What's that in the background

When looking at old photographs I look immediately at the subject, usually in the foreground. But what is often as interesting in them is the background details that betray the era in which the snapshot was taken. The old car, the out-dated furniture, the hairstyles...

It struck me today that this blog is a literary snapshot of life for Hayley and me today in 2005, the foreground subject being the pregnancy. But in terms of a snapshot there is no background, just blank space. So I thought I should take this opportunity, on the day before Bump is due to arrive, to detail some background details that may just be as interesting in 2025 as they are uninteresting in 2005. So...

My commute
I cycle 3 miles to work every day on my bike, alongside the motorway, then the River Mersey, turning then onto a disused road that used to be a council estate, before crossing grass and a main road to cut through Morrisons Supermarket. Once I have taken my life in my hands to cross the mini roundabout that follows it's only half a mile of straight road to work. My vehicle is my 2001 Orange 'Sub 5' mountain bike with Marzocchi forks (80mm of travel) and Fox air shock. I love this ride to work in the morning summer sunshine (and even the rain). And I love the ride home even more. All the stresses of the working day are out of my system by the time I reach home. I timed myself riding home today. I pedalled as fast as I could and it took me 9 minutes 34 seconds. Some people in my office drive at least an hour each way every day!

Hair
My hair is still there but threatening to recede more quickly than it has previously. I have very little grey. Hayley's hair is her natural colour with some red streaks ("foils"). She has very little grey. It would be impolite to comment whether or not this is thanks to assistance from her salon, The Colour Room in Stockport.

Cars
I'm driving an L reg (11 year old) Volvo 440 1.8i. It is the workhorse of the household and has mostly seen the road between here and the tip recently with occasional trips into the Peak District to go mountain biking. Hayley's car is a black Renault Clio (5 years old). It's permanently fitted with our bike racks even though we hardly ever take the bikes anywhere at the moment.

Sport
I have my season ticket at Man Utd and last season Hayley went to lots of the games too. Malcolm Glazer has just bought the club and frankly it doesn't look like good news financially. We'll see. England are at 1-1 in the Ashes series against Australia with two tests left to play. They narrowly missed out on a win in the last test. Lancashire's Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff is the hero of the team. Hayley and I
even briefly discussed Freddie as a possible boy's name!

Politics
This is worth a whole blog entry (or blog) of its own, but it suffices to say that the suicide attacks by British suicide bombers on 7th July have dominated the whole news and political agenda for the last 6 weeks and are likely to do so for at least the rest of the year.

Entertainment
For some reason Ant and Dec are the number one choice as hosts of prime-time Saturday night TV shows. The biggest comedy TV show at the moment is Ricky Gervais' follow-up to "The Office": "Extras". The 6th(?) series of Big Brother has just finished. Unlike other years I barely watched it. It's become very old and really very down-market now. I wonder what depths reality TV can plumb before it improves (if it ever does). One of The Archers' current storyline is about the fact that Will Grundy's wife has given birth to his brother's child but Will thinks its his own. I wonder if that story line will run a few weeks or a few years before the beans are spilled.

Music
Where to start! I'll ignore the charts and mention what I'm listening to on my Apple mini iPod at the moment: Beth Nielsen Chapman; Embrace; whatever comes up! Hayley is singing along to lots of things. (In other words, she can't think of anything in particular.)

I may add to this list later. Feel free to send in your suggestions for trivia worth recording for posterity!