother!

It was Countries Day at nursery last week, and M sweated blood making this Union Jack top for Louis to wear, and this is the only pic we have of it! Sorry, babe! Short of dressing him up as a football hooligan or a beefeater, I don't think there's a British national dress.

Louis playing outside. He's a big fan of the outdoor space, and we're so pleased to have some for him. It may be tiled, rather than grassed, but there is room for him to run about, and he love being outside.

As do I.

Like I said, a hotch-potch. The next post will be a bit more usual!

Getting bigger.

2012-01-24T13:59:00.003+03:00

I may come back and edit this post at a later date - I'm writing it at work, and am bound to miss some stuff off!

E continues to grow, and is doing well. She's a smiler! She is very quick to crack a proper open-mouthed, gummy grin. It's not wind, it's a proper smile! She's still happier to sleep during the day rather than at night, which is a little tiring. Many's the night recently when I've gone to bed at about 10, Milly's followed my in at about midnight, or one am, after settling E., and then we've been woken up at about 2! Hard work - I'm trying to help as much as I can, but Michelle has this idea that it's her job, and I haven't got the energy at argue at 2am (usually...!)

You can tell from the orientation of these photos that they are mainly iPhone pics, but they're good enough! Here's one of Louis that I took at the local Woqod petrol station - we'd gone to get a regulator for a BBQ that I built, and Louis discovered the joys of automatic doors!

The BBQ has been given one trial run, and we're holding a coming out party for it on Thursday night - we've got some people coming over for some food, so I get to stand in the yard, fumigating myself. I did the booze souq yesterday so that there is plenty of sausages and beer!

Louis in the bath, for no reason other than that he likes being in the bath! He's growing nicely - he's about the same weight as he was 5 months ago, but is taller, and thinner, and is now fitting trousers that were too tight 6 months ago. (Like his dad!)

These remaining pics are from a photo session that was a gift from Chad & Heather, Nigel & Jana, and Don & Krisz. Thanks very much, folks! The session was a bit hard work - E wouldn't settle, and L started to get bored after a bit, of course! But Jessica the photographer did a good job with the small number of shots we ended up taking. Here are some of the pics, it not all.

Like the eyes here, although the fist towards the camera is a little threatening!

Milly was gutted that she forgot to remove her glasses.

Look at this - in the 1980s, this pic would have been published by Athena, and I'd be rich.

M's hands, E's feet.

Ole´.

We ended up with some very nice pics, and we're really pleased with them!

More scenes and snapshots.

2012-01-16T11:22:00.000+03:00

This post is just a mix of old-ish pics, snapshots, and moments - I've said before, I think, that this blog is just a collections of moments, each frozen by the camera. But our lives are made up of these little moments, like a digital picture is made up of single pixels or dots. And if you have enough of the dots, the big picture becomes clear. So, here are some more dots. :)

It's getting warmer in the mornings, but it's still cold leaving the house at 6am, especially when (like me) you're wearing nylon swimming trunks and a teeshirt! But there are consolations. The sky can be beautiful. This is the view up the street in our compound.

The hardest part of my day is at about 6.05am - I'll be sat in the Rec Centre car-park, the car's heaters will have warmed up, and I'll have to pluck up the courage to get out of the car into the morning air for the brief run to the pool! It's harder to do that than to get into the pool 2mins later! I'm swimming about half a mile now in the mornings, that's about 800m, but I'm slow - it takes me about 25mins, and that's all I have time for before getting ready for work. (I like to think that I could do more if I had time. Good job I don't have more time, eh?) And then I'm showered, dressed, and the sky has changed, and the day has started. (The moon is in the middle of that pics, somewhere...)

I grabbed all the pics from one of our cameras the other day, and found these! Lalaine does a wonderful job of looking after the two. Well, she actually does a pretty good job looking after the four of us, really! But if Milly's having a snooze (after a hard night Lion-wrangling) and Louis is not at nursery, then she has her hands full. Sometimes she'll make sure that Louis has his morning nap downstairs so that she can keep an eye on him. Here he is getting ready, with E.

And enjoying a snooze. Lucky Monkey.

We've got so many clothes for E, especially! We've been so lucky with the things we've been given, gifts from friends, family. We've enough clothes to start an orphanage! Some are already too small, some are Louis old things, so we'll keep, and others we'll either give away to other new parents, or sell. Here's E in a lovely dress and cardie - Milly could tell me who gave this to us, but I can't, sorry. But if it was you, then thank you!

But I know that this cardie was knitted by Aunty Jean - thanks for taking the time!

Here's the cardie out on a trip last Saturday morning. Louis loves diggers. I mean, he loves them - 'digger' was his first proper two syllable word! (We didn't teach him - I think he must have picked it up at nursery, where there's some construction work just across the road. Of course there is - this is Doha!)

So Saturday morning, he grabs my hand, 'Digger!', very insistent, so off we go to find some diggers. He's still wearing his jimmies in this pic!

Lost my chronology here, but never mind. Thursday night I too Milly out for her birthday to The Belgian Bar. It's a bit smokey, and a bit loud, but it does a good impression of not being in Doha - lots of beers on tap, good food, steak-frites. We had a good night, although we were shouting at each other by the end of the night! (Just re-reading this, and proof reading, that sounds wrong - we didn't have a fight! I mean that it was noise, and we had to shout to be heard! That's all! I really had to get out of the bar to get quiet enough to call a taxi!)

They do a nice pint of Leffe. Three of those and I'm pretty relaxed!

(You can just see M's Christmas pressie in these two pics, but I'll take a better shot of it, and talk about it in a future post, I think!)

We don't let Louis watch too much TV (I hope) but he does like a bit of Jungle Junction. (It took Alan B. about a week here in Qatar before he was saying, 'Louis! It's Jungle Junction!') And The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Oh, and Bob the Builder, and the American version Handy Manny. And Thomas The Tank Engine. OK, maybe he does watch too much! When Milly's with him, he tends to sit with her, but otherwise, he bellys up to the footstool, and gives it his full attention.

Took E to be weighed again on Friday - we've not been as regimented with our weighing as we were with Louis, I guess our lives are a little more complicated this time round! But here she is at about seven weeks, and a healthy 5.1kg. (11lbs 4oz in old money.)

And finally, we have a routine, Louis and I, when we go to LuLus. In through the door, straight to the Health Centre, through the door, hello to the nurses. (That's my boy, into nurses already.) Then to the Tiny Tikes play set, run about all over it shrieking with laughter. Then down the slide, into a trolley, up the lifts, say hi to everyone and out to flirt with Joy at the Coffee Shop. But that routine has recently been interrupted as he's noticed the kitchen set under the escalator. He's a very domestic Monkey.

That's all for today, another set of dots, some more pixels soon.

(A quick edit to say that this has been the blog's 250th post!)

Moving house.

2012-01-14T20:46:00.002+03:00

Getting in touch with my feminine side here, I hope - more pics of the girls, fewer of the boys! So, let's start with a happy face.

E went through a bit of a tricky week last week - really nocturnal, and not settling at all at night, which proved tiring for M (who takes most of the night shifts). But this week has been better - we've been keeping her awake more during the day, and it's paying dividends. She's usually pretty good - she'll stay where you put her, and just chill out. She's a little more sicky that Louis was - wet burps mainly, but certainly more sicky.

We tried getting her to sleep in her car seat once or twice (you parents know what it's like, you'll try anything!) In the seat, she's usually like this.

But sometimes like this.

We all went over the Allison & Mark's the other weekend - I think I said. Louis is becoming a bit of a fan of cats - he was willing to share his dragon!

(I found this photo on the camera - it must be from that trip out, as we haven't get a builder's helmet!)

But can you see the plastic house in the background? Thanks folks - they gave it to us!

It took Mark & I an hour to break it down, than at least another hour to wash it back home, and re-assemble it. But it was worth it - he really likes it! (Can you tell?)

Moving his furniture around.

This is E on the scales last week, so what's that? Six weeks old? Good girl.

And here are Louis' shins - he must really knock them about at nursery, and running about the house. But he never complains.

And a final shot from Pizza Express. I said there would be more of the wife here! And I've still not shown you all what I got her for Christmas!

More to come soon!

Snakes & monkeys.

2012-01-11T10:45:00.000+03:00

I am very aware that this blog tends to focus more on the boys in the family than the girls, and I apologise for that. I will do what I can over the next few posts to redress the balance! And in that spirit, here's a lovely one of three quarters of our family. Louis continues to be a good big brother - Ellie was crying the other day, and when we got to her, Louis had already put his toy digger on her head. (That's a positive thing! He loves his digger, therefore...)

A couple of these pics are from immediately post-Christmas - I'm still mopping up the various cameras we use! M's parents bought Louis a Monkey costume for Christmas. We kept it in the bag for a bit - at the last music class before the break, Louis had really been unsure when the class leader got a monkey puppet out of a bag as if it were alive, and we didn't want to freak him out with a Monkey bigger that him! In the end, he wasn't really freaked, more... mildly disgusted with the whole thing!

Pictured here infront of his new trike - he loves it, and cycles round the block (or at least, is pushed...) (Don't worry - we don't let Louis leave the house dressed like that!)

Elizabeth's been a bit of a handful recently - she's always been nocturnal, but last week it reached a bit of crescendo of up all night, needing someone with her. (We might have turned a bit of a corner recently, will report back soon.) I took the following photo at about 4am, just after relieving M from her (much longer) shift. (M is taking the Lion's share at the moment, and I'm trying to bully her into letting me help, with limited success.) But when she smiles at you like this, it's all worth it. Even if it's gas.

What's new in Louis Land? Wellies!

Running around outside like an idiot!

And washing his hands! I think this is from Lalaine, it's certainly not from M or I! He has a little stool, and he drags it up to the sink. He's got the hang of the two-way tap (he got it faster than Michelle's mum did!), and he splashes in the water, washes, then dries. It's pretty cute.

M took Louis out last week for Dan-Dan's second birthday, with Helly, and Kane & his son Keegan. They went to Gondolania at Villagio, and by all accounts, Louis had a blast, running around like a banshee, shreiking and laughing. Good.

Doesn't he look old in this pic?

Quick artistic pic of Louis at fairy godmother Allison's backyard. (More on this later.) (This post is starting to feel like one big tease - lots of trailers for coming attractions!)

Last thing for today - I took Louis out to grab a burger for a weekend lunch treat. We were sitting there, minding our own business, when a young local lad came in and dropped a snake on me! Good job I'm not phobic! The lad ordered his ice-cream, and I introduced Louis to his first snake! (Baby anaconda for those of you interested.)

He was cool - he's seen them in books, and in The Jungle Book, so he know's the score. Look at the prod he's giving it! Poor snake!

Oh, and I got this email this morning. We only planned to stay for a couple of years!

Twelve years, and Doha can still surprise.

Christmas (posts) comes twice a year!

2012-01-02T21:20:00.002+03:00

Second Christmas Day post here, at least, mostly! We had a lovely day, and the table was laid. We had a pork joint, chickens from Flower Cafeteria, lots of roast spuds & parsnips, turkey gravy - a proper meal. Of, and crackers, and table presents from the Blackbands! The only thing missing was other people! (Oh, and this is another post with little about Elizabeth. Or Ellie. We might start calling her Ellie, as Louis, despite inundating him with monkeys since he was born, Louis is fixated on elephants at the moment! In books, at Landmark, on the telly - any ellie gets a reaction!)

After the meal, Louis and I went out to feed the cat. We took his car. Santa's little helper.

And played with the cat for a while. The first thing that I do when I go in is sit with the cat, and rub behind his ears for a bit. Louis gets impatient at this, and drags me over to the cupboard with the cat food in, or even grabs the bag of food for me - we've clearly got a job to do!

I don't know how this next one ended up here - I was clearly getting bored waiting for Louis to finish his splashing! The duck on my head spoils the threatening aspect, I think!

