I am on my third day of maternity leave and it’s great, I can sleep how much I want, which is a lot. I haven’t yet got my nesting instinct as the flat still looks a mess. My parents have furnished the nursery though and the little one is kicking around in my belly and loves music, the baby is supposed to be a boy. For some strange reason, he seems to like in particular Opera and choir music, both not my favourites, but I just put the CD player under the duvet and let the little one wriggle away.

I haven’t been blogging for the last months as there are so many new developments in my life. First of all: I am pregnant! And totally excited about it! So we have been trying to get ready for the baby, by searching for lots of baby items second-hand, getting a load of stuff from the former freecycle recycling group “freegle” and my partner’s work colleague even handed down a cot bed to us, too, which was fantastic. There seems to be quite a bit of discussions and disagreement amongst mothers and mums-to-be about whether its better to get baby items second-hand or new; my mum is a fan of used items, especially clothes as she fears residues of pesticides and chemicals, whereas other mums don’t like any potential transfer of bacteria or germs.

Just looking at the stats for this blog. One of the most often viewed and linked to entries is the unique article about the “Wild West” in Edinburgh, summarising the history of the cinema at Springvalley Gardens. Its also linked from a website about the buildings of Scotland’s Cinemas , which includes a lot of historical entries like the Springvalley Gardens Cinema, with pictures from inside of the building. I always loved this house for its character, its surroundings and its atmosphere, it is something really special. The other most popular entry is of course “How to catch a lost hamster”.

Here is a five minute Interview with the bin worker solidarity group. The bin workers themselves did not want to be interviewed on audio recorder or filmed as one of the binmen who gave quotes to the Edinburgh Evening News has been suspended for talking to the press. Interview (Ogg-Vorbis, 5 min, ca. 3 MB) Interview (WAV, 5 min, ca.27 MB) Interview (mp3, 5min, ca 5 MB) <dd class="wp-caption-dd"> private company&#8217;s bin lorry </dd>

The little NATO imc Made three features for Imc Scotland [ NATO PA disrupted | Opposition prevents SDL from marching | Protest against social care privatisation ] and one for Imc UK [ Scotland in Resistance ]. Also tried to interview the striking bin workers at the meeting, but they are too afraid as one of them was identified when quoted by the Edinburgh Evening News and suspended for doing so.