The Alice

PACKING! One week to go…

The last week involved a lot of soul-searching and decision-making for both of us; having been set on one path for such a long time and not expecting to deviate from it, Will’s redundancy was a big shock and really made us question our future.

Will was Head of Promotions at matter, a big music venue at the O2. We moved down to London two and a half years ago from Nottingham when he got approached to do this job – booking bands and DJs – and he was so good at it.

He worked ever so hard and a typical day would involve him leaving the house at 8pm and returning 12 hours later, plus there was the weekend work (9pm Saturday night through to 8am Sunday morning and often the same on Fridays, urgh). The perks of the job made up for the fact that we had limited time together, it really helped that for me most upsets can be cured with Laurent Perrier Rose. When I got pregnant I was worried that his job wouldn’t be so compatible with family life what with the long days and late nights, but it’s what he does, he loves his work and I didn’t want him to do a job he didn’t enjoy. Plus he’s always been a provider and has worked as hard as he can for our family – that’s just what he does.

When we got back from Greece to the news there was upset at his work, I truly didn’t believe it. There were murmuring about redundancies on the Monday and all was to be revealed at an all-company meeting on the Tuesday. When I got that phone call on Tuesday morning telling me he’d lost his job I literally fell over. I cried and felt sick. How were we going to cope? I knew he would get another job fairly quickly, but if he was out of employment for even one month it would make life incredibly difficult; he’s always been the breadwinner and we’d planned our finances so it would just about work for me to be off for 6 months maternity leave without earning. It’d be tight, but we could manage. I was terrified and had visions of having to leave my 8 week old baby to return to work (remember De Niro’s Mannery Gland in Meet The Fockers? That’s what Will was wearing in my deepest darkest nightmares).

We worked out we’d be eligible for some sort of housing benefits soon, plus tax credits and job seeker’s allowance so Will made an appointment to sign on.

Then he started getting phonecalls. He got offered a couple of events, and then some consultancy gigs. 2 weeks of work booking a venue in Liverpool, a Polish festival that needed a headline act. A London warehouse party, ongoing work with a record label. Suddenly it seemed silly for him to work for a company when he could be earning more money by cutting out the middle man and going out on his own. Will’s dad was a brilliant entrepreneur and his last wish was that Will used his skills to start his own business – the chain of events relating to Will’s redundancy kicked off on the day his Dad died and we can’t help but think that fate has played a big hand. We talked about it, and decided there was no time like the present for us to start a business.

The tenants who live in the house we bought 5 years ago in Nottingham coincidentally moved out a month ago, leaving us with an empty house and an extremely cheap mortgage (the only time low interest rates are good!). If Will’s working between the North and London it makes sense to be half way between the two, plus we’ll have more than enough space for an office for Will and a nursery for baby. So we’re moving back there as soon as maternity leave finishes and taking away our London rent removes a massive strain on our finances.

At first the thought of leaving London terrified me, but we haven’t been enjoying the city as much as we used to (and wouldn’t have been able to afford to once the baby came along). We’ll be returning to a city we know well and somewhere we have plenty of friends. When we found out we were having a baby one of my biggest regrets was that we wouldn’t be able to bring baby home to a house place we owned rather than rented and I am so pleased we are able to do this now.

Even better, Will is going to be working from home so will be around for cuddles all day rather than for a couple of hours in the morning; he won’t be missing bathtime and bedtime as we’d expected him to. He is over the moon at the prospect of being a more hands-on dad, and so am I. I won’t have any pressure to go back to work within a certain time frame and can concentrate on looking after our new family.

We’re going home, and I think it’s going to be the right thing for us. I can’t wait.

(and I’m not nervous at all at moving cities at 36 weeks pregnant, noooo not at all…)

Isn’t it a lovely looking house?

The living room.

We get a great view over Nottingham.

I haven’t had a dishwasher in over a year and I have to admit I am very excited to have one again.

I had such high hopes about my Sunday night post! I was going to write about the great weekend we’d had, despite my sinusitis we’d managed to see some good friends, eat some lovely food and enjoy some live music. We spent time with my parents, went to the baby show, decided on a pram and had a lovely lunch to celebrate my brother’s 23rd birthday.

However, come Sunday evening Norovirus hit the H household. It’s been a really horrid couple of days for both me and Will – I have lost 6lbs in less than 2 days – but today we’re both feeling a lot brighter. We’re under strict doctors orders to remain at home for 48 hours after our symptoms have gone as we’re so contagious, and despite my worries baby will be absolutely fine.

So my weekend round-up will follow a little later than expected, along with a ‘what’s in your bag’ post after being tagged for the first time by MetMum (yay!).

When Will got asked to interview for a job down in London, I didn’t think anything would changed He’d been asked to do the same a couple of times before and nothing had come of it so I was happy for him to give it a go. We were happy in our lives in Nottingham – we’d bought a lovely house 2 years earlier, had good jobs and lovely friends and in my heart of hearts I really didn’t expect that to change.

