Was emptying out some Purina Chicken Flavoured cat food into Jade's food storage box the other day. Look what dropped out of the bag? It's a solid wedge of cat food. I sent it back to the manufacturers hoping that I might get a voucher for some free food in return. 

Bugs

Sean emailed me today. Bugs has died. Sean said he passed away in his sleep, he was only three and a half years old. Earlier this year he was apparently diagnosed with a heart murmur so Sean said that he thought his heart had finally given out on him. I asked Sean to get the vet to do an autopsy, but it's too late because Sean's already buried his body in the woods. It's very hard to believe this because Bugs was such a young and very fit cat. He would run rings around all of my other cats. Bugs and Fats would really go for it sometimes, chasing around in the garden, it was an even match between them, Fats only held his own because of his sheer bulk (14lbs), Bugs was lightening quick. In his last year, Sean said he even became quite an accomplished hunter, bringing home all manner of small creatures from the woods at the back of Sean's house.

When Sean and I broke up, I wanted to keep Bugs myself, but Bugs was another thing that Sean stole from my life. I never even got to say a proper goodbye to that little cat. I remember when Sean had banished me to sleeping on the kids bunk beds in the spare room and I was really miserable and suicidal, that little cat would sleep with me, and try to comfort me by playing with me by poking his feet though the empty bed frame above me at me, teasing me to grab at him. He was even a bigger comfort to me at that time than my beloved Jade.

I remember he was outside on the wall at the end of the yard and I said a quick goodbye to him while I was loading up the car to come down to Cornwall for a short break. I didn't imagine at the time that I would not be going back, and ultimately that I would never see him again.

I have kept a lot of text messages from about that time on my phone. I kept them as evidence of Sean's bullying and threatening behaviour for legal reasons. Even after the house was sold and things were settled, I still haven't deleted them as I don't want to lose those memories of those horrible times. One of the oldest is dated 22nd April 2004, . Sean said "Unless I hear from you by Monday saying when you are coming back I am going to find homes for all the cats". It was pure blackmail which translated as: "come back so I can bully you even more about selling your home or the cats will be gone by the time you come back".

On receipt of this text I got a copy of my front door key made and sent it to a friend asking him to collect Jade and Bugs from the house. The only reason I have Jade with me now is because he let himself be picked up by my friend and so was taken away to safety, where I was later able to reclaim him a few months later when I was more settled. Bugs had other ideas, threw a panicked fit and ran from his arms, so my friend let him be.

I went back to collect Bugs myself in June at the time of my Aunt's Funeral. This was only a week after actually finding somewhere to live (you don't want to know how I'd been living up until then, but it did include sleeping in the car at times), where I could house Bugs safely, (Jade was still safe with my friend at this time). But Sean refused to give him up to me, or to tell me where he was living, he even lied to me, deliberately throwing me off the scent telling me that he was renting a flat in Lesley Place in Maidstone where we used to live together before we bought our house. Sean wouldn't even speak to me at the time I phoned him to reclaim Bugs while outside Lesley Place, he just gave an exasperated sigh and hung up his phone.

I remember phoning his friend Simon and asking him where Sean was now living, but he wouldn't give up the address (for after going to Lesley Place and realising that I'd been duped, I recalled Sean mentioning about renting a house in Vinter's Park off Simon's father who was a property magnate) and said that it was my fault that Sean had taken everything and the cats because I wasn't there. My instincts were correct though, I got Spud's girlfriend to drive me around the Vinter's Park estate where Sean now lives. I guess it was just unfortunate that I didn't spot his car around parked on the driveway or something or I could have had Bugs back with me now, and I could have shared the last 20 months of his life with him.

As soon as I had my own home again, where I wouldn't be evicted by the Landlord for having too many cats (it was difficult enough to find anywhere to live which would accept even one cat - where I live now is not good either, it's way too small and there's no kitchen - I'm looking for something better and have been for the last year I've been here, in fact, the only reason I stay here is because of the large safe garden for Jade and the house is in a cul-de-sac which makes it doubly safe for Jade to roam while I'm out at work all day), I always intended to go back to Sean's house, camp out in those woods and "Cat Nap" Bugs, as Sean clearly wouldn't give him up to me. That opportunity is now passed forever.

Bye Bye Bugs, you most precotious of all the cats I've ever owned, and stop buggering the bunnies while you wait for me on the Rainbow Bridge, I'll be there soon.

