New beginnings

We finally got Taylor's start date for his new school. Essex County Council called me and told me they'd faxed the school, so I called the receptionist for a start date. I told her that he is so bored he's been doing my housework for me, and she laughed and said he could start tomorrow. Great timing as I'm off out for the day tomorrow, so that's one child down!

In other news, Pete is thinking of applying for a job. It's the kind of job that only comes along once in a lifetime. He was headhunted for it, and he wasn't sure whether to apply. We've talked and talked about it, and I think the kids and I have convinced him. The reason he wasn't sure about it was because it means relocating...to Oxford. If he gets this job, it will mean a complete change of lifestyle for us, but more importantly, for the kids. Can you imagine? Moving from Basildon to Oxford! I don't want to leave my job, but I would for that, the two just don't compare really do they?
He hasn't got it yet of course, so we aren't getting too excited. He just spoke to the consultant, and the company have been trying to fill it for 8 months with no success, so it looks promising. If he does get it, Pete will have to move up there alone for the first 3-4 months to find us a house to rent. So, I'll effectively be a single parent for the first few months of our marriage!

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Lost Letters

I'm feeling a bit strange today. We had the valuer from the Council coming round today to look at the house so I've been pottering around cleaning this morning. While I was sorting out some stuff in our room I came across some of my old poetry notebooks and stuff like birthday cards and photos. I had a quick flick through, and found some stuff from a period of my life that I try hard to forget on a daily basis. I found two letters that I sent to Michael, Taylor's Dad, after he left me.

He basically talked me into an abortion, then disappeared without a trace for about 6 months. The letters were horrible to read. I sounded very young in them, but also very grown up compared to my peers. I had just turned 18, and had no-one and nothing. It felt bleak going back there in my mind. In them I was telling him that I was keeping the baby, and I could imagine him opening them and being shocked and scared. I wonder if he still has copies? Seeing the letters should have made me feel proud, seeing how far we've come, but I'm a sentimental old fool and find it hard to not dwell in the past. That first year after Taylor was born I wanted Michael back like I'd never wanted him when we were together, and he wasn't interested. Then, I met Pete when Taylor was one, and suddenly Michael was there hinting and flirting. It drove me mad for while.

Of course, I have this little dude to show for it. All the heartache has been worth it. I suppose one other positive thing came out of that period in my life. My poetry then was quite good, and I managed to get a few of them published. I'll just keep telling myself to look for the positives. :)

My Musical Monday#1

After seeing Dan's post over on his blog, I thought having a musical post every Monday would be fun, so here's mine.

Now, I know that Bjork is as mad as a bag of spiders, and you either love her or you hate her. Like Marmite.

Pete and I are firmly in the love camp, he'd never heard much of her until he met me, but I converted him. I first heard this song at a concert in 1995. It was actually a Blur concert, but the warm-up DJ played this and it was so loud I thought the drums at the beginning would make my ears burst. Almost ten years later, I'm pregnant with a daughter, and lo and behold we decide to name her after this song. I just adore it. It's about a girl living in the forest, alone, but she is actually a dual personality so she isn't alone. Weird, I know.

Insert Title Here...

Pete took all the kids to Portsmouth overnight on Thursday so I was here by myself. His Dad has come round from his operation now, but his lungs collapsed on Thursday and they thought they were going to lose him. Hopefully he's through the worst of it now. Pete was getting hassled again by his sister about going back to the meetings though. It makes me so MAD! She asked what I thought of it all, and Pete warned her to never even consider witnessing to me, as I'm the last person to try and convert. I'll rip her head off!
I had a peaceful few hours alone in the house, it's a shame I was working during the day as I could got loads done around the house. I got home on the Friday evening and had the nicest bath, alone, with no one hassling me. I was going out with the girls from work for a meal, and getting ready in a quiet house was bliss.
We went out for a curry, and got pretty drunk. We had a bottle of wine each, then I had about 6 JD and cokes. I wasn't as drunk as Karen though, she was sooo embarrassing. We went back to Val's house for another drink and Karen went upstairs and woke up her two teenage daughters. She has been to Val's house before, so she wasn't a complete stranger, but even so, I was mortified. She was being really cheeky. I bet she felt awful when she woke up the next day. This is the only pic that is publishable, the rest are all extreme close ups of peoples noses, and tops of heads. :)
This is Jacqui, Karen, Val and Me

Tired Tuesday

I feel exhausted today. I've no idea why, I'm getting enough sleep.

