Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

Last month my good friends Stuart and Aimee announced their engagement after returning from a whirlwind tour of Venice. As we approach the end of this month, I am happy to congratulate another of couple, who are great friends of both Steph and I whom also announced their engagement this week. Will and Olivia returned from Eqypt on Sunday as an engaged couple after Will finally managed to pop the question! Will and Olivia are the textbook couple whom met as childhood sweethearts. They met each other as innocent 16 year olds and became each others first loves. For the past 10 years they have both fulfilled their own personal ambitions of university and travelling, whilst remaining true to themselves and one another. I said when Stuart and Aimee got engaged that it was destined to happen, but something in the stars happened the night Will and Olivia first met. From that moment there was only going to one outcome. To live apart for three years during university and remain strong as ever wa...

Last month I became another victim of the banking code, whereby a person goes 12 pence overdrawn the day before payday and the bank feels well within there rights to charge you £30 for the privilege. By chance I was surfing the BBC website when I came across this article , which is an indepth look at the process in which to claim back your "bank charges". Not only does it highlight the problem faced by millions of people daily whom are a victims of banking greed, it shows you step by step how to claim back, not only for you most recent charge, but for charges accumulated over the past 6 years! The best thing about the article was the fact that they had already prepared three ready made templates for you in order to save, tailor and print out in order to make your claim, it really was supposed to be that easy. I wasn't going to do anything about it, I just thought that it sounded like a great idea, but nothing would happen in practice. However, I then came across the Penal...

I read this great story on the BBC Website about the Gravesend and Northfleet Chairman ringing up all his season ticket holders in order to inform them that Saturday's kick off against Morecombe had been brought forward by an hour. I know it would be practically impossible for Mr Scally, the Gillingham chairman to do the same, but it goes to show what a diffference a personal and friendly chairman can do for a football club. A lesson for not just Mr Scally, but for most of the league chairman I am sure.

Yesterday a friend of mine, Will, commented on the blog saying that it was too long and I needed to add some shorter entries... So here it is.

I wrote just before I came back to work about how we needed to find a sense of normality and readjust to having a baby in our lives The transition has been quite straightforward really, after the first day back it felt like I had not been away! Now four weeks later Christmas and the birth is but a distant memory. It is amazing how time passes and how we remember things. The birth was an amazing experience and Steph suffered hugely, but if you ask her she won't remember the pain of the birth at all, although the sewing up after still sends a shiver down her spine. Being at work, getting home at eight o'clock and sometimes later has not been ideal, but we don't live in an ideal world. Seeing Oliver at night and first thing in the morning is better than not seeing him at all. Working is the one thing that I need to do in order to feed and dress him each day. A little sacrifice is not a problem as far as I am concerned. Every second we spend with him has been amazing. It is inc...

I had heard about the Tour de France coming to London and Kent this year for a little while, and when I first heard the news I speculated that the route may go pass the flat. We live on the main road from Dartford and into Gravesend, and it made perfect sense to me that this is where the route would go. In the past few weeks, with the build up and official announcements on the Tour de France website being made and confirmation by the council , we really will see the Tour de France racing along the Overcliffe and past Pioneer Court! I am not a cyclist, or a cycling fan per se, but it is great news for Gravesend that the world's largest annual sporting event is passing through! Even better for Steph, Oliver and I, is that we can watch all the action live and uninterrupted from the comfort of our front room! It is strange how when you see the Tour de France on the TV how they appear to be cycling through idyllic French hamlets, or high in the hills somewhere providing breathtaking v...

The Coca Cola promotion allowing you to win a player for your club is back! Just in case you have not seen it, or are reading this whilst drinking a special promotion packet, please please peel off the label and insert the code here ! FAQ's Why the desperation? Well Gillingham are in dire straits financially, so cannot afford to be competitive in the transfer market. If they win a prize like this it could help them improve there squad. If there squad improves they could improve there league position! If they improve there league position I am more happier! If I am happier I am nicer to you! I don't support Gillingham? That's fine with me, I do! If you are a Manchester Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool fan does your club really need to win anymore players? The answer really is no, so help another club instead, and seeing as I asked so nicely, enter under the Gills! What else is in it for me? Well apart from being my friend for eternity you get a chance to win £25,000 for entering. Y...

