For my birthday I was given a ticket to see Leonard Cohen. I am not one to get excited. A wry smile once in a while normally suffices. Yet I confess I am rather pleased about this forthcoming event (next week).It does however collide with a meeting of my tutorial group, and so on Tuesday evening just gone I phoned up my tutor and apologised in advance for my absence. I was informed that normally they would move the date if one of us couldn’t make it, but I had really not given enough notice. I am of course less than convinced about this, and more to the point, the tutorials really are not earth shattering events – while the chance to hear Leonard Cohen sing live – well that happens once in a life time!
Some examination of baby sites reveals that at birth my baby (well, all babies) are expected to be around 19-21 inches long. It’s a sentance that trips off the tongue fairly happily. It seems a reasonable length. Some people might even nod on hearing that figure and think to themselves, "yes, that sounds about right". To put this into perspective, however, a measurement can be made from the waist band of your trousers to your collar bone – on me this is 20 inches. So if I had a baby standing up inside me, it would in fact take up all the space in my stomach and chest. I would need to remove such things as my rib cage and my heart. Now I know its curled up, I am aware that its not standing up in the long suffering wife's stomach. I know it can't. Walking will take a while. It is however a little odd to think about, isn’t it? I mean.... If you had 20 inches of baby standing inside you it would have to kill you wouldn’t it? I know it can't. Look I'm not crazy. But seriously. If it could stand up….
In other news I have an essay due in on the 15th November. I have started it…just not done much on it. Now that I have started it I am realising that its not one I can just knock out in an afternoon. Hmm. If I don’t make it to the deadline – do you think they will accept an explanation of "I was busy thinking about babies standing up?"
Yours as ever,
The Broken Man
Showing posts with label deadlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deadlines. Show all posts
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Monday, 14 July 2008
DON'T PANIC
I had a very busy day ahead of me with a big project needing to get out the door tomorrow morning; it was going to be solid work from the moment I got in. As I stepped into my office my phone rang. My wife told me in tears that she was bleeding. I told her to keep calm, phone the maternity hospital, and that I was on my way. The journey home is 30mins. As I drove I begged God that my wife and the baby would be okay. I felt angry; God better not dare let anything happen to them...I think if you are going to try and get aggressive with someone it might as well be a being who is a lot bigger than you and owes you nothing! As I drove my prayer changed, and I asked not that my wife and baby would be okay, but that at least my wife would survive, that I couldn’t bear to lose them both.
12mins later I pulled up to find her standing outside in tears. She got in the car and we headed to the hospital. By now I was as white as her and asked her to tell me exactly what was happening...and she told me she had had some spotting. My sense of relief was incredible. When she had said bleeding, through her tears, I thought the worse. Spotting is normal. By now we were on the way to the hospital and, as we went, I tried to calm her, my driving now returning to a normal speed. When we got to the hospital she was given an examination, we listened to the baby’s heartbeat and breathed a sigh of relief. After she had calmed down a bit I dropped her home, and went back to work. By now it was 11am and I had lost a big chunk of my day. By 5pm I was frantic about the work that wasn’t going to be ready and that I was going to need to work till 7.30pm when the building is locked up. I then received a call saying the client was not collecting the manuals I was working on until Friday, so was able to sit down catch my breath and then go home.
It’s easy for me to think about the scare, the fear, the uncertainty, all the emotions that I went through, but perhaps I should be focusing instead on my healthy wife, healthy baby, and a deadline that I can now meet without killing myself.
Yours as ever,
The Broken Man
12mins later I pulled up to find her standing outside in tears. She got in the car and we headed to the hospital. By now I was as white as her and asked her to tell me exactly what was happening...and she told me she had had some spotting. My sense of relief was incredible. When she had said bleeding, through her tears, I thought the worse. Spotting is normal. By now we were on the way to the hospital and, as we went, I tried to calm her, my driving now returning to a normal speed. When we got to the hospital she was given an examination, we listened to the baby’s heartbeat and breathed a sigh of relief. After she had calmed down a bit I dropped her home, and went back to work. By now it was 11am and I had lost a big chunk of my day. By 5pm I was frantic about the work that wasn’t going to be ready and that I was going to need to work till 7.30pm when the building is locked up. I then received a call saying the client was not collecting the manuals I was working on until Friday, so was able to sit down catch my breath and then go home.
It’s easy for me to think about the scare, the fear, the uncertainty, all the emotions that I went through, but perhaps I should be focusing instead on my healthy wife, healthy baby, and a deadline that I can now meet without killing myself.
Yours as ever,
The Broken Man
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