Feb / March 2009

K !!

So we've missed a few bits along the way, here's an update:

In February Matt & Moni (our landlords / friends) announced they were coming back to London, so we got organised and found a new place to move into. It all happened quite quickly really - on the 3rd of Feb Matt told us they were moving back into Embassy House and we moved into our new place on the 10th of Feb.

It worked out really well, Matt and Moni are back in London (it's really great to hang out with them again) and we moved into a groovy basement flat that is literally just down the road (about a 10 min walk).

The new flat had a few 'teething problems' - we moved in to find the toilet was malfunctioning, then we had a blocked drain which was leaving puddles outside our front door (they were a bit smelly too) and then we had to get used to a malfunctioning overflow pipe that was dumping water into our garden... oh yes, we have a garden !! yay ! bit of a special feature for a London flat and it's the first time we've lived in a place with a garden ! so we can forgive the teething problems.
In fact, we've just had a maintenance guy come out and try to fix most of the problems, he's almost got them licked.

Oh and did I mention that Manu doesn't fit in the shower... or the bed... lol he's 6'4" and London flats aren't really made for tall fullas. We've worked around it though, we've bought a mattress which has put his feet above the baseboard of the bed, and we're paying for builders to alter the shower stall so it will accommodate the tall lanky guy.
I swear it's like having a disability, who would have thought that it would become such an issue - felt sorry for Manu having to sleep with his legs all bent or sticking out the side of the bed. Thank goodness that problem has now been fixed. A couple more weeks and the shower should be fixed too.

That's all the problems though, it really is a neat little flat - it's got 2 bedrooms (a large double and a single room), nice modern kitchen with room for more than 1 person at a time (so luxurious !) and a kick ass low maintenance garden. We'll post some pics once we tidy the garden up a bit - it's got leaves and stuff that need to be swept.

So, what else... well Manu has been working on 2 projects which has been keeping him very busy. He spends most days working from home and has the odd day in the office. He's also been a regular visitor to Sweden as one of his clients is based there.

Manu's also decided that he's going to enter the London Triathlon this year, so he's planned to do 4 triathlons which will train him up for the London Tri at the end of July. The London Tri consists of a 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and a 10km run. He normally participates in sprint tri's which are 400-500m swims, 15-20km rides and 5km runs - so he's really pushing himself this year.

I finished up work in November as the company cut my contract short due to cost cutting, then we decided I would take a break from work until after I had some surgery (in December). We've been seeing a specialist as we haven't had any luck getting pregnant and the specialist decided to get me in for some day surgery (a Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy). I had the surgery on the 19th of December and then spent xmas recovering (sort of - I spent xmas day cooking lunch for 13 people and lugging around an 8kg turkey which was against Doctors orders).

Then we were told that we are candidates for fertility treatment so we decided to wait until after the first treatment before I got a job as we weren't sure how much time I would need to commit to the treatment. I'm so glad we had the flexibility to make that decision as there were quite a few hospital visits and it would have been quite disrupting to a new job. The first treatment wasn't successful and now we're waiting for the next treatment. Keep your fingers crossed for us !!

The only down side to the fertility treatments is the amount of hormones they keep pumping into me - I'm in a constant state of PMS which I'm sure Manu is REAL happy about. Still if we do get pregnant I can give him the line 'see it was all worth it !!'.

In the meantime I've decided to study, it seems like the best option right now - it gives me the flexibility to visit hospital when I need to and I'm working towards the Bachelor of Business Studies that I have always wanted. My first two subjects are Maths (Stats & Calculus) and Economics - it's great, although a little stressful as I get used to being a student again.

So, that's it, I'm sure that's enough although a little boring as we haven't done any more travel. We'll make up for it in April though when we take a much anticipated 10 day trip to New York City - can't wait !!

Take care
Anita & Manu
xx