RIP Major Tom
4 May 2002 - 13 December 2005

I've posted some photos of happier times with him below.

One More Day...

Only today to go at work and then I'm having a few days off while the office is being decorated. It makes sense, I've got about 10 days leave left to take at work and I don't want to be around the smell of wet paint, not to mention not really being able to get any real work done anyway.

I did consider having a short break away somewhere this long weekend, but I've got to be back at work on Tuesday for the Christmas Party (no sense in missing that one, well I say "party", probably an all day drinking session is the truth which resulted last year in four missing hours and a skinned knee - so I can't wait to see what happens this year ;-), so it would have to be a city break or something like that. I've even considered going to Paris for the Weekend, but have been put off with the fact that I will be in a strange country alone (again) and I can't speak French, and will have to worry about muggers and all the other hastles you get from being in a big city. Cornwall is soooo safe in comparison. So I guess I'll just be moping around here, but hopefully getting a bit of stitching done. Didn't really get any real stitching done this weekend. I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on Sunday morning. Yawn! God, I don't know how I sat through that one - but then I thought that particular novel was a real slog to get through too.

I'm not looking forward at all to Christmas. I think it's just going to be another total non-event like last year: I spent the entire day watching the 11 hour plus epic Lord of the Rings, which was nice in itself, but not to be repeated this year. A lot of single people feel the same way about the holidays, but at 34 most people still have families that they go and spend it with - there you go, the curse of elderly parents! All the more ironic in that my Boss's stepgrandad died today at 96! He certainly had a good innings. My genetic upbringing is unfortunately though, not that of Methusaleh. At one point this year I was looking forward with a sense of hope that I wouldn't have to spend it alone again, but those hopes were dashed quite recently, hence my return in the big way to the stitching world. There is sanctity in stitching afterall.

I spent about an hour or so at work today browsing online and looking for a Christmas break, to get away in a nice warm sunny place is a good way to forget about it all - but I couldn't find a decently cheap break - all the good ones have been booked up already. I phoned Thompson's today and was told the only thing that they had available was staying in Sharm El Sheik at a 5 star hotel on a B&B basis for...... get this..... I couldn't quite believe it £1800 quid! And I'm not sure at the moment if my l/lady will be here to look after Jade for me anyway. Anyone know of a good holiday retreat where they don't mind a few stray grey hairs?

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week: Colour by Number?

If you have stitched for a while, can you usually pick out the DMC colors you need from memory when you go to your LNS? (For example, you know that 610 is a brown.)

Some colours always seem to stick in your head, like 326 Christmas Red, sky blue 799 and 907 lime green. If I only need one or two threads I can usually remember what colours I need and their numbers. If I need more than a couple I usually take a list to the LNS if I need them in a hurry or order them online more cheaply.

I remember when I lived back in Gillingham, there was a little local needlework and wool store, "Singer's Sewing Centre" it was called. They used to mainly service Singer Sewing Machines and sell wool to little old ladies, but they had a wall section set aside with a full DMC collection. This was my only source of DMC within walking distance so I used to go there a lot. There used to be a little old man who ran the place, despite his age, if you wanted any threads you would give him a list and he'd get up on a chair and fetch them all down for you. He was usually very efficient at doing this and could find the threads a lot faster than you as he knew where they all were on the pegs. Sadly, "Mr Singer" as I used to call him (I never knew his real name) sold the business to some Asian women as his wife was sick.

When the Asians took over the shop, the stitching section was being run into the ground and it was turning into "Saris R US". I remember having an arguement with the women in there one day when she claimed that DMC 3799 a dark grey thread didn't exist and I was making it up!

The Giveaway Times

WH Smiths are doing a promotion at the moment. Buy a magazine, they give you a free copy of The Times newspaper and then give you a further 40p off. So my Quick and Easy Magazine this morning cost me only £2.95. I don't know how they can do this offer - doesn't really make any sense. I mean are you going to turn down 40p off your magazine for nothing. You don't have to read the free Times either.... just bin it, but then The Times is actually a paper that is usually worth reading as it usually has some decent content unlike newspapers like The Sun.

When I was at college doing marketing classes, a large piece of emphasis was placed on the newspaper that you read every morning, it helped to define your socio-economic demographic. Not reading a daily paper completely throws the Marketeers!

