Ups and Downs

I think that I’ll look back on 2012 with mixed feelings, although the memories will be at the very high and very low ends of the spectrum.

The first six months of the year was spent on the stress and excitement of the wedding. From deciding who to invite and how to invite them, to what we were both going to wear and what we were going to say, and onto what we were going to eat and how everything should be decorated.

I have to say that my, now, wife did most of that, with me adding what little intelligence that I could, and the day itself turned out to be really wonderful and an event which (as it should) will certainly stay with me forever. I certainly hope never to forget the delight and emotion on her face during the ceremony, and the only way that I could stay calm was by trying to forget that anyone else was there other than the two of us and the registrar.

We had so much help from friends and family who all worked really hard for us, but I have to admit that the following day I felt relief more than anything else!

Skipping forward a handful of months, and the other amazing event was confirming that I was to become a father in the New Year. At the time it was incredibly weird but exciting, and now it just seems a bit confusing and abstract as we try to work out what we will need. I’m not too bad at working out what I might need for a situation once it’s gotten going, but deciding beforehand requires a leap of thinking that I struggle at.

I guess that all new parents feel a bit like this in one way or another, but muddle through in the end. After all, the baby’s not going to care too much about what it’s wearing, sleeping on, or the shape of its furry cuddly toy.

Alongside the news of the increase in family members we’ve had continued struggles with the fitness of our flat, and our somewhat incompetent landlord isn’t helping matters. From failing to fix a shower leak properly, to the extent that it leaked into downstairs and filled our bathroom with mould and damp, to then taking two months to start fixing it.

And even that fix hasn’t worked properly since the new hot water tank that was fitted stopped working for three weeks and we only just got our hot water back. Luckily we are resourceful enough to work out ways to wash and clean dishes using kettles and saucepans. But it is frustrating, especially when the landlord blames you for the problem and it turns out not to be, but still you get no apology.

As for the New Year, I’m just hoping for a fairly mundane one to be honest. Not too many highs or lows, just a consistent Ok-ness would suit me perfectly. Obviously with a healthy little one appearing at some point in the middle of the year, I would be quite happy to remember 2013 for one thing only.