David Beckham announced today that he will be leaving Real Madrid and signing for LA Galaxy at the end of the season ( see BBC Site ). What has this got to do with me? Nothing really, but in the interest of blogging and the abillity to randomly discuss news events I thought I would give my views on this as a) I am a supporter of football and b) David Beckham is probably the iconic footballer of my generation. Since before Oliver was born I have thought about things that happened to me when I grew up, things that I enjoyed that Oliver will miss. It came about really by reading The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson . I won't write a review now, but it's basically a look back at Brysons life growing up in the 50's and the things that he remembers. After a lengthly thought process about things from when I was growing up I arrived at a mental list of footballers whom I remember standing out from all the rest, just like when my Dad grew up with Dalgleish, S...

Having been off work now since December 18th, tomorrow brings the first step of creating a new normality for us when I go back to work The past three weeks have gone in a blink of an eye, and it is going to be strange tomorrow not seeing Oliver or Steph all day! In Steph's case she probably cannot wait to get rid of me! In pre baby times a normal week would be Steph and I at work during the week, in which she would have one day off, I would be home between 7.30 and 9.30 depending on how busy my day has been, or if I have popped downstairs for a quick beer before home! An average weekend would see Steph at work on Saturday whilst I went to football and Sundays we spent the day together doing household chores, shopping, or if we were particularly lazy nothing at all. Since Oliver arrived and I have been home we have been all over the place in terms of our sleep, our day to day roles and our meal times. There is no going back to the pre Oliver routine, so we can only find a new one! T...

I wasn't really going to write this blog at one stage because I didn't really want to tempt fate, afterall if this year has been so great, who is to say that by celebrating it next year is going to go the other way. But I figured each year brings different things and hopefully next year I will be able to write about how well 2007 has gone too. Even if it does bring the unexpected. But for Steph and I the year 2006 felt like our year. I got the new job which I had craved for so long, which has since gone like a dream for me. I have really settled in, learnt a huge amount from some talented, intelligent people and earnt a reputation based on hard work and a willingness to help out whenever possible. Steph, whose broodiness was exposed the day Jessica announced her third pregnancy managed to fulfil her dreams by getting pregnant herself and spent the year nuturing an eventual baby boy, culminating in Oliver's birth on the 21st of December. A big highlight's for both of us...

Caution: This blog entry may contain sentences of a sentimental nature. I am sat here now writing this after what has been the longest, most emotional and most rewarding few days of my life. We were due for inducement at Darent Valley hospital on Wednesday evening at 6:00pm, so I had planned my leave off work to start on the Wednesday and to use the day to do some shopping for Christmas and some pre labour relaxation. However, over the weekend and on the Monday morning Stephanie had been feeling sporadic contractions, so I decided to bring my leave a day earlier in case she went into labour and I was able to assist her in getting into hospital ASAP. Despite my initial concerns Tuesday went without incident and I was able to get a few things out of the way paving way for a relaxing Wednesday before going in to get things kick started. Baby Bird had other plans. I was woken up in the early hours of Wednesday morning by the bedside light being switched on and in my half asleep state I cou...

This is by far the saddest thing I have ever done! At 12:40am nearly 24 hours after arriving at the delivery suite I am here typing this! Still no Baby Bird, but a day of emotion and high drama! Full report to come just as soon as Baby Bird hatches! Over and out!

Here is a link from the Sky One website showing the ten minute prequel for season 6 of 24! Season 6 Prequel If the above link does not work use the Sky One website instead! If you have not yet seen season five, and don't know how it ended - DO NOT WATCH!!!

Remember that TV ad which showed a guy growing up as music played in the background showcasing the "soundtrack to his life"? Well someone has got the Jukebox spot on with Take That sitting at the top of the singles chart with a song called "Patience", totally apt considering mine and Steph's current situation! If I was a betting man I would have put money on Baby Bird coming early, as witnessed by my bold proclamations earlier on in the pregnancy. However, so far, so not a lot! We await Wednesday now with the unimaginable thoughts of inducement now a realistic certainty. The doctors make the appointment for you as you approach your due date on the basis of accounting for all possibilities. Steph at the time said something along the lines of "as if I will need to be induced!". Although we are currently frustrated with the waiting, it has been fun. Going to work each day and people asking me "what am I still doing here", and comments sugg...

Nine months into a trouble free pregnancy we finally hit the skids at the business end of the gestation period. Not only are we a day late, Steph is really struggling with a sore throat and cold. I am really hoping that the baby holds on for a little longer, just so Steph can get over the worst of it and enjoy the first hours of motherhood without worrying about dripping snot on the baby or coughing all over the poor thing! It's been a pretty mad few days at work with some long hours thrown in to meet deadlines ( Britain's Best Driver ) etc, so I haven't really had a chance to sit and think about the imminent arrival of Baby Bird. I know Steph sitting at home has been frustrated, but with the cold and feeling rough has only added to her worries. Dad went back to Iran this morning, so I am pretty gutted that he may have to wait six weeks before he gets a chance to meet his fourth grandchild. But he told me this morning that he may in fact be back sooner than expected! We hav...

