38 Weeks

The kiwi classics of bacon and egg pie, honey crunch, ginger crunch, lamingtons and lolly cake made up my UCS morning tea leaving shout.

37 Weeks

Since finding out little Goldie is in a breech position at our 34 week scan, I've been trying everything to get her to turn around, including various yoga inversions which I've been doing every day, not much fun with a big belly.

36 Weeks

35 Weeks

As it was half term, Tim and I took off for a spa break in Kent, possibly our last chance at a night away in quite some time!

Surprise Baby Shower

My baby shower at Bake-a-Boo in West Hampstead was sneakily organised by the girls at work and Kirsty and Pam who lured me out on the guise of wedding dress shopping.  It was such a surprise and a lovely afternoon during which Goldie and I were thoroughly spoilt.  Thanks girls xx

34 Weeks

Although I am no longer officially running, I still manage to get out once a week with the school running  club.  Estelle, Lee and I started this last year with only a handful of boys, we are now taking anywhere up to 20 kids for a run on Hampstead Heath every Wednesday after school.  These days I tend to plod along at the back, but it's good fun to be out there and the boys are very impressed that I still manage to join them!  One of the boys said to me this week, ''Wow Mrs Strange, your baby is going to be very fit!''

33 Weeks

Lee from school organised a girls day out to see the ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.  It was the Royal Ballet Company's first official performance of their new season of Swan Lake, a special matinee mainly designed really for children and families.  They had all the costumes on display before the show and the make up and costume teams on hand to talk to people about their work. During the intervals they left the curtains open while they explained each set change and how all the lighting and technical bits worked, pretty amazing stuff.  The actual show was magical and a real treat at only £5.  I'm going to miss London!

32 Weeks

We had Ine and Rudi from Amsterdam visiting for the weekend.  It was a good excuse to act as tour guides and see a bit of London, something we rarely do these days.  Saturday we wandered the South Bank checking out the food markets and a tour of the Tate Modern before heading to Brick Lane for a bargain curry meal.  Sunday we took a leisurely stroll through the Heath on our way to the Camden Markets before ending our day at Brew Dog, a really cool bar that serves up all manner of boutique ales.  A fantastic weekend.

31 Weeks

Giving visitors Ine and Rudi a tour of UCS.

30 Weeks

Choosing a costume for this weekend's Berkofest music festival, this one is a definite no!

A Sneak Peek

It's amazing what you can get on Groupon these days!  We got to have a sneak peek of little Goldie, aged all of 29 weeks.  It was an amazing experience and has made things feel so much more real for both of us.  I still can't get over how much of a contortionist she is, having spent most of the scan with her feet comfortably up around her head!

Paralympics

An inspirational evening at the Paralympic Stadium.

29 Weeks

28 Weeks

The Proms

My turn to plan date night, an evening at the Royal Albert Hall enjoying the very British institution that is the BBC Proms.  We had prime seats right in the centre and felt very smug watching all the those who only had 'promenade' tickets in front of us and had to stand while we reclined in comfort.

27 Weeks

Victims of Crime

Unfortunately our trip ended on a bit of a sour note, we were on the beach on our last day and our backpack was stolen from our sun loungers.  We ended up losing our two kindles, my phone and our camera, but were lucky enough that the rest of the stuff was found dumped over the fence of another hotel near the beach.  We think it must have been kids that stole it, as we were later able to recover the backpack which still contained various other items with Tim's wallet complete with 60 euros of cash and all his credit cards still in it!  Considering how much travel we have done in the last few years this has been our first incident of theft, so we've been pretty lucky really.  The most upsetting thing was losing all our holiday snaps on the camera, and being Spain the process of reporting it all to the police was a bit of a mission, but at least we are insured so should manage to get most of it back.

Independent at Last

While on holiday our days began to fall into a regular pattern of breakfast, pool, reading, swimming, lunch, beach, dinner and avoiding the really cheesy nightly entertainment at the resort!  So we decided to hire a car for a day and get out and explore some more of the island.  Although many of our photos were on the stolen camera, we luckily have a few to share taken on our big SLR.

First stop of the day was a visit to some amazing caves filled with stalactites and stalagmites   We took part in a tour which was mostly in Spanish as we were the only English speakers, so we began to dawdle towards the back, enjoying the peace and quiet away from the other noisy tourists.  Wanting to keep the group together, the strategy for getting us to hurry up was turning all the lights off on us, quite scary when you are so far underground!

After our cave adventure, next stop was a relatively quiet beautiful beach where we swam and enjoyed the scenery, far from any other English speaking tourists and fish and chip shops hurray!  We enjoyed a leisurely seafood lunch at a local restaurant, relishing the chance to eat non resort food!

That afternoon we took a drive out to a beautiful penisular with stunning views, before stopping for another swim on a secluded beach.  It was so nice to be independent for the day and discover that Majorca is not just a slice of Britain in the sun, but also has some beautiful authentic parts as well.

26 Weeks

This was taken at our new (much more central) resort in Alcudia.  I think it will be our one and only experience of a package holiday as it wasn't really our style, but it certainly made for a very easy, stress-free holiday which was what we were after.