When he got the job it was brilliant – the best thing that could ever happened for his career. I was so proud of him, yet the stress of organizing a move across the country in 4 weeks was pretty full on. Naively, not knowing London’s housing market, we allocated one day to house hunting two weeks before our moving date and managed to see three flats. We took the second one we found in Kentish Town, a beautiful 2 bed garden flat, though rent was more than twice our Nottingham mortgage payments at almost £1,600 a month (OUCH).

We quickly learned about London and the different areas we were spending most time and subsequently lived in Shoreditch and Islington, where we were the longest.

When we found out we were having a baby, one of the first things I wanted to do was organise where we’d be living. Our flat in Islington was lovely, but only had one bedroom and no garden. Perfect for that time in our lives, as we spent most of our time in restaurants and pubs! But I knew that when baby came I would want a garden and extra room for a nursery. So we moved out to Muswell Hill, Zone 3, in January. A big move – moving away from our friends, work and the bars we were in so often really cemented the change we were about to make in our lifestyles. But we 100% made the right decision.

This place is going to be our baby’s first home so it’s really important that the it’s as homely as possible. I’m a real homebody and love being here – pottering round the house, cleaning, doing laundry… so I’ve got a huuuuuge list of DIY things that need to be done before the baby arrives.

We’re getting there, though; the area is lovely, there are tons of kids on our street and we really feel at home in this house:

The lovely interior glass paned doors were one of the things that sold me on this house.

Hallway table.

My favourite room… the bedroom! Faux fur blanket a gift from my parents.

Sun streaming in through the garden into the lounge – I can’t wait for summer…

* My sinusitis alongside a cold has been giving me real pain the last couple of days so I’ve been hanging out at home working from my sickbed. Urgh! Hoping to get out the house for dinner with Will at some point this weekend – and of course to The Baby Show on Sunday with him and my parents. I’m sure photos of the baby-overload will follow.

This morning, for some reason I woke up feeling very tired and grouchy. I got ready for work and started my day. I couldn’t shake the bad mood – work certainly didn’t help – and I came home still feeling tired and grouchy.

My husband got home early tonight, and did the washing up I’d neglected last night because he knew how tired I was. He called me at work to ask if I wanted him to start on dinner – I said no, because I’d promised pancakes for dinner (and I am the master of pancakes, I have a secret recipe and everything).

I got home from work and slouched on the sofa and had a crumpet and a cup of tea brought to me by my husband as a reward for my hard day. I watched what I wanted on TV, whilst peeling and chopping the apples for the filling of my pancakes. It turned out I was too tired to drag myself to the kitchen to make the actual pancakes so my husband did it, following the instructions I had written down for him. He painstakingly made and served my pancakes but let me put the filling in myself (knowing what a control freak I am, I like things done a certain way!).

He watched the Brits with me for the full 2 hours, and even engaged in meaningless conversations with me about the clothes, performances, the stage sets and who would win.

After that he went back to the kitchen and did all the washing up (though this could have also been an avoidance tactic as I wanted to watch One Born Every Minute). The kitchen is now pretty clean.

He is currently in the lounge at 11.30pm doing all the work he should have done this evening when he was looking after me.

This post is to remind me what a wonderful man Will is; I must stop letting my hormones get the better of me, stop being so grouchy and start remembering how very lucky I am to have him. When I get tired I have a habit of taking it out on him, especially now I’m pregnant, and I really dislike it. I will be a more understanding wife from now on.

* I must also remember last night, when Will escorted me to the toilet at my request. You see, getting up at 1am the night before I was sure there was a ghost in the bathroom and I was scared of going on my own again. I don’t even really believe in ghosts. Poor man.

We don’t really get into Valentine’s day in the H household; as much as I love the idea of a whole day dedicated to romances of the heart, Will is not so into the idea of “paying inflated prices to sit in a crowded restaurant full of other couples pretending to enjoy Valentine’s day” (his words). I usually get a couple of small gifts – I believe last year was a bottle of wine and some tulips – but this time I thought we should perhaps make more of an effort as this would be our last 14th Feb as a twosome.

Will took my jokey request of “a tacky teddybear holding a massive heart saying ‘ I love you’” (which was actually my first ever Valentine’s gift from my very first boyfriend age 10) a bit too literally. Guess what my present was?

Yup, a tacky teddybear holding a massive heart saying ‘ I love you’. And 2 cards!

In return, I got him the Godminster vintage organic heart-shaped cheddar:

I had bought him a great Valentine’s card that I was really pleased with, but can’t for the life of me remember what I’ve done with it, so had to improvise with a Mother’s Day card that was hanging round from last year:

I would blame baby brain, but apparently I can’t anymore…

Happy first wedding anniversary today to the best husband in the whole world!

It really doesn’t feel like 12 months ago that we said ‘I do’. And at the same time, it feels like we’ve been married forever.

What a year – I can’t wait for the next 70.

PS: a hectic weekend was spent moving all our wordly belongings 5.1 miles north to Muswell Hill. The new house is wonderful, all the SPACE is a revelation (garden! nursery! separate kitchen!). Sky was installed over the weekend but we won’t be online until the 22nd, so until them I’m limited to whatever I can squeeze in at work. Internet, I miss you!