Louis and I have been out a few times recently without M - Milly is up late with Ellie, giving her a feed at about 10pm, and settling her, usually until about midnight, so she's tired, and grabbing a nap during the day. So a couple of pics of Louis out and about! (Oh, this first one is from Milly & I taking Louis to Biella for a bit of lunch.)

At Villagio. (David M. says that this is Louis Zoolander look - his Blue Steel, or Magnum. A joke lost to those of you who haven't seen the film.)

He's a good looking chap, and he wears clothes well.

A nice random pic that M took. (Oh, and there will be more pics of Milly in the next post too, I promise!)

And Ellie continues to grow. Here's the pic from five weeks. She's a good girl.

Christmas Day!

2012-01-01T21:57:00.001+03:00

And to Christmas day! It started properly with bacon & sausage sandwiches with Bucks Fizz. Of course!

Louis had helped finish off the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve - we kept forgetting to put the fairy on the top!

Louis will show off his belly if asked, and seemed fascinated by my belly button - sorry to subject you all to this when you're expecting a Christmas post!

Where were we? Of, Christmas morning! Louis is getting better at playing by himself, and does enjoy making a mess. Blocks, building bricks, shoes - anything that starts off in a neat pile will soon get spread about the district. Thanks, Louis! (He certainly is a Qatari baby at the moment - he loves sparkly lights, diggers & cars.)

Alan & Marg bought him a Cozy Coupe for Christmas - more stuff for me to assemble! Louis loves playing with them at nursery, and has loved having one for himself! Here he is, unwrapping. No excitement yet...

And during assembly - thanks for the help, Louis.

Nearly finished - just a couple of screws to hold the roof rails to go!

Where was Elizabeth in all this? Sleeping like a baby, appropriately enough! She was wonderful all day, giving us time to play with Louis, and to go out for chickens (our turkey substitute for the day) and to eat & drink. Both the Junior Gammons were wonderful.

Although Louis was less than thrilled to be dressed up as Santa!

BRB, deliveries to make.

This next photo was earlier. Every time I go for a coffee at LuLus Express, Louis grabs the mini-pushchair and has a push - he copies us more than we know, I'm sure! So we bought him one, and here it is, with a special passenger!

And finally for this post, a special present. Marc B got Emily, the daughter of his squeeze, Helen, to paint this. It's from a picture that Jack took this summer, when we three, plus Alan & Marg, were out for fish and chips in Warwick. So that's a lot of people represented in the gift! We're really pleased with it - we just have to decide where to put it now!

More soon!

Proper pics.

2011-12-27T16:19:00.000+03:00

This was going to be the Christmas post, but we've just this morning picked up the photos from Bella Bambino. Here's a small selection of the pics that Dana took of us all. Hope you like them. (The last one is not quite to our taste, but I included it because the famous stuffed cat is in it!) Hope you like them - we do.

Santa!

2011-12-26T22:02:00.002+03:00

Third post for the day! And the last of the pre-Chritmas round up. As with the last two, this is just a dump from my photo collection!

The trip to see Santa was more successful than last year! That is, Louis didn't burst into tears! We went to the Ritz, and saw their gingerbread house, and Louis sat on Santa's knee. Much mutual suspicion in the second pic, I think.

I'm glad so many of you have seen Louis 'live' and in the flesh, as it were - in these pics he often looks grumpy or out of sorts. He really is a smiley boy. (Sorry about how big my ears look here. I think that the camera has added 10lbs. To my ears.)

Louis in the bath. (This caption was written by Captain Obvious.)

DMac has this thing for moons, and they've been showing up a lot this past couple of weeks. First Louis comes home from nursery with one, then there's on on the wall of the play room at Bennigans. It's a sign (that I should drop my trousers.)

Like a weed.

Big shopping day on Christmas Eve. Off to a very odd mall (Parco Mall, for you locals) to check up on some pics we'd had done. It was odd for several small reasons.

- I got QR4000 from an ATM. In QR50 bills?

- it was deserted. How do these things survive?

- there was an interaction between a pedestrian and a car's occupants in the car park that looked odd. If I were in England, I'd say it was a drug deal.

- the food court was almost deserted, and was genuinely only serving member of staff from the mall. We'd been there 10 minutes when we realised that wasn't all, the food court was only serving food to staff members form the food places in the food court!

- the kids play area had a game, a gun game, where you took pot shots at a pirate. Good to see them keeping up with the times - what's wrong with Captain Jack Sparrow?!

Louis looking suspicious...

Then off to Toys-R-Us to test-drive some trikes. (I'm glad my keyboard can't do the horrible backwards letters that the store uses for its sign.)

Then off to the souqs to pick up M's Christmas pressie - more on that later! louis liked it. There were some police horses, and he got to say hello.

A very busy day, but very satisfying, and full. Next post - Christmas Day!

Cars & cattes.

2011-12-26T21:27:00.000+03:00

Second post for the night! More pre-Christmas pics here, in no particular order!

Louis came back from nursery last week with his driving licence! They'd been doing road safety, and I guess he passed!

A little pre-Christmas shopping. (You can't see the black carrier bags in this shot, but they were full of sausage and bacon!)

Louis & I have been looking after Lynette's cat for the holiday. Well, Lynette paid Lalaine to do it, but I've been here more than she has recently! (We gave Lalaine a few extra days off for Christmas and her birthday.)

I've not been converted to cats from dogs, but he's a good cat. He's a big cat, and very tactile & friendly, and a bit shy of kids. Louis has been getting better and better with him, and now comes up to him to stroke his back. It's been good for both of them.

A good catte.

It was National Day on the 19th, and the guy near us with the nice cars had had them all polished up specially! He had some lovely vintage Mercedes, some nice American metal, plus these old pickups.

And a last little one of Louis at the Pearl - we were waiting for Elizabeth to go to sleep so that she could have her photos taken! The fruits of that later! Lots of running about, up and down the lifts.

More soon!

Pre-Christmas stuff!

2011-12-26T20:23:00.001+03:00

Right - it's about 10 days since the last post, sorry! So here's a catch up - loads of pics, with little captions, rather than a long narrative! Hope that's ok!

Big news is that Elizabeth continues to grow, and eat and (usually!) sleep! She's quite nocturnal. (In fact, a couple of nights ago, she kept one or the other of us (we take it in shifts!) until 4am!) But she's lovely. But last night, she did seven hours between feeds, and she was wonderful on Christmas day, chilling out and letting us prep the meal, then enjoy the meal!

Louis continues to be the best brother! He's really caring, and looks after Elizabeth wonderfully. He'll kiss her forehead at the end of the day, and is just lovely. Here he is with Kara.

And here's Elizabeth with Alison and Marie.

We feel really bad - we aren't bathing E as much as much as we did L! But we are managing it, and Louis helps, too!

She's growing, too - this pic is at three weeks, I think, so that's a good 200gm over the birth weight.

Oh - a random photo here, not related to anything. Louis eating a slice of lemon! He loves it - he pulls a little face when eating it, but carries on happily!

A couple of weeks ago, M and I had a lovely afternoon out. Kevin Spacey was in Doha, performing in Richard III, directed by Sam Mendes - quite a pedigree! It was amazing. It was staged in the QNCC - the big building on campus that looks like a tree/exhaust manifold/lungs! We had seats up in the circle, but had a good view. The performance was great - a little hammy, but well done. Nice music & percussion. Here's M looking at the...

...spider! It's by the same artist who did one for the Tate modern. ("That looks good - we'll have one!", someone must have said!)

And finally for this post, the tree! Louis loved playing with the box it came in, of course, but we really enjoyed putting it up, and it happily glows in the corner of our lounge.

More soon!

Bye bye, Grandparents.

2011-12-13T14:15:00.000+03:00

Last few pics from the grandparents' visit. Or at least, three of the four! Sorry, dad! We've snapped some pics for posterity, so here's the Monkey & Lion with two Grandmothers. Look at that belly. (On Louis, I mean!)

And three generations. Two Blackbands and a Gammon, sorry folks!

Another from the photo studio - I know Louis is good looking, but I think Dana used his pics for about four or five things on display!

This jumper came from Aunty Jean - it's lovely, and fits Louis really well. Should keep him warm for the coming winter months!

Seems to be a lot of Louis pics here - maybe it just balances out the recent Betty-centred ones. Looking worried here, son?

He came back from nursery the other day with... this. Bit terrifying! I don't think it's a self-portrait. Or even a portrait!

One of the last meals with the olds was a slutty burger & fries at Johnny Rockets. Louis loved the strawberry milkshake. Of course!

And the last job we roped Marg into doing was making a trifle - M loves trifle, and it'll keep her going for a while. Alan had to stand by with a torch, as the bulbs in the kitchen keep going out! We'll let her bring her Davy lamp next time.

So, they've gone, we're sad. We have the house to ourselves, but would rather that it were filled with people, as it has been for the past few weeks. Thanks to everyone for coming over, and for the lovely emails you all sent on your return to the UK. It's been a great month, now to get the Christmas tree up and enjoy the next month too!

Dangerous driving.

2011-12-12T11:59:00.001+03:00

Lots of pics here, lots to get through, so let's get started!

It's still a novelty to have two children in the house! We keep forgetting that Elizabeth's around, or in the car, and we startle when she makes a noise! Fortunately, Louis is always about to remind us - if Elizabeth cries, he gets up, and says 'bebe!', grabs a hand and takes us to her to check her out, make sure everything's OK. He's a good big brother already! (He'll stroke her head, and kiss her, too. Enough to make an old cynic like me crack!)

Elizabeth continues her good progress - she's growing, and is pretty much up to her birth weight again, which is good. We're trying to get into the habit of weighing her each Thursday - it's something we did for the first months of Louis' life, too.

Saw a good car crash last week! On the way to work, at about 6am, I had to double back and take a couple of pictures. It's a rare and pretty Ford GT, or at least, it was! It had spun on the other side of the road, and come over the centre, ripping out the sump, and making a mess. Poor car, it was in a showroom as week before the crash. (PS - really happy with the quality of the pics on my new iPhone 4s! Really good.)

Had a nice night out at the Souqs with three grandparents. My mum had a nice run around all the fabric shops, and we all hit the ByeBye cafeteria for shwama and chips with fruit juices. The life, eh? Elizabeth was a good girl, and seemed to be entirely non-plussed by the whole thing!

Note the natty knitted hat from my mum! A genuine Joy Gammon design!

Took another paternity day on Thursday last - we all (well, not Louis, sorry son!) went the The W Hotel for lunch, and had a really good time. Good food (as usual), good company (as usual). After the meal I took my mum to pick up Louis from nursery. He had to pause on the way out to play with the Cozy Coupe - I think I know what he's getting for Christmas! (He enjoys it far more than this picture suggests!)

Saturday afternoon, M & I took Louis out to the playground on Lot 2. Lots of sitting in toy cars, lots of hanging from things, sliding down things. I know it's a drive away (or a good walk!) but it's the best playground in town, and it's local, and free!

Elizabeth is a little nocturnal at the moment, which is a bit tiring. Actually it's more tiring arguing with M over who gets to do the night feed. Oh, and we both want to, to help the other, rather than neither of us wanting to! (I woke up this morning at 5.15am for work, and was on my own. M had fallen asleep in the chair on the landing with Elizabeth in her arms. I should pad the floor a little incase she falls off!)

But she's easy to love.

Lots of expressions on her face, just like Louis used to have, although I'm sure she's not in control of them!

Posted this next one on Facebook, saying that it's a yawn, not a cry, and a friend say 'It's a roar!' Yes, it is, she's a proper little lion.

More photos next post, including more of the grandparents!

Lists.

2011-12-04T09:45:00.001+03:00

After the last post, which was quite Elizabeth-heavy, here's some stuff about Louis.

