35+3

Hopefully, at my peak at 135lbs. Did not escape the dreaded stretch marks which appeared sometime at the start of the third trimester.

I can hardly walk nor waddle. Sometimes it feels like a part of me is splitting in half. Back strains from the weight. And with sleep comes oedema, tummy itch, hip pains, acid reflux, and numbness in legs and toes. Good thing I don’t wake up so easy with the constant kicks and somersaults.

It had been a relatively easy 2 trimesters, though. It’s these last 3 months that brought on most of the common symptoms. Been to hospital twice in February and I am still scared that a massive bleeding can still happen.

Not long to go before life as we know it will change. Excited, scared, and sometimes I feel alone that we have no family around us.

New Forest

picked up the rented car. and drove ourselves at The Crown Manor House Hotel in Lyndhurst. too many roadworks, that it took us almost 4 hours to get there. Hotel was lovely. they have this old lift where 2 of us with luggages barely fit. nice areas to lounge and have tea (or cocktails and wine if only I could). good food and great service. they gave us a room at the 3rd floor with views of the roof 😦 but never mind, we had a comfortable stay.

saturday. stayed in for the rest of the day.

sunday. funny that the first thing we have to do these days is to check out the nearest hospital (I’m not allowed to fly and need to be near a big hospital). walked for a bit in the deer park – where we saw wild horses and no deers. lunch in brockenhurst.

monday. went to Beaulieu. didn’t realise it was a theme park sort of place as I only wanted to see the palace and walk over to the michelin starred restaurant nearby. we ended up staying longer than expected, taking in the classic cars, the gardens and the palace. drove up to the Montagu Arms and lunch was already over. We were directed to Royal Oak, a pub up the hill. good place for lunch.

spring has just started and the forest are not as lush as they should be in the summer. lots of wild horses and goats roam these areas, and we took in plenty of scenery driving through the inner roads. good, short break, but i think we belong near the seaside if we wanted to really relax.

Another non-Christmas

24-28 December 2015

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A few nights staying in at a hotel near Colchester. Early check in and a non-impressive lunch, we asked to move rooms as the first room had a great view of the gas tanks, refuse bins, and delivery lorries.

We moved to The Village, detached from the main building of the hotel, but had good views of the greens. Slightly more dated rooms and colder, but we have a mild weather the next few days.

We continued to be underwhelmed by the hotel food and just spent the days reading and watching telly. Christmas day, we stayed in and had pizza via room service. Neighbours were a big family, occupying 3 or so rooms nearby. They kept us awake everytime they come in at midnight with the noise in the hallway and for more than a few hours on boxing day when they had a family meltdown complete with the police being called.

 

Philippines

9-28 October 2015

Roughly 7 days in Manila. Arrived more than an hour late to my mom’s surprise dinner party in Quezon City. A few hours trying to get a taxi at the airport, settling in at the rented airbnb place in Makati, and a few more hours sitting in traffic to get there was worth it.

1 day in Batangas to see a bee farm. Learned a lot there, and a model for what you can do with just 1 hectare of land.

5 days in Tablas. Trekking up hills to see the farms. Homecooked food and hospitality at a friend’s home. Lengthy tricycle rides and catching fish by hand. I was ready to excuse myself from travelling to Romblon island because of the choppy waters, but the weather made it impossible to travel.

2 days in Davao. More farms. More treks up hill. Fresh, organic fruits.

5 more days in Manila. To shop, to rest, to see the doctors for health checkups, to see more of the family. Fort Bonifacio is not a very convenient place as I thought it would be.

A whirlwind of activities. Never enough time.