As most people use their blogs for a good old rant now and then, let us just say at this time that I'm ready at the moment to Kill Empire Direct and their repairs people "Solutions" of Newquay. All I can say right now is my TV is buggered and I'm sick of Solutions missing appointments. As soon as I get home today I'm going to write a nasty stinking sarcastic letter of complaint as I've just about had it with them [grrrrr].

Planes Trains and Automobiles (and boats)

I guess everyone must have seen the movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" with Steve Martin and John Candy. My journey home seemed like a reinactment of that!

A wonderful holiday came to an end and things started going wrong as soon as I left the transfer coach at the airport and there was a rumor of a two hour flight delay, as I got through airport security in the departure lounge I learned that the rumour was true. I decided to wait out the two hours by sitting in an outside cafe, enjoying a coke and watching the other planes take off and land. I was a bit concerned because if the delay was any longer than two hours I would have wasted the booking I'd made at a Travel Inn to stay at Gatwick before starting the long journey home to Cornwall the next day. As it was now 6:30 pm in the evening, it was far too late to cancel the reservation, even if I had had the telephone number - which I didn't - so they were going to charge me anyway.

Then there was an announcement over the intercom system of a flight back to Bristol - I suddenly had an idea, why not try switching my flight to this one? I headed back inside to see if I could find a Thomas Cook rep and suggest this to them - ok if I would have had to pay a supplement, but it would have been worth it if I could have gotten back home this evening and avoided the long haul back on the train from Gatwick. As I went back inside to search for a rep - I met up with Jayne.

Jayne was trying to make a phone call to let her husband know that the flight was going to be delayed because he was supposed to be picking her up at 12:30 at Gatwick. She couldn't get through to him at first and kept missing him and the airport payphone swallowing euros didn't help. In the end we got chatting. Jayne was worried about her husband not getting any sleep that evening because she lived in Southampton, a two hour drive away from the airport which meant that he probably wouldn't get home until about 5:30 and had to be up for work at 6:30 the next day - so I suggested that she stay in the Travel Inn room with me and get a bus or train home the next day. We got on the phone to her husband and he thought this was a sensible idea too. We still had time to kill at the airport so we had a burger king and then the airline finally gave us a boarding gate number. So everyone queued up and queued up and we ended up standing there for like half an hour. We gave up standing in the end and went and sat down and eventually they started letting people on the plane. Jayne and me weren't sitting together, I was quite fortunate to have three seats to myself so I pushed up the arm rests and tried to stretch out and have a nap.

I'm not sure if I actually got off to sleep, which was interrupted by the serving of the very unappetising in-flight meal. I had one bite, not good! so I put it to one side in disgust! I still don't know if I slept properly as I was a bit cold and there were no pillows on the aircraft!

Finally got off the plane at 2:45 am. I don't do this early hour and I was really bad tempered. Found the coach station and phoned the Travel Inn to send their courtesy bus. But the guy on the phone spoke very bad English and couldn't even spell my name right and claimed that he couldn't find my reservation. I said "well have you got rooms?" he said yes, so I said, "well send the bloody bus then"!

When we got to the Travel Inn (and it's getting on for 3:30 am by now) he still can't find the reservation - but a colleage - an english girl checked my credit card details and says, you are booked in at another Travel Lodge and have already been charged to stay there. I asked if we could just stay where we were for the night but they said that that wasn't possible either, and offered to order us a taxi to the other Lodge, so I said, hold on a minute, I've just had to pay £5 to use your so called "courtesy" bus to get here, why should I have to pay a taxi as well? In the end the bus driver agreed to drop us off at the other lodge - so we got our cases back on the bus again!

The driver dropped us off on the road at the other lodge and there was me and Jayne, dragging our cases across the grass in the dawn light at 4:00 am. We just cracked up laughing at this point. We checked into the room and basically just crashed out for a few hours. Before we went to sleep, I joked to Jayne that this was turning into "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", and told her that I didn't want to find her pants in the bathroom sink the next morning.

We both set our alarm clocks for 8:45 and went to sleep. The next morning, I woke up to the sound of dragging cases, and some woman screaming at her idiot child. I checked the clock, it was about 8:35, so I got up to use the bathroom before Jayne woke up. It was lucky that I had woken up on my own accord because neither of our alarms went off. Mine was a brand new travel clock and I don't know if I had set it correctly in my dog-tired state, and Jayne's old fasioned ticking alarm clock had just stopped.