Our visitors (that is, Marg & Alan, and my mum, Joy) have all noticed that he's come on in leaps & bounds since the summer when they last saw him. We've noticed, M and I, and we see him every day, so it must be noticeable! So last night, as we were sat around the table, I asked them for a list of new things that he's doing, so that we'd have a record of them! And here's what we came up with (interspersed with pics of course!)

He's much better on his pins. He runs about, and is working on jumping, although he doesn't leave the ground!
He ate some mashed pears with a spoon yesterday, which was messy, but cool!
His talking is coming along nicely - he'll babble or scribble whole sentences, and really likes being sat with a magazine or newspaper on his lap. He'll read along and chat with himself. He'll sing, too, and he's already more musical than his mother.

He'll play happily on his own more now. He'll hide in his tent in the lounge, and just... well, lounge!
If he's got a coat or cloth in his hands, he'll flap it in imitation of Lalaine doing the laundry!
He recognises animals quite well - elephants especially, but also snakes (both are on the walls of his tent). He loves the big ellies at Landmark, and can find his own way to them from any entrance. Which is more than my mum can do, with her sense of direction.
He's starting to look left handed. Interesting - wonder where that comes from?
'Who's a good boy?' 'Me!' and he points to himself!

(The above pic was taken by M on Friday morning at the clubhouse, and I love it. He's got a couple of my mum's bracelets on his ankles. Good photo, mate.)

We were reading him a story in the lounge the other day (I forget who was on book duty) but Louis was asked 'Where's the snake?' (there was one in the book!) He jumped down from the sofa, grabbed Marg's finger and dragged her over to the tent, and pointed to the snake on the tent wall. Clever boy!
If you ask him where his nose is, he more than points to it - he puts a finger up it!
He pedals his bike, and kicks his ball, and spins round on the spot then wonders why he falls over.

(A worried looking Monkey, as always! He doesn't always look like this, only when the cameras are produced!)

He's trying out being naughty. Ask him not to do something, and he'll go all coy, looking over his shoulder at you as he continues to do it. Just to test, you know!
He says please if we ask him to, and said sorry to Dan R once, on demand, but he meant that a little less!
He's quite helpful in fetching and picking things.
And most importantly, he's lovely with Elizabeth, soft & gentle. If she cries, he tells us 'Baba!', and rushes to see what's up. He strokes her head, pushes the pram about with her in. Good boy.

That's about all for now, I think. It's a constant delight to see him grow.

(I am very aware that Louis has seen a change in the way that the house works, and we act (all of us, including Lalaine) around him since Elizabeth, and we're of course trying to minimise the changes. He's getting lots of love and attention, enough, I hope! And I'm also aware that this blog will need to be balanced, to cover all of our lives, even though it was originally started to be about Louis. It (the blog) will be around for years, I know, and both Louis & Elizabeth will grow old enough to read it, and I want them both to know that they are both wonderfully special to us, and that this is about both of them! And Louis needs to know that he was so cool that we thought we'd try to have another one just like him, and that's Elizabeth!)

Friday was at the Club House - we nearly had the place to ourselves, just Mike Bowe spoiling it! We let someone else cook, and had a great breakfast, and Louis had a good play on the playground equipment. Lovely. The water was wonderfully blue. If his cough has cleared up, I'll chuck him in next time! (As I type, I think that the olds have gone for a swim - we'll see if they went through with it later!)

A&M at the clubhouse.

That night I saw a tuk-tuk outside LuLus! Why? No matter, it was a nice reminder of Thailand.

Saturday was busy - we took Elizabeth and Louis to the photographer Dana - she did the two sessions for Louis when he was new born, and one year old. It was lovely to see that Louis' pics were good enough to hang in the gallery in the store! He's changed, of course, hasn't he?

That night was a nice quiet cold meal for M's birthday - champagne & cheese & biscuits. Oh, and a cake that my mum made!

Elizabeth continues to fill out, and looks better and better. She's a hairy little Lion, look at this mane!

The last three pics are from M's iPhone, and are a little older than the rest on this post. A first day pic.

M showing the poor standards she had to put up with at Hamad.

Little Lion.

Baths & beyond.

2011-12-03T21:18:00.001+03:00

A quick Elizabeth post here, before the next monster Louis post to come!

We've finally bitten the bullet and given Elizabeth her first bath at home! It was the usual howling experience, but not as noisy as Louis was two years ago! (All in all, Beth seems to be a little quieter than Louis. We'll see how long that lasts! I know comparisons are unfair to both, but Louis is our only frame of reference!)

Many of these photos are a little blurred, as my mum was on the shutter-bug duties, but you'll get the idea! Betty's little belly button thing has now fallen off, but is here in this pic. (The whole event was completed in double time - it'll be nice when she starts to enjoy these baths.)

And out of the bath, all wrapped up! Don't know what's going on in the background here!

And finally back into warm clothes.

As I type, the olds and M are playing cards, arguing about the rules, and shouting at each other! I'm hiding behind the screen of my Mac, and enjoying a little time to myself! I'm catching up here - it's been a busy couple of days, and the posts to come will show that! But for now, here's a pic of the 'Mary-Jane' shoes on Eliza's feet - I've no idea what that means, I'm just typing what M says!

We weighed Lisbeth on the Thursday - it was a habit that we had with Louis and it's one we'll keep up for a bit, I think. She'd lost 200g, which is fine, and we'll be looking forward to her gaining weight soon! (Note the socks on her hands as scratch mitts.)

She continues to be a cutie, and is looking less wrinkled as the days pass!

I don't think I won anything for my moustache (apart from the ridicule and derision of those I thought loved me), but I raised QR300 for charity, and it seemed to give Barie S. a hot flush!

One last Louis pic - he's wearing the cardie that Marc bought him for his birthday. My mum says that this kind of knitwear is very 'on-trend'. I think I'm adopted.

More soon!

Clippity clop

2011-11-30T11:08:00.001+03:00

Home again, home again. It's Wednesday, and Elizabeth's been home now for two nights! First one was a little rough, last night a bit better - both involved several hours of up and feeding, but M's been a brick, and taken all the hard work. (In fact, we've all started to tell her off for working too hard! We'll see if she takes any notice!) But Monday after work, I raced home, picked up A&M, and raced to Hamad where M was grinding her teeth in eagerness to get out! (I'm really looking forward to getting rid of the moustache!)

Elizabeth was all wrapped up, ready to go. Beth was all wrapped up. Libby was... Liz? Betty? (Thanks to Don for that one!)

All safe & sound in the car seat. (It still amazes me how some people carry their newborns from the hospital, and just sit in the car seat themselves, holding their new arrival. It gives me the willies.)

And home safely to Louis. We brought Louis a big yellow Tonka truck as a gift from Beth, and he likes dragging it around the apartment. (It has to be around the apartment, as the weather's been awful for the past few days!) Hello, big brother.

And into the Moses basket for a snooze! So far she's been pretty nocturnal, which is a bit of a pain, but she's eating and sleeping well which is the main thing. I'm having to readjust to a little, light baby after Louis' heft!

And speaking of Louis, doesn't he look old here? New passport photos, and I swear he looks older than two! Note the tres-fashionable asymmetric fringe.

He's a cheeky little man, too - his favourite game at the moment is to play with the taps on the bidet. It's a harmless game at the moment - ask me again after he floods the house!

Last night some of the guys came over for a White russians and cigars. It was windy as hell, so we moved into the garage area at the front of the house, which was sheltered and very civilized. Just as well it was sheltered - it pissed it down all night, with some really heavy intervals! No booze for me, as I was at the airport at 3am to pick up my mum! We've certainly go a house full now!

The weather was much better this morning, but still cold - I had the heating on in my car!

The contents of a scrambled brain!

2011-11-28T09:06:00.001+03:00

More pictures than writing here, as they're piling up faster than I can post them! Here's the first pic of the proud parents with Elizabeth. Not a bad pic, considering that it was taken by Marg! (The staff at Hamad have been great, of course. And even when M was on a ward, as in this pic, it was a small ward of two beds.)

And the grandparents, of course! Elizabeth's got more hair than Alan!

And perhaps most importantly, here are a couple of pics from the first time that Louis met his sister.

(M is never going to forgive me that I have a dreadful beard & mo' in all these pics!) Louis has been to the hospital twice so far to see her, and he's been really good - really gentle, really caring. He's going to be a good big brother, I think. Although he looks a little worried in these pics! He has enjoyed running about the hospital - he's never seen so many lifts! Here he is in Elizabeth's little cot-thingie. (A cliche, I know, but I can't believe that he was ever small enough to fit in!)

Michelle's doing well, getting better and better each day! She's moving about well, and we should be getting her out of the hospital today. Fingers crossed! Although her room has been quite nice - it was worth the extra money to get her upgraded! (As she said in a text, Elizabeth's first upgrade!) Somewhere I've a picture of the menu that M gets every morning - it's like a hotel!

Although, again, M looks a bit worried in this last pic!

We took Louis out for dinner after one visit, had a really nice Italian meal (or as close to Italian as you can get in Landmark!) This following picture is what Louis does if you ask him, 'Louis - who is beautiful?' 'Oo-ie!'

No narrative thread, really, for the next few pictures - just a stream of consciousness that accurately reflects my addled brain. (A student asked me this morning whether I'd had a boy or a girl, and I answered 'Boy!' - I'm that confused!)

A scratch cricket match (or more accurately, about five matches!) near the hospital on Friday morning.

Louis being lovely in the bath.

Granny Grunt with Elizabeth.

Look at that hair! (For the first 24 hours, I could see no resemblance to Louis, but I can now. Maybe not in this pic!)

Some amazing flowers from QA staff and Greg.

A final Elizabeth pic. The next post should be the home-coming!

Catching up.

2011-11-25T19:33:00.001+03:00

This is a catch up, and just a place holder before the next big post of news. I'm taking pictures faster (And news is piling up faster!) than I'm blogging, so here are a few that needed recording from before Elizabeth Alice's birth.

Louis likes cars. Of course - he's my son! But if we're playing about outside, then he'll demand (demand! What a two year old!) to sit behind the wheel. He'll steer, and try to play with the indicator stalks. Bless.

Gave blood at the start of the week. It's a requirement what with M having an operation, and that makes sense to me. They would have stamped my form without a donation, as I give blood anyway, but I was there, so I gave. The guy who took my vitals said he knew it was me from my whistling! I didn't think I was so loud/obvious! He said, "Ah, you're from the Foundation!" The second thing I saw was this sign below. I was amazed to see 'kick against the pricks' on a poster in Qatar! I thought (at the time) it was a punk album, so snapped a shot of it. Turns out it's a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album, and also (amazingly!) a quote from the Bible!

Louis had a lovely cardie from his Uncle Butch - here he is, unwrapping it!

He runs about all day, driving his grandparents to distraction. (Love the expression on his face here!)

See? Run ragged.

And we had some nice rain last week, then a nice morning on the way to work. Nice.

Hello, hello.

2011-11-24T15:56:00.001+03:00

A quick post. I'm sure you'll forgive me! Twoie was born by c-section this morning, at 11.51am. She weighed 4160g, which is nearly 9lbs 3oz! She's doing well, as is mum. I've just run Alan & Marg back, after grabbing a well earned McDonalds, and am off back to the hospital again now, to pick a name. Wish me luck.

Thank you all for your texts, emails and especially calls, Jack & Marc. More updates soon!

Two years.

2011-11-23T08:00:00.001+03:00

Alan and Marg are here! Yay! Free baby-sitting! They came over with three suitcases, and only one of those was things for themselves! The rest was all stuff that M has been sending to them over the past few months to bring out. Thanks, folks!

Picked them up last Monday, I think. It's all such a blur now! And it's been really nice having them around. Louis has loved it, although he runs them ragged, of course! (Having said that, I've never seen Alan move as fast as when he's running about with Louis, pushing him on his trike!)

