Glee gold

Ridic, I know, but I'm a tres late converter to Glee. I got into it a few months ago when Season 2 started here in HK and I CANNOT get enough. It seriously is one of the best written shows I've ever watched. The one liners are superb and as for Sue and Britney (my two fave characters)?? Don't get me started.  I will rave on all day. Did you know Britney was a back up dancer for one of Beyonce's performances of Single Ladies?? Check it out here. Unbelievable dancer that lady is....

At the moment I'm hooked on The Glee Project, which if you haven't seen it, is a reality show to find a new cast member of Glee who'll star for 7 episodes in Season 3. I've mentioned before here and here (sad aren't I?) that I'm a wannabe popstar so you can imagine this is right up my alley! 

My current Glee obsession made me search for this clip on YouTube that I was obsessed with a few months back. It's a vid of this little kid impersonating the Glee version of Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream'. Take note of the spectacular "Oooh aaah" at 1.30 secs and then the "Naaaaa naaaaa naaaa" at 1.54 secs. Add that to the perfect impersonation of the dance moves, including timely head turns and finger points, and the copycat wardrobe and, my friends, I think we have a star on our hands. They should layby this kid for Season 8. Musical genius.

So....have I converted you? Or are you already obsessed?!

Bump: 19 weeks

@ 16 weeks

After a rather tumultuous start to the ol' pregnancy, I have finally arrived....into that blissfully pleasant 2nd trimester! Thank f*#k! Talk about a 'character building' few months (as I wipe my brow). Now? I 
am well and truly over the crap. Zero sickness, far less tiredness, and a little bub that's started kicking like the athlete his father so hopes he will be! Feeling that baby move is by far the best part of this whole 
thing so far. Every time I sit down some form of magnet draws my hand straight to the belly awaiting a little "hi-there-and-hello" from below. Granted, at times it feels slightly like there's an alien about to gruesomely explode out of my stomach but most of the time I just get a bit giggly and hold my breath waiting for more and more and more. 

I had all the energy I could possibly need in London and thank god, because I spent a good 4, 568,261 hours shopping like a possessed maniac. I well and truly made up for the 10 months of "one-size-does-not-bloody-well-fit-all" experiences in Honkers, that's fo' shiz. And  I discovered the UNREAL experience of shopping in the Maternity section at TopShop - a special large changing room just for pregnant ladies, avec a fan (bliss), a personal shop assistant to change sizes for you and be all nice and helpful and of course, to support your very important purchasing decisions. And on top of that? Maternity clothes rock! Particularly the maternity jean. Even though my husband slightly vomits into his mouth every time he sees that elastic band at my waist, I am secretly air punching and wondering why the hell I haven't been wearing these for years. Bloody marvellous.

@ 19 weeks

Things are good back in Honkers. I'm trying to get back into some form of exercise routine. Until now my routine has been of the cake variety only. Time to sort that shiz out. There's some great pre-natal yoga and fitness classes here so I'm getting into those and quickly realising how weak and unfit I've become! Oh well, got to start somewhere right?

I've also got a few more freelance writing gigs bubbling under the surface, so hopefully in the next little while they'll get going and I can start to feel all purposeful-like.....until the bub comes along in approximately 147 days.... Shheeeeeezzzzzeee...

It's still hot hot hot (I think this is our 3rd consecutive month of 32 degree days...ouch) but it feels like the unbearableness is ever-so-slightly on its way out. Luckily for us, we're escaping to Phuket for a week on Saturday. My poor husband hasn't had a proper holiday since our honeymoon in October last year and what with the ridic stock market woes of late, has been working like an absolute dog. Add that to living with a pregnant lady and he is therefore VERY much in need of a break. I will, of course, be doing the wifely thing, and accompanying him on said holiday....

After a rough few months, in both pregnancy terms and just general coping-with-what-life-has-become terms, things are definitely feeling better. Spirits are up, boobs are fabulous and right now I feel like I've got so much to look forward to.

Paris in Pictures - Part Deux

iphone style....

