A city of two tales...

So while the Herts Ad office was abuzz investigating a bank robbery in the centre of St Albans yesterday, poor Mrs A was at her wits end with little Anwen, who is currently going through a growth spurt which requires near-constant feeding!
Hence the reason why I was in the office at 6.15 this morning, a trend I can see continuing until, ooh, maybe 2015?

Things get underway

A nudge in the ribs at 4am on May 24 heralded the onset of my involvement in the whole labour process, although apparently Mrs A had been suffering from contractions for a couple of hours before deciding to wake me, and then suggest I go back to sleep in case nothing happened for a while.
Like that was going to happen.
So showered and shaved by six, the car packed with various bags and breakfast served, the waiting game began. Hours passed... I'd told work things had kicked off, expecting to be at the hospital by lunchtime, but it eventually became obvious that this initial stage in the birthing process wasn't a sprint, it was a marathon. Cue various time-consuming activities over the course of the day, ranging from long walks in the blazing sunshine (yes, it seems incredible now in the midst of all this rain, but just a few weeks ago we were basking in glorious summer sun) to catching up on episodes from various box sets we'd been working through, while all the time the contractions increased in frequency and intensity...
Although I'm a reasonably patient man, I'd had enough by mid-afternoon, and we convinced ourselves that we should probably head to the hospital "just in case", but probably more to feel as though we were actually doing something constructive. So up the M1 we headed to Luton and Dunstable Hospital, only to be turned around and sent back home after a brief chat with a midwife because things were by no means ready.
It was going to be a long day.

She's arrived!

It seems like a lifetime ago that I last posted an entry to this blog, and so much has happened in the meantime that it's difficult to know where to begin.
Today is my first day back at work, and I'm very, very tired. God knows what I'm going to be like after the sleep deprivation really kicks in a couple of days from now...
But you know what, it's all worth it. The Spawn has been born, and we have a gorgeous daughter called Anwen Mair... She was born on May 25 at 3.02am, weighing 6lb 10oz, and I think it was love at first sight.
I'll be filling in some of the details surrounding her birth, and my first few weeks as a dad, over the next couple of days, but for now I really need to get cracking on some pages otherwise this week's paper isn't going to happen!

Tomorrow Never Knows...

Well, we're almost here, and if everything goes to plan then the Spawn will be popping out tomorrow. Of course, he or she is probably going to stay in the warm for another week, so I'm going to be struggling for new ways to fill this blog without repeating myself...
Today I managed to set the Twittersphere alight after posting comments about some wideboy driving around St Albans in an Audi with mirrored paintwork. Tacky, cheap and very, very nasty... I love Twitter, it's just so easy to engage with your readers *waves* "Hello everyone out there!" Before the dawn of social networking you generally had to make do with abusive phone calls and letters to the editor, whereas now you can chat with people in a much more friendly and informal fashion. Lovely.
Meanwhile, reporter Debbie has been unleashing hell on any flying insect which dares to enter Herts Ad Towers, regardless of whether they pose any stinging threat. Capital punishment is the only justice it seems, but her reaction times aren't as fast as mine, so I've ended up killing the blighters instead. We have a particularly ruthless piece of equipment for killing wasps - it's like a tennis racket, but rigged up with an electric shock to put them out of their misery sharpish. It hurts - I know this for a fact, after putting my finger onto the electric part of the thing and pressing the button. Cue lots of swearing.

Old wives' tales...

With just a couple of days to go until our due date, Mrs A and I spent the weekend trying to hurry things along a bit, while also trying to wrap up some of the DVD box sets we have been watching in case we don't get time to finish them after the Spawn arrives...
Hence we were out for a curry on Saturday night and went for a long walk the next day, neither of which seem to have provoked any sort of rumblings... And yes, there are other things you can do to hurry things along, but if you think I'm going to write about them in a public blog you've got another think coming! So I'm back at work today, laying out pages and generally trying to get as much done as possible just in case I get The Call.
Mrs A is getting pretty tired at the moment, which seems to result in a lot of spontaneous sofa snoozes, whereas I'm just twitchy. I hate waiting for things which are outside my control, it's a source of constant frustration, and I'm just anxious for everything to get underway...

Weekend looming...

Ar'noon. Today I've been desperately trying to sort out random jobs in case Mrs A starts Spawning over the weekend... A lot of the backroom bits and bobs which I find myself bogged down with still need to be sorted if I'm not here, and there's no guarantee I'll have my laptop with me either.
Hence only a brief update today, and it's not even that funny. Normal service resumed on Monday.

Hole in one...

In the old Herts Ad offices we had enough space to play mini-golf... That isn't the case in Herts Ad Towers, where it's a bit more cosy...