He had a little birthday celebration on Thursday at nursery. M had iced some buns to take in.

He had a lovely day, running about like an idiot. (Louis, not Alan.) (Although...)

Quite ran Alan down.

He's got a little plastic tent in the garden, and while he took a few days to get over his suspicion of it, he likes it now!

Sorry for the retro photos - I was playing about with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. (I wonder how archaic some of this technology will appear to me when I read this back in 10 or 15 years time. I wonder if it'll even be understandable!)

Louis - how old are you? (Bless him, flicking his first Vs!)

Oh, and we got him a cake. He wasn't a big fan of the candles, but he'll get there.

Friday morning, I took him to the pool with Ben and Dan - good idea, Ben. It was deserted at 9am, and we had a good splash as the place slowly filled up (Don, Lisa I. from our compound, Louis' friend, Pele.) I had breakfast, too, which was good, and very cheap. I chucked a QR50 note (about £9?) on the table, and that easily covered breakfast for Ben & me, and Don's smoothie. (I owed him one for helping out with the move!)

Friday afternoon we took Louis (oh, and A & M!) out to Bennigans for a bite to eat. But Louis wasn't really feeling on top of things. He had a nice run about in the play area, though - the first time that we've let him loose there! He's had a bit of a cough for the past few days - it's getting better now, but he had a couple of nights where he really didn't sleep at all well, poor guy.

Helly's done a lovely job for us of planting our window box thing out side the front of our house. It's coming on a treat, and it's a lovely bit of colour. And Louis has refrained (so far!) from pulling anything up by the roots!

Saturday (I think it was!) was round to the Haines for nibbles, fizz and a couple of cold beers.

Lovely to see them, as always. Louis was fascinated by their garden sprinkler, and kept edging closer to it.

In the end, we just took his soaked tee shirt off, and let him go hog wild! It was a lovely relaxing afternoon, thanks guys.

Next post? I think Louis will have been joined by Twoie, and I'll have had to change the name of this blog! I'm taking M to the hospital tonight, an overnight before the c-section tomorrow. We've had two great years with Louis, and we're looking forward to meeting Twoie, and continuing this great, fun adventure. Thanks for reading.

Holidays in the sun.

2011-11-16T10:33:00.001+03:00

Last post here from the holiday, before we get into Alan & Marg's visit! So, what have we here? M and I had a lovely break of the holiday - we get a special rate at many of the hotels here in Doha, as I work for the Foundation, so we booked a night at the W Hotel. (Todd & Kara like it, and the restaurant is good, we had lunch there a few weeks ago.) And I learned an important lesson - if you have to book into a hotel, make nice with the check in staff, and be accompanied by a pregnant woman!

We were upgraded to a suite, a room in the residence attached to the hotel! It was approached through a big mirrored 'secret door - how cool is that?! (Oh, and we forgot totally about being blase about the whole trip, and 'wow'd and 'coo'd about everything!) Secret door!

It was... quite posh! It had two bathrooms, bedroom, a lounge, and even a little kitchenette! (There was an iPod dock, and I forgot my big iPod! I was gutted!)

Here's the lounge. Kitchen at the back.

The first meal we had was the best. We went to The Market, and had their fixed lunch for QR85 (about £14). The starter was tomato soup, served out of a coffee pot!!! (See - we photographed the food being served, that's how excited we were!)

Then a great burger & chips, and a dessert. Good value at a posh restaurant!

Here's the pool - I took my swimmers, but wimped out, and stayed lazy! (They've done a good job of making a little oasis in the middle of a crowded city!)

Then a big afternoon snooze, then a meal at the Spice Market, then a good night's sleep with a lie in, then breakfast, then another snooze. It was a real recharger. Really needed it.

While we were away, Lalaine stayed at the new place with Louis - thanks Lalaine!

Louis is loving the out door space, despite the evidence of his facial expression!

I'm playing around with a few apps on my new iPhone. One of them produces pictures that are 'aged', and meant to look like the childhood pics of people my age! You know, all orange, faded colours, things like that. There may be more of these in posts to come!

And finally, for today, Louis continues to be the King Of LuLus. Here he is with some of this fans.

Right - posting this from work, while M relaxes at home (I hope!) She's taking her parents out to Katara, the cultural village here, this afternoon - there's a display of vintage dhow boats there. She's under instruction to take the camera - the next post will tell whether she remembered!

Before the storm.

2011-11-14T11:40:00.001+03:00

Trying desperately to catch up before the deluge of things to report on soon!

OK, what's happened? I've just completed a 10 day holiday, which was nice - spent most of the time sorting the house out, and it's really starting to look a treat now! The only disadvantage of same many rooms is that you've got a lot of rooms to sort out! (I know, First World Problems.)

Oh, and it rained! Louis liked it - he wanted to go outside in the morning (that's why he's still in his PJs here! We're not terrible parents!), so I let him, and he had a good splash about. It's nice to have a little bit of out door space to play around with.

And then later in the day, L & I went out for chickens for lunch. The Smiley Man at Flower (or is it Nile?) cafeteria recognised me, and came over to say 'Hi.' Here's Louis looking worried by the rain.

All a bit darker than we're used to.

We've had a few nice meals out recently - not too extravagant, but just nice 'outs'. We like Pizza Express at Landmark - close, good pizza, and Louis loves their kids meal Spag Bol! When we were there the other day, an interesting car parked right next to ours in the car park. Sneak peak. (Of interest here only to car nerds. Hello, Clive.)

It was a Brabus tuned Mercedes SLS. A bit tarty, a bit of a gilded lily, but never mind - the noise was sensational!

Louis at Pizza Express.

Not that we're competitive parents or anything (well, I'm not) but Louis' won his first competition! Here's the page from the nursery's newsletter that announces both his birthday, and his best costume for Halloween! (I was the 50p spider outfit from ASDA!) I promised M that I'd put the news in the blog!

Oh, and here's a spider that Louis made (possibly with some help!) at nursery.

Louis is really settling into the new place - he loves having the outdoor space, and runs around like an idiot, laughing his head off. (Unfortunately, he is still not yet 100% on his feet, so sometimes takes a tumble - he bloodied his lip the other day, poor fella. But he gets over it quickly.) He's got the trike that Blackband grandparents bought him last year, and a sand pit/tray, and a ball. Oh, and the birds - Louis loves the sparrows that live on our building. "Bu! Bu!"

There are a lot of places for him to sit, too - he likes being at the bar when we're in the kitchen. (That's my boy.)

Here are a couple of him playing, and with Dan. He has so much space, he doesn't know what to do with it!

(I love the barrel thing here that Dan's running with - it makes me think that Dan's impersonating Donkey Kong!)

More from the holiday next, and as I type, M's parents are flying out for a while! (That's the storm I mentioned in this post title!)

Spooky.

2011-11-01T11:50:00.000+03:00

Right - Halloween! It's the first post in November, and there's lots to get through here, so let's get started! Friday morning (our first Friday in the new house! We've been in for about 10 days so far, and it's really starting to feel like home now) we had a visit from Ben & Daniel. M had take the first shift with Louis when he got up, and had returned to bed when I got up. (Very wise.) Here's Louis (still in his jammies) with Dan in the background. (We're still playing around with rug placing - the kilm on the floor here was too slippery, and moved about far too much, so has gone. Still thinking...) Check out my stair gate magic! That's one gate, a modded extension from another (cut down to size), and a few cable ties, or zip ties. Quality work, and not a bodge at all.

A fairly lazy Friday, with a trip to City Centre in the middle for silly stuff for the new place, like a hose, and a set of steps. Friday night was the Bowe's Halloween party, and they really went for it. The place was full of amazing decorations, some of the rooms were done out as a haunted house, and people really made an effort with their costumes. Not many pics here, just a couple of me with the ladies (how'd that happen?) With the hostess, Ellie, as a ghost.

And with Misti as a sexy pirate. (Many of the costumes could be described as 'Sexy Occupation'.) I'd just dressed as a smart devil.

The party was great - it was a little schizophrenic for me. The first hour or two was very restrained and civilised, a couple of cold Guinness, chats with friends. The starting gun for the second half was me being handed a glass of tequila, and after that, it all got a bit messy.

(Wavy lines to indicate time passing)

Woke up Saturday morning, several bruises, a sprained thumb, bit of a head ache. Bent nose. Graze on head. Things like that. And then the visitors started! First, Louisa and Annabel, to see M and to drop off some bits & bobs, some furniture for Louis, things like that. Annabel is lovely with Louis. When Louisa had Louis for a few hours last weekend, when we were moving, Annabel said to her mum, "Can't we just keep him?" Here she is, looking after him. (Louis' nappy looks huge here! Promise, we do change him!)

Then we had Teresa W. from M's work, and two of her UK friends, so I was back on coffee duty (and still trying to dig my way out from M's bad books!)

In the afternoon, I took my bike out for a blast to go and pick up my car, which was where I dumped it on ECCH the night previously. When I was nearly there, I was hailed by the Douglas family who were sat outside their block, enjoying the afternoon sun, and as I plonked myself down and iterated my woes and injuries, Kris D brought me an iced coffee laced with Amarula, and that perked me right up. After that, I toddled off home, saw Lynette (our third visitor of the day), we bathed Louis, stories, bed, and had some cheese & biscuits ourselves, and bed. What a busy weekend!

I've got some more photos here from Lalaine, who does a good job of keeping an eye on Louis while we're away! The first few need to be read like a photo-story in a girl's mag, maybe Jackie. Although I don't know what the captions would say! (He sleeps in our bed sometimes in the day, when he's napping. We're really lucky that he's never been in the habit of sleeping in our bed at night, although he might try to change that when he's in a big boy bed, rather than his cot!)

He dressed up for Halloween on monday night - his spider outfit was a hit, he wore it to nursery, where his teacher asked where it came from. We didn't have the heart to tell people that it cost 50p from Asda in the UK, and we'd bought it last November!

Here he is, looking less than impressed, with his proud mum. (There are not enough pics of M on the blog, and I'll try to rectify it in future posts.) He only spent the first hour or so trying to pull his extra arms off, after that he was quite used to it.

In the evening on the 31st, we went to a small party in the club house on the compound. Lots of spooky themed food, lots of costumes, and harassed looking parents (Helly, I'm talking to you!) But lots of fun.

Then Louis & I went Trick or Treating, while M answered the door to other children. It was a good Halloween.

Finally (and in no way connected with any of the preceding) we had a good day for cars the other week in the Rec Centre car-park. Nice Bentley GTC, and a well used Ferrari 430. Last year's model, I know, but good to see it being used properly!

Two videos - old & new.

2011-10-26T11:18:00.003+03:00

A couple of videos here, one of the old place, one of the new, both taken on the same day. Both have an appearance from Louis, but you might blink & miss him, sometimes!

More moving pictures.

2011-10-25T13:55:00.001+03:00

Some more pics from the move! (Feel free to skip if this is getting boring, but it's kind of dominated what's been happening with us for the past few weeks!

A couple of pre-move shots from the old place. We'd been boxing things up for a few days, trying to label the outside in a fool-proof way (I'm the fool) so that they should end up on the right floor, at least, at the new place. So here are pics of the hall, Louis' room, and the kitchen, respectively.

The kitchen, especially, was a masterpiece of packing. (All those hours playing Tetris have finally paid off.)

Moving the stuff from one of the tables revealed an interesting burn, so I might as well quickly recount the story. Back in the old days, just after our move to ECCH, when M was still allowed candles, we went to sleep having accidentally left a low candle burning on the coffee table in the lounge. We were woken up at about 3am by the fire alarm, and we cursed the idiots burning toast at that hour. Then I smelt the smoke....

The candle had burned down, and set fire to the coffee table, some books and an ornate carved wooden box that was a present to M. Oops. Wet tea towels, water, and the fire soon went out, but the apartment smelt of smoke for days afterwards. (I still blame M, as she's the one with a candle fetish!)

