a familiar feeling of being settled

The months have flown by and my increasing size is just a constant reminder of how change is about to come, and fast!

I'm in Week Thirty and feeling the toll of carrying around an extra 25 lbs.

Walking long distances (or heaven forbid - UPHILL!) is a struggle and I have to stop and catch my breath every few steps. I feel like I'm living in the Himalayas.

I have the occasional heartburn which seems to radiate from the middle of my ribs and just recently, I get pangs of lower back pain which feels like a sudden and vicious screw being driven between two vertebrae with a jack-hammer.

On the upside, my appetite is still voracious and I am in constant awe of the movement that is now part of my waking (and non-waking) life.

I'm already missing my bump and the indescribable feeling of having life growing and kicking and wriggling inside. How does one's body know what to do? It is simply a miracle.

Matt has become very involved in the pregnancy and reading everything he can get his hands on.

At the airport the other week, we picked up the novel "The Road" by Cormac Mc Carthy, a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed all civilization.

It is a beautifully written piece of literature, where the simplest of words can conjure up such intense emotions.

I am very happy that we made the right decision to move to the UK early on in my first trimester instead of waiting until the end of the work/school term in Canada (mid/late June).

Although my memories of moving in December/ January are clouded with memories of complete exhaustion and nausea, I know it would've been much worse in the third trimester, especially in the heat of summer.

It's been 3 months since we've arrived (already!) and so far we've enjoyed living in this gorgeous part of the UK more than we thought we would.

Sunsets at Land's End in Sennen Cove, walks on the north coast at Crackington Haven, exploring the beaches of Perranporth and Porthtowan.

I've finally put away my big winter jacket for the year. Just in time too; for the past few weeks, I haven't been able to zip it up.

Needless to say, we definitely have Baby on the Brain and are both very excited about meeting our little man.

What will he look like? And will his limbs be in proportion to his head? Will we worry too much? Will we ever get a good night's sleep?

29 weeks and still ballooning

Can I really get any bigger?

Yes, it seems that I can.

Feeling this little person wriggling and kicking inside is just miraculous.

I have not being able to see my toes for weeks now - and dear Matt has been so good by trimming my toenails since bending down is now a thing of the past.

I realize this time in my life is a special privilege and so I am embracing it all, the good, the bad and the achy bits (which thankfully, there are very few of).

The 'glow' that is associated with pregnancy is lit within me.

Cornwall at its best

Matt has gone to Nanaimo for a 48 hour period to collect his Permanent Resident card from Immigration... a long way to go but at this point it would be silly not to obtain it.

As long as he is living with me, a Canadian, his PR status will stay in effect.

This is great news, especially after all the time, money and resources that we've spent putting the application together.

Although I was supposed to go back as well as his 'sponsor', the case officer was extremely sympathetic and didn't make that mandatory due to my 'condition'. I was only sorry I didn't get a chance to catch up with people back in Nanaimo.

So besides driving Matt to Bristol airport in the middle of the night, a 4+ hour drive from Penzance, I have been relishing the time to myself after a couple of hectic weeks.

Today, I met up with Sue, Guy, Claire and Anthony in Crackington Haven, about an hour and a half north-east of Penzance.

It is fantastic how close we are to them now (C&A) and able to see each other more regularly.

The north coast of Cornwall is truly stunning and we had a picture-perfect day.

We started with sitting outside in the sun, munching on fresh crab sandwiches, followed by a stunning walk on the cliff path and then down through the valley. We finished off with a double scoop of Cornish ice-cream as a well-deserved reward.

Happy 40-4th Birthday Mattie!

Wishing my Mattie a happy birthday!

May all your wishes come true! xo

overdue update

I can't believe it's only been 2 months since we landed here in the UK...

so much has happened, so much has changed, so much has grown (me in particular!)

After a month and a bit in temporary accommodation at cozy Regent Cottage (which is more like a holiday home for tourists), we are now nice and settled into our own place, a cute and cozy little fisherman's cottage just on the outskirts of town.

It is in the perfect location, walking distance to all of the town's amenities, about a 2 minute's walk to the seafront and a 20 min cycle ride to work for Matt.

