Pig Sty Avenue

Just Bathing in Brenda's Light , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . That's Alice , aka failed heterosexual , and her mam Kate, called Mafleen in the Flickrsphere . It's a remarkable fact that Kate comes from Saltcoats, as does Herself. I think the tender look on Kate's face makes this a lovely photo. I met up with them and Brenda, (the illustrious Brendadada , aka Apprentice ) last night at Bob Trollops on the Quayside, just at the back of the Guildhall, and next door to the Red House - though I've a feeling that the whole building was called the Red House in my youth. (£3.20 a pint, I should point out, so I won't become a regular there). That picture's also interesting because I wasn't using a flash, but Brenda was and must have clicked at the same time as I did. We spent a really charming hour chatting about photography and Flickr. On reflection, it was a bit odd to meet people for the first time, but to already know quite a lot about...

Caught by the Sitting Room Paparazzi , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . This photo was a fluke, but it's given us a right laugh tonight. Herself's Ma is away back to Ayrshire tomorrow.

Elinesca wrote this at DMU on Flickr about Finns, and it made me laugh: Once, I went to a conference where I met 3 Finns. They were always drinking and their clothes were always wrinkly. On the departure day, they came out of the hotel with the tiniest suitcases ever. If you've seen your mum's old hairdryer kit you know what I'm talking about. I might post more about Finns at a later date. But now I have to entertain my visiting Ayrshire in-laws.

Community Policing , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . That was the police over our place last night. Disturbed Molly. I don't know if they caught anyone, or what they were after or what happened. Reminded me of 1984 (the novel, and the year).

There's this blog, there's Jarrow and Hebburn . There's my 'collaboration' (ahem) with Little Gwion . And most time consuming of all there's my Flickr addiction. Hmm. On the other hand there's Herself and Molly. There's study. And there are other REAL world pastimes: reading, crosswords, films. SO why don't I have a few days away from blogging and all that goes with it. Hmm?

Worried Student , originally uploaded by Mr Garry theTravelling Teacher . At work, some of last year's students were given certificates, and there was a buffet afterwards. The man with the peculiar expression is a student, but I don't him. I'm blogging this from a new Flickr account for work photos.

Well, this is a new situation to find myself in. It’s half term, so there are no students at the college. I thought of taking time off but we decided to wait until Molly’s a bit bigger and we can make the most of a holiday. But, so far as I can tell there’s nothing much to do at work: I gather that by silent consensus, as long as you don’t make it too obvious, you can fart around somewhat. Hmm. I’m all for that. It means I can do some studying. It’s good to work for a proper employer, rather than for drunks or megalomaniacs, (which is the lot of many a TEFL teacher). But there is a downside. Teaching abroad one sometimes has to threaten employers with the police to get paid. Here, one can simply get lost in the machine. I’ve spent a bit of time this morning emailing and phoning HR and Payroll, to ensure I get paid this month. “Hopefully” the cheery female voice on the phone said, I’ll get paid on the last working day of the month. And then she realised she needed to see...

... Newcastle beat Sunderland 3-2 . But now I have that awful feeling reserved for the evenings of those who drink in the afternoons.

I went to visit my pal today. His grown up son, another old pal, was there, and the three of us had a great afternoon discussing all manner of inconsequential things. I was a wee bit dismayed on the Metro to overhear my fellow passengers planning their Christmas shopping. Molly's getting longer: the first size of little 'jama suits we got for her are starting to look too small.

Blurry Old Man Sleeping on the Metro. , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue .

social station , originally uploaded by brendadada . Brendadada shot this in the Town recently. It's a great photo, eh? People come from all over Britain now for Newcastle's night life, and it's really popular for bachelor parties and hen nights. The Quayside is quite a place. When I was a student in the early 1980s, the Quayside was more low key, a place for us students. The Town Lads and Lasses congregated on the Bigg Market back then. Anyway, one night, I was going to meet some mates at the Crown Posada, and was making my way down Grey St. I was late and in a hurry and young, so started to jog along. I overtook a group of Town Lasses walking along the pavement, and as I did so one of them shouted. "Woah! Look at the arse on that, lasses! Come on!" And they started chasing me down Grey St. I easily got away, but felt sexually harassed for the first and only time in my life. It's a little depressing to reflect that those lasses who teased me ...

