I played in an orchestra for a few years in Birmingham that rehearsed in the most scary place I've probably ever regularly parked my car and got out and walked about in. I certainly would have never done so if it wasn't for the fact I had to be there for something. Let alone go into a local pub! The Bray band has been a pleasant difference, parking in a safe school etc. However recently teenagers have sussed out they can nick instruments and other stuff while we rehearse, which has made for an interesting 5 mins when half the band spotted them having a go this evening and legged it off after them.

We're rehearsing for a charity gig on Sat - a fund raiser for our (Youth group, not the band) summer trip to Uganda. I'm very nervous that enough wont turn up to make us any money, but that aside it should be a good show.

I know I've only just posted but this news is amazing enough to warrant it's own post. I think everyone who reads this knows by now, S and I are going to have a baby in September! After years of convincing ourselves it wasn't going to happen and that we would be OK without children, it's very odd to get it into my head that this time round it's looking like it will happen. Although it was never in doubt that we'd be happy with just the two of us, it was still very hard to think that it might never happen.

In case there's anyone who doesn't know, we've had 3 miscarriages over the last few years which has been a tough thing to go through. Not them so much in themselves, although one in particular was a nightmare, but that the fact that there was nothing anyone could do or no indication they could give of what was wrong or if it would ever be OK. All tests were fine and countless people (in particular the Drs) said of cases where people had had 7 or 8 and then went on to have perfectly normal children. Whilst statistics are all well and good at the time it doesn't seem like it's ever going to go your way. So now it has! Actually looking at the statistics it's amazing anyone ever gets born!

We had early scans at 7 and 9 weeks in Holler St (Dublin) and the first one was one of the most amazing moments of my life. She looked at the screen and said it all looked healthy and fine - and I couldn't see any difference in it and previous ones that had not been fine by this point. So she zoomed in and there clear enough you could see a heart beat. It was an incredible sight. Really blew me away.

We've had the 12 week scan just over a week ago and all was still going fine. They've all said that there's now more reason to be optimistic for a normal pregnancy than to worry for problems. The 12 week scan was held in the normal clinic and not the foetal (I know I cant spell that an the spell checker cant even work out what I'm trying to write!) assessment area as we had been before. This normal clinic was something else. Production line medicine! They said the consultant likes to work fast so the rest try to keep up, well they were doing a good job! It was all "sit there, do this, do that, go there, then there and then do this" with military precision. Only minor problem was that we buggered up the system by having a man there. I got scared that I would be sucked into the production line by sitting on the wrong seat so I gave up and left S to it. Now don't get me wrong, the service was good - I'd rather be in and out quickly with the necessary stuff done than hang about for hours and hours in crappy waiting rooms.

So yes, the thought of being a father has taken a long time to adjust to after years of persuading myself it wouldn't happen. Actually still am adjusting I think. At the moment everything is very pregnancy, birth and baby focused. No one has pointed out that we'll end up with a whole actual person at the end of all this. It's quite a daunting prospect! I am genuinely over the moon that this is likely to happen though!! I have never been into the idea of a baby per say, but have always wanted children. I'm sure I'll be the most annoying besotted father when the baby does come along, before it turns into a more interesting child, but please please shoot me (or at least slap me) if I start getting excited about it's dump to the point of telling any of you about it.

It was St Patricks Day today, so one of the two bank holidays a year we get that our UK chums don't. I was playing in the Greystones parade with the Bray Band and it was freezing! It had been heavily snowing yesterday without actually settling. It all went well enough but I was glad to get back in the car to defrost after. Those heated seats are amazing!

Spent the afternoon working but getting double rate on-call for the privilege which was nice.

There's a road sign in Sallynoggin that lights up if you're driving faster than the 50km/h speed limit. But it only has 2 digits and I am dying to see what happens if you go past at 100. Also it changes speed as you approach it, so its fun to see how quickly it counts up as you accelerate towards it. I don't think I've quite got the point of it right somehow...

It's Sunday night and it really doesn't feel like time for work tomorrow morning! We've had a nice weekend but they're just not long enough!

This evening I've played in a confirmation service at some reasonably large church in Bray. Had the Arch Bish there so was quite a formal affair but it went well and I enjoyed playing some nice harmonies. The bloke leading the music was scary though, but very good at getting us all sorted!

I've been spending hours over the last few weeks building my own PVR (Personal Video Recorder) - a thing that lets me pause, rewind, fastfoward live TV, schedule recordings from the web (setting it from anywhere via the web is very handy). It's been a hell of a lot of work to build it - far more than I thought when I set out and that was after advice from P who's recently built one telling me that it would be more work than I'd though! Given the nightmare it's been and how helpful comments from others on the net who have built there own have been, I'll write up a more detailed posting of what I did and what went wrong etc on the off chance there's anyone with a similar setup to me.

I've been off sick for a couple of days and was getting bored of day time TV when S turned up at lunch time feeling rough having also got it. So now we have a sofa, duvet and pillow each in front of the telly.

It was snowing yesterday off and on but the sun came out after each snow shower and melted it which was a shame. Looks like it might do so again later.