And then back to the beautiful Londres...

I'm not going to bang on about how amazing my week away was, or how much I fell in love with Paris again, or how much London just felt like home. I think you get the drift from the photos! But I will tell you, it was exactly the medicine I needed. The fresh air and the friendships. Nothing can beat that.

Paris in Pictures - Part Un

This is how we spent 4 hours one afternoon...heaven anyone?

The joys (or not) of Wee-Town

WeHeartIt

If you can tell me something more satisfying than doing a really good wee, when you've got a really really full bladder and you've been holding it for a good while, then you're lying. Because there is nothing better. That feeling of release, of letting go, of being able to fully breathe out, because finally, you're there! In that special safe place that allows all manner of personal and gross yet ridiculously satisfying bodily functions to happen. Satisfaction PLUS. Air punches all round.

Conversely, one of the most unsatisfying experiences is when you've got a really really full bladder and you've been holding it for a good while, and you finally find a loo, hurriedly strip, sit down and do a really crappy, piddly, tiny, stupid, annoying wee. Because actually, it's the growing foetus inside pushing down on your bladder that makes you think you're desperate for a wiz, but in fact, you're in for an unsatisfyingly frustrating dribble. After all that effort and excitement and build up, the anticipation of a blad-gasmic moment and all you get? A measly dribble. Don't you hate that?!

The joys of being duffed up, eh? A small (but entertaining, nonetheless) price to pay for what is feeling (literally) more and more real and exciting every day. The belly is starting to pop, I'm waiting for those infamous first flutters and I've decided now's about the time I need to start taking some photos of the burgeoning bump!!! So look out for those in the next few days....

Wordless Wednesday - Chinglish

WTF? Linking up here today...

Maintaining life from a distance

If any of you lovely people reading this blog have ever lived overseas for an extended period of time, far far away from home, you'll understand what I'm about to talk about....

Since we moved to Hong Kong 9 months ago, I've found it increasingly challenging to keep up strong, steady relationships with people who, well.....don't live here. When we were in London, it was just people in Australia we needed to keep in touch with. Mostly family, and a few good friends. Still a challenge, but manageable. Even though the time difference was tough, it was only one time difference to contend with. Now being here in HK, a place we're still settling in to, a place where we're still trying to find our feet, I'm finding it tough. We've got friends and family in Australia, and friends in London and Europe. And now all my blogging buddies too. Various time zones, various schedules, so many different lives I want to keep up with, and generally feeling like I'm doing a bloody shit job at doing so.

I don't know whether I've been overwhelmed with the changes going on re: baby, or overwhelmed with the massive adjustments I'm still contending with living in a city I don't yet love, but for some reason, I feel very very very out of touch. I'll put my hand up and say I know I'm not the best at emailing, phoning, texting, but sometimes I feel like the longer I'm away, the harder it is for my friends to bother too. Out of sight, out of mind, you know?

I don't believe you need to be skyping, emailing, phoning, texting every day or every week to maintain true relationships with people, and I definitely think it's up to both people to make the effort, but I do believe it's important not to lose touch with the people you care about. I love those friendships I've got where I know we don't have to regularly be in contact, but when we see each other, it's like not a day has passed. There's nothing more satisfying and comforting than truly knowing how deep a friendship is. But I also know that some friendships drift apart. People change, experience new things, meet new people, move on in their lives, sometimes in different directions, and it would be silly to expect a friendship that was so right at one point to always be right. Some relationships grow, blossom, become better, and I think some are about a time and place and just tend to naturally fade should that change.

I don't really have a reason or agenda or intention behind writing this post, I think it was just something I wanted to get out, on virtual paper. Maybe it's because I'm going through a life changing period, feeling pretty vulnerable and nervous and excited and petrified, and a lot of my close friends aren't here to share it with me. Maybe that's it. I feel a long way away, at a time in my life I didn't think I would be. I'd always thought I'd share this time with certain people and right now it couldn't feel further from the truth. The reality of expat living I guess. Our choice, definitely. But a tough reality nonetheless.