Molly 20th October , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . She'll often be found chewing her fist. And she's still so small 'new born' baby clothes don't quite fit her. Mind you, she's trying to put on weight. Yesterday, she was at it for nearly nine hours, and then slept almost all of the night through. We're hoping for more of the same tonight. I'm thinking of writing a musical farce about a new Scottish mother, experiencing the joys of breastfeeding for the first time. It'll be called "Oh! Ma Nipples!"

It was tempting fate to articulate our happiness. I spoke to an old mate on the phone tonight and he told me he's got a serious illness and won't last a year. He won't want to be identified to the world, so I'll leave it at that. Ah fuck.

Miss Molly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick. So she called for the doctor to come quick, quick, quick. The doctor came with his bag and his hat, And he knocked on the door with a rat-a-tat-tat. He looked at the dolly and he shook his head. And he said, "Miss Molly, put her straight to bed." He wrote on the paper for a pill, pill, pill. "I'll be back in the morning with the bill, bill, bill." Maybe I'm going soft in the head.

Molly makes funny faces in her sleep - she seems to tell whole stories with her expressions: smiling, smirking, frowning, straight faced... And then she'll open one eye, peer about and close it again. Spend a lot of time just watching her. Life feels balanced. It's probably really boring of me to blog about such everyday happiness.

Alexander's put me on to this band. There are some downloadable MP3s at their site; (click on the heading). I quite like how self conscious they appear in this photo.

One Week Old, Sleeping , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . That was her, earlier tonight. She's feeding a lot. No doubt she needs to put on weight. Her first couple of days, she didn't take anything much. And she isn't a fat baby. She'll get weighed next week, but she was 6lb 7oz born. She's quite long, though, and the consensus is she'll be tall. For now, though, her Grandad was able to refer to her as 'a ninepenny rabbit'. I haven't heard that phrase for years.

Search for "bird flu" on Google News today and you get 17,700 hits. The background story is that millions of birds in Asia have died of this virus. In Vietnam, 60 people have died of it. If you refine the Google search with the addition of "human fatalities", and put to one side the frightening predictions of hundreds of millions of deaths, you see that there have been several deaths in each of the south east Asian countries affected. There have been no reported cases of human to human infection. IF the virus mutates so that it can pass between people, then the situation might be very serious indeed. If. All of this has practical implications for us Pig Sty Avenue people. We keep chickens for eggs, and I'm down there every evening to give them a feed and close their hen house door to keep the foxes out. And we've a brand new baby who would naturally be susceptible to infection, and less able than a grown up to fight it off. If our chickens are to get...

Yes, but she'll wiggle out of it. , originally uploaded by Paula Wirth . Hmm.

Molly's slept through most of the night two nights running, which is nice. It's foggy here today. We could fancy a walk later, but I'm having big problems with the pram , which is like quantum physics in terms of trying to work out what the fuck's going on with it. After much cursing, it's all assembled bar the hood. This morning I'll ring the shop and see if they can talk me through it. Thanks to everyone who's called by Pig Sty Avenue with best wishes and congratulations the last few days. The best way to thank a blogger is to give them a link, so: Apprentice Andrea Factobrunt (and Daisy) John Luc Dano JL Pagano Tammy Laoha she's_a_sprite Justin Thanks again lads and lasses. Now, another go with the pram, do some studying, and ponder a big question concerning the chickens' future... In between bouts of baby-gazing, that is.

I've been able to find time to get on with my new virtual baby, too, the Jarrow and Hebburn blog . One of the reasons for its conception (see the metaphor?) was my irritation with the Shields Gazette, our local paper, and inadequate, po faced fucking rag, always whingeing on about 'yobs' and swallowing unchewed what it's told by the establishment. The new blog might throw some light on how we actually live around here, and it'll at least be a bit of fun. Little Gwion 's helping out, when he's straight enough.

