St David's Day Concert

Jack's Primary School had their St David's Day concert today. What are they telling us these days? To take on some of the culture of the country that we immigrate to, to learn its history, the language and so forth? Jack's certainly doing that, but there's still something very wrong about putting him in a red rugby shirt.

If you didn't spot him, he's wearing a dark cap, waistcoat and a daffodil.

3 months old

Annabel was weighed at 7lb 7oz yesterday, making her now (at 3 months old) about the same weight Jack was when he was born!

Podcasts

Sheesh. You really shouldn't listen to your own podcasts several weeks after you recorded them. It's way worse than reading typos in your submitted manuscripts.

Teaching next Monday

I feel a little (only a little) contrary in saying this, but I'm looking forward to teaching on Monday.

Teaching on Monday mornings can be tough, in that you may not have had enough time in the previous week to prepare exactly as you would like, so Sunday afternoons and/or evenings get eaten up by textbooks. Getting your head ready to teach a part of the body that you don't normally spend much time looking at in any detail as your very first task of the week can be very hard, especially as I can't take my usual soluble Monday a.m. stimulants (coffee) into the anatomy labs. And we teach for about 3 hours. Add to that the very busy first term of the first year and the huge amount of anatomy that we teach in 14 consecutive weeks that is then followed by the first exam before Christmas, and the current break we get from anatomy teaching in term two becomes very welcome.

Teaching is fun though, and it is always nice to have time to spend preparing, learning, and teaching. It's a very good exercise for me, and it gives me opportunity to spend time with my textbooks to better understand human anatomy (I warned that I was feeling contrary). My first degree was Anatomical Sciences, and I chose it because I was very interested in the subject. That has never changed, although my interests have become more specialised.

The students are very bright, enjoyable to work with and can be challenging some mornings (which is a good thing, I promise). Those qualities raise my own expectations, as although it will be many years yet before I really have a thorough recall of the major proportion of anatomical knowledge, as a teacher one always tries to appear as though one really does deserve to be standing at the front of the room.

So on to the kidney for next Monday. The kidney? Oh damn, I hate teaching the kidney.

My ball bag

I'm reaching a milestone in beginner golf. I'm actually wearing balls out playing with them and retiring them to my practice bag, instead of just losing them in bushes/ponds/ditches/trees/long rough/out of bounds/rabbit warrens/outer space!

Practice, practice, practice

Practice makes permanent?

Homework

Jack's getting a little bit of homework now. He's practicing writing letters and numbers.

First smile

I got my first smile yesterday! A proper, full face, looked me in the eye, not-wind-at-all, happy girl smile. Awesome.

Bye bye Daddy!

Bye bye Daddy!, originally uploaded by samwebster.

It was a half term holiday for Jack last week.

A bit of sun left

A bit of sun left, originally uploaded by samwebster.

Wintry, sunny evenings on the Gower.

It's cold outside

It's cold outside, originally uploaded by samwebster.

Valentine's Day

I hate Valentine's Day. I'm not sure why, but I feel a strong loathing for this day in the calendar. It all feels so.... forced.

Talking of forced, Jack is flying around the house with his lightsaber, pretending to be various Jedi and/or Sith, like the bloody infamous Star Wars kid.

Balding

Balding, originally uploaded by samwebster.

Annabel has been slowly losing her hair. She's getting thinner on top and fluffier around the sides!

11 weeks old

She's slowly getting bigger! I'm thinking about starting a 365 day Flickr self-portrait set (except that it would be 366 days, as 2008 is a leap year). It's tough to do it well, but might make me think a bit more. I take thousands of photos of other people, but few of myself (like this one).

Yaaaaawn

DSC00728.JPG, originally uploaded by samwebster.

Lego Pro

legoshirt_home_svw_009, originally uploaded by samwebster.

Apple OS Upgrade

On my return to work from paternity leave I found a box on my desk. It's an Apple upgrade.

Leopard! Very pretty. Let's see what's new then... Lots!

Paternity leave photos

Getting Jack a haircut. His first time with clippers was tickly!

Dad out with Annabel.

Bathing the bunny.

Paternity leave

I'm off work this week, quietly enjoying some paternity leave. I know, it's a bit late, but I took holiday leave when Annabel was born and it was so early that I hadn't filed the paternity leave paperwork yet.

Annabel is 9 and a half weeks old, and was weighed at 2.58kg (5lb 11oz) yesterday.