When I came out of the bathroom, I woke Jayne up and went through to Reception to see about getting a taxi back to Gatwick so we could both get our public transport connections. I had to rush Jayne to hurry up in the end so we could get back to the airport as my train was leaving for Reading at 10:03 and I didn't know where I was going to find the station when I got to the airport.

Jayne and I swapped contact details in the back of the taxi on the way to the airport, she seemed very grateful for me to have taken her in last night. We said our goodbyes and I headed off to find the station. After a few false starts I was on the platform waiting for the train.

The journey to Reading passed without incident. I had about a 50 minute wait for the Penzance train, so I went to Subways and got a footlong sandwich (it's a long way to Penzance), there was this guy on the platform who kept staring at me, he had the most amazing pale blue eyes, and I guess he was interested in me, but after seeing me scoffing the footlong he kinda disappeared. I guess my eating habits would put anyone off! lol

Then this Israeli sat down on the bench next to me and tried to chat me up. For Chris Sakes - piss off! I sort of tried to ignore him, but the train was late. Over 20 minutes late. It eventually arrived about 12:30, and I had to walk up the platform quite a way on the guards recommendation to miss the first class section, the train arrives, and then there is the Israeli helping me put my case on the train. I guess they can't all be gun-wielding maniacs.

Once on the train the journey home should have been plain sailing, for usually once you are on the train to Penzance you are coasting all the way home, no matter how many hours it takes. BUT! The train made three unscheduled stops. The first to swap engines to the backup because the first wasn't working very well. The second time was because there was an electrical fault and the third time was at Newton Abbot Rail Depot to swap the faulty engine. They swapped the engines over... but then we are still sitting there... and finally the driver gets on the intercom and says we aren't going anywhere at the moment because the brake is stuck. At this point the entire trainful of passengers have reached the advanced stages of crack up and everyone burst out laughing!

The train eventually limped into Plymouth where it sat, and sat, until they finally decided to cancel the train completely. This very kind copper called "Bob" who was sitting opposite me for most of the journey helped me take my heavy suitcase up and down the stairs to platform 4 to catch the next train which was due in very shortly as this train was running nearly TWO HOURS LATE by this stage. Then the stationmaster put on the intercom that the next train is going to arrive at platform 6, so it's back into the lifts down to the underground tunnel between platforms and back up to platform 5 and 6 where I'd just left only to find when I got up there that that last announcement had been a mistake and it was coming in at platform 4 where I'd just been, so it was back into the lifts and the tunnel again. What a song and dance chirade this was turning out to be.

The first Penzance train that came in got deluged by people trying to get on it, so much so that it got delayed at the station for at least 20 minutes while the guards moaned at everyone for crowding. In the end it left and me and Bob managed to find a spot for my case in the hallway outside the buffet car.

Bob got off at Par (heading for Newquay) and eventually I got a seat in the quiet carriage. The good thing is that I should get my money back or some of it at the very least on the ticket price because the train was so late it qualified for compensation. In the end I arrived home at 7:30, 26 hours and fifteen minutes after I had left my hotel in Lanzarote!

What a journey home!

Traffic Chaos

http://62.49.17.87:8100/popup.html

Here's a handy web cam focusing on the absolute traffic chaos outside my office this morning.

The prats in the yellow jerseys have been digging up the street for over a month now, and now they are laying fresh tarmac to cover up all their holes. Do they divert the traffic to do this. Of course not. That would be the sensible thing, so you have traffic going up the road, buses taxies and delivery vans trying to get down and all the while there's this big hunking steamroller stuck in the way. Oh My God!

With my sprained wrist, I can't exactly do much work today, so I'm sitting back and enjoying the chaos ;-)

Quick and Easy Mini Rant

I picked up the latest copy of Quick and Easy Magazine last week. Because other members of the Margaret Sherry Cross Stitch Group are on subscription, they had already received their copy and forewarned others that the magazine cocked up when they printed the charts for the MS Ballerina Hedgehogs. There's three ballerinas but only two charts printed (one is duplicated twice in the mag).

So over the weekend and for the best part of the week we've had a rant war going on the MSCSG about who has actually managed to get in touch with the magazine to tell them they've cocked up and to request a copy of the missing chart in the post. You can read more about this on San's Blog.