...are concepts which will become meaningless over the next few days, no doubt. All of us got two or three solid hours sleep earlier tonight. We think the transition from colostrum to milk is underway. So she might get a good feed now, and we can all get several more hours sleep. Hooray!

We're all three of us home, and my two lassies are sleeping. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

wow square icon , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . She's a very expressive infant. Keeps making all kinds of funny faces, even in her sleep. Sorry if I'm getting boring, not to say obsessive. Proper blogging will be resumed in due course.

20 Hours Old - Blurred , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . I took this today, the light wasn't too good so it went a bit blurry, but it's ok - it looks a bit old fashioned that way. Everything's progressing well, and they should be home tomorrow. Just as well, it's very noisy on the maternity ward at visiting times: new grandparents with loud voices, and kids playing in the corridors. And I've got the week off work, with no hassle and many's the kind word; nice to work for a proper employer with decent managers for the first time in years. I went to Mothercare earlier to get some vests and sleep-suits; the 'newborn' and 'first' sizes are too big: she needs what they call 'tiny baby'. Cute, eh? She was electronically tagged soon after birth, which I think is the policy now following that case where some poor woman stole a baby from a maternity hospital a year or two ago. Unfortunately, the tag had gotten covered with ...

“Will she be born on the 8th or the 9th?” the midwife mused around 11.50pm last night.  When she was born, I looked at my watch and it was precisely 12. It had been a long day.  Herself’s waters had broken at 12.50am the night before, and she started to have contractions in the early hours of the morning.  She had and epidural around 6pm, so the last few hours weren’t as excruciating as the previous twelve, but even so, it’s remarkable how composed she looks in the photo I took of them at 12.10am, considering what she’s been through, throwing up with the pain.  God bless her.   And Molly, who entered this world as calm as you like, though she’d no doubt benefited from some of the diamorphine her mother had been given earlier in the day. They had to use a device like a sink plunger to encourage her out, and that’s left a bump on her head which will soon go.   The standard of care in the delivery ward was brilliant.  Th...

Molly1 , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . ...was born at precisely midnight tonight. She's 6lb 7oz. Mother and baby are both very well.

Herself's at the hospital, trying to get some sleep afore the fun starts. No proper contractions yet, but they're in the post. I've come home for a mug of Horlix, (with a shot of brandy), and a couple of hours kip. This is going to be a big day.

Waters broken.

I've finished setting up the Jarrow and Hebburn blog . (This wee picture will be its icon). I appreciate it's unlikely to be of much interest to anyone not living in, or from, those two towns, but do drop by, eh? Just so that I can see if the web-counter's working, if nothing else. Speaking of web counters, the one on the new site is from StatCounter . I considered getting one for the Pig Sty, but as this is a personal blog, it would have felt like bad manners, almost: I could see that such-and-such visited only once this week, for a few seconds; that so-and-so calls by every day but never leaves a comment; or, the horror, nobody's been here for days. Thanks to Brendadada's Dawdon for the inspiration for the new blog and the link to StatCounter.

waiting , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . The midwife came for a scheduled visit this afternoon, and thought the baby hadn't grown enough this week, so we went to the hospital. They measured heartbeats and movements, and just about everything else when they did the scan. The baby's fine. There was some talk of being induced, but the consultant is for nature taking its course. So we came home to wait a little longer. Apparently, it's very unusual for babies to go more than 10 days past their due date - so that means she's likely to be here before monday. Yes, that's right, 'she'. The scan showed a baby girl! What's the feminine form of 'Godot', one wonders? 'Godat'?

Blood, Sweat & Sandstone , originally uploaded by Lawrie M ® . ...a wall. This is one of the pics from the DMU folio , which should keep me going with weekly wallpaper for the desktop for a while anyway. Woke up this morning all aches and pains: I noticed at work that people are snuffling, so I've probably got a cold of some sort which is a fucking disaster because you aren't supposed to visit a hospital if you've a cold, isn't that right? Or, hopefully, it's just some kind of hysterical cold - I used to get them the night before a big exam. Surely the time draws nigh. Herself decided against going out today on the grounds she doesn't want her waters breaking on the bus. I've been studying too, though concentration isn't easy. Here's another podcast site, donewaiting.com . I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. Somehow, I managed to start a Jarrow and Hebburn blog , which at the moment is simply a collection of all the pictures in...