Oops.

We still have the lid of the box, but now it's hanging on the wall. It's been retired from duty!

Don & Todd, ready to do some more lifting...

Louis wondering where all our stuff's gone.

A last shot of Louis tearing around the new place. Next post, a couple of videos - before the move & after. Plus, maybe, a stairgate!

Dhows & dust.

2011-10-24T10:50:00.000+03:00

It's been a busy few weeks, honestly, and that's why the blog posts have been few & far between recently, sorry. Hopefully this fractured effort goes some way towards making up for that!

Last Friday the 14th, there was a Dhow trip out into Doha harbour to celebrate the combined 40th birthdays of Chad, Ellie & Nigel. The boat left from the Museum at about 7.30pm, and returned at about midnight. Between those times, there were cigars on the top deck, food & drink on the lower deck (rice, Arabic, curry, all very nice), the boat moved gently through the low waves, and we arrived at the mooring point out in the Gulf. (I took some photos, but they all turned out a little rubbish, I'm afraid. Here's a shot of everyone relaxing on the top deck as we motor out from Doha. Peter on the left, DMac, Jannie, Steve S at the end in the white shirt.)

Music was provided by the usual exhibitionists. Here, Mike, Aaron & Heather 'entertain'.

It was a lovely warm night, no real wind, and the moon was dark red, and nearly full. It was nice to know that everyone else around the world was under the same moon. After mooring, people started to jump into the sea for a swim, so I whipped off my trews to reveal my Union Jack swimmers, and jumped in (carefully, so as not to spill my drink.) Had a lovely swim about in the warm - people on the boat lowering drinks, us in the water sharing floats to make treading water easier. One or two people 'lost' their shorts, but I kept up the standards you'd expect from a representative of The Queen.

We ran out of beer & wine towards the end, but Chad had made up a couple of 5 gallon containers, one of mohito, the other margarita, and these were fitted to those water dispensers that your push your cup into, so we all stayed lubricated.

A terrible shot here of people floating about in the water.

And finally back to town. M cried off the trip, as it was going to be a very late night, and she didn't fancy getting caught off shore if her waters broke! It was fun. Really enjoyed it. Here's a shot of the skyline.

The following day was Saturday (as is traditional), and I popped over to Steve & Misti's to watch Liverpool v Man U on their satellite. (Looking into sorting that package out for our new place, too, fingers crossed!) There was a good crowd there, Chris C., the Mitchells, Pete B., and his daughter Poppy. I took Louis as he likes people, and he likes cats, and the hosts have one. Here's Louis in the background, and Poppy in the fore.

They were giving Misti heart palpitations, climbing up & down the steps (the steps here are hard!) and sure enough, Louis slipped and bust his lip on a step. Poor Monkey. But he took it like a boss and soon recovered. Poppy managed the same thing, 20 minutes later (much to Misti's exasperation!) leading to me & Pete being competitive dads.

"Poppy fell further!"

"Well, Louis fell first, and he's younger!"

A couple of pics from back in the UK now - Everyone seems to be moving house now! Here, three adults and two under 10s spend a few hours putting up a chicken coop the was advertised as assembly being a 10 minute job. This is for the three chooks that Jack has in his new garden.

Here's evidence of how hard my dad works his contractors. Here's the back garden of their new Brum house, in the process of getting levelled for the new garage.

Here's the finished job, nice & flat, ready for the garage to be delivered.

And here's Wayne, the builder, being taken away with a suspected broken leg! Don't know how he managed it, but I'll bet he fell over in surprise when my dad got his wallet out.

And this weekend just passed, we moved. It was a bit of an effort! We'd spent the week prior to that doing little bits - taking armfuls of clothes over, things like that. Friday, Don & Todd came over and we moved some delicate or fragile things - that was a real help. (Don & I found it funny following Todd, mattress strapped to the top of his car, wind lifting it and the car as he drove. Todd found it less funny!)

Saturday, the guys with the trucks arrived. Five Nepalese guys, two trucks and a couple of supervisors. And it took us three trips! That's nearly six truck loads! What the hell did we move? What was it all? (Answers please on a postcard.) Boxes & boxes of stuff for Louis, and for the two of us. Furniture. Books. Kitchen contents. Just... kipple. Here's Louis at the new place, enjoying the calm before etc...

First trip.

We're there now - I'm handing the keys over today, and that's it. The end to the second place we've lived in, here in Qatar. I'm excited about the new place. It's a pain at the moment, as we don't know where anything is. There are boxes everywhere, and some of these boxes are in the right place. Took me 20minutes to find a tie on Sunday morning. Thought I was going to have to wear trainers to work, as I couldn't find my shoes! Things like that. It looks a bit like this at the moment.

(Those are both mobile phone shots. I don't know where the leads for my camera are. Of course!) Lots of things to sort - all the ACs need servicing, as some make a funny noise, and one pissed water all over the floor last night. Things need re-sealing, drains need unblocking, yards need sweeping and emptying of alloy wheels (really!). It's very dusty, and we'll need some draught excluders to keep the sand out! But it's going to be great - it'll be a proper home for the (soon to be) four of us.

It was a busy day. I'm feeling stiff right now, as I type, and I know that there's more to do. But I'm excited about it, and looking forward to getting the place ship shape. Yesterday, I came in from work, and the three of us went straight out. We had dinner at Pizza Express (Louis likes the spaghetti bolognese there!) then tripped round Carrefore for things that we needed for the place. M hit the wall all of a sudden, the end of the shopping, so Louis and I collected the car, then collected her, and went home. We bathed him, read to him, gave him his milk, and put him to bed. Then we just sat there, on the (suprisingly comfortable) sofas, catching our breath. M had a bath, and was in bed for about 7.30!

We'd be in trouble without Lalaine - she's already got the kitchen looking nice, and while Louis's at nursery today, she should have the time to kick into more of the place.

Tonight? Back home. I'll take L out to LuLus to buy a curry sauce - that's tea tonight! - and potter about, really. Sort out our bedroom, so that we at least know where stuff is, even if stuff isn't in its final place. (Took us 10 minutes to find ourselves some underpants last night!) More pics to come, I hope. Here's a final phone shot, from Saturday, after the third trip to the new place.

It tasted good.

Louis & Lalaine

2011-10-16T13:45:00.000+03:00

A Louis/Lalaine joint effort here, for the most part! This post is very Louis-centric, to make up for the other recent ones where he's barely had a look in! The first few pics are from M & I. We're trying to do something every day to get ourselves ready for the big move. We considered sending Louis over in a box, but he wouldn't stay still while we taped it shut.

He continues to be a very cute little lad. Here he is, just playing while sat on a chair. (Many of the pics in this post are of little significance in the big scheme of things. They are just my attempt to fix, and remember, the little details, the small things that we would otherwise forget. Already, I look back at posts from when Louis was very young, and think 'Oh, I remember that!'. That's what the blog's for - without it, those moments would have gone.)

The remaining pics of Louis are all from Lalaine, and I'll add short captions where necessary.

Don't know where this pic was taken. (Where is Lalaine taking him?!)

He likes his blocks. Building towers, knocking towers down...

I know he sometimes looks like a serious chap in the blog photos, but that's not the case. He really is quite smiley.

Smiley, and sleepy!

And very sleepy!

With a keen interest in brooms and housework. Here he pauses to check out what Oprah is saying.

OK, sometimes he looks serious. And handsome.

But he's really a funny little man.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has ever looked at the blog. You've helped the page count hit 10,000! Very gratifying. (And I do like my pats on the head!)

Louis walking off to bed

2011-10-16T09:49:00.000+03:00

Just a quick post here. Lalaine told us that, for his morning nap, he takes his own bottle off to his bedroom. We thought we'd try this one evening, and film the results. So here's a short video of Louis walking himself off to be with his milk.

Getting ready to move.

2011-10-10T14:02:00.000+03:00

Right - here's what you all have been waiting for (well, what we've been waiting for, at least!) I spoke to Tomy in the Housing Dept this morning, and we're good to pick up the keys for our new place this afternoon. That should let us start to move things across this week, and think about a date for the big move! We'll let Lalaine loose on the place tomorrow, and she'll get it clean to her satisfaction, before we even start filling the place up. So, here are some pics, of mixed quality, from when we went over to have a look at it last week.

Oh, first, a Louis pic to mollify those of you who really don't care!

First, the location. It would have been great to stay on ECCH, as we like it here, and the quality/location/amenities are great, but the place is pretty full. So we're moving to a new-ish compound called Al Nasseria 2, and here's a map. (This'll help if you've been here before, and know the rough layout of the place!) You can see ECCH at the bottom of this pic - our little appendix is halfway between the pin 'A' and the left edge of the picture. The club house is labelled, LuLus is just to the left of that. If you follow the road between the clubhouse & Lulus, past a big compound, towards the top of the pic, then Al Nasseria is at the top of the photo, right in the middle.

It looks like this (yes, that is a little swimming pool in the middle there!), and our house is the right hand half of a semi-detached at the top-left of this pic. So, walking distance from LuLus, smaller, no green, but I think it'll be worth it.

The place is full of teachers from QA, Senior & Junior, and Lynette W. lives there, the Robinsons, so we'll have plenty of people around us. It's going to be fun.

It's also huge. I don't know what we've done to deserve it, but it and it's semi- neighbour are the largest houses on the compound. Seriously, it's huge. If we're still there in 2022, we'll make a mint renting it out to friends who've come over for the football! The rest of the photos are from our recce last week, and I'll add short captions, so you know what's what. More to come soon, of course!

Our new house. Couple of car ports, and a bit of garage space, although there's no door, of course. It'll do for bikes.

M's Hyundai outside our new front door.

Walk in, and most of the ground-floor is a big open-plan living space - this is the view through to the back of the building, past the dinning area. The kitchen is on the right, at the back, and there's some living space on the left at the back.

Here's that living space at the left.

And the kitchen, with Agnal, the manager, hiding from the camera.

Kind of back on yourself to the left as you come in is more of the open plan living space, which is where the TV is now. So all of that area in these four pics is one space, and the kitchen is part of the open plan. (If you can't understand what I'm going on about, then you'll have to come out & have a look!)

On the right as you come in (you can see the front door here) is the staircase - M's disappointed that she can't ascend and have a choice, left or right, but it's still pretty grand! (And hard - lots of marble, lots of tiles to bash little heads. We'll have to watch that!)

Upstairs is a nice open balcony/landing area, modelled here by L & M. The archway behind them leads through to bedrooms 2&3. (And a bathroom, I think?)

Here's M checking out the funky arches. The one on the right leads through to...

...possibly my favourite part of the new place - the office/den! Check this out! It's going to be awesome - and now I've claimed it in the blog, it's mine, yeah. babe? Right? That's how it works?

Going to have bookshelves. & music, & TV, & XBox, & a beer fridge. Going to be so cool.

Last shot of the main bedroom - I know there are things that I haven't shown yet, but they'll be on future posts. Looking forward to it. Want to get moved in now. :)

Mu-mu.

2011-10-07T21:32:00.002+03:00

M reminds me that we took this video in the middle of last month - Louis was (is) doing this lovely thing at the moment where he'll repeat words that he's got the hang of, but only after some thought or practice. So we'll say (for example) 'Puppy' a few times, and he'll have a think, and look at us both, and just when we've given it up as a bad deal, he'll whisper 'Pu-pu'. Here he is in the bath, having a long think about 'Mummy'. Sorry it's so dark!

Moving pictures.

2011-10-06T11:24:00.000+03:00

A short post here, more to come soon. Winding up for Halloween out here - it's a bigger thing for the septics than for the Brits, but I guess we all get involved! Certainly LuLus has been throwing themselves into it - look at the pumpkins that you can get! Small about £40, big ones about £120! You've got to really love Halloween for that!

