Goodness this mobile phone business is starting to get me down. I've just spent 2.5 months clearing the debt that was registered on my credit report from leaving the country 3.5 years ago in the erroneous belief that my old mobile phone account had been closed. I finally get the letter through this morning that says I'm in the clear, go straight online to order my phone and still get rejected. When I phoned Equifax I was told that our flat is not registered with them. They have every other flat in the building but not ours. Which means that they're going to have to query our address through the country council and will register it when they receive confirmation that I actually live here. This, they said, was likely the cause of the rejection.

It wouldn't be such an issue (I've been without for so long I've almost got used to it), but the nursery only has my home phone number to get in touch in the case of emergency, which doesn't make me particularly comfortable. They also have Roj's work and mobile numbers but a) I know how difficult it is to get hold of him sometimes and b) he's in China next week, so there's no relief there either. Just hope we can get it sorted out by the weekend.

Blockette's wedding on Saturday was FAB. She looked absolutely gorgeous and there were some really great people there, not least some of the girls I saw at the hen party the previous weekend. It was also a bit of a toddler creche, which made taking Jody easy. It helped that she was brilliantly behaved throughout. She'd napped in the car for 3 hours on the way up so by the wedding she was raring to go (a little too hyper in the church maybe). The reception was held mostly outside in a place with big lawns for her to run around on, and at 7:30 when dinner was about to begin we were able to ask the hotel staff for some quiet space to put her to sleep. Luckily there was a perfect curtained little cubby hole off the bar so after 15 minutes of calming Jody was snoring happily. And continued to do so for the next 4 hours through rowdy drinking, band music, dancing and fireworks! She even went happily back to sleep in the hotel later on despite seeming like she was ready to face the new day. Perfect arrangement.

Sunday we took Jody to a petting farm with a huge jungle gym which Roj enjoyed at least as much as Jody (ignoring the 'this area for under 3s only' sign), then went on to a barbeque at Blockette's parents' before braving the 3.5 hour trip home. We were all happy but exhausted when we got back.

Monday the tilers were in, despite this being holiday time for the construction company (I bought many biscuits to appease). It was also the first full day that Jody was at nursery which was more harrowing for me than for her. She doesn't eat well there, so I take her at 9 after a good breakfast here, and treat their 3:45 dinner as an afternoon snack, giving her a proper dinner at 6 before bed. She does, however, drink milk from a bottle while she's there, which is more than she's ever done for me! She has also, they tell me, made a little 2-year old friend called Adrienne. When they have outdoor play time together they rush up to each other and hold hands and Adrienne goes around the staff introducing her best friend. They also sit on the steps together cuddling. How cute is that!

I have now spoken to all the necessary nursery staff about the reason for our hasty departure. In fact the manager was extremely understanding. She said she went through exactly the same thing when she put her two children in the system and found that the only way she could be comfortable was by joining them. One way to get yourself involved I suppose (and something that has certainly crossed my mind these last few weeks, if only fleetingly). I still feel that it's the right decision to take Jody out. I feel very strongly that it should be me looking after her, not anyone else, at least until she's a little bit older. But the strength of last week's feelings has waned a little and I actually think the place is pretty damn good now. Everyone is unbelievably friendly and welcoming. Every staff member (and there must be at least 25) knows who I am and knows who Jody is, and even the atmosphere in her room seems to be more positive than I initially thought. However I still maintain that such rigid structure and discipline has no place in the life of a one-year-old who's experience should be limited only by danger. I am still happy with my decision.

We're off to Bournemouth on Friday evening to visit Will, Pippa and Rosie for 24 hours. It was supposed to be the whole weekend, but Roj's work trip to India and China threw some spanners in the works. Instead we'll return in time for me to go to Madeleine's hen party on Friday night (a more understated affair this time around), and get Roj to Heathrow Sunday morning. I am taking Jody out of nursery in the middle of the day on Tuesday and escaping to Shropshire for a few days with the grandparents (no point in hanging around here). I'm also going to pop by Camilla's on the return to London for some good girlie time. The longer I can be out of the flat with its ungrouted tiling and un-plumbed sinks the better. Oh, and also I've bought a childseat for Jody which we'll hook up to my mum's bike while I'm in Shropshire to get three generations cycling together. Scary thought.