I am sure that the pregnancy advice books write pages and pages about what parents to be ought to be doing a week before the baby is born. I am sure that they prescribe rest, to take things easy, but Steph and I yesterday took the advice a little too literally! We did... nothing! Steph woke up at ten and was watching birth tv as per usual, whilst I did some updates for Uncle Matthew on kings-medway.co.uk . Once I had finished that I suggested we watch the last two episodes of 24 (We have been catching up on series four, so we are all up to speed again ready for series five which we brought on DVD last month). So by the time we had watched those, it was not much point in getting ready to go out anywhere, as we didn't really have anywhere to go, and we had spent so long on the sofa that our bodies had been moulded to it! We started to watch the beginning of 24 series 5, and before we knew it we had watched the whole of the first dvd (four hours)! At this point it was time for X-Fa...

After days of painful soul searching, I decided that I could afford to take the risk and go to Manchester and watch the game vs Chelsea. As it turned out, the baby is still safe and warm and being incredibly well looked after. If there was any hint of an appearance, I would have course stayed at home! Despite the long journey, which included a monsoon at Heathrow scaring the bejesus out of me and Reaso, we arrived at Old Trafford at 3.30, dry and in one piece. Having parked seemingly in Macclesfield, or Altrincham we faced a long walk to the stadium which we could see tantalisingly in the distance. As at Arsenal earlier on in the season we had to walk along a similar looking road, consisting of fried chicken eateries, cab offices and parades of boarded up shops. I have been to Old Trafford only once and on that occasion I was overwhelmed by the shear amount of people walking to the ground, congregating outside pubs and on corners close to the ground. That was before they added another ...

Being a Gillingham fan means that I miss out on the thrills and spills of the Premier League, the Ferrari's, the million pound weekly a salaries and foreign mercenaries. So when a chance comes along to swap my Priestfield's and Millmoor's for Anfield or Old Trafford I snap it up with gusto. Having recently received an opportunity, courtesy of good friend (even better now!) Reaso, to watch Manchester Utd v Chelsea I accepted without hesitation. I had sudden visions of Rooney, Giggs, Carrick, Saha, Shevchenko, Lampard, Ballack and Drogba. 75,000 passionate fans roaring in the "Theatre of Dreams", the smell of a big game, Mourinho's whinging, Fergies red hooter and yet more photo opportunities for the website(!). Before my fantasies got too out of hand it suddenly dawned on me.... Baby Bird....! Bugger.... I could possibly be in Manchester whilst Steph goes into labour with my first child! Although not due until the 6th December, there is every possibility she co...

I have just got back from the third scan, and despite my initial excitement the actual event was a bit of a letdown. Firstly - the result! We only had a third scan to check for giantitis but the baby's growth is on the dollar with nothing to worry about what so ever! I can ever breathe a further sigh of relief as Steph is not even carrying too much water, it must be just the way Mother nature decided Steph would carry her first baby! The head was measured in diameter and circumference and all was worked out to be fine. The thigh bone was also measured, and again all was as it should be. The next measurement was taken, but I am not too sure what it was they were measuring! We were not actually looking at this point, as whatever was being measured would have given the game away as to the baby's sex! It must have been a strange view for any voyeurs seeing three excited people (my mum came this time) looking away from the monitor with their eyes in their hands! I was expecting the ...

As we enter our eight month of pregnancy Steph and I are all ready and waiting! The nursery is ready (albeit awaiting some blinds - which are on order), we have a baby bath - with a floating duck themometer, we have stacked up on baby shampoo, talcum powder, nappies and all sorts of potions that I don't have a clue what are used for! The only thing we need now is a baby! In footballing terms, we are entering what Alex Ferguson referred to as "Squeeky Bum Time", that period at the end of the footballing season whereby each game played determines whether or not your team is going to come out on top, win the championship or get pipped at the post. For ninety minutes as a supporter you are sat at the edge of your seat willing your team on. Steph and I are at the stage now, we have gone nearly to the end of the season, in a position of strength in a flaw free nine months, and we are waiting nervously for the final whistle! More seriously thought, we are both starting to get ...