This is Joy. Joy makes my coffee at the LuLus shop. She also really like Louis, and always plays with him, chases him, and makes him put down the Pringles that he's just grabbed.

M, L & I went for a very civilised meal last Thursday, as we had to go out later, when we'd normally be eating. We took Louis to Pizza Express, and he had a proper grown-up meal of Spag Bol followed by ice cream, and he did very well! Really enjoyed it!

Finally, a teaser shot of our new house! We've finally been approved for a move to a bigger place - a two bed apartment is a big of a squeeze, especially given the space available out here! So the word came through on Tuesday evening, we went to see it yesterday, and should move within the next month or so. Many more pics to come of course!

Moore the merrier.

2011-10-03T12:21:00.000+03:00

A regular Doha-only post here!

On Saturday, we hit the W Hotel here in Doha to help to celebrate Kara H.'s birthday - we were honoured to be invited, and excited about ~~getting out of the house for a good lunch~~ seeing our friends. Just the six of us - Todd & Kara, Don & Kris, me and M. (Oh, and bump, Little Lion, so I guess there were seven!) Had a really nice time - really relaxing, couple of bottles of wine, good food & some good laughs.

In no particular order, Don & Kara.

Todd & the wife.

Kris & me. (I should have had a shave!)

Oh, and a last one of Todd proving that he's only got one pose in his repertoire.

I thought I'd be adventurous, and different, and have the steak & chips. Very nice it was too. Kara had my shitake mushrooms. (Heh - shitake.) (Actually, I tried some calamari (still rubbery) and had a soup, so I didn't do too badly!)

Quick one of Louis & me (I know it's the Louis pics you come here for!) M thought that this was a nice pose for Louis - only took five or six shots before she got one with both sets of eyes open!)

One shot here from Louis playing with one of his girlfriends... (It's still a bit hot here for playing outside, but it's getting better, and nice in the evenings.)

A few here from my sister, Em - she's borrowing the UK house for a few days, and bribed us with pics of her girls. There's one of Louis in there, too, plus one of Henry Moore. See if you can spot him!

More soon. (Moore - gettit?)

Back in the old routine.

2011-09-25T19:19:00.000+03:00

First post, proper, from Qatar here. So, what have we? Some from Lalaine, first.

We often come back form work to find the flat empty - Lalaine takes Louis off round the compound to the playground, or to other kids' houses where her friends work. (Like a play-date, organised by the nannies!) Here's Louis playing in the Lot 2 playground. (Not looking much like himself, I think!)

Louis drinks a lot at the moment, much more than he's eating. (He's actually not eating too well at the moment - we're not going to stress about it much for a couple of days, as long as he keeps drinking!) He likes fruit juice, and loves strawberry milk! (Look at him, giving that some serious attention!)

And finally, from Lalaine, a pic of Louis in the bath using his toothbrush. He hasn't quite got the hang of it yet, but he'll get there. (Again, excuse the dignity-saver!)

Things of recent note.

He manages 'Mummy' & 'Daddy' quite well, and 'Bobby' (?), and 'Sssss' for snake. 'Puppy' sometimes. But that's about it for the moment.
He'll point with his first two fingers, middle crossed over the index, when he wants something. And he usually wants something!
'Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring, Banana-phone!' He likes telephones, and has only baby-called someone once so far!
He's started to wrestle with me - we roll about on the bed, and he slams me - falls over onto me, which he thinks is the funniest thing.
He can open the front door & make a break for it if we leave it unlocked.
We've had to use the naughty chair once or twice. Sadly. We used it this afternoon - he'd been out shopping with me, and he howled when I dropped him with M and went down to the car. And he wouldn't stop, so we plonked him on the chair. He calmed down quite well, then we bathed him, stories & feed. Oh - and when he thinks he's had enough, he turns into a wriggly worm, and wants to play - usual bed-avoidance techniques!

I think that's all for about now.

Back to the photos - M took him out to Ray's Reef. It's a big play area in one of the malls, and Louis had a great time. He likes the big soft play stuff, and ball pits, and loves the computer games. Can't think where he gets that from... (iPhone pics, so some are a little blurry!)

We went out on Saturday to Landmark - M for dinner with Teresa at The One, Louis & I went to TGI Fridays. For the last time. Bennigans 4eva. How do you screw up chicken strips? Then Louis & I wandered round the Mall, chatting up girls. Really! Louis was amazed by the size of the big elephants at the entrance to Circus Land!

Look at me, look at me!

Oh.

That's it for the Louis news - just a couple of general interest now. Thanks, Midweek Times, for the laughs.

Yay - M let me buy another coffee machine! It's a Lavazza BLUE, rather than a Nespresso like in the UK, but it makes a good coffee.

Finally, they've started to open the Rec Centre pool at 6am! Now I can swim instead of going to the gym before work! Lovely. Had the pool to myself this morning.

There you go - back to normal service. More soon!

Video Kid pt II.

2011-09-21T10:34:00.001+03:00

OK, OK, I know I said no more pics from the summer, but I forgot that I'd put some videos on YouTube for M while she was back in Qatar. I'm not going to embed them here, but I will provide links to them. If you like click the link, have a look! (All work better with sound, of course!)

First, just a clip of me feeding L with some good English food!
Porky-pie!

Alan & Marg trying to get L to say 'Mommy'!
Daddy!

Those are the good ones - hope you like them!

Cleaning up my phone.

2011-09-20T19:51:00.003+03:00

This is, I promise, the last of the pics from the summer! All of these are from my mobile, so please excuse the sketchy quality sometimes! (Also, I hope there won't be too many in-jokes here!) So, lots of pics, and short captions.

I had a couple of nights in London, and had a lovely wander around. I went from Coventry station, and there was a plaque on the wall with a quotation from Larkin, my favourite poet. (That's right - I have a favourite!)

Had a great time in London. Looked round a great exhibition of relics at the British Museum, and really de-compressed. This is from the Egyptian Hall.

Heh - Moon Beaver. Would they take my briefs?

Mark returned from his epic bike ride with a gift for me. (I'm scared to open it - will it be like Spam? Or a recognisable piece of pig, like a trotter? Who knows?)

Louis enjoyed only his second ever trip through a car wash. (As I type the Volvo is on eBay with about 30mins to go!)

We had the Warwick Folk Festival - they decided that Warwick was the best place for something with that name. It was OK - not a big fan of the folkies, but it was nice to see Warwick so busy. Here's a (bad) picture of some black-face Morris dancers to scare Kara.

We had a quick drink in the Conservative Club - they let anyone in these days. Here's proof - Louis with my dad.

Louis inspecting a ladybird.

Louis with a wicker box on his head.

Louis feeding a swan. (Look out! They can break a man's arm with their wing!)

A bit of piggy action. A&M's pig, and the one from the Rose & Crown.

Had my second Castle Balti of the summer with Marc - it's good value, as it'll do about three meals!

One from the Christmas meal. (I can tell from his outfit!)

And finally, proof that we really are back in Qatar! We bought Louis a ball to chase, and he lik-ee. He's been a good boy this week - he's not settled too well at nights, in the evenings, but he is sleeping though, which is neato. And he is being a lovely boy. Of course.

Catching up.

2011-09-18T20:04:00.000+03:00

Right - a mixture of things here. A couple of pics from the summer, and a couple of pics from recent weeks here in Qatar. I'm starting to get back into the swing of this blogging business! Let's start with the summer ones - these are all from M's phone.

A couple of photos here from St Pancreas station in London. It's where they film bits of Harry Potter, M informs me (where it pretends to be a different station). It's got the longest champagne bar in Europe, and a nice Betjeman quote on a plaque on the wall.

They found themselves (purely by accident, small world, etc) staying just up the road from my favourite London 'gentleman's establishment', and they were kind enough to take a pic for a memento. (I've never seen it in the daylight!)

You've seen before how Louis loves his housework - he also loves the washing machine. From the living room, we'd see him disappear, and hear a 'clang' as something was deposited in it, and we'd have to guess - keys? Shoe? Dishcloth? A fun game.

M went to see my mum judge a WI show one Sunday. Had fun, had a good look round, and saw a very impressive hog roast! Nice.

On M's first trip back to Qatar, she went out with the Theresas on our wedding anniversary, and the W Hotel made sure that she felt special. (When we'd only been in Qatar a couple of years, we went to the Ritz Carlton for a night, and they gave us a cake for our Weeding Anniversary, which we both thought funny!)

I had DMac act as my agent, and put some flowers outside her door for her to discover the next day, on the 19th. It took her 30mins to realise that they were from me. Flowers, on her anniversary, and the first the things she thinks of are delivery error & stalker! Ah well, at least I was third!

Now, we're back in Qatar, and this is just a photo dump, really.

Handsome fella, as I've said before. (This pic from Lalaine.) Louis is holding her phone - he loves telephones, and we have a little 'Banana-phone' song for him when he's playing with them.

Chewing on a bread-stick in a restaurant, watching his parents have a little lunch.

Are there any babies that actually need baby cologne?

And a last two from LuLus. Louis with a balloon, and one of Mick & Melissa's daughter, Alice. They could be brother & sister!

Last of the summer wine.

2011-09-14T19:38:00.003+03:00

And the last of the summer posts. Oh, actually, I need to sweep all the pics from M's phone, and from mine - that'll be one last Summer 2011 post, then I think I'll have caught up!

What here? OK, the car first. Couple of summers ago, I bought a lovely big BMW 523i from a fellow watch-nerd from Dave. It was great. This summer, I bought a Volvo S80 T6 auto from a fellow watch-nerd, and it was... disappointing! Oh, well. It was fun, though - fast & comfortable, and never let us down. But it was a knacker! (Looks good in the pics here, but like me, it's handsome from a distance, and looks rough when you get close up!)

We're right at the end of M's trip back to Qatar here, so I'm still a single parent! I spent a couple of hours with Jack & Dave S.'s two kids in St Nic's park, feeding the ducks, and having a good little wander round. Very relaxing.

I also took M's parents up to Warwick for lunch on the Thursday of that week. Jack was free too, as his schools were out. We had a quick pint in the Square, Louis included. (Louis only had a little as Alan gives me evils if I give him too much beer!)

And here's Jack showing off his bald spot, introducing L to a nice choc lab outside Lloyds.

The fish & chips were great - I forget the name of the restaurant, but it's a posh place in Warwick near Mellor's Chemist. Does that help you all? We all sat upstairs, and they had a high chair for L. He really liked his bits of fish, and was a good boy. (Of course.) Handsome devil, isn't he?

But finally, M was back, and we had a big celebratory Christmas dinner. (I know, I know, it's August!) But we can't do this in the UK in December, so we're getting in early! Lovely pork & turkey dinner, trimmings, crackers, presses, the whole nine-yards. Pat & Gwyn came over, and we all had a lovely afternoon. Pre-dinner drinks, bucks fizz & Stella.

Louis loves leather sofas. He'll belly up to them, and throw himself forward, and make great 'fartz' noises with his mouth. And if he can't do that, he'll just bite them!

Here's Louis & me in our matching outfits. (The polo shirt was meant to be for Alan (Louis' one, that is), but he had relaxed into the afternoon, and wasn't getting changed then!) Plus, I had the white trews!

Full Christmas dinner!

And finally, here's a rare shot of L with M's brother, Marc. He'd spent the first half of the holiday on an epic bike ride from Paris, through Berlin, up to Lithuania - something like 3000miles.

Right - like I said, that's the end of the summer pics, bar the catch up hotchpotch. Thanks for looking, and thanks for your patience over the summer's lack of posts!

Scrappy dogs & pigs.

2011-09-13T08:55:00.002+03:00

And to Birmingham! (All of this takes place while M was back in Qatar. She had to go back for 12 days to do some work at DC, as she's the Deputy Head of the Sixth Form there, and it was exam results season. This was tough for her, and tough for me, too, as I had Louis to wrangle! But lots of help from grandparents made my life easier. Thanks, everyone!)