Nursery strife continues. Jody went in yesterday for 1.5 hours and today for 3. My reservations haven't really decreased but I have to say in defence of the nursery that every single staff member is friendly, welcoming and efficient. It just seems to be the overall approach that is not agreeing with my philosophy. Stern discipline certainly has its place in the life of 3 and 4 year-olds but you can't expect to teach a one-year-old the pros and cons of social graces. I took Jody in yesterday at morning drink time and she sat down with the other toddlers on the floor to sup some water. However, when she'd had enough and decided to get up to roam around, the nursery nurse physically forced her to sit down saying "no you can't play with the toys until you've sat here and had your water like the others." Jody is one for goodness sake. It's altogether too disciplinarian and too much like school. The only boundaries I want to put down for her are ones of danger and harm. I don't want anything about social graces enforced on her, or any imposed structure (you can't play with that toy now because it's not toy-playing time). It's too complex and too negative. And that's just the way I feel.

Hence I have given my two month's notice and Jody will be staying only until 21 September. I will have to see how they treat me (and her) tomorrow but I think it's a professional enough place not to be petty. Hopefully she can have a relatively enjoyable couple of months, I can get some house-decoration done and at the end of it all we can just see it as a learning experience (I will certainly know which questions to ask next time around).

There isn't much other news. The nursery issue has been consuming my life these last couple of days and will probably continue to do so until my mind is more at peace about it. The deputy manager has phoned me for my feedback and the manager is also likely to get in touch in the next day or so. Which reassures me slightly, as they are obviously concerned about the reasons for the rapid departure. The deputy manager made hints about 'talking to the girls' but I'd hate to make things awkward for Jody in there, so I'd rather they didn't. It won't change my mind anyway.

Will have 5.5 hours to myself tomorrow while Jody's at nursery for lunch and afternoon nap. I'm not holding out much for the nap because she generally needs quiet and calm (neither to be found frequently in a building full of kids), but they may as well try. Not yet sure what I'm going to do because the house will be full to the brim of builders (at last) so hanging around here is not really on. It looks like I may well have to mope in the park all day, if the weather holds out.

Looking forward to Blockette's wedding on Saturday. It'll be a bit of a trek to get to the Brecon Beacons but worth every minute. Can't wait to get out of this building site - and in fact this city - and see some green stuff.

Happy Birthday Morfar.
 
I've just come back from taking Jody to her first introduction to life in a nursery. Just one hour long and with me in the room, but nursery nonetheless. The place seems OK although it stinks of school dinners. And the other kids in her room seem happy enough, but unfortunately her 'key worker' seems to be the most negative woman on the block. She's nice enough but every other word she utters to the kids is a very stern 'no'. And it's not even 'no we mustn't do that because we'll hurt ourselves,' it's just a plain and simple 'NO'. And what's more, she's teaching bad habits straight away by saying to one of the kids 'don't touch that paper, it's mine.' Talk about encouraging the classic 'it's mine' syndrome. I'm totally unhappy about abandoning Jody to that environment, particularly as Roj and I have been trying to practise positive parenting where you don't say 'no' until Jody is in danger or might hurt herself. Of course she needs to know that there are some things she can't do but there are other ways of explaining it to her, where she isn't coming up against negativity all the time. Added to which the mealtimes in the nursery are going to play havoc with her regular routine. 11:30 and 3:45 as opposed to 12:30 and 5:30. Doesn't sound like much, but it'll just confuse matters for the rest of the week. Can you tell how happy I am about this? I'm going to have a word with the nursery manager tomorrow about the methods of discipline, but if nothing is done about it I'm going to have to think hard about whether to put Jody in there at all. I'm not giving her up for two days per week if I don't feel totally happy about it. She's just too precious.
 
