First of all, congratulations to the crew of the US Airways Airbus A320 who managed to successfully ditch in the Hudson yesterday. Amazing pictures, and a timely reminder for us all to pay attention to the safety brief! Here's the BBC story about the incident:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7832439.stm
Secondly though - is it just me, or is the continual reference to the "hero pilot" rather annoying? Given that, of course, there were TWO pilots on the flight deck - a Captain and a First Officer. Either one of them may have been flying it at the time, and anyhow, the pilot not flying would have also played a crucial role in the handling of the emergency. It just makes me cross that the First Officer isn't even being mentioned.
Ok, end of rant...
Friday, 16 January 2009
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
"All pilots cheat" and other, more important matters
I got a long and pretty bitter comment the other day on this post. It was from a woman whose pilot husband had cheated on her, despite her conviction that he just wasn't that "type" of man. This lady seemed to think that I needed to learn from her experience.
Errr... Sorry, but no. As a pilot's wife, I am, by default, often challenged by doomsayers about the "girl in every port" stereotype. I rejected it a long time ago, because, quite simply, you just cannot tar one hugely diverse group of people with the same brush. As I mentioned in that post, if you are the sort who wants to cheat, then aviation is the business for you. It's very easy to get away with it if you want to - I know several women whose partners have strayed - but that doesn't mean that you will. I'm sick and tired of people lumping all pilots together and insisting they have the same characteristics and behavioural traits. They're individuals, people!! I really am sorry that your husband cheated on you, my dear, but he was YOUR husband, an individual in his own right, as we all are.
Enough of that, I think. Please feel free to contribute to those comments if you have something to say!
On other issues - my husband has only a week left in the UK before he heads out to the Gulf. I'm already anxious about him going. I'm rubbish without him, and I know I'm going to cry for Britain when he goes. Still, only one month more and I'll be out there too - and there's so much to do before I go. I'm going to try to keep busy so that the month goes quickly. I have lots of friends and family to catch up with, including my very elderly Grandma.
We're also going to find out shortly whether this round of Clomid worked. I'm not sure really - I just hope that, eventually, all the side effects are worth it!
Errr... Sorry, but no. As a pilot's wife, I am, by default, often challenged by doomsayers about the "girl in every port" stereotype. I rejected it a long time ago, because, quite simply, you just cannot tar one hugely diverse group of people with the same brush. As I mentioned in that post, if you are the sort who wants to cheat, then aviation is the business for you. It's very easy to get away with it if you want to - I know several women whose partners have strayed - but that doesn't mean that you will. I'm sick and tired of people lumping all pilots together and insisting they have the same characteristics and behavioural traits. They're individuals, people!! I really am sorry that your husband cheated on you, my dear, but he was YOUR husband, an individual in his own right, as we all are.
Enough of that, I think. Please feel free to contribute to those comments if you have something to say!
On other issues - my husband has only a week left in the UK before he heads out to the Gulf. I'm already anxious about him going. I'm rubbish without him, and I know I'm going to cry for Britain when he goes. Still, only one month more and I'll be out there too - and there's so much to do before I go. I'm going to try to keep busy so that the month goes quickly. I have lots of friends and family to catch up with, including my very elderly Grandma.
We're also going to find out shortly whether this round of Clomid worked. I'm not sure really - I just hope that, eventually, all the side effects are worth it!
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Infertility: No-one told me...
I found this on an infertility forum, and it really struck a chord with me, so I thought I'd reproduce it here, with some editing. Feel free to add comments if there are things you've experienced:
No-one told me.....
* That a fertility doctor and a baby doctor are the same thing, so every doctor's visit you're surrounded by pregnant women gushing and glowing.
* How hard it would be to log onto Facebook and every single day and look at other people's baby photos.
* That fertility drugs would make me feel simultaneously like a menopausal woman and a hormonal teenager.
* That I would be jealous of everyone who falls pregnant - particularly by mistake.
*That I'd find it extremely hard to visit pregnant friends, or friends with new babies - and that they similarly would feel awkward around me.
*That I'd cry whenever I watched films with babies in them. Seriously, all of them...
* That it can sometimes take YEARS to get pregnant. (And I expected it to happen the very first try!)
*That we could eventually become that 'infertile couple' in the corner that everyone whispers about, and tip-toes around because they are afraid that if they even mention the word 'baby' you'd have a melt-down and cry!
*That I could end up feeling like a failure.
*That I'd have more than two pregnancy tests in the house at one time... in fact, many more than two!
*I would spend years on the pill desperately trying NOT to get pregnant, and when I wanted to get pregnant it would be so hard!
