Sunday, July 29, 2012

Check-Up


I woke up early the next morning and prepared to go to work. We left the house together with Fred and by eight o’clock; we were already on our desk. As usual, I logged into the web. I had the habit of checking news and other stuff to keep me informed on what was happening in the country and around the world.

Work went on as usual but by eleven thirty, I excused myself and took an early break. I was to hook up with Ann on her first clinic appointment since she discovered she was pregnant. We met up at the hospital at around noon and waited for her to be called. Her body had adapted well with the hormonal changes and it was hard to tell that she was paged. At only two months, her tummy was not showing yet but her skin glowed. It was radiant and beautiful and she seemed more cheerful than usual.

Her name was called shortly afterwards and she disappeared through the corridors to the doctor’s office. I stayed behind the waiting area. There were three other ladies in the room with me all pregnant.  One of them looked like she was about to pop out soon. One thing that always impressed me with pregnant women was how they usually stroked their tummies. It was so lovingly. The room was painted white with some blue hue on the corners. The reception was right near the entrance and just beside it on the right hand corner was a television. I kept myself busy by reading some of the magazines placed on the table. Most of them were about pregnancy and kid care but two magazines stood out for me. One of them showed a list of different ailments affecting people across the world depending on the climatic regions. There were also preventive measures one could take to prevent the diseases from attacking the body.

The second magazine was about eating healthy and shedding weight. Good! I had earlier thought of losing a few pounds before the wedding but had not got the correct way of doing it. Simple recipes were mentioned. I quickly took out my notebook and scribbled the recipes and advices given.

I finished just on time as Ann came out of the doctor’s office. She was carrying a white sheet of paper which she handed over to the receptionist before motioning me it was time to go. We walked along the corridors and finally got outside the hospital. We then started walking towards the city.

“How was it?” I asked.

“It went better than I had earlier thought. The doctor checked me up and said that everything was fine. He just advised me to eat more fruits to enable the baby get more vitamins.” She replied.

“Okay, did he check out your weight too?”

“Yea, that was the first thing he looked at. My current weight is alright though it’s going to change soon with the different changes in the body.” She said. “I going back for a second checkup next month.”

“Good for you.” I said. “Want to grab lunch before you go to the office?”

“Yea.”

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

A month to..


The rest of the weekend went on smoothly without any hitches. My parents agreed with most of the propositions we had given them regarding the wedding. Fred and I had wished to have a small wedding preferably a garden wedding with a few of our friends and families. The date we saw as suitable was Saturday, September 1st at Fred’s parents’ home. The big compound and lawn would be efficient to both Fred and I as we were on a budget. So far, we had only a month to the wedding.

Dad and mum offered to chip in on the budget by contributing on the wedding budget. One of my aunts owned a catering business so they offered to pay for the services to be rendered on that day. This was great as food was really expensive these days and we were afraid we might fall short in that department. With that sorted, we only had a few other things to sort out i.e. booking the preacher (we decided on the one from Fred’s home church), identity the type of food we needed, send out invitations to our friends and family etc.

On Sunday afternoon, we left to head back to the city. I was glad that the trip went on well and my parents helped make it comfortable. Now we were faced with the whole bit of arranging a wedding. Although I was excited with the plans, weddings have never been my cup of tea.  

As soon as we reached the flat, I went straight to the bathroom. I was tired. Thereafter, I decided to call Ann. She didn’t pick up on my first try but she called me back after a few minutes.

“Hey girl?” Ann said.                                                                                                                

“Hey dear, how are you?” I asked.

“I have been good, spent the whole weekend watching some movies. How was the trip?”

“It was splendid! Everything went on as expected. Mum said hi to you.”

“Awww, thanks. So how did the family react to Fred?”

“It went on well. Actually, I think dad really likes him. They spent almost the whole weekend together.”

“That’s cool!”

“Yea, but I have a question to ask you.”

“Okay, just ask...”

“Would you do me the honor of being my best maid?”

Silence

“Hallo? Ann, are you still there?” I asked.

“Yea, yea.”

“So?”

“Yes, I’ll be the best maid.” She said.

“Thank you. I’ll call you later and organize a hook up so that I can tell you everything.”

“Ok dear, lovely evening.”

