Category: Life

I am an uncle! Again!

From Indy in Auckland: “Just a quick email to let you know that we had our second baby today 05/10/07. Carys Ushani Silva was born at 0917am (NZST 🙂 ) and weighed 2.83Kg”

Thing is, I was tempted to get home and buy a flight to Auckland as I knew the second nipper was due in October, just not when. Money, however, kicked in as a factor. As did the fact that Lou’s ****** off over there just before I got back to the UK and I don’t want to end up seeing her there with her part-time boyfriend.

But **** that.

*bounces* I is an uncle! Sod tradition, family trees and actually having to be related! Congratulations to all involved and for crying out loud, take a break before the next one…

What do *you* want?

Lola has a very good post on her blog today. Deep, insightful and honest. It lists what she looks for in a partner, what she hopes to find and why she looks for these properties and characteristics.

I replied to her post and I agree with pretty much everything she put. I reckon almost everyone I know would look through it and say “yup… I agree” to most of her criteria. Thing is… is that all it takes? Bar the magic “spark” that changes a friendship into a good relationship, is it possible to just tick boxes and go “you’ll do”?

The only one I’ll add to her list is “Must want children… and fairly soon”.

I won’t rip her text off. Please visit the link and have a look. Comment there or comment here.

Visiting the Houses of Parliament

All in all, it’s a bit of a ballache. In Australia, you just arrive sometime before 4pm and you get a nice, free guided tour for about 45 minutes. In the UK, there are different rules depending on where you come from, when you visit, what you want to see and whether you’re buddies with a Lord or not.

Non-UK citizens can only visit (for a fee) during the summer period. UK people, however, can visit all year round at no cost… but have to have their visit arranged by their MP or a Lord. Because we all know the local Lord, don’t we? And our MPs really do have nothing better to do than sort out day trips. No, really. They don’t.

My problem is that I want to go in about a week and a half, which could be short notice. Also, I want to go with a foreigner. So can they get in now it’s not summer even though I’m accompanying them? And do they have to pay if they can? And who is my MP seeing as I don’t have a residential address in the UK?