Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

There are chores that we have to do, there’s no escaping them. Washing up, hoovering, laundry and putting out the rubbish, they all need to be done. There are some chores, that don’t need to be done quite so often, but are actually quite enjoyable, so you don’t mind doing them and quite happy finish them off with a smile on your face. Then there is gardening. The worst chore known to man. My main gripe about gardening, apart from the million little things that fly around annoying me, in some cases putting the fear of God into me, is that none of the machinery is actually very good. Ok, so I’m not going to go out and invest in a hi-tech combine harvester type mower as advertised by Forrest Gump, but if I spend £100 on a mower, I’d expect it to at least mow. Rather than me having to go around the garden six times to get every stray blade of grass and random weed that refuses to meets its inevitable demise. But by far the biggest and singularly most annoying thing, not just in gardeni...

During the summer of 2008, Mummy and Daddy decorated Daddy's old bedroom from when he was a boy, ready for you so that you had somewhere bigger to play. You had been sleeping in the nursery, which was Auntie Jessica's old room and Mummy and Daddy thought that we may need to keep the nursery for the future in case a brother or sister came along. Daddy wanted to make you a Gillingham Football Club room, but Mummy was worried that you would grow up and not like football! I said that she was crazy, all boys take after their Daddy's! We had both seen a brilliant football bedroom idea in a book called, Creative Spaces for Kids so decided to model your new bedroom on that, complete with a changing bench and football goal built into the fireplace. Daddy decided to take the idea further and wanted astroturf instead of carpet! Although he did get carried away, he knew when to stop, the floodlight and advertising hoarding ideas he had were sensibly scrapped!!! Mummy and Daddy t...

I wrote at the beginning of 2007 a reflective blog looking back at the year 2006, and in an attempt to keep consistent I will attempt to take a similar look back at 2007. At the end of 2006 Oliver joined Stephanie and I into our world, and so 2007 was about nurturing, discovery and growth. It was also a year in which marriages took place, and a year in which Stephanie and I were given an opportunity to settle down our own roots. It wasn't long after the arrival of Oliver that I had to go back to work, only having two weeks paternity leave entitled to me. Being a male, work felt more important after Oliver's arrival and gave me an extra sense of responsibility. Coming home to Stephanie and Oliver in the beginning was a real blessing each day and I was often left jealous of Stephanie's stories as she enthusiastically explained Oliver's latest new things to me. That excitement was unfortunately shorted lived, as Stephanie herself ran out of maternity day's and was ba...

I hadn't realised it had been so long, but my last blog was on the 21st November, when I wrote about preparations for the move. It now seems so long ago! Having now been in the house for the past three weeks, we appear to be settled and overly familiar with our new( ish ) surroundings. The move, despite a microwave falling from the van and rolling halfway to Woodlands Park went without hitch. Such was the efficiency of the whole operation we were in the British Legion Club in Gillingham for 1.30 in time for a couple of very well earned pints. By the time I had got home after the game, the boxes had all been unpacked, furniture placed and as a visitor you would never have known we had just moved in. All that remained was the discovery of Oliver eating the fake coal from the new fireplace which was also all around his face and newly washed pyjamas! With the move coming so close to Christmas and Oliver's birthday plans we haven't really managed to find time for a house warmin...

It has been a while coming, but this weekend will see us finally moving home. When we spoke about the possibility of moving back to my parents house back in May or June of this year it was something that came about out of the blue and caught Stephanie and I by surprise. At first it seemed like a brilliant idea, and having talked it through we decided that it was the best and most logical way forward for us. More than anything, it was an opportunity we couldn't turn down. We started the Tower Homes selling process just prior to going to Mexico, around the same time that Mum and Dad moved to their new home. Selling through Tower, although great if they can find you a buyer is a frustrating time if they can't, which unfortunately was the case for us. From the end of September, beginning of October we have been working at the new house in order to get things ready for us when we finally get there. In converting Craig's old room into a nursery and adding some colour to to the wa...

DIY in the Bird family, as a rule does not come naturally. I remember my Gramps decorating more than one room for us when were kids, if not it was his friend ' Simo '. Dad's philosophy was always to get somebody in, whilst my Mum would always go ahead and do it anyway as it was always too expensive to get someone in professionally. When we painted the flat it was always a simple affair as the walls were brand new and so along with the ceilings and woodwork required no attention. All was required was for either Stephanie or I to paint! Painting is fairly simple as far as DIY goes, and we didn't come across too many problems. I did attempt to put up some shelving prior to Oliver's room becoming the nursery and as a result drilled into possibly the only place in the whole flat that was undrillable due to some kryptonite , or equally Impenetrable material being placed behind the plasterboard. Decorating the new house therefore is a somewhat higher level of DIY ...

I have been without an internet connection at home now for nearly a week, and it really feels as if I am missing something vital from my life - it is a really sad state of affairs, but what would we do without the internet on a permanent basis? For those waiting for Oliver's Year in the Life photographs they will be uploaded just as soon as Sky deliver me my new router, which we are unlikely to be able to pick up until Saturday! In the meantime I can still blog from work, which is a little bit of a relief seeing as the new house has started to take vital importance in our lives right now. Having been empty now for six weeks, and with our holiday and other things cropping up we haven't been able to get as 'involved' as we would like. There has also been a little bit of breathing space required to let Tower Homes market the property and let them find us a buyer, which in all honesty has been a complete disaster. Considering that three properties have been sold over the p...