It took me several weeks to find this place as we had strict priorities, mainly parking availability, which is so difficult to come by here! But here we are, happy and settled.

Although I've visited England many times, I'm only starting now to get used to how things 'work' here, like the usual mundane things such as gas, electricity, water, tv, internet connection, etc.

Shops and companies are pretty rigid when it comes to business hours and anything that can't be done between the hours of 9am-5pm, you will be more or less stuck.

On the driving front, I'm proud to say that I've not (yet) scratched our car in the small narrow Cornish streets - whereas Matt has left a beauty of a dent on the right side because he didn't see this huge flowerpot, oops!

I actually had to do my British Driver's License test in order to drive manual cars.

Luckily i passed, but there was one baby-brain moment where i actually started to drive on the 'wrong' (aka: Canadian) side of the road.

I was so embarrassed and begged the examiner to redo the manoever again... lucky for me, he took pity on the pregnant lady.

We've gotten into a nice routine now, and the spring weather is finally here which means daffodils EVERYWHERE!!!

I've applied to a few jobs, but in all honesty, i probably haven't been pushing it as much as i could. For one, I'm a bit wary of employers wanting (or not wanting) to hire a 6+ month pregnant woman but also I'm just really really enjoying the time to have the day to myself.

At first it was a lot of unpacking and 'setting up house' and battling many utility companies on the phone, not to mention trying to decipher thick accents from northern Scotland and Wales - I'm sure it went both ways though with my "abooots" and "ooouts. English can really be that mutually unintelligible!

But I'm quite aware of the fact that this precious time to myself will soon be gone in a few months so i'm cherishing it as much as i can now.

Since we shipped the minimal amount of stuff from Canada (and I'm happy to report everything has arrived safely, except for one broken glass picture frame, which is pretty good, considering..), we had to buy everything new again here.

And oh, how i miss big box stores here!! it's such a struggle to find out where to buy sofas, tables/chairs, beds, curtains, dressers.

In the end we went to this place called Trago Mills, about an hour away, which is a bit like today's modern Ikea store, except the whole place is like one big theme park with gargoyles outside, a huge bird cage, a pond, ducks, watermill, many pubs, but of course!

Inside is this intricate maze of STUFF! Practical everyday stuff and then useless stuff you never thought you ever would need, but end up buying anyway.

And everyone that worked there seemed to be at least 60 if not 70+ years old!

Everything on their inventory list was still written in pen and paper in a tatty binder, and everyone calls you "My love". Or that could just be a Cornish thing.. i seem to get that a lot here. Do i really look that young??

At least I haven't gotten carded yet here. Not like in Nanaimo when I got asked for ID the first weekend we arrived, but then again, i'm not ordering double scotches or vodka. Although some days I could kill for a glass of red wine.

As I'm writing, reading and keeping active by going walking swimming 3-4 times/week, attending prenatal yoga classes, and biking - not the motor type, although I do wish for just one long ride along the coastal road... we shipped our helmets and bike gear... but i must be patient.

There's a great National Childbirth Trust (NCT) charity organization in the UK and every so often, towns host "Nearly New" sales, mainly parents who have baby/toddler paraphernalia that they don't need anymore.

We went to one a couple of weeks ago and went crazy mad for Tigger/Tiger outfits.

Since it's the Year of the Tiger, this poor boy of ours already has a huge collection of tiger stuffies, shirts, hats, etc.

I've never seen Matt make a beeline for an item of clothing as quick as the moment he saw that tiger outfit (it's like a Halloween costume, with tail and all!), but I must admit it is very cute.

Yes, we are having a boy!! We wanted to find out and at our last scan there was no inkling of doubt... it is a little boy munchkin!

And is he ever active - last week was the first time i actually SAW some limb of his actually poking OUT of my belly. Unbelievably crazy. Of course I screamed and cried at once!

I am fortunate and am feeling very well during this second trimester. My sinuses have completely cleared up, no swollen ankles, no back ache, nothing.