Majorca

Unfortunately our small digital camera was stolen while we were away so we only have a few snaps of our summer trip to Majorca that were taken on either Tim's phone or our big SLR.   Initially we had not planned to travel much during the summer as we were both quite reluctant to stray too far from home soil and the good old NHS during the pregnancy.  However with everything going so well we decided to be brave and booked a 12 night all inclusive package holiday through a travel agent, something we have never done before as we usually prefer independent travel.

This was the first resort we stayed at on the island.  It was nice but a bit quiet for our liking so after complaining to our travel agent we only spent the first half of our holiday here before being moved to another more central resort in Alcudia.

World Famous in Coventry

The remaining tickets to Olympic events became very hard to get as the games went on, with millions of people trying to access the website each day to snap up seats as they became available.  In a moment of great excitement, Estelle thought she had been successful purchasing tickets to the Women's Football at Wembley, but it turned out after she had sealed the deal that they were actually for Coventry, a two hour train ride from London!  As we were both on school holidays we decided to go anyway, and were especially excited when we discovered that the semi final would feature France versus Canada!  Dressed in our French berets and stripy tops, it was a shame France didn't manage to win, but we did get interviewed by the Coventry Telegraph on our way out of the stadium!  Check out the full story below:

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2012/08/10/fans-out-in-force-for-last-olympic-football-match-in-coventry-92746-31589964/

25 Weeks

Taekwondo

One of the mums from school phoned me last minute with an offer of two tickets to the Olympic Taekwondo as she was unable to attend.  Having no idea of any of the rules it was quite an experience, but a fun afternoon out and awesome to sample another piece of Olympic action.

Macaroons

Tim's first attempt at these little beauties - vanilla, strawberry and coffee flavours - delicious!

Close Enough to Feel the Sweat

We managed to get tickets to the 20km Men's Power Walking, amazing stuff as these guys do it in just over an hour.  As they did ten 2km loops back and forth past Buckingham Palace it was pretty exciting and definitely an experience, being sprayed with sweat each time the athletes went past!

24 Weeks

The hypnobirthing book I am currently reading says that loud thumping music should be avoided while pregnant.  I choose to believe that Goldie actually enjoys the Body Pump classes we go to and I plan on keeping it up as long as I can.

A Day at the Olympic Park

We missed out on most of the Olympic tickets we applied for in the ballot, but we were able to buy £10 tickets which allowed us entry into the Olympic Park.  It was great to go along and soak up the atmosphere, the park is pretty impressive and it was fun to watch some of the events on the big screens.  What a year to be living in London!

London Aquarium

My turn to plan this month's date - a visit to the London Aquarium.

London 2012 Begins

Checking out the atmosphere in Trafalgar Square before heading home to watch the opening ceremony from the comfort of our couch!

23 Weeks

A walk on the Heath followed by brunch in Hampstead with Tim, I love the summer holidays!

Back to Blighty

Dinan Medieval Festival

La Bourbansais Zoo & Chateau

St Malo

22 Weeks

Dinan

You can't go wrong with a Lonely Planet recommendation.  We enjoyed a long, lazy riverside lunch in the lovely medieval town of Dinan.  Best moules frites ever and I even treated myself to a small glass of local cider.

Mont St Michel

Dinard

Bourseul

Sunday morning we arrived in Malo, picked up our rental car and headed straight for the accommodation we had booked for the week.  We stayed in a cute cottage in a tiny village called Bourseul and were made very welcome by the lovely English owners who lived next door.  They had left several bottles of wine in the kitchen and told us to make use of the expansive garden during our stay, which we did, enjoying a bountiful supply of strawberries, raspberries, potatoes, beetroot, tomatoes, beans and fresh herbs to accompany Tim's French inspired daily menus.  Our days all fell into a similar pattern, sleep-ins for me while Tim popped to the local patisserie for baguettes or croissants for breakfast, mornings spent exploring a different part of the region, followed by afternoons on the beach before returning to the cottage for an aperitif in the garden before a home cooked dinner.  A lovely relaxing break for both of us.

All Aboard

In the bar of the Bretagne ready to leave Portsmouth harbour on our overnight sailing bound for St Malo, Brittany.

A Red, White and Blue Extravaganza!

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Wraight, it was an honour to be part of your big day.

Last Day with Miss Couture

The day before the the big day was spent in full 'matron of honour' mode, setting up the venue and joining the extensive Couture entourage for a pizza evening, before spending a very restless night trying to sleep next to the bride-to-be!

Livin' on a Prayer

Woah, we're half way there!  The first half of this pregnancy has been pretty tough, but it's all seeming more real now we've reached the 20 week mark.  Check out the bump, although admittedly this photo was taken after a rather large dinner.  Will try to post a weekly pic from now on.

School's Out for Summer

The horrendous weather of the last few weeks didn't let up for the final day of school before the long summer break.  At the end of Prize Giving held at the Senior School it absolutely poured down, making for a hasty goodbye to the boys at midday before the staff escaped back to the Junior Branch for a celebratory lunch.

Asian Style

Inspired by our local dim sum restaurant we've recently discovered bamboo steamer cooking - really quick, easy and healthy.

Grease

Tim's turn to plan our June date:  Sing-along Grease at a cinema near Leicester Square.

French Field Trip

Second trip to Lille in a month, this time with a group of UCS boys in tow.