It seems that phoning the magazine is the best option - everyone who did so seems to get straight through, but I resorted to email solely. The email address printed in the magazine is wrong (another mistake) and bounces straight away, another address that we found just times out with delivery and you get the message back 3 days later as a bounce, on my third attempt I found the correct notify address of q&eproduction@futurenet.co.uk after another member posted this on the group and now I got a real response back and I may just get a copy of the missing chart after all. What a palava!

My Working Week - or my Boss the Twat?

The beginning of the week was OK. My Boss (for the rest of this post known as the Twat!) was off Wednesday and Thursday = AGAIN!!!! He's had about 5-6 foreign trips abroad already this year since January.

This time he went to Italy to watch that football match to support Liverpool, the match where all the riots were supposed to take place because of a 20-year grudge since the two teams last played together. Everyone warned him about going there - but he just ignored the warnings, which was very irresponsible as he had his seven year old son in tow to see the match too. Apparently the Twat turned up at the football ground's carpark, with face painted in the England Colours and his son decked out in the England kit and they were going to go and watch the game dressed like that!!! However, they passed someone who already had a face full of bruises and gashes and he finally saw sence, went back to the car, washed his face and changed his son's clothes.

With him being away at least the phones were quiet (but they absolutely exploded yesterday again with all of Twat's idiot clients wanting to talk to him and him continually avoiding them) and for the most part I was able to get quite a bit done. But one of the other IFAs is leaving the office and now he's in a flap to get the final things finished off - dotting the i's and crossing the t's on his finance reports before he goes. That's not a problem: the problem is that he shows up to the office in the middle of the afternoon with a full day's work ahead of him, expecting the admin support (i.e. me) to do the same when I've already been there for the best of full day already.

I ended up staying till 6:00 pm on Wednesday and 6:00 on Thursday because of this, I made it clear on Thursday that I just wanted to go home (I'm supposed to leave at 5:30).

Yesterday he didn't turn up in the office till 4:50!!! He came in plonked some folders on my desk that contained information for some letters he wanted to dictate. Then he went upstairs to his office and then started talking to one of the other IFAs. I thought "great" while he's destracted, I'm sneaking out! So I managed to leave at 5:30 yesterday - folders and undone letters still on my desk! Serves him right for not organising his time better. Bill's great fun to work with, but his time-keeping is most enfuriating!

Wednesday and Thursday evening Bill was in the office till 10pm. There have been workmen in the main street digging it up all week and making a hellova racket all the time (when I walk past them in the mornings on my way to work, I give them the fithiest of looks), and they turned the water off on Thursday night, so Bill told Norm on the phone today that he was there working that late and he couldn't even have a cup of tea.... then Norm just asked Bill why he didn't use the water from the water cooler???? DOH!

I have been considering booking a holiday this summer (describing the above, you can see why I need one): Cornwall is lovely, but I'm finding that it's usually a bit breezy for serious sunbathing unless you can find a sheltered spot out of the wind. How much I appreciated my grassy knoll in Marazion last year!

I'll be travelling alone - (no choice - there's no one else to go with me and I need a serious holiday), I want to make sure that I go to a place that I'd feel comfortable. There's quite a few places in the world that I want to go to - Egypt for example - but I don't think I'd have the courage to tackle that one by myself because of all of the arabic men hassling single white women. Tunisia gave me an idea what it will be like there.

I made some online enquiries this week and finally found a place that I've wanted to go to for ages the: Papagayo Arena Resort in Lanzarote. I've wanted to go here from some years to see the Volcanic Landscape. From the pictures I've seen some of it looks like the Lunar surface and other parts look like the deserts of Mars. Fancy riding a camel across the martian landscape? well you can here. Maybe this can be the first stop on my "Volcano world tour" as I'm fascinated by them.

As I've already been to Spain a couple of times (ok this is the Canaries - but the culture is the same) I feel comfortable to go it alone. It's a new resort that's opened up, all inclusive, there's even supposed to be a cinema there. I wanted to go here with Sean and he agreed to go in principal until he saw the prices, and that's after he promised me another holiday to make up for putting up with his spawn-of-satan kids in Spain in 2003. After the events of last year though, that never came to pass. However, the only flight I could find in June going from Exeter is 2nd June.