I hang up the phone and joined Fred in the bedroom. He was already lying across the bed with his eyes closed. It appeared both of us were tired so I just dialed the pizza guy and ordered a large one. I rested my head on Fred’s chest while waiting for the meal.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Lunch

At around eleven o’clock, my uncle and aunt who lived nearby came over. They were accompanied by their five year old son, Michael. We had lived for more than ten years together on the same street and had grown close to each other. My uncle was my dad’s younger brother and had set up his own business in town.

My brother, Ken, arrived fifteen minutes later accompanied by his lovely wife Christine and the kids.  His kids were so grown up that I could barely recognize them especially the first born Molly. The twins, Amber and Andrew had grown taller and they couldn’t seem to seat still for a moment. They kept running around the compound from the time they arrived to when they left.

We later settled for lunch outside the house under a tree. We set up tables and chairs and invited everyone to join us. I didn’t want Fred to feel the odd one out so I suggested to my mother on how people were going to seat around the table. My uncle and his wife were placed together on the left side. Next to them were the kids placed together then followed by Christine then Ken. I sat next followed by Fred then dad and mum at the end of the table next to my uncle. This siting arrangement gave most of us a chance to talk to each other. Dad started by introducing Fred to everyone. My uncle who seemed more excited about this kept the conversation on by asking Fred some questions. At first I was nervous on how it was going to roll out but Fred seemed to enjoy this. I decided to catch up with Ken and ask him how his business was. He told me it was doing fine but he was stressing lately as Molly was about to start high school and this would mean more financial strain.

After lunch, the men decided to catch up with each other more by having a few beers. The ladies picked up the used utensils and took them to the kitchen to wash them up. My mum and sister in law decided to use this chance to give me advice. My aunt kept on chipping in on the story on how to be a good wife in future. Some of it seemed to be sensible while the other seemed fiction to say the least. But how could I despise this and yet the women seemed to have enough experience in marriage?

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Intruder in the Night


We were just settling in to sleep in the guest room when we heard the dogs bark. We ignored them and started changing into our sleeping attire. My parents had decided to assign us the guest room as i was already a ‘wife’ and it would give us the privacy we wanted. True, I couldn’t face myself sleeping in my old room that was adjacent to their room. It would have been too weird.

The dogs barked for quite a while that it prompted Fred to come out of the house and check what was happening. I didn’t want to go out so I peeped through the window and saw dad. He was carrying a torch dressed in his bathrobe. Some of the backyard lights were not working. It was really dim. Fred joined him and together they disappeared into the darkness. About ten minutes later, Fred came back and said they didn’t notice anything. So we went back and slept.

Early the next morning, we left our little room and joined the family in breakfast. My parents usually had the breakfast early in the day whether it was a weekday or not so we had no choice but to follow suit. It was then that we were informed that last night commotion was caused by some monkeys that were trying to steal mango fruits from the farm. Dad knew this as they had left a trace of fruits along the way as they were being chased by the dogs. Guess the animals had crossed over from the nearby forest to look for food. Luckily for us, nothing was destroyed.

I helped mum serve breakfast to the ‘boys’. She had taken time to cook some pancakes, sausages and prepared fresh mango juice. Dad took coffee as was his usual with the pancakes. Fred took juice and had some serving of the sausages that were placed infront of him.

“You slept well?” Dad asked both Fred and I.

“Yes sir. The bed was really comfortable.” Fred answered.

“Good to know. Sorry about the commotion yesterday. It is not usually like this.” Dad said.

“I understand.” Fred said.                       

“How are your parents?” Mum asked taking a bite of the folded pancake.

“They are all doing well. They passed their greetings to you all.”

“Oh that’s good. I would love to meet them.”

“Mum, you will meet them soon.” I answered.

After breakfast, I cleared up the table and started washing up the utensils. Meanwhile, dad took the opportunity to show Fred around the farm. He was really proud of his plants and would show anyone who was interested around. Mum and I also took time to catch up. She asked all about aunt Tina and how my work was going on. I also informed her of the plans we had for the wedding. Fred’s parents had agreed to support us in whatever plans we decided on.

“I’m proud of you baby.” Mum said while hugging me. “We are going to support you all the way.”

“Thanks mum.”