Just a bit of heartburn now and again and the 20-pound weight gain! However, if the weight continues to pile on in all the right places (ie. chest rather than thighs), then i don't mind one bit!

At he last scan, the sonographer measured the baby's head which is in the 90th percentile - ouch, I blame the Thornington gene there!

And his legs were shorter than average - ok, that's probably thanks to me.

So, I'll sign off here and leave you with the mental image of our son with a humongous blimpish head and short pudgy legs.

Bless him.

Week 26 and I'm lovin' it

Whoever said second trimester was the best time of your pregnancy, they were totally spot on.

I'm loving it.

week 23 - more than halfway!!!

Things are expanding quickly. 'Things' being my mid-section.

One day my feet are here... the next day, they've completely disappeared!

Oh Boy!

After all the anticipation and excitement, we were rewarded with a full-on view of our baby's nether-regions today.

And without a thread of doubt, it is a BOY!

With the expansion of my belly, it is becoming more and more real each day.

I find bending over to put on my shoes or even getting up from a soft sofa a bit awkward.

A few times I've caught myself off-balance.

I don't know what I'll be like a few months from now!

I've gained 20 pounds already, give or take a bit depending on time of weighing and number of layers worn. I can hardly believe it! Where did it all go?

Well, there's no denying my belly has taken the majority of this weight, as has my thighs and butt, not to mention my boobs (which isn't too bad, is it HN?!! Ha! If being pregnant is what it takes.. there ya have it!)

Well, my son, I'm delighted - and relieved - you are healthy and 'normal' and have a beautiful-shaped head and sweet delicate (football playing) feet!

post-Christmas pudge

Week 17, and I think yoga pants are the comfiest things ever.

We survived our move to the UK.

We managed to sell as much as we could including the motorbikes and car, send 20+ huge boxes via Canada Post which should be arriving in a few weeks, and pack and store the rest of it in our apartment closet.

The rest we took with us, with some excess baggage sitting in my parent's basement, along with the existing pile I've accumulated over the past few years.

We spent almost a month visiting family in Ottawa and Toronto, scrambled to apply for my UK Settlement Visa (which was issued in a record 2 days!), escaped to the Dominican Republic for a week of sun and surf, and after a New Year's spent playing Perudo at home, hopped over to the UK to see more family and get settled into our temporary accommodation.

And now begins the 'settlement' phase of our new life. Again.

Having done this numerous times, we are getting too good at this. This time home is Penzance.

If I were given a nickel for every list I have made, I'd have a small fortune. And with it, we'd probably up and leave for another destination....!

However, I do feel blessed to be able to make such changes in my life, pretty much whenever we want, under our own circumstances.

The same excitement that accompanies such a move has set in. I want to get a car to explore the area, set up a bank account and eat in all the restaurants, visit the local pubs and meet the locals, get a permanent place to live and buy a comfy bed and couch and piano..... the list continues....

But different from the previous moves, there's a little person inside me screaming for me to sleep.

Already, he/she's ruling my life and I will happily oblige.

pre-Christmas bulge

Week 10 and Matt's still winning the race!

1st pics of Thing Thornington!

We had our first ultrasound yesterday.. exciting!

I waddled in there, desperately trying not to sneeze or laugh for fear of peeing my pants.

And then I was told I was "definitely overbloated" and had to empty about half of my bladder before we could see anything clearly. I was only too happy to oblige :)

The best was seeing the heart beating, a bit like a strobe light: bright, strong and fast. Recorded at about 179 beats per minute, this is a healthy rate for a 9 week 5 day old fetus.

Matt's first reaction to the arm and leg buds frantically waving and kicking: "Hard to see on the still image but we got to see the leg buds moving strongly, I sense a great soccer/football player in the making and just as the technician was about to turn off the scanner the arm buds gave us a wave, seeming to say, "See you in July!", or maybe "Come on England!"

Due date was confirmed as July 4, 2010, and as I'm reminded everyday by my hubby, still perfectly in good time between the semi-finals and finals of the World Cup. Thank goodness for that!

one of the month's best bloggers on TravelPod!

Featured on The Web's Original Travel Blog

The Miracle of Life

A lot of parents say they can hardly remember their life before their child was born.

