The baby bus!

All the books list the same sorts of things you need to get in advance of having a baby;

• a decent buggy
• a cot, moses basket etc.
• breast feeding stuff
• car seat
• bottles sterilisers
• a never ending supply of nappies and baby clothes

Our list included all of these but included a few rather significant extras:

• Finally do up the bathroom - it will NEVER get done if we don't do it now
• Re-carpet upstairs
• Mr A needs to learn to drive - the idea of me driving myself to hospital while having contractions wasn't a popular image.
• We need to ditch what is really a bit of a mobile death trap (ANCIENT dented toyota corolla) and replace it with a modern baby safe estate or car with at least a boot that can fit in more than three tesco bags
• Go on holiday while we still have the chance!

• I'll let you know how we get on as the months go by, but this week we have really made some serious progress! First step was the baby bus :)

So how did it happen?

I don't come from a family that gives extravagant gifts. I don't mean we are tight, far from it, just that my sister and I have been brought up to earn what we have and not expect to be given anything on a plate. So it came as a major surprise when dad and mum announced they were going to give us their car!!!!

Yes it actually worked out quite well for them too. Mum can justify getting a new car more suitable for her lifestyle and they aren't stuck with three cars. It also means we can give my sister our toyota when she really needs a helping hand, so all in all it works for everyone, but it is still an incredibly generous thing to do. We are suitably excited. The car has air bags, central locking, air con, a boot the size of a small country and even a sun roof! I know this is hardly going to get it on the Top Gear cool wall but none the less it's pretty exciting.

We picked it up from my sister's house in Sheffield ( long story) and drove it all the way back to Twickenham without stalling it once. The conversion from an automatic to a manual wasn't as hard as we thought it would be. It is still a bit noisy in the low gears - probably my clutch control being a bit underpar but we are getting there.

Only significant hurdle to overcome - how the hell do I park it????? It is very very very long. I actually had a little celebration when I managed to get it in a multi-storey car park in Wimbledon. I can't quite face the Kingston Bentalls centre. That carpark is evil! I'll keep trying and hope I don't crash it before we take it up to the family for Xmas.

All that remains is for Mr A to learn how to drive it, and believe it or not progress has been made there too. Update to come :)