* And that I would cry tears of joy over mucus (if you don't know what I'm talking about my dear male readers, I'd suggest a fantastic book by Zita West called "How to get Pregnant"!)
No-one told me.....
* That a fertility doctor and a baby doctor are the same thing, so every doctor's visit you're surrounded by pregnant women gushing and glowing.
* How hard it would be to log onto Facebook and every single day and look at other people's baby photos.
* That fertility drugs would make me feel simultaneously like a menopausal woman and a hormonal teenager.
* That I would be jealous of everyone who falls pregnant - particularly by mistake.
*That I'd find it extremely hard to visit pregnant friends, or friends with new babies - and that they similarly would feel awkward around me.
*That I'd cry whenever I watched films with babies in them. Seriously, all of them...
* That it can sometimes take YEARS to get pregnant. (And I expected it to happen the very first try!)
*That we could eventually become that 'infertile couple' in the corner that everyone whispers about, and tip-toes around because they are afraid that if they even mention the word 'baby' you'd have a melt-down and cry!
*That I could end up feeling like a failure.
*That I'd have more than two pregnancy tests in the house at one time... in fact, many more than two!
*I would spend years on the pill desperately trying NOT to get pregnant, and when I wanted to get pregnant it would be so hard!
* And that I would cry tears of joy over mucus (if you don't know what I'm talking about my dear male readers, I'd suggest a fantastic book by Zita West called "How to get Pregnant"!)
Saturday, 3 January 2009
Out with the old, in with the new
We went for a walk today along the river. It's one of our favourite places, and it was so beautiful in the winter sunshine. It was an ideal place to recount our memories of last year, and to try to think towards the adventure that's to come.
Last year brought both joy and despair. We decided to have a baby, and then discovered it was going to be difficult; I got a great new job, but my husband lost his - and then found another better one, but thousands of miles from home - so I resigned from my job. Still, despite the inevitable tears that those things brought, it was another year full of laughter, family and love, so on balance, still a wonderful year.
This year I know will be a challenge. Things seem to still be moving very slowly on the moving front. We're still waiting to find out exactly where we're going to be living and how exactly we're supposed to send our stuff out there, so it's hard to pack when you don't know what to pack it in, and where to send it! We're also having masses of work done on the house before we go, which inevitably I'm going to have to take charge of once my husband's gone. The joys of work men, you can't beat them, eh?! Oh yes, and the MESS they make. Can't wait for that one.
We're also crossing fingers we'll be able to get tenants soon. The market is just flooded with people who are renting their properties out rather than selling... It's depressing even thinking about how much our house has gone down in value! What a nightmare the economy's going through. Still, even if we don't get tenants immediately, our accommodation in the Gulf is provided free of charge, so anything we get from rental here is a bonus. Thank goodness.
(On a side note.. it never ceases to amaze me how often you see accommodation spelt wrongly on signs advertising accommodation! But I digress.)
Tonight I'm going to have a big sort out of my clothes as a first step to what we're calling The Big Clear-out of 2009. It's going to be a long job! We have so much extraneous rubbish lying about... This is just like our last house move, but worse, because we can't take it all with us!
Last year brought both joy and despair. We decided to have a baby, and then discovered it was going to be difficult; I got a great new job, but my husband lost his - and then found another better one, but thousands of miles from home - so I resigned from my job. Still, despite the inevitable tears that those things brought, it was another year full of laughter, family and love, so on balance, still a wonderful year.
This year I know will be a challenge. Things seem to still be moving very slowly on the moving front. We're still waiting to find out exactly where we're going to be living and how exactly we're supposed to send our stuff out there, so it's hard to pack when you don't know what to pack it in, and where to send it! We're also having masses of work done on the house before we go, which inevitably I'm going to have to take charge of once my husband's gone. The joys of work men, you can't beat them, eh?! Oh yes, and the MESS they make. Can't wait for that one.
We're also crossing fingers we'll be able to get tenants soon. The market is just flooded with people who are renting their properties out rather than selling... It's depressing even thinking about how much our house has gone down in value! What a nightmare the economy's going through. Still, even if we don't get tenants immediately, our accommodation in the Gulf is provided free of charge, so anything we get from rental here is a bonus. Thank goodness.
(On a side note.. it never ceases to amaze me how often you see accommodation spelt wrongly on signs advertising accommodation! But I digress.)
Tonight I'm going to have a big sort out of my clothes as a first step to what we're calling The Big Clear-out of 2009. It's going to be a long job! We have so much extraneous rubbish lying about... This is just like our last house move, but worse, because we can't take it all with us!
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