Well, I can hardly remember my life before I was pregnant. It's only week nine but no matter where I turn, it seems everything is about babies, pregnancy, labour, parenthood.

We tested at home on October 23rd at 10pm and as the stick showed the unmistaken 'pregnant' symbol, we stood in the bathroom in disbelief and relief. I was not surprised I was pregnant, just surprised it all happened so fast. And yes, there was a bit of mild panic mixed in there somewhere. I mean, this is something that can't be reversed or erased. Right?

I have the best support system right now from a very caring and sympathetic husband (he's so good he even snacks and naps with me) to the bunch of women (all moms and some even grandmas!) at work. Working in an environment that is surrounded with young children, babies and new parents, I am constantly bombarded by the goodwill of people, their sound advice and their generous gifts and encouragement.

'Morning sickness' is a misleading condition. It is fact that it not only strikes in the morning, so why continue calling it 'morning sickness'? These past few days, the nausea and sickness has struck me hard. At first it was mainly the incredible bouts of fatigue I would get and I thought that was bad enough - I have never been as inactive in my life as I am now!

But since the gag reflex in me is showing its strength in leaps and bounds, I have had absolutely no desire to do anything except lie in a horizontal position and rest my body. If I could put the world on 'pause' i could sleep for a hundred years, I'm sure of it.

But I am told this too shall pass. But first it gets worse before it gets better. I have within arms-reach at all times, a box of Ritz crackers, the sodium-reduced kind so it's a bit better. At any slight notice of dizziness or nausea, I pop one of them in my mouth and the feeling subsides.

Still, I make time in my day for at least one, if not more, naps. And by naps I mean a nice long relaxing sleep that can last from half an hour to several hours. There is no shame in how lazy I've become.

Despite the physical maladies, I am in an increasing feeling of awe and admiration for my body who seems to know what to do, without any direction or urging from me. And the thought that a little person is growing inside of me is just indescribable. It is truly a miracle.

I read in my pregnancy guidebook(s) that today the fetus is about the size of a green olive and its features are verging more on the human-side, versus alien-form a few weeks prior. Hooray!

Upon announcing to the world our pregnancy and expected due date (July 4, 2010), Matt put his creative talents to work and drew a fairly 'realistic' representation of what my belly will soon resemble. See photo.

Tomorrow we see our family doctor for our first prenatal appointment. Apparently the heartbeat can be heard now, I wonder if we should be so lucky...

Autumn is here and there is change to come.

september is just one of those months you barely remember

Since returning to work, it's been full on!

Besides doing a variety of different programs this year (adult workplace literacy, Mother Goose Goes to School, First Nations play-based groups....), I'm enjoying the fact that everything is somewhat familiar.

No such steep learning curve like last year, but just a committed head-first dive onto this treadmill we call 'Building Learning Together'.

As always, I just love my coworkers and we keep each other sane and happy and creative and silly all in one go.

And just to prove how much i really care for them, i'll even squeeze into my already- busy programming day to rescue them at the store when they've locked their keys in the car (today) or lend them my car when theirs has just conveniently decided to take early retirement (yesterday).

I wonder what's in store for tomorrow? I'm car-pooling so at least my vehicle is safe.

on the move again

I'm back blogging on: Travelpod

You can follow our motorbike trip across Canada on that site. Leaving this morning!


UPDATE (Nov 2019): Travelpod has since been stopped working. But we have saved all our Cross-Canada Motorbike Journey blog entries here. 
If you want to read about it, click here:

https://www.floating-point.ca/travelpod/bonthorn.trip.2/bonthorn.trip.2.html

connecting

Tonight, my friend Tess and I saw the Syringa Tree play performed by Pamela Gien. Incredible.

A one-woman act who plays various characters in a complex story of childhood innocence, racial tension, and lifelong discovery.

It has been a long time since i've been so thoroughly impressed by a performance such as this one. A rare gift and a must see!

Yesterday i had the delight of meeting Mr. Grimsey, the father of one of my longtime childhood friends. He was here on the Island on business and had the evening free.