They won't let me go at work. I'm absolutely steaming about it (Look at how many holiday's my boss has already had this year!!) and because while it doesn't conflict with Hayley's holiday, aparently my Boss (or the aforementioned Twat) has agreed that I'm supposed to go up to Ray's Office and cover Linzi's holiday - without telling me!!! We've yet to have words about it, but I'm seriously pissed off.

I'm still toying with the idea though: fly out from Gatwick (via Newquay) later in June and go for two weeks instead of one and make it even more inconvenient for the office with me being away (I know what happened when I went away for that long weekend), the difference in the holiday cost is only about an extra 400 for the extra week, plus of course the Newquay flight costs which are actually cheaper than I anticipated. But can I leave Jade for two whole weeks???

Cross Stitcher & Catterflies

I arrived home yesterday to find a Thank You for subscribing letter from
Future publishing and a jiffy bag with my free subscription gift in it which
was the Margaret Sherry kit "Catterflies".

Considering that I queried what was happening to my subscription on the 23rd
of February (a month ago) and didn't get a response for over a week so I
told them to forget about the subscription - I'm really quite annoyed that
it's taken them two months to find it and still actually process it -
against my most recent instructions.

To annoy me even further I had asked if I could have the Margaret Sherry
Hedgehog's design which was available as well instead of the Catterflies
(I've already got the chart for this), but they still sent the Catterflies.

I'm not sure what to do. Shall I contact them and have a moan at them for
cocking up not once, not twice, not thrice, but an incredible four times?
Or just live with it, stick Catterflies in my stash and enjoy the next Cross
Sticher issue which will hit my door mat in April?

Future Publishing - Not a Good Advert!

I blogged back on the 28th January about the Cross Stitcher Margaret Sherry Subscription Offer. Anyway, the new issue was going to be in the shops about 2 weeks ago, so I emailed Future Publishing's subscription department to find out what was happening with the subscription:

----- Original Message -----
From: vash@knownspace.co.uk
Date: 23 February 2005
Subject: Cross Stitcher Subscription

Hi,
I completed a form out of your magazine to subscribe and get the free hedgehog kit as a free gift. This was several weeks ago, and I've not heard anything yet. The new Cross Stitcher is out in the shops tomorrow. So, should I buy it, or will you be able to sort my subscription out?

~ Melanie ~ Gandalf, trying to light his pipe in Moria: "Naur an adriat ammin! Naur an adriat ammin! Oh, damn it, _that_ spell is for waking Balrogs. Now, for the pipe..."

Last week, they finally answered with:

From: Future Publishing [mailto:future@subscription.co.uk]
Sent: 02 March 2005 14:20
To: vash@knownspace.co.uk
Subject: Future Publishing - Subscriber Number: Em Ref: TPS373439A

Thank you for your recent email.

Unfortunately I have been unable to locate your subscription from the information provided. May I request you please provide as much information as possible on the following to enable me to investigate further:

Your subscription number (if known)
Name and address of the Payer:
Name and address of the Recipient: (if a gift subscription)

INSTANT ONLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE Should you require any further assistance, to check the status of a subscription or amend your details, simply go to www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/youraccount You may also contact us at future@subscription.co.uk quoting email reference TPS373439A.
For and on behalf of Future Publishing.

Angela Sturgess
Email Customer Services

Should you require any further assistance, to check the status of a subscription or amend your details, simply go to www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/youraccount You may also contact us at future@subscription.co.uk quoting email reference TPS373439A.
For and on behalf of Future Publishing.

I love the "INSTANT ONLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE" bit!!

So yesterday I answered with:

Well, it took you a week to answer that query.

I've since bought the next issue of Cross Stitcher, with customer service
that poor, I guess you can forget about the subscription.

~ Melanie ~
Gandalf, trying to light his pipe in Moria: "Naur an adriat ammin! Naur
an adriat ammin! Oh, damn it, _that_ spell is for waking Balrogs. Now,
for the pipe..."

Obnoxious Children: The Family from Hell?

I went out this morning and got breakfast in Littlewoods. I thought I would treat myself to a leisurely breakfast while I sat looking out over at St Michael's Mount in the Bay while reading the paper. It is a little treat for me, primarily because I've not been out of the house since I finished work on Wednesday due to this damn cold - unless you count a 10 minute outing to the local Co-op in a quest for butter!

