Ravenclaw
If I’d gone to Hogwarts, I’d've been in Ravenclaw, I just found out. This test gave the same result, as did this very long one (Ravenclaw 91, Gryffindor 74, Hufflepuff 65, Slytherin 61) and this one (but the latter almost put me in Hufflepuff).
Although I would expect to be in Ravenclaw, I would have thought Slytherin would be the runner-up, but only this test would let me get into the latter (52% Slytherin, 36% Ravenclaw, 32% Gryffindor, 12% Hufflepuff if I said I wanted to be in Slytherin, as opposed to 32% Slytherin, 56% Ravenclaw, 32% Gryffindor, 12% Hufflepuff otherwise).
Buying a house
My two-bedroom flat in the city centre has felt a little bit crowded ever since Phyllis, Marcel, Charlotte and Léon moved in last year, and it’s not been ideal for Marcel and Charlotte to live so far from their school.
What with Bart arriving in December (no, we’ll find another name before then!), things were not going to get any better, so we were happy when we found a house in Newton Mearns with enough rooms for us all.
Phyllis has taken some nice photos of it.
The dimensions of the rooms are as follows:
| Name | Dimensions | Area | |
| Lounge | 399 | 363 | 14.48 |
| Dining | 328 | 310 | 10.15 |
| Kitchen | 378 | 282 | 10.67 |
| Family room | 597 | 216 | 12.89 |
| Dining/bedroom | 381 | 305 | 11.61 |
| Porch | 239 | 104 | 2.49 |
| Bedroom | 307 | 241 | 7.42 |
| Bedroom | 389 | 203 | 7.90 |
| Bedroom | 384 | 279 | 10.72 |
| Bedroom | 292 | 297 | 8.68 |
| Bathroom | 307 | 173 | 5.31 |
| Bathroom | 198 | 183 | 3.62 |
| Bathroom | 254 | 198 | 5.03 |
We’re thinking about making a new kitchen in the family room, and having three bathrooms with bathtubs is somewhat over the top, so we might do something about that, too.
The rooms listed above add up to 110 m2, but the survey claims the house altogether is 160 m2.
Kicking
We’d been worried for a couple of weeks that the baby wasn’t kicking, given that Phyllis normally always is able to feel the kicking pretty early on. There was a heartbeat, however, so the hospital told us not to worry.
A couple of days ago, Phyllis’s doctor then managed to use the equipment he uses for listening to the baby’s heartbeat to let her listen to the kicking, so it was clear that it was happening, even if she couldn’t feel it (probably because the placenta was in the way).
And today the baby has been kicking strongly, so strongly that even I could feel it when I was lucky enough to place my hand in the right place! 
It’s a shame 4D scans aren’t offered for free – I’d really like one of those, just to see how the baby looks while it kicks!
His favourite moment
When we went to Legoland during our holiday in Denmark earlier this month, Marcel was only really interested in the rollercoasters. He loved the smaller ones, but the real highlight of the day was trying out the big one, the one that clearly attracted more adults than kids.
He patiently waited with me for almost an hour in a long, snaking queue, and finally it was our turn. He was perfectly happy at first, but after we came out of the main dip, he sat there very quietly, muttering “fuck, fuck, fuck” to himself.
He quickly recovered, and he’s bragged about doing it ever since, but the photo on the left (taken by Legoland in the middle of the big dip) shows how he felt during his favourite moment (click on the photo and then on ‘All sizes’ to study his expression more closely).
LibraryThing
Som den opmærksomme læser vil have bemærket, har jeg tilføjet bøger fra LibraryThing til højre, under billederne fra Flickr.
Jeg er ikke helt tilfreds med LibraryThing – jeg kunne godt tænke mig lidt mere fokus på, hvad jeg er i gang med at læse, og hvad jeg ikke er kommet i gang med endnu (noget i stil med Bookshare i Facebook) – men i det mindste kan LibraryThing håndtere bøger på mange sprog, ikke bare hovedsprogene, og jeg kan vise bøgerne her på bloggen.
Hvis der findes bedre sites til formålet, hører jeg gerne nærmere!
Barbra Streisand
As regular readers of this blog will remember, Phyllis and I have been going through some trouble to see Barbra Streisand on the last European tour.
However, yesterday we finally managed to experience her in the O2 Arena in London. We got seats on the back row, so one could hardly see her with the naked eye (I took the photo myself), but we were there!
Phyllis knew all the songs by heart (which I definitely didn’t), and it was lovely to see her enjoying it so much.
Weird maps
I found a superb site with hundreds of maps of the World where the sizes of countries have been changed to reflect other figures, such as population, GDP, aircraft passengers or AIDS.
They’re both good fun and very thought-provoking.
What to do in M&S
One day I was shopping in Marks & Spencer (or Marcos y Espéncer, as I for reasons unknown always think of that shop, as if it was Spanish), I got a chance to take this photo showing the cachier’s side of the checkout. The first sign says:
- Greet the customer
- Thank the customer for waiting
- Make a positive comment about the product being purchased
- Promote the Credit & Loyalty Card
- Pack product(s) with care
- Thank your customer
I love the bit about making a positive comment. Does that mean that if I buy a packet of condoms from a nice old lady, she’ll have to make a comment about how much she likes that brand?!?
The best
I just finished reading the last Harry Potter book.
It’s excellent, definitely the best of the seven books!
No pædophilia here?
Here’s another bizarre sign. What is it supposed to mean? No pædophilia? No accompanied kids? Don’t hold hands? No old-fashioned clothing? No single fathers?