My parents have bought a house in south Birmingham, and are moving there soon. The house is one of many pre-WWII pre-fab that H. Austin imported for workers at the Austin car plant (something my dad has an interest in). My folks were there all day, so Louis & I dropped in, as I knew that my sister & her lot would be there. The house is mid-renovation - when we were there, the tree surgeons were there, too, with chainsaws, wood chippers and a little black scrappy dog.

Here's my sister & her husband outside the place. (It's got a proper crawlspace underneath, like something out of a horror film!)

My mum in the kitchen. (That's all going to go, I think!)

And Violet showing me around like a little dervish.

After having fun there, we went to a big pub just down the road towards the M42 (the new place is only a 25 minute drive from Warwick). Grace & Violet played with Louis, and were great with him, while I snarfed ham & eggs and a quick beer. (It was a hot day!)

The next day Jack, Louis & I went to Hatton Country World to look at some animals - thought that would be fun, & it was the perfect day for it. We got there, unpacked the new pushchair, and trotted up to the gate.

I said to Jack that I wouldn't baulk at the price, I'd just pay, and we'd have fun. But it was £12 for adults, and £14 for kids! I couldn't believe it! After we'd turned around and walked off, I made Jack go back & check to see if I'd read it wrong. More expensive for kids? Outrageous. Balls, let's go to the pub. So we did.

Off to the Bull, or something like that, out near Hatton, and we sat in the garden, had home made fish & chips, and a couple of beers, and watched Louis enjoying running around. He made friends with a nice scrappy dog.

And good fun was had by all.

This pic of Louis with the broom is just here because I think it's cute. He likes this, and the dustpan & brush, and the drawer full of dusters.

I mentioned the pig at Marg & Alan's in an earlier post. If we drive round, Louis always gives a little squeal when he realises where he's going - he does enjoy visiting. And when he gets there, the first thing he wants to do is go into the garden & say hello to the pig. (Even in the pouring rain!) Marg's even got a little song for Louis & the pig (of course she has - she has a little song about everything!) and she sings this to him.

He's a handsome devil. A handsome worried devil.

Here's Marg reading him a story in the garden - it was nice that we had a couple of good days this summer that allowed us to do this kind of thing.

Finally - a haircut!

2011-09-12T20:21:00.004+03:00

Haircut! The hairdresser was great - they were used to kids, and ready for him (He had an appointment!) So, higher chair, sheet over his shoulders with doggies, all that kind of stuff. He was a little apprehensive, but the cut didn't take long, and we were out in five minutes!

And here's the only pic I have immediately post-cut! He looks disgusted, but he soon got over it!

We had a lovely BBQ at Pat & Gwyn's. Dave & Wendy came, and we had a good crowd. Good food, too much to drink (or did I drive to this one? I think I drove, actually!), and lots of playing in the garden with Louis. He nearly had this bird feeder over, only my ninja reactions saved it!

He's a charmer.

Here he is with an old helmet of Gwyn's - I think it's an old bamboo hard hat.

Actually, looking at this pic, maybe I had been drinking. Marg certainly had!

Good fun had by all. Next post - a trip to Brum to see my parents' new house, a trip to the pub with Jack, some housework and a piggy-wig!

Lunches and dinners.

2011-09-08T09:08:00.000+03:00

Last lot from pre-haircut! OK, so when you last left us, we'd survived a home invasion, and Louis still needed a haircut! The Sunday after that busy Saturday, we went for a Sunday dinner at The Roebuck on Smith Street - they do a good roast. (Marg had the beef, of course.) Louis was still a little charmer, despite his injuries!

He's very good about being in restaurant situations - he should be, he's been doing it for most of his life! He'll have a wander about while we order & wait for the food, then he'll go in his high chair while we eat. He's especially happy if we give him something to eat, too! So, a little mashed potato, some gravy, bit of chicken, he's a happy bunny. Then after the meal, when everyone's had a little too much wine, they all chip in to take him for a walk, or throw him through a window! (Louis' in the second pic somewhere!)

We did have some good weather over the summer - here's Louis in the paddling pool that Shaz & Eggy (& Reece, our next door neighbours) bought for him. (Sorry about the extra Spiderman head hiding Louis' bits! I wanted to include this pic, but didn't want any fully naked pictures on the blog!)

Louis continues to like his books. If you're sat in our living room, he'll pick up a book, and walk up to you, expecting to be picked up, and have the book read to him. He loves it.

What else did we do? Oh, we drove up to Manchester to see Emily and her brood, which was fun. It is always a longer drive than we expect, so we're grateful that they come down so often! But it was a nice day out, and a nice bit of lunch.

A couple of photos here from A&M's back garden. The first is their pig. This came from the hotel they used to run (it survived a theft attempt once, I think, when he was picked up by someone who didn't realise how heavy he was! They didn't get far!) More about the pig in later posts... The second pic is Winston Churchill, working through a cuban breadstick.

And finally, this pic of Louis was taken in Priory Park, on the way to get his haircut. He was so oblivious, poor thing!

Haircut next post.

You should see the other guy.

2011-09-07T10:38:00.000+03:00

Right - we're already into about the third week here, and lots to report!

Went for a lovely boozy lunch up in Warwick at the Lazy Cow with A & M, to thank them for all the things that they do for us & our house over the year. (Mowing the lawns, keeping an eye on it, putting rubbish out, picking the post up, things like that.) The steaks were disappointing but we had a great time, and lots of laughs. Managed to snap this rare sight - a picture of Marg not posing for the camera! (Note Alan wondering what she's going on about.)

Lots of red wine, lots of fun.

But then someone (guess who?) had to go and rescue Louis from my parents, who had been babysitting all afternoon. So I staggered up to the bus stop, and made it there, still reeling a bit from the lunch. My dad took pity on me (or maybe on Louis) and rather then send us back on the bus, he drove us back home in his Austin 7. Louis thought this was great fun! (I am only sticking my belly out in this one to give Louis a perch, honestly.)

See - great spirits!

Later that week, I met up with Jack for a coffee in Leamington, and, well... Louis had a bit of an accident. Oops. He was practicing his walking around the pedestrian area outside Bar Angeli (a coffee bar - I'd have been in real trouble if it was a beer bar!) and he tripped. But being a beginner, he hadn't quite got the whole 'hold your hands out in front of you when you trip' thing down, so he face-planted on the tarmac, and scraped his forehead, nose & top lip. Poor little monkey.

He took it like a champ, though - little bit of a cry, and then settled down, especially when one of the lovely waitresses brought him out some warm milk with cream & sprinkles on the top. I then had to go home and open the door to M while saying, 'Everything's OK, but Louis' had a bit of an accident...'! I was tempted to blame Jack, but he was having none of it. Louis was fine, he just had a good scab on his nose for a couple of weeks.

That week was busy. Clive was over from NZ to clear out his recently deceased dad's house, along with his brother and their mum. He stayed with us for a week, and was an easy house guest (although how he fitted into our spare bed I'll never know - he's taller than me!) Out every morning to clear another room, back every night with more stuff to fill up our recently de-cluttered little house! But we weren't complaining - most of the things that he brought (wine, spirits, hats) were useful, and the less useful ones (leather drinking horn? naked lady drinking mug?) were funny. So, win/win. Got no photos of him, though - shame, as it was when the weather was great, and we did a lot of sitting in the garden, drinking our way through interesting wines.

The Saturday of that week was probably the busiest of the holiday. My sister Emily came down with Clifford & their two, so we started with a trip to the park, which was a great success. Louis loves his cousins, and they're great with him.

On the way to the park, we went to pick up Jack, and the girls spent a happy 20mins stalking chickens.

Louis doesn't look it here, but he'd almost recovered from his face-plant.

St Nic's park has a good playground, and they have this big swing for multiple kids, and Louis loved it. He laughed & laughed, and cried when we took him off - we had to return him for another go! Couldn't get enough!

Then the girls had a little pony ride, and we all had a look for ducks & swans.

And when we got back, we had.... us two, Louis, Em's four, Clive, Alan & Marg, M's Aunty Claire. Then my parents arrived, and M's Aunty Pat & Uncle Gwyn. Is that 15 people? We've only got a small house! M was catering for all of this, of course, salads & cold stuff, lots of bread & cheese, lots of beer & wine. My parents didn't stay for long - they decided that the house was too full and that we were going to get run ragged! It was chaos, but great fun. Quite a bit of washing up the next morning, though. (Lalaine? Where are you?!)

See - it's only a little house!

It was a really good day - the kind of day that we come back to the UK for. Thanks to everyone for coming.

Children & animals.

2011-09-06T19:15:00.001+03:00

Right - what have we here?

We had the wife's university friends reunion, as we do every summer. This year it was hosted by Nat & Chris in London, or at least as close to London as makes no odds! Most of us stayed over, the BBQ was cancelled as the weather was crap so we ordered out for kebabs! My box box of Cuban cigars meant that I received a warm welcome. It was a good night - great to catch up with everyone, and nice to have my arse kicked so comprehensively at pool by Nick!

I spent some time with Sue & Rick's newest, Oliver. He's only 12 weeks old, and I wanted to try out a new baby again, what with our number two on the way. Although this photo asks questions about Sue & Rick's parenting - I'm clearly a couple of beers into the night!

Here's Louis tapping the glass while Nick has a crafty outside.

And three of the kids present - Ruby Marie (honestly!) Jenny & Oliver. (These Uni reunions used to be pretty full on, and have slowly & gently mellowed over the years as we've all picked up more kids & wrinkles.)

As I said in the title, all of these are pre-haircut. Louis is the most good natured & happy child I know. (And I know that he's getting older as I'm calling him a child now, rather than a baby...) He's always very pleased to get dressed up to go out!

And he loves the swing in our garden. Which is great, as he can sit in it while we peg out the washing. (Another job that Lalaine would be doing if we brought her with us!)

We had a massive clear out over the first couple of weeks - we spent ages going through our house, room by room, and getting rid of things to the charity shop, to the tip, in the bin, to friends & relatives. And M's Big Ted was on the 'chuck' pile for days, until he finally had a stay of execution, and now lives under the stairs!

Had a lovely quick visit from Sarah, too - she'd been to a christening, I think, in the afternoon, so was doing a kind of clean version of the walk of shame the next morning, still wearing the same (very nice) dress. Note the bacon sandwiches on the table, HP Sauce, and Louis in his designer (J Gammon Designs) cardigan. All the important stuff.

I also had a visit in that second week from a guy called Paul from a watch forum I use. I'd picked up a used Seiko, which doesn't sound that special, but it was actually a very nice rare watch, and I'd been having trouble adjusting the bracelet - all the screws were seized, and I was getting nowhere. Paul volunteered to fix it for me, and re-finish the links, re-polish & brush the surfaces, so that it looked like new. He even dropped it by to the house on the way past one evening. He brought in his new boxer dog, and Louis didn't know whether to laugh or shit! He was torn between giggling & panicking! Great fun, and thanks a lot, Paul!

More animal fun - here's Louis investigating Jack's chucks.

He managed to get himself pecked once, too - here he is, identifying the culprit.

Oh, and finally - you did all know that M is pregnant, didn't you? Here's the best of the scans from Warwick Hospital. All going well so far!

Summer post 2!

2011-09-06T12:07:00.000+03:00

Right - second post for the summer, and we're still only in the first week!

First week back, I sent M & her mum down to London for a couple of days. For her birthday I'd bought her a couple of tickets for Warhorse at The National Theatre, so rather than try to get back from London on the night, we stretched it into a two night mini-break. They had a nice hotel, and a day at a spa, and one afternoon, they went to Gordon Ramsey's London restaurant, Petrus. And had a great time!

They had the tasting menu, with wines chosen to fit the food - never mind the play, this meal was the hit of the trip!

