freyja sallie lightly

Yes, we've decided on the name(s).

Freyja: Norse goddess of love and fertility
Sallie: Solveig's maternal grandmother

*lump in throat*

unto us a child is born

Girl, 7lb 5oz, arrived at 9pm on 27th December 2005

First few shaky snaps: baby lightly

Mother and daughter both well and hoping to be home tomorrow.

I think that warrants a woot:

"WOOT!"

merry christmas(h)

I do love sprouts. Try sprout mash, with cream and parmesan. Mmmmm.

Sprout Mash

Oh, and a Happy Chrimbletide to you all (surely "both" - Stats Ed.) as well.

so today was the due date

No sign yet.
Baby still happily swimming around doing laps of the womb.
Watch this space.

roll up, roll up

Not before time, I've done an scatter graph, with trend lines,

plotting the guesses we have received in respect of the sex,

weight and date of arrival of the forthcoming Lightly: chart

And for those who might be interested (Alex...)

here are the underlying data: data

Four weeks and counting...

we are an uncle again

Congratulations to Seb and Karla (and Cameron!) on the birth of the latest addition to the Lightly dynasty.

Charlotte Rose Sophia Lightly was born on 7 November, weighing a healthy 8lbs 2oz.
Well done the Toronto crew. We're only 6 weeks behind you...

186 not out

Congratulations to super-Gunner Thierry Henry who last night bagged a couple against Sparta Prague in the UEFA Champions League of Money and That(TM) and in the process broke Ian Wright's Arsenal goalscoring record. Long may he continue (although we still look rubbish when he's injured...)

sprogs++

Well. Not only did we get a last-minute surprise visit from usually-Oz-resident Best Man Fiskin and his lovely wife Katie, it turns out that they've only gone and done the whole bun -> oven thing as well. Brilliant! Due in May apparently. Bravo and that :)

and it's goodnight from him

(with apologies to the Two Ronnies)

Sad news - the inspiration for the name of this page has passed away.

"At the peak of his career Barker, along with Corbett, entertained 17 million people every Saturday night."

17 million and one, Ronnie, 17 million and one :(

yorkshire week

At last, a week's break in God's Own County.

Firstly, a quick visit to the folks in Leyburn, followed by a couple of nights at The Star At Harome - amazing food, rubbish website :)

Then on to the 'society wedding of the year' (TM) with the lovely Miss K de Cozar and that nice Mr P Rushforth:

slightly lightly

New scan pictures :
Twenty weeks
Halfway there :)

do not pass go

Just gently recovering from the Monopoly Pub Crawl which we successfully completed yesterday - 26 pubs, including the stations. The event? Mr Paul Rushforth's Stag celebration, of course!

Evidence here: Monopauly

Well done too all who attended. Must do it again sometime...er...

new small lightly alert

Splendid news! Solveig is 3 months pregnant! Had the scan on Friday, all seems well and here is a rather small and blurry picture:

Bring on the cravings...

and we're back

Apologies for the lack of posting. All sorts of reasons. None of them very believable. Bah.

However, since I last bothered you, we have been to Bruges (very nice, worth a visit, try the beef stew)

Also just got back from Ibiza (very chilled, stay in the north of the island, eat tapas)

And it was Alix's birthday BBQ but I forgot the camera :)

sorry

May the Fourth be with you.

(Ouch.)

full house

Great poker evening round at Mr. Flush's on Friday.
We were joined by The Daddy, The Gent, Yip-Yip, New Boy and Mr. Christmas. You know who you are. And I want my money back. Bah.

snow and tell

We had blizzards today, interspersed with brilliant sunshine.
Barmy weather.

top secret

I've got a new job, but I'm not allowed to tell you what, where or with whom.
Not the most exciting blog post ever but hey, it is February...

[update] Mr. Toby Thorrington has told me that I have to be "more upbeat" so I can now tell you that I am working at Arbuthnot Securities with a jolly nice bunch of people and I have a great role in this consensus-challenging broker [/update]

another year older...

...another year, er, wiser.?

34 today. And I don't look a day over 47 (surely "74" - Ed.)

hoggy hoggy hoggy

After one of the most exciting Test Matches of recent years, England took a 2-1 lead in the series against South Africa at Jo'burg. Despite losing key overs to rain and "bad light" (Steve Bucknor's dirty glasses?) we saw 147 from Strauss, matched by 161 from Gibbs, topped by 180 from Trescothick and finally, just when you thought England had declared too late and it was heading for a draw, Matthew Hoggard stepped up and took 7-61 giving him a Test-best 12-205 and England the victory. Woot.

birthday madness

What was going on all those years ago in April? For some reason all our friends and relatives have birthdays in January...

Nik (9th), Cerys (11th), Emma B (13th), Karen (15th), Rick (18th), GiD (24th) and Doug (25th)

Oh, and me. I share a birthday with GiD. There'll be a tremor in the Force that night, I can tell you, as North and South London compete to see who can fall over the most . . .