Oh dear, things haven't been turning out quite the way I thought they would.
The train journey was fine yesterday, if a little cramped. I didn't miss any connections and reached my destination almost on time. I was then picked up by my Mum and whisked off to see my heavily pregnant sister. She already has two girls (Rhiannah and Aleisha) who I love madly (I'm also Rhiannah's godfather). I took some footage of the 3 generations associated with me and then raced home so I could hang out with my old mate Alan.
I had been back for about 2 hours and in that time I had seen most of my family, eaten a chilli and was now sitting in a local pub sampling their finest draught Strongbow!! One thing that I find a bit curious about myself is that I don't drink. Well, when I say I don't drink I'm not talking 100% tea-total, I just drink on odd occasions and very much in moderation. In fact it is only when I am in Cheshire that I drink in the kind of quantities that could induce anything but a light buzz. We got to the pub at around 7:30 and were still happily quaffing at closing time. In those 4 hours we managed to get through something like 8 pints and two double shorts each. Afterwards Al and myself marched back to my parents place and chowed down on some beef jerky before Al (and here I quote) "got one on me" and buggered off home. My next recollection was waking up this morning with my headphones on, a brain melting hangover and a distant telephone ringing.
I had been aware that there was a phone ringing occasionally for the last hour or so and thought that it was probably some of my Dad's business clients trying to get hold of him. If that was the case then I would guess it to be about 10am and time to get up. I threw on some clothes and headed downstairs only to find it was 7:30am and my Dad's mobile was showing 5 missed calls. Now, for the more observant ones amongst you this could only mean one thing...
My Sister's water broke at 6:30am and her milkman husband Gareth was currently on his rounds. Whilst she was not having contractions, the water had been "the wrong colour" which meant that the baby had passed it's first motion and was now at risk of brain damage. Armed with this information I woke up my parents and within minutes they were racing to her aid. It's been a long agonising day in terms of waiting for news but I won't leave you hanging on - Mother and baby are fine. I am an Uncle again to yet another girl (Anastacia - proper spelling to follow).
Last night I had planned to update the blog on the train journey and surrounding adventures but I was hampered by two different problems:
1) I was legless
2) I couldn't get a dial tone on the modem!
It turns out that there was a fault on the line and had it not been for the invention of mobile phones my Sister would have been powerless to reach anybody close enough to get her to hospital. Whilst my folks were taking care of the hospital dash I made a call to the phone company and got an engineer out - hence me writing this lengthy entry.
Nearly fininshed - I just need to talk about what was and what is happening tonight. My friends have decided that since Tuesday is a "work night" we should have the birthday festivities tonight. The plan was that we were going to go to Liverpool and end up in strip club - not my idea - it's a guy thing - but I have decided that that might not the best idea in the world. I am still suffering from my hangover and I feel absolutely creamed so if I decide to throw a moody or whatever we would still have to travel all the way back from the scouse. What appears to be the plan now is to hang out in some local pubs and get shiznit-faced again. Ah, what the hell, you only live once and this fits in nicely with the 1/3-of-a-life crisis I am trying to have.
As I am not going to be around this evening (I'm staying at Rob's - another story there but it can wait) the next update will be tomorrow - eyesight allowing!
The train journey was fine yesterday, if a little cramped. I didn't miss any connections and reached my destination almost on time. I was then picked up by my Mum and whisked off to see my heavily pregnant sister. She already has two girls (Rhiannah and Aleisha) who I love madly (I'm also Rhiannah's godfather). I took some footage of the 3 generations associated with me and then raced home so I could hang out with my old mate Alan.
I had been back for about 2 hours and in that time I had seen most of my family, eaten a chilli and was now sitting in a local pub sampling their finest draught Strongbow!! One thing that I find a bit curious about myself is that I don't drink. Well, when I say I don't drink I'm not talking 100% tea-total, I just drink on odd occasions and very much in moderation. In fact it is only when I am in Cheshire that I drink in the kind of quantities that could induce anything but a light buzz. We got to the pub at around 7:30 and were still happily quaffing at closing time. In those 4 hours we managed to get through something like 8 pints and two double shorts each. Afterwards Al and myself marched back to my parents place and chowed down on some beef jerky before Al (and here I quote) "got one on me" and buggered off home. My next recollection was waking up this morning with my headphones on, a brain melting hangover and a distant telephone ringing.
I had been aware that there was a phone ringing occasionally for the last hour or so and thought that it was probably some of my Dad's business clients trying to get hold of him. If that was the case then I would guess it to be about 10am and time to get up. I threw on some clothes and headed downstairs only to find it was 7:30am and my Dad's mobile was showing 5 missed calls. Now, for the more observant ones amongst you this could only mean one thing...
My Sister's water broke at 6:30am and her milkman husband Gareth was currently on his rounds. Whilst she was not having contractions, the water had been "the wrong colour" which meant that the baby had passed it's first motion and was now at risk of brain damage. Armed with this information I woke up my parents and within minutes they were racing to her aid. It's been a long agonising day in terms of waiting for news but I won't leave you hanging on - Mother and baby are fine. I am an Uncle again to yet another girl (Anastacia - proper spelling to follow).
Last night I had planned to update the blog on the train journey and surrounding adventures but I was hampered by two different problems:
1) I was legless
2) I couldn't get a dial tone on the modem!
It turns out that there was a fault on the line and had it not been for the invention of mobile phones my Sister would have been powerless to reach anybody close enough to get her to hospital. Whilst my folks were taking care of the hospital dash I made a call to the phone company and got an engineer out - hence me writing this lengthy entry.
Nearly fininshed - I just need to talk about what was and what is happening tonight. My friends have decided that since Tuesday is a "work night" we should have the birthday festivities tonight. The plan was that we were going to go to Liverpool and end up in strip club - not my idea - it's a guy thing - but I have decided that that might not the best idea in the world. I am still suffering from my hangover and I feel absolutely creamed so if I decide to throw a moody or whatever we would still have to travel all the way back from the scouse. What appears to be the plan now is to hang out in some local pubs and get shiznit-faced again. Ah, what the hell, you only live once and this fits in nicely with the 1/3-of-a-life crisis I am trying to have.
As I am not going to be around this evening (I'm staying at Rob's - another story there but it can wait) the next update will be tomorrow - eyesight allowing!
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