Anyway, I'm sitting there starting to enjoy my breakfast, when I happen to glance up at the family sprawled across the next table. There's a father sitting there along with 5 kids, all the kids seem to be aged between 7 and 10. Anyway, the father tell's off the daughter sitting next to him, and what does the little cow do? Sits there slapping her father back at the breakfast table, and having a major tantrum and paddy. I couldn't believe it - slapping her father back in public???

Then the mother returns, I return to my breakfast and the paper and try to ignore the bespeckled 7 year old boy, who now decides it's his turn to act up, and gets into a shouting match with his brother.

In about 20 minutes, most of the children have finished, but the mother is still eating toast, so instead of sitting at the table like a nice little girl, the obnoxious child gets up, gets behind my chair and starts climbing on the chair and table behind me, leaning over the balcony and watching the escalator going up below her. I was going to say something about her sitting down like a nice little girl and waiting politely at the table until her mother had finished eathing.... but in the end I just really wished she'd just lean a little too far over and plop down on the stairs below. Then all the other kids get up and start occupying all the other free tables near their own instead of sitting there nicely!

By this time the mother has eventually finished her toast; the family get up to leave and half of them are already half out the shop and heading for the stairs - I look up to study the ruinous mess that was once their table and I'm shocked to see they've left one of the kids behind. Yes, the poor little tike is hurriedly finishing off his last couple of mouthfuls, which he abandons in the end for fear of being left behind in Littlewoods.

What a family!!!

Dirty Den in Venice

Anyone remember that old episode of Eastenders?

Anyway, stayed in last night watching the demise of Dirty Den on Eastenders (I just just imagine the cluedo version now - "...and it was Miss Scarlet in the Pub with the stone dog!..." ) while I prepped and gridded the fabric that I'm going to stitch the Sheila Hudson Venice project on.

I do confess to shedding a tear when Sharon came in and heard just how dispicable her adopted father was - and while he did deserve what he got in the end - I also felt some remorse, because whatever bad deeds Dirty Den did throughout his life and the women who's lives that he destroyed - he did have some redeeming things about him - quirky sense of humour and of course his idolisation of Sharon above all else. I know for a fact that he still didn't treat half of the women in his life as bad as Sean treated me. I guess that shows you the sort of man that Sean truly was. The very sad fact that that realisation hit me about a year ago, back in January/February 2004 - before any of the real troubles started in March. It just went downhill from there.

Anyway..... I had car troubles today - flat battery!! I haven't used it for over a month, so yesterday when I went to get in it it was totally dead - even the central locking wasn't working. I got some friends to help me jump-start it and then took it on a 40-mile jolt to the Truro roundabout and back - that should have given it a little charge or so!

I did a little food shopping - and after I got back I started stitching on the bottom of the design which is the bottom of one of the gondolas. 5 lines of black isn't much of a start - but it's a start nevertheless.

As I stitched I watched "Two Brothers" it's a film about Tigers in the vein of Born Free. Quite a good film. I still remember Guy Pearce (who starred in it) from Neighbours, his career certainly went up in the world. Probably the only one of the cast who is now internationally known - with the exception of Miss Minogue of course. Those Tigers were so cute though - and when they got older, beautiful too - they stole the show - fortunately I had my own "Tiger Cub", Jade to cuddle during most of the film - he's about the same size!!

The Cream Dusters

It's 4:00 am, woke up at 2:30, couldn't sleep again because of this damn blocked nose and sore throat. It's generally ok during the day - not really a cold at all - hardly produces a sniffle, but overnight the catarrah sort of builds up in my nose then trickles down the back into my throat and then I wake up all bunged up. Hate that sort of feeling.

Anyway, gave up trying to sleep about half an hour ago and put this on instead - at least doing something productive is better than just laying there tossing and turning? Is blogging productive?

Oh well - I'm going to go to work tomorrow with a confession: I did a good deed on Wednesday and took all the towels and tea towels home from the office to wash them. They sure needed it, talk about grease - I blame Norm (single guy from the office - needs a lesson or two in personal hygiene.... I'm not going any further with this - he might read it! But you get the idea!) for most of the filfth, so I made sure I put them all on a boil wash..... but I also stuck a couple of the office's dusters in there as well and well... the formerly bright yellow dusters are now cream and the towels are a sort of yelllowy cream too.... ooops!