Determine, after interminable day spent lying on bed with laptop working from home [QUERY: does six hours of aimless internet surfing and occasional trawl of work emails legitimately constitute work in any meaningful sense? ANSWER comes there none] that this journal ought to be resumed without further delay. Urgency arises out of combination of a) desire to find some means of occupying time as late pregnancy prevents enjoyment of usual pastimes (wine-drinking, pubs, etc.); b) misplaced optimism that c. 10 days available between departure on maternity leave and birth of child will present ideal opportunity to establish remunerative literary career; and c) deep-seated and far more realistic fear that impending maternity leave will present Equity Partner with ideal opportunity to form comprehensive view of my failings as employee and terminate employment. Delighted by impending arrival of first child, and have many idle fantasies of spending leave carrying rosy-cheeked Infant through flower-filled fields in spring sunshine, notwithstanding that a) live in wettest part of country; b) flower-filled fields are few and far between vast expanses of bleak moorland that in fact surround house; and, crucially c) leave is infinitely more likely to be spent in hellish sleep-deprived cycle of tending to Infant’s needs and rowing violently with Husband over variances in domestic hygiene expectations and where to leave dishcloth. Home-working today enforced by sudden and unexpected arrival of Snow, which though much promised has hitherto avoided local area this winter, waiting until today and important antenatal visit in hospital before descending with some violence, requiring Husband and I to spend several hours in grim silence in stationary traffic in local market town, before silently and resignedly turning round and going home. Frustrating day then ensues, as Husband repeatedly thwarts my attempts to work/discreetly research baby websites, whereas my presence clearly preventing Husband from spending day off watching daytime TV, which despite protestations would clearly and perfectly reasonably form substantial part of his normally solitary daytime regime. Marital tension abounds.