Body Clock

So much to blog about today, I've had to write this in Notepad to amke editing it easier...

Well, last night I had the night in I've been after for the last 4 weeks. Spent some time helping to make a nice healthy dinner (salmon with a leek sauce), then had half an hour playing my recorders (just to keep my fingers moving), then spent half an hour on IRC, then another half hour scanning around the 2 metre band for signs of life. I blipped open GB3MX, as I haven't done so for a while, and a chap in Stoke-on-Trent came back to me, which was nice. I then decided to watch some Harry Potter. Sadly, my DVD player doesn't always like reading that DVD. I don't know why, it reads ok everywhere else, including on my computer, which is where I ended up watching it.

Before I finally went to bed, I rediscovered http://www.hiltonweb.co.uk/ which I used to read on a regular basis, but haven't had time to. I actually read quite a few blogs, as well as writing my own, and since I've known Dean and Krissy for some time (first year at uni in fact), I like to keep up with what they're up to. No idea if they do the same with me though :/

Other exciting news (well, for me at least) in the last 24 hours is that the cover the the nexy Harry Potter has been released. A picture can be found at http://www.mugglenet.com/viewer/?image_location=hbpchild.jpg - only 128 days to go before I cas get hold of a copy of the book, which no doubt, Shelagh will read first, because she reads faster than me!

Managed to go swimming this morning, for the first time in a couple of weeks. I keep forgetting how hungry I become after a morning swim! Anyway, I only managed 24 lengths - I'm feeling quite unfit at the moment, and my weight has crept up 6lbs over the last 6 weeks or so. I'm to get that back under control.

In 25 days time, I'll be 27. Not in itself a very significant milestone, but one that has been playing on my mind for some time. The problem with my 27th birthday is that the earliest birthday of either of my parents that I remember is my mother's 27th birthday, which was shortly after my 5th. Now while I accept that my parents married very young, and my sister and I followed very shortly afterwards, I can't help thinking that there's something missing from my life. I think I'd decided as far back as during my early teens that I'd like to have children, but I'd never thought when. What's not helping is that I've started dreaming about the birth of my first child. That "body clock" that everyone keeps talking about, and I've been dismissing for years, has finally awoken in me, and probably within the next 3 years it will probably happen.

I've spoken to Shelagh about this, and she still isn't in any particular hurry. Maybe because her parents were so much older than mine when she was born (12 years in fact). There are a few things that stand in the way, and a few conditions that need to be considered.

Firstly, call me old fashioned, but I'd like to marry Shelagh before we have any children. I'm pretty resigned to the fact I probably won't marry in a church - I can live with that - it'd probably make me less nervous anyway (and I get very nervous about these things).

Secondly, our house isn't big enough. Shelagh and I are rather cramped as it is, and children would make things much worse. The problem is, with house prices at their current level, there's no way I can afford to buy a bigger house.

Thirdly, Shelagh has always said that if we have children, we should have more than one. She hated being an only child, and despite my painful experiences of having a sibling, I can't change her mind on this. I don't really mind how many children I end up with... but I don't want to break the bank in the process.

So, I've got a few things to work on before I'll have children, and some of these will take some time. I'm not in any great hurry yet, but time is ticking, and I'd like to get round to it while I still feel I have more years ahead of me then behind me.