Pakistan and pregnancy

I was in the local kebab shop last night (yes I know, far from organic, but the wife's pregnant and this is what she was craving - last month it was pickled onion Monster Munch) and along with my two small donners with chips and a battered sausage I got a neat summary of the political situation in Pakistan.
While it may not sound like the kind of conversation you want to be having in a chip shop on a cold December evening, it was actually welcome. Having been off-line for the last week I've avoided most of the news (local and national) and it's refreshing to get an analysis from someone with a real interest and insight. The West Country has a lot to offer that the rest of the country can't, but there is no doubting that it lacks a rich cultural mix. It can sometimes make it difficult to really engange with issues far from home, even those that rolling 24-hour news tell us have such a global impact.
The problem with rolling 24-hour news is that it tells you the events have such a global impact so many times that you rapidly become desensitised. There is a truth in hearing about the story from someone who sees the images on TV not as stock footage, but as home.
Hmm, maybe a few days back in my own hometown of Leicester has left me craving a little more diversity here in Devon. Better avoid the new year sale at Trago.
Anyway, back to the main news of the day - yes, the wife's pregnant. She says she is in her 20th week, but in Dad Time this is week one.
The difference between the two is that she starts counting from the moment of 'conception' (some point during a week-long holiday in London), while I start counting from the moment of 'acceptance', which is when I start to realise that she isn't just getting fat from too many Quality Street and Monster Munch, and that her breasts aren't getting bigger for my benefit.
This will be our second, the youngest is now three and is very excited about the forthcoming arrival. She has already decided if it is a girl she will be called Lolly and if it is a boy, Mr Bump.
The first half of the pregnancy has gone smoothly. First scan at 12 weeks and second scan on December 28 were perfect, no health problems, nothing out of the ordinary.
The only glitch came when little one refused to play for the camera and we couldn't find out the sex. Wife, who jumped up and down in the examination room before making the sonographer have another go, says she is getting fed up of being asked 'seven times a day' whether its a boy or girl. Of the 14 grandchildren on her side of the family all are female so far, so grandad (who has three daughters and no male heir) still has his childhood train set locked away under the bed in the spare room.
Wife's sister is also pregnant, due at the same time, so there's a race to the finish. Will either have a boy? Who will be the first? It's a race to build a face when you play Mr Pop.
Hmmm, that doesn't sound right.

Is it just me or does 2007 seem to have flown by? I guess for me that's mostly because the web site has kept me constantly busy. When Holloway decided to sample the delights of Leicester we were pushed well over 500,000 page views a week.
Blogs, like this one, have been read well over 70,000 times in the last year and I'm hoping to rapidly increase that in the near future by tidying them up and adding a few exciting new writers.
Video has also gone down well online. Other titles have experimented with and dropped daily bulletins while our strategy of creating video that adds value to the stories has worked well. You especially loved the footage of a drink driver being chased by police and that has been watched well over 10,000 times since it went up earlier in December.
We also get all of our news online earlier now. For me that has meant getting into the office for around 6.30am every day, but the response has been positive and I'm starting to acclimatise to listening to Sarah Kennedy's bizarre ramblings on Radio 2.
And we've embraced the weird world of social networking, with the Herald's entries on Facebook, Bebo and Myspace arttracting more than 850 friends.
Well, time to get back into the old routine after the disruption of Christmas and New Year. I'm not one for resolutions but I'm hoping to keep my blog a bit more up to date over the next year, with regular updates on the pregnancy and the state of the website. Fans of pointless rambling nonsense rejoice!
Happy New Year!!!