Gearing up ...
A brief missive, snatched time during our preparations at work and at home for the arrival of baby number two. Just to let you all know we haven't gone into some form of pre-event lock-down, with no communications in or out and secret passwords at every door.

Naturally, the arrival, at 09:30 on Thursday (or so the NHS schedule would have us believe, anyway ... I'd keep watch all weekend, if I were you) is preoccupying the mind - or, at least, as much as it can do, given normal life also clamours for one's attention. Tick has of course finished work and has therefore been able to give the issue rather more focus than I, but this weekend does rather feel like the last few breathless moments before curtains up, lights on.

We have been shopping and sorting and retrieving and dusting down and cleaning and washing and pressing and piling and ordering and generally going through the logistical exercise that accompanies the arrival of all new children but which, through the passage of time, presents itself as a minor exercise from memory and then turns into something akin to Hannibal and his elephants when you're halfway through it.

But here we are. Most hatches battoned, most gear stowed away. All that remains is the central character of the piece. Well, that and another three days of work for me, which will doubtless be hectic. I finish at whatever time on Wednesday and then on Thursday, at 07:30, we must present ourselves at the Liverpool Women's Hospital. Keep your mobiles on that day!

ENDNOTE: For those of you looking for something new and engaging to read, Stephen Fry has launched a blog on his already excellent website. Long treatises (or "blessays" as he calls them, short for "blog essays"), the first two on Apple and then on Fame, which are, as with everything he does, studies in beautiful prose, engaging thought and quirky perspectives.