Wednesday, August 5, 2009

What a difference a day (or two) makes!

On Monday I was having a really bad day. Nothing serious, I just felt really tired, I was having to walk around in the heat at work and I just felt awful. Seriously, the heat in the factory is another thing all together, it actually feels like my skin is getting burned.

Flip forward to today and I am feeling soooo good! It's my 35th birthday today and normally that would only make things worse. I have a bad relationship with birthdays normally, but not today. Today I feel happy, thankful and overall good about life. You've gotta be happy with that!

I seem to be really bad at this blogging gig at the moment. I start writing posts and then re-read them, think they are boring and give them the sack. Let's see if this one gets out today.

One of the issues is that I don't have any knitting to talk about. There has of course been plenty of knitting, but I have been knitting presents and so I can't talk about them yet. Knitting is always easy to talk about.

And so I have to talk about something else. Here goes.

A few biggish things have been going on lately. Firstly we have hired a nanny/maid. She has started working with us now so that I can get to know her before the baby arrives. I'll refer to her as G. She's working full time for us already and living in our house (in the "maids quarters") and also cooking most of our meals. I have to say, it has been a very strange experience to let someone into you home and start looking after these things. I am by no means a clean freak (far, far from it) so having her doing the cleaning has been amazing, but when it comes to the cooking, I am struggling with the loss of control. Don't get me wrong, I love coming home to dinner on the table, but the idea that I don't know exactly what is going into each meal is difficult to get over. Back on the cleaning side, it is also very strange to have someone tidy up after you every day. Reading a magazine at breakfast in the morning at the dining table? Well it won't be there when you come back in the afternoon, and my make-up brush roll which has always laid open on the bathroom counter gets neatly rolled up and put on the shelf every day. Truly a strange experience. The other part is, I'm a working class girl, and having a maid (let alone a full time, live-in maid), makes me feel completely indulgent. I'm sure that I will get over that eventually!

The other big thing that has happened in my life (being pregnant aside) in the last few months is a little hard to talk about, but here goes. Without delving too much into my family history, I have two half-sisters which I have up until now never known. A few months back my brother Marc and I finally got up the courage to make contact with them. We've been talking on email since then, trying to make up for lost time, and I am so glad that I finally took the step to get in touch. It's been amazing to see all of the things that we have in common with each other, especially considering the age gap. My sisters are Caitlin, 19 and Jaime, 17 and they seem like really great girls.

The big discovery with the Caitlin, is that she is also a knitter! How amazing is that! I'm not sure that she is quite as obsessed as me, but I plan to work on that. When she found out that I am also a knitter and that I am pregnant, she got to work straight away. Last week, this is what arrived in the mail.


Isn't he adorable! He has proper working joints in his arms legs and neck, and such neat stitches. I'm still trying to come up with a name for him. Current suggestions range from something in Chinese to something that is derived from the word sister to signify his auspicious origins. Maybe I should find out (Chi Wai?) what the Chinese word for sister is! I was really touched to recieve this and I know he's going to be very special to our baby. Thank you Caitlin.

Last but not least, something else very special arrived in the mail last weekend. This!


It's always so exciting when friends start to do clever things. knitabulous, one of my knitting friends from Wollongong has started dyeing and selling her own yarn. This is her fabulous colourway "Count Sockular"! I love it! Knitabulous is doing some amazing things with colour, mostly with semi-solids which I always find more versatile. You can check out her Etsy store here.

Okay, I'm going to hit the "Publish Post" button NOW before I over think things!

5 comments:

The Scarlet Tree said...

That is great that your feeling so good! And i so wish I had someone to clean up the mess around here. What I wouldn't give! I met a new hal;f brother two years ago now, and it has gone really well, he is lovely and although we don't email often but it is good. the bear is gorgeous

Preeti said...

Happy Birthday again and what a great week this turned out to be with the Panda from your sister who's also a knitter!!!! I get into a blog rut every once in a while too but once I post I always feel better even if it has nothing to do with knitting.

Enjoy having the help because once the baby's here you're going to be really happy that you don't have to cook dinner or pick up that magazine or pack away your make up!!!!

Lindsay said...

glad you're back!!! Love the bear. It's adorable. How did she make the arms and legs moveable? and love the yarn!!! can you bring it to the next meet?

Unknown said...

Oh my god, Charmaine. The knitting half sister that you've never met, the live-in permanent 'help', the expat living in the middle East - you should write a book!

I still can't beleive your half sister knits. How co-incidental/weird/really amazing is that!!? Are they American?

Your week turned out to be very interesting - not boring blogging at all!

Yasmin said...

Good to hear that you are feeling good. It's rare in the later stages of pregnancy. Something or the other is always hurting, swelling etc...
And it's a good thing you are getting all pampered. Enjoy it , once the baby comes it'll keep you calm and give you time to enjoy your baby rather than worry about mundane household stuff.
When my son was born I enjoyed the first few weeks with my baby while I had a live in maid. Then like you said losing control thought kicked in especially about the cooking and food hygiene etc. Finally I settled for part time help.