And while she was living it up in the city, I was left holding the baby. So I did what you'd expect me to do - I went to the pub! Popped into Kenilworth with Jack to pick up some bike bits, and had a swift half in the pub next door.

Then back into Warwick to The Saxon Mill - the one of the oldest buildings in Warwick.

It comes in pints?

All in all, it was a successful trip for M, & I didn't break Louis! So there's that!

M started the holiday by saying that Louis didn't need a haircut, but I think that pictures like this started to change her mind!

The main reason for being in the UK, of course, was to see friends & family, and it was great to see everyone, and possibly greater for them to see Louis! Here's a picture of Alan, M's dad, putting his old wrestling moves on a less than thrilled L.

I'm sure Louis didn't remember the house - he was only 14 months old the last time he was there! - but he soon made himself at home.

And here's a clue about something that came to Louis later in the holiday. He was clearly so excited that he took a bite out of the pattern!

More soon!

Summer holiday post number 1.

2011-09-04T21:00:00.002+03:00

Right - first post proper of the summer pics! (Also, I'm going to quit naming the posts by song titles for the next week or so. Once I've used 'Summer Holiday' by Cliff, I'm short of ideas!)

Again, this is two months after the fact, so some of the details might be fuzzy! But overall, it's mostly true. Louis tried to make a break for it on the morning of the flight, but Lalaine was equal to him!

The trip to the airport was OK, the flight was OK - Louis slept for about an hour on my lap after take off. (Most of these pics were taken by M, so they're mainly of L or me, sorry!) We checked into the Premier Lounge but no booze! Look how grumpy he looks upon hearing that news.

Louis was good on the flight, of course - he's a good boy. (You'll hear that a lot these coming posts!)

Although even we get to the point where we just want to stick a dummy in it! Gone are the days of chilling and thinking which film to watch!

Landed, picked up in Alan's new Citroen, and home. First full day, what did we do? Can't remember, really! But looking at the pictures, Louis helped us to unpack.

Then Louis & I went for a coffee/beer (or coffee&beer) in Warwick Square.

And then we went to Tescos. (Oh, the glamour!) Here's Louis jealously guarding his ham.

Also, £80 in a tank! Welcome to the UK! (More on the cars of summer later.)

And finally, Louis had a quick trip to the docs to try to fix a wheezy cough he'd picked up. He liked it - he got to play in the kiddies' corner.

More soon!

Hangovers.

2011-09-04T19:25:00.000+03:00

OK, back in Qatar. Last summer, Louis was smaller, more portable, and easier to placate with a shiny or brightly coloured object. This summer he was a little hellion, and as a result, I've not blogged since June! Sorry about that. I've got a folder on my desktop called 'New Blog Pics' - I put pictures in there before I write the post, and I edit the pics, change their size, photoshop 20lbs from myself, give everyone else bags under their eyes, you know. I sat down tonight to write a new post, and muck about with the photos form the summer, and food the following in that folder! They were all taken over two months ago, so descriptions might be a little thin, sorry! Reports on the summer will follow in subsequent posts!

Louis chillin'. Readin'. He loves his books, and I can get right behind that.

Ridin' on his trike.

Karen F. at The Ritz, at her leaving do.

And the end of year thing for M's department at Carlucchio's. Ambrose, Alison, Myra, Lynette & M.

At the end of last term we went over the other side of town to pick up a couple of pieces of furniture that M had bought from a teacher leaving DC. And there was a trampoline! Yay. Louis liked that.

And here he is on the way home.

And that's it for the old photos. The next post will be summer stuff, I promise!

Big Balls

2011-06-25T18:55:00.000+03:00

What a busy week. M. went out Monday to the Ritz, for tea with Karen from down the road, and then again on Wednesday to Carluccios on the Pearl (that's a clickable link, if you want to have a look!) with her department. Thursday night was quiet, and then on Friday night we went out to the Belgian Bar at the Intercon, and had a great time. Todd & Kara, Nigel & Jana, Chad & Heather, steak & frites, Leffe & Stella. ("These are a few of my favourite things...")

I'm growing a beard, for reasons of laziness.

Louis continues to be a charmer. He's had a couple of off nights, recently - too much wind on Thursday night meant that he was awake and in pain for 30 mins, until he ripped a wicked fart, and promptly dozed off, leaving M. and I to stare at each other in horror!

And I bought him a couple of balls, but they're too foamy and small, so all he does is carry them in his mouth like a well trained gun dog. Silly Monkey. We're looking forward to getting back to the UK on Friday & showing him off to everyone!

Ping Pong

2011-06-18T19:46:00.001+03:00

Lots of not much, recently, and I think the photos will reflect that! Louis has had a good week - he's been in excellent humour, and his company has been a pleasure. He's walking well, and laughing a lot. He's not talking much, or at least, not recognisable words, but he's making a lot of noise! He would love to be outdoors more, but it's just too hot, so Lalaine often walks him up and down the stairs, and he's sometimes waiting for me at the end of the day, in the hall.

Bonus pic of Louis smiling, just because.

He's always been a good looking chap, of course (like his dad), but some days, he's really good looking. He has handsome days, and very handsome days. Pesky biorhythms. I think his eyes might end up a little greyer than they are now, but that's OK.

Lalaine still takes him to music class on Wednesday. Here are a couple of pics - he does like it, and he's turned into quite a clapper! (Dan Robinson in the 'Diego' tee, and Louis' in the second pic somewhere!)

He's also taken to sitting on my lap while I play my XBox. I'm going to have to be careful about the games I play, soon - no more Super-Killa Death-Master for me! Here, we're grinding my Fallout 3: New Vegas character by cleaning the Fiends out from Vault 34. (Is it just me, or did it just get a bit nerdy in here?) He presses buttons for me, kills my guy, and generally likes the noise and bangs. We're sharing quality time!

We went out on Friday for lunch at the Macaroni Grill (I had the steak - how did you guess?), and Louis was great, of course. Sat in the high chair, amused the waitresses, the usual. I spent most of the lunch drawing on the paper tablecloths with the crayons provided. Kept me quiet. (You can just make out the Monkey sketch if you click on this pic!) He was having a handsome day.

The in the afternoon, we went to Lulus for a coffee and a wander.

Outside was a flat black G55 Merc - lovely, but a dreadful choice of colour for Qatar. Did the owners miss that Physics class? *tut*

And last night there was an impromptu 'ping-pong' game round Chris C.'s. Good fun it was too, with too much to drink, and a late night. Didn't do so well at the game, but enjoyed myself. Heather with the host.

Nico & Heather.

Heather normally takes a dreadful pic, I don't know what... oh, here we go. That's more like it, Heather! (Hard to tell, but that's my Playboy shirt - it's covered with small reproductions of Playboy covers from the past 30 years. I use it to distract my opponents - they get lost in a nostalgic reverie...)

Christine & Barie.

And that's about it! I'm getting excited by the prospect of coming back to the UK soon. Really looking forward to it! See you all soon!

Walking on thin ice

2011-06-15T09:25:00.001+03:00

Just a quick post here, as I've just put another video of Louis up on the web - you should be able to see it below!

We were at LuLus, and he was feeling really confident, despite the very hard flow under his feet! He was having a proper wander around, and I was really proud of him!

Raindrops keep falling on my head

2011-06-11T20:05:00.000+03:00

A couple of things to report here! It was my school's graduation on Tuesday night, and very good it was, too. It was at the Hyatt, as we needed somewhere to seat 800 parents and guests, and I was wrangling the students backstage. Everyone looked very sharp, in their best duds, and the girls pulled out all the stops with their shoes. I don't have a fetish - in fact, I took fewer photos of feet this year than last! - but I couldn't resist photographing (with the student's permission, of course!) these Louboutins. Wow.

On Thursday night, we went out with Todd & Kara to a Thai restaurant on the Pearl, and very nice it was too. We had a load of mixed starters, and then I had the steak - I was unsure how steak at a Thai restaurant would work out, but it was lovely. Add a couple of bottles of red, and a couple of 2-for-1 meal vouchers, and it all went swimmingly. Mixed starters.

My steak!

Here's Kara reacting in horror to something rude that M. has said. (Or maybe it was me...)

I had either a good pic of Todd with me looking rough, or visa versa. So I went with Todd looking good. He needs all the help he can get, you know, at his age...

And all four of us.

Todd drove, mainly to show off their new (or rather, Kara's new) Mercedes. Very nice. (I like to think that I chose to have Louis, rather than a new Mercedes. And I made the right decision! Honestly!)

And then on Friday, we had an impromptu not-pork party, with Jannie, Ben & Helly, plus their two. It was lovely - not-bacon, not-sausages, not-ham & chorizo, real enjoyed it. We had a couple of beers, and some fizz, and the afternoon just disappeared in a fun haze. Thanks for coming round, folks.

Here's Louis with a dashing Daniel running in front of him like a ghost.

And Ben wrangling the older boys. He does make Louis laugh!

Confession time - I was wrangling Louis out of the bath last night, and he was in my arms in the hall, and I was trying to... well, I don't know, but he was wet, and he wriggled, and, well... I dropped him. Oops. It was like trying to hold onto a wet, wriggly fish, and I couldn't. I did manage to stick a foot out and break his fall (not to drop kick him!), but he now sports a fetching carpet burn on his bonce. Poor fella - sorry Louis!

Hopefully he won't remember. Good job there's no permanent record of.... wait, whoops.

On a holiday

2011-06-08T20:17:00.000+03:00

This is the first post for June - sorry it's taken so long to sort out, but it's been an an odd combination of quiet & busy here. Quiet means that there's not much to report, busy means that there's no time to report it!

A couple from Lalaine as a starter - she's been playing around with a photo tool on Facebook. Here's one she made of Louis. He's always been a popular boy!

And here he is, waking up the neighbours trying out his new Crocs. They're a little big for him, but he'll grow into them, I'm sure! Very dapper, very green.

Big thing this weekend was M. going over to Dubai with some of the girls on a shopping/drinking trip. lovely - envious. She went last Friday morning, very early (thanks!), and came back on Saturday night. That left me wrangling Louis all weekend which was fun, but tiring, of course, and has left me with a re-found respect for single parents! M. had great fun in Dubai, bought loads of stuff, and really enjoyed herself. Which was the point. Here are Myra, Lynette and Alison.

This week has been warm - it's really too hot here now. Looking forward to getting back at the start of July (not that far away now...)

I've had a couple of things this week - both the graduation of our Grade 12s, and the leavers' dinner. They threw the mic to me at the leavers' dinner to 'say a few words', and I think I managed to avoid embarrassing myself. (I asked Steve B where the good photos of me were, and he said that this was the good photo of me.) Suit by Jesse & Victor, Bangkok. (Really!)

Completely unconnected to M.'s trip to Dubai, have you noticed how fake p0rk products are getting more and more realistic?

Marvellous.

Every morning, now, as I go in to get Louis up, I take the camera - I want to catch him standing up, rattling the bars of his cage with his tin cup. Not yet, though - here he is, just peering through.

Went out tonight to LuLus for a quick coffee, and to give M. a few minutes off. Here he is before, giving mum a hug.

And during, running around the coffee shop.

And at the end - he may look thoughtful, but he's actually having a poo. That's why we came home when we did!

We're ready to come home to England now.

Video kid

2011-05-31T20:05:00.000+03:00

Last one, honest!

One more time

2011-05-31T19:43:00.000+03:00

OK, maybe one more quick post this month! Nothing here more that Lalaine's photos of Louis. It's lovely to come back home, open the camera and find all these bits. Thanks Lalaine! Seem to be two sessions here. (Of, sorry - Monkey news - he's not been sick in a week or so, sleeps though 70% of nights, and is a cheeky little chappy!)

Hey ladies.

Alright, I'm off.

And here he is again, on the same sofa, checking out his toys.

He's a good boy.