On a brighter note, I did have a fab weekend. Blockette's hen party on Saturday was excellent. A picnic in a garden in Hammersmith followed by horse riding in Richmond Park (my bum is still suffering!), then cocktails and dinner at another house in Baron's Court. Didn't drink much but it was a late night so I was suffering a bit on Sunday. Met lots of lovely gals and really enjoyed seeing Blockette looking stunning and bridal. Can't wait to see her walk down the aisle this weekend. It was really the first time I've left Jody with Roj for such a length of time, and certainly the first time I haven't been on hand to put her to bed. Apparently she screamed a little in anger, but only took 10 minutes extra to go to sleep. Sounds like the dawning of a new era to me.
 
Sunday we attempted to find some bathroom accessories for our soon-to-be newly fitted bathrooms. We've got fairly traditional taps but all the traditional accessories (mirrors and towel rails and stuff) were too twee and twiddly so we ended up with nothing. Surprise surprise. Still it's hard to imagine what we need when our bathrooms still look like building sites and the plumbers are nowhere to be seen (despite the fact that the boss man says everything will be done by the end of this week).
 
Yesterday we went to our last ever Monday toddler group which was quite a sad occasion. The girl who runs it did say she thought Jody was growing out of the group though, and it's funny to see her become the most advanced in the group after being one of the smallest when we started. These babies grow up so quickly!
 
In the afternoon we went on a hat search for the wedding this weekend. A visit to Hats Plus on Kings Cross Road was a complete waste of time. The place was a complete dive, the hats were stacked on top of each other and grubby and dented, and the proprieter spent 10 minutes telling me that it didn't matter if a hat didn't fit me. It could perch on top of my head and he'd put a bit of elastic around the back of my head to keep it on in a gust of wind. Clearly desperate for sales.
 
Feeling despondent we returned via House of Fraser where we found a fantastic big hat. Spent 25 minutes talking to the assistant too which paid off in the extra 20% she took off (on top of the 50% sale reduction) for minimal make-up spoilage. Ended up with a rather posh hat at a very good deal. It's a little small for me (my head is as averagely sized as the rest of me), but I have plans to sort that out easily. Very excited to have found something as I was going to feel under-dressed alongside the fellas in military atire this Saturday.
 
Have received two more wedding invitations in the post the last few days and another one on the way. All in September unfortunately, so something will have to give. It's lovely to see so many people tying the knot though. I, for one, can thoroughly recommend it.

We are still living in a heap of dust, but the bathrooms are slowly getting there. I pick the last of the tiles up tomorrow morning and the men should be back next week to sort the last of it. The latest in the saga was that we seem to have ordered the wrong size shower cubicle. 700mm instead of 760. I suppose we should be grateful it was too small, not too big, because the plumber says he can extend the whole space and use what we've got. Bathstore won't take back the one we bought so we'd be looking at a losing £600 or so if he couldn't. Lets just hope it doesn't look too much like a bodge job.

They haven't been here the last couple of days and it's been blissful to have the place to myself. Not that I've spent the time clearing up or anything - what's the point when the tilers will be filling the place with adhesive dust all of next week.

I took Jody to jungle gym at Seymour Leisure Centre yesterday for the first time. She loved the pools of balls and climbing up the squidgy ladders, but wasn't so sure about climbing the netting. And nor was I for that matter! Definitely a good thing to do when the weather's being English.

Off to a hen party on Saturday, which will include horse riding in Richmond Park. Nothing like cocktails and a posh dinner when you smell of sweaty horse is there? Yes I'll be taking a change of clothes but horse is one of those smells that lingers, isn't it?

Otherwise I expect it'll be more household maintenance at the weekend, although there's not much painting to be done while there's so much dust around. I also have to get stuck into the little bit of work I have on, which is a necessary evil. Lets hope I remember what I'm supposed to be doing.

