Notes from England - Developments...Literally

Hi all,


Yep, I know it's been a long, long time since I've posted. But I've good reason! I've been a busy boy!



I've been at my new job for nearly five months now and I'm enjoying it. It's teaching me new skills and letting me use the ones I've already had - even now I've got no fewer than eight DELL PCs that need tearing into. You could certainly ask for worse jobs and you could absolutely find worse folks to work with. The team I work with are all very easy to get along with - which is half the battle at any job.



I've also been made permanent at work. I got the job as a means of filling in for a team member who was leaving on maternity leave, but have since been given 'permanent' status. So that's great!



Speaking of maternity stuffs, if you've not heard yet, the wife and I are pregnant and expecting our first child! Before I get any angry emails from any ladies let me just say that I fully understand that the actual pregnancy is almost completely down to my wife to deal with. But let's face it...boys, you'll back me up on this if you've been there...whatever the lady is going through, you'll get to know about it and have to try to help her through it as best you can. So being pregnant very much a 'couple' experience...it's just that guys are fortunate enough to get the easiest bits of the process from conception on through to delivery.



We're expecting on or around the 25th of April, 2008. As we're only about 15 weeks along as of tomorrow, and we don't go for our second scan until 19 weeks, we can't yet say what the sex is because we don't know! But, of course, we're just hoping it's healthy.


In the UK, (for all the US readers out there) the halth care available for pregnant women consists of a few different options. In our case, primary antinatal (pre-birth) care is handled by a midwife. We actually have a group of midwives, of which we've met two. They check on you at the local doctor's office where we attend for general health care, and they also come to your home and check up on you there both during and after the pregnancy. It's really quite amazing.


The main difference to keep in mind between the US and the UK is in the US, the nurses take care of you prior to giving birth, then the Dr comes in and hogs the glory by delivering the baby. In the UK, the midwife carries you through delivery as well - they're trained for your care from start to finish. Don't get me wrong, OBGYNs in the States are well talented and I don't mean to dismiss at all what they do. I'm only pointing out subtle yet obvious differences in approach.



We've got a new car as well. We've been thinking about a new one for a long time. Not only because I'm taller than the little wife and therefore don't fit into a Ka nearly as well as she does, but it's difficult to picture trying to raise a family in a car that size. So we've upgraded to a Seat Leon. Ours is bright red; it's a 2007 Mk. II, with the 'Stylance' trim. Very nice. Easily the best car I've ever had the pleasure to own. When choosing, it was down to the Leon or an Audi A3, but to be honest the A3 you were just paying for the name in the end as the two cars are so similar, sharing so many components - both belonging to the parent company VW.



Movies

Transformers - I won't pretend that I was a huge fan of the series as a child. I liked it, but saw very little of it. Still, what boy wouldn't love those toys? Cars and trucks that changed into giant friggin' robots and fought each other? It's a recipe for fabulousness!

Say what you like about Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg's live-action/CGI adaptation, but I was intrigued. Granted, the copy I saw was a bit...dodgy...but it was highly entertaining! Not only was it packed with action, but it had me laughing out loud and even had a moment or two which bordered on touching. Bordering, mind...never really getting there.

The film needed to pick up its pace at a few points, and I often felt the Transformers were there as a backdrop to a story about an adolescent trying to come to terms with his less-than-stellar life.

But the special effects and action, particularly in the final battle sequence, truly made up for it. 4/5

The Bourne Ultimatum - It was business as usual for Jason Bourne, but that's not necessarily a bad thing when 'the usual' is as action-oriented as the Bourne series has been. I've never read the books, and from all accounts that I've gathered from others, the films are dramatically different from the books. But I don't care - I like the films.

This third installment saw a continuation direct from the second, bringing home the reminder of the unfortunate demise of Bourne's love interest. Stopping at nothing to get to the bottom of what created him, this film focuses on answering lots of questions raised throughout the series. Those hoping to clean up loose ends will be pleased.

That having been said, I wouldn't say this film felt as 'fresh' as what we've seen from the series in the past - but that's difficult to pull off through a trilogy. (e.g. Spider-Man 3) 3/5

Books

Harry Potter (Book 1-5) I've read through the first five, and the only reason I've not finished the series yet is that we need to replace our copy of book 6, as it got damp and got chucked. What I can say is this: 1) as the books progress, they get more 'adult'. There's no way a that they're still 'children's books' by the time you get to book four, and arguably book three. 2) as they progress, the books get more dull. The films do a great job of cutting the crap. Case in point, The Goblet of Fire was often much more exciting as a film than a book - and it's not often you can say that. Don't get me wrong - the books are interesting, and the 'dull' bits actually work in book form and I wouldn't dream of putting those bits on film myself. But they're not the glorified bits of gilded paper that some make them out to be. They're fantasy books - and fairly good fantasy books at that. But you can tell when the author might have been having 'a bad week' at writing and when she really had her shit together. Makes one wonder how she'll fare with her new 'detective' novel. Overall for the series thus far - 3/5

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson at his best. If you know Bryson, you know exactly what I mean. If you don't, you need to get started. (May I recommend Notes from a Small Island or Notes from a Big Country as a starting point?) Bryson speaks of his childhood, growing up in the 50's in Iowa in the USA. And even if you're much younger (as I am, having grown up in the '80s/'90s) the humour is still fantastic because you can see your parents and grandparents in the stories he spins, and some of the stories are timeless. Such as when he makes a game of dropping M&Ms into people's bowls of tomato soup in a cafe 4 stories below...any kid, no matter what decade, would love that.

It's not often I read a book that makes me laugh so hard it can keep my wife awake in bed next to me because I'm making so much noise and shaking the bed so much with chuckles. Bill reminds us that life needn't be complicated to be enjoyable. 5/5

That's all for now folks - there's work to be done.

Send your questions or comments!

~Jer