Harriet Edana Love-Mason, born Sacramento, California at 3.37am February 24th 2009.
This is a day for joy and celebration and nothing will diminish that. Yes I would have loved to have been there for the moment rather than sitting at my desk waiting to join a meeting on regulatory value-at-risk but that is as nothing. All that mattered to me was that everyone was safe and healthy and that is what I got.
We had joked of course that in many ways it looked like we had made it all up and we just liked going to California. After all no-one had ever met Jennifer until Gill travelled to the States and we could just have paid her off with cinnamon flavoured coffee! The story, let us be honest, seems too strange to be true. Where it begins is hard to say. The practical steps began in the Lord Palmerston pub in Walthamstow as Jay began to break down my resistance to such radical thoughts. I'm not ashamed to say that it was not high on my list of priorities - there are two of you in the relationship to get your priorities in order after all.
It's an awesome responsibility but I'm sanguine about it all because I know that between us we might not have all bases covered but we've got the wit, the wherewithall and perhaps just about the right amount of recklessness to give anything a fair go.
Anyway back to the story. I managed to phone my mother, sister, brother and Aunty Betty and talk to Jay of course and hear her for the first time, reducing me to tears. Then it was time for lunch and then to attend the Ongoing Derivatives meeting and hammer home my points about the risk management of some new trades. I then spoke to HR about parental leave and they need to do some research into my rather complicated case but my management have been superb and it was not an issue to take more time off. I booked my flight to leave Heathrow the following morning at 9.30am and soon I had done all the other necessary admin by booking the car parking and the hire car at San Francisco. Then it was off to the Valuations Working Group to opine some more and I stayed till 8pm trying to leave everything in an orderly fashion.
Oh I forgot Mango so I need to speak to Claire and tell her the news and arrange cover and then I have to do some washing and tidy up and then...
So it's been a bit of a rush, which is good because I almost don't want to stop and have to contemplate it all. At least that is until I have her in my arms and then time and work and opinions and booking flights can stop, if only for a little while.