And maybe I'll even get round to downloading some of the photos I've taken in the last couple of months. I haven't been as lazy as appears, in that respect.

And that's it. For now, anyway.

Lots afoot. 'Scuse the silence.

We got back to London yesterday to find the whole flat under a blanket of dirt and with both bathrooms in unusable chaos. Tried avidly to get in touch with someone with house space to escape to and was made to realise how out of date my phone book is (don't need many UK phone numbers when you're living in New York) so ended up putting up with the mess and lack of amenities. Also found that the workmen had been using Jody's cot as a workbench so it was all scratched up on one end, which makes me mad. Speaking to the boss man this morning to find out exactly what's happening and when we can expect to have our lives back. He's already fed me a string of excuses so I'm not optimistic.

Our Abersoch week was great though. Really relaxing. Seems like we had the only good weather in the UK during the week - we only had one substandard day and the rest of the time luxuriated on the deck and the beach with crap magazines and cake. Managed to make Jody's curtains though (won't be able to put them up for a while but still) and will be making a matching chair cover this week if I get round to it. Had Nick and 6-months-pregnant Caroline to stay for the final 24 hours and enjoyed that, despite overcooking the steaks. It was also Roj's birthday on Friday (Happy Birthday Roj) so did what I could to make that special (including buying a front disc brake for his mtb).

Jody loved the beach. Initially she was very wobbly on her feet but by the end of the week was quite an adept beach-runner. She loved getting in and out of sandy holes, destroying Roj's sandcastles, and paddling (but not beyond waist depth) and just enjoyed the space and freedom and feel of sand between her toes and in her mouth (eurgh!)

She now has at least 12 teeth. 4 molars have come through in the last few weeks and there are more just under the surface. Her fourth single tooth on the bottom has finally given her some symmetry and the remaining spaces are quickly filling up. Every time she gets a new tooth her face and expressions seem to change completely. She is fast changing from baby to child. She now says 'light' and knows 'nose' and 'eye' and other words from time to time, though her only real spontaneous talking is still 'tickle tickle'. She's endearing herself to everyone right now by giving big sloppy kisses on demand, which is a perfect antidote to the worst possible day.

She didn't sleep overly well in Abersoch. She's never really got used to those travel cots so by the end of our trip she was waking at 5:20am. This morning she woke at 5:40 but luckily drifted back off to sleep until Roj woke her at 7. Phew.

On the way out to Abersoch we broke up the trip at the grandparents' and dusted off our road bikes, sharing the 90-mile trip from Baschurch to Abersoch. My first half was only 40 miles and ended in just 5 miles of tough Welsh mountain uphill. Roj took the next 50 which started with at least double the hills so by the end of the trip he was really struggling. Nice to get on the bikes but I did get totally bored by 30 miles of bad-road-surface flat. Give me ups and downs (preferably off-road ones) any day.

Stayed at my parents' house on the way back from the beach and gate-crashed an advance 60th birthday dinner for my dad with my Danish grandmother and my very amusing Uncle and Aunt. Great evening but way too much wine consumed (particularly with subsequent disturbances of insommniac baby resulting in 4 hours sleep). Took a nice walk in the early morning though, which was vociferously enjoyed by Jody (surprised she didn't wake up the neighbours). Very nice to see the sun rising in midsummer countryside as I'm usually snoring too loud to notice.

Lots to do over the next few weeks. Jody starts her settling in week at nursery next week and begins her proper two-day week there on the 26th. I don't want to put her in, but with so much to do on the flat it will be worth it, at least for a while. I've also signed myself up for a small amount of work recently, which is clearly just going to hang over my head like a little raincloud. I was so keen once!

Penultimate Monday toddler group this morning. Jody won't be able to go once she's in nursery which is a bit of a shame but we'll still go on Fridays. Am also determined to start swimming sessions and jungle gym in the next few days. Anything to get us out of the chaos that our flat's turned into. It'd better be worth it in the end ...