I picked him up in his posh resort and we went to Little Qualicum Falls for a lovely hike.

We then had a nice dinner on the beachfront. We chatted the entire time and it was really the first time that i can remember having had such a long conversation with him. We would only ever really exchange pleasantries, and growing up, it would be "Oh, Bonnie's here!" or "It's Bonnie on the phone!"

So what a pleasure it was to share some time with him and listen to some thoughtful wisdom from someone who has been a part of my life, if only on the periphery, but who has seen me grow up. Thank you.

It has been a strange week without Matt.

After his last exam, he took the opportunity to be with his family on a narrowboat canal holiday in England. From what I've heard and the few pictures I've seen, it looks like quite the relaxing kind of holiday, slow-paced and serene.

Our home was quiet at first with just me in it, but when i look around me, I see how we have filled it with our memories and joy and it is just simply brimming with loud declarations of our love.

Matt returns to Canada on Sunday and I will be waiting anxiously at Victoria airport, arms wide open.

my birthday already?

What a great sunny birthday weekend!

Matt gave me a reconstructed print of our Taklamakan rally picture (the original one that was given to us by the rally guys for our wedding was ruined by the bubbles in the print and some leaky ink)... it looks amazing, just like new!

He was so excited to give it to me that just a little past midnight Friday night (while i was doing my reading-and-falling-asleep-in-

bed routine) he woke me up so i could open it :)

He had some professional photographer take a picture of the picture and then commissioned Anice

to do some magic with it on photoshop. Thanks Sis, you did a great job!

Friday night we played rec soccer at the community centre behind our building.. we go every Friday usually and that night i scored my first goal - yeah, it surprised me too!

To continue the scoring theme, i scored in the hockey game during Saturday's class. Matt scored his first in Wednesday's class! Dare i say we're improving..?

We went for a motorbike ride yesterday after I got two new tires changed, a new chain put on, a couple of new spark plugs and a general maintenance tune-up.

I can't believe how much i love riding, more than i thought i would actually. What a feeling!

We even got our walkie-talkies working so we can talk to each other while we're riding. Now i want some headphones too to listen to some music!

Now full of chocolate birthday cake and chocolate ice cream, it's time for bed.

Work for me tomorrow and Matt's off to Vancouver to get his medical checkup done, and then he can finally send off his Permanent Resident Application off!!! What a process it's been! I'll spare you all the details, I don't even want to think back to what it took to get the whole package together!

I'm dropping him off for the 6:30am ferry so goodnight for now!!

the road is mine

I'm feeling beyond ecstatic right now.

I passed my MST (Motorcycle Skills Test) this morning! I was so nervous and visions of past skills test were haunting me (I failed twice in Hong Kong, although it was slightly different and I didn't quite understand the whole concept about shifting gears).

After an intensive 4 day course with Ziggy's Driving Academy, 3 hours of theory on Wednesday and Thursday each and then 8 hours of riding on Saturday and again on Sunday, i was practically living and breathing in my new jacket and helmet.

I would highly recommend anyone who wanted to learn how to ride a motorbike to learn how to drive a shift stick first. It is so much easier, so fewer stalls... which then translates to much less stress and headache.

Anyways, now i'm qualified to ride solo on the road!!

The only restriction i have is I can't ride at night and i can't carry a passenger. When i pass my final road test (i've got a year to do it), then i'll have my full Motorcycle license, or a Class 6 License as they call it here in BC.

Matt has instituted an 'in-house' rule that he still comes along with me whenever i ride... "You know, just because I want to be with you."

I don't mind, really.

It really is more fun to ride with other people, and it just shows he cares. I just tease him about how he'll be even more paranoid if and when our kids want to take up a powerful two-wheeled motor vehicle. I will definitely be enforcing the 'in-house' rule alongside Matt then.

introducing the new hockey legend!

To go along with the hockey fever that has infected us, I got Matt a personalized hockey jersey for his 35th birthday today.

It reads: THORNINGTON 1

Here he is minutes upon waking up and opening his present, all dressed and ready to play!

Happy Birthday lovely!

May this be a year filled with many goals and few bruises.