Fellgate Metro 'Not Stopping' (Middlesborough to Carlisle) , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . She's thinking, "Fellgate? Wonder what it's like here?"

minchella b&w , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . Yes, I know I've posted this picture before, but it's now been saved in the DMU group on Flickr. This was highly gratifying, because it means ten difficult-to-please people have to vote for it. Tonight I went through the DMU's folio , where the saved pics go, and, wow! That pic's in splendid company. Such wee triumphs pass the time, whilst we're waiting for baby Godot.

I'm not going to mention it until Something Happens. The problem with Little Hits was that it Wasn't Weird Enough. Well, the 365 Days Project looks much more likely. I'm busy downloading it now, to listen to on the way to work (or hanging around the Maternity Wing perhaps), but I got to it via Pete A , who podcasted 'Frozen Embryos' ; (now I wonder why that gave me such a laugh?) [And I earlier put in the link for just part of the 365 Days ; now the link is for the index. Sorry. Message ends.] Seriously though, George Monbiot has assembled a number of examples of how the postmodern 'War on Terror' is being used to make people shut the fuck up. And there was an article yesterday about how this tendency includes photography . If anybody doesn't know the story of this wee photo on the right, and is interested, the story's on Flickr, here .

nude golden lady , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . I get a long break on Mondays, and had a wonder round the Town. This lady has always fascinated me. And if you go onto the pic in flickr, and look at the original in all sizes, you can see how carefully she's been sculpted. Needless to say, if I had the leisure to swan around Newcastle, there have been no labour pains as yet. Thanks for all the kind comments.

1950s jug? , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . Is this a 50s design? Something about it tells me it is... Anybody out there know anything about jugs?

The sunday lunch strategy didn't work. We reckon the baby overheard us discussing it and, as s/he gets all Herself's meals only half an hour after her, kind of, decided to hang on for it. I can't blame the wee blighter, mind. Just about everything but the beef and the Oxo cube came from allotment. There was Yorkshire Pudding with fresh thyme through it; mashed potatoes boiled with chopped sage; roast parsnips, golden ball turnip, carrots and a lovely piece of sirloin. The key element in a sunday dinner is the gravy, and this was a wonderful creation with onion, rosemary and garlic. Suggestions for bringing on the birth include gin, curry, castor oil, sage, lemon tea and rhubarb crumble. Sex features heavily in advice from all kinds of people (including Mafleen , who's a midwife and likely to know about this process), with both parties reaching a simultaneous climax recommended. Look, I blog a lot of stuff but I draw the line at telling the world about everything ...

I thought it would be today, but it's not looking that way. So we're still on for a remarkable sunday lunch. Unless something happens in the night. I took some sky photos . Earlier today, I wrote 1500 words analysing an article which called for an end to communicative language teaching . It's not much in itself, but is my first academic writing since my undergraduate thesis twenty years ago, ("Possession and contemplated use of nuclear weapons: the case for illegality"; those were the days). Via Sroka Sounds I came across Little Hits which is a gold mine of neglected and possibly wonderful sounds; its compiler says, rather splendidly: Little Hits does not intend to deprive artists and labels of revenue; it is instead hoped that the music presented on this site will contribute to interest that will eventually lead to legitimate re-issue of the works of the artists represented, or wider recognition of already available releases. If you have legal rights to any...

October 1 - 0600 , originally uploaded by the phototherapist . In honour of the See the Sky thing . Which, incidentally, is starting to get on my nerves. People should pool pics of only sky, properly tagged, the agreed size. But do they? Do they fuck. Most of the people on flickr can't read and absorb group descriptions, and even if they can, they can't fucking spell.