Pete's Dad had his operation today, and as far as we know he was out by 11.30am but still unconscious. I suppose he's 50% of the way there, the recovery is just as risky as the op, so we can't relax just yet.

I've had Taylor's old school on the phone moaning today, trying to persuade me to send him back. They seem to think they can do something about 10-15 year 6 children that are bullying the younger kids. What can they do? Expel them all? We don't even know their names.

Taylor has left the building

Taylor and I went to look at another Junior school this morning. It was my second choice when he went up to the Juniors in September. I wish I'd just gone with it in the first place. He's not been happy at his school since day one really, and is getting punched by older kids almost everyday, and no-one is ever punished. The school is known to have a bullying problem, and I can't see it changing anytime soon. He's always loved school, never moaned about going in each day, and to see him openly hating it makes me sad. I want to nip it in the bud now, he needs to start enjoying it again. So, we visited his new school today, and it was great. The atmosphere was fantastic, all the equipment was new, and they are specialists in special needs. Taylor hasn't been labeled with any problems as such, but he really struggles with social issues, impulsiveness and concentration, so if they know what they are doing this can only be of benefit to him. He seems really excited about starting, and already knows a few children in his year so won't be completely alone when he starts. Hopefully he'll be in there for next Monday. I've signed Isobel up for the preschool too, she has a start date of January 2008. That's only 10 months away...yikes!

Making my tiara

A while ago, I decided to make my tiara. The style I'd chosen originally was complicated, but I could do it. Then, whilst looking for my materials I saw this one and fell in love. I'm going for a wild garden theme, so it's perfect.

I called the shop and it's £200 to buy, so I'm cheating and making my own version. It will obviously look nothing like this, but I'm stealing the colour ideas. Vintage golds, flowers, pearls and peridot. I spent £50 on beads from my lottery money, and today the wire came.

This is what fifty pounds worth of crafting materials looks like. I've made tiara's before from cheap bits and bobs, so now I'm crapping myself.


I made a start this afternoon, this is what I have so far of the spikes




This could take some time!

Fresh air

I've been going stir crazy, what with all the rain we've had this week, so I'd checked the weather and we'd planned to go out for a walk today. Pete let me have a lovely lay in this morning, then Sam came over for a cuppa. Isobel and Harvey thought it would be good to have a tandem marathon potty session, which was cute. Isobel has wee'd on the potty three times this week, which seeing as she's refused to even sit on it since August, is a bit of a breakthrough.


At 2pm, we headed off out to Belhus Park in Aveley, which is somewhere I've always wanted to go as I'm both fascinated with and annoyed by the huge mansion that once stood there. It was stupidly demolished in 1957, and all that remains is a few paintings and the foundations in the middle of a golf course. What a waste!


It was a sunny day for February, but still, my pictures have come out a bit bleak.







Exactly two seconds after I took this, Isobel was face down in that puddle. I'm gutted I didn't catch her mid-splat. Does that make me an evil Mummy?

Happy Valentines Day

Yes, I know this post is late, but I was too busy being wined and dined last night to come and update my blog. I had a life, for once!

Yesterday got off to a bad start when two traveller children, who moved onto the estate last year and have caused nothing but trouble since, decided to beat Taylor up. Taylor has been told not to play with them, so him and his mate picked up their football and started to walk home when these two boys arrived. They told Taylor they wanted to tell him something, and when he went back over to them one held him down while the other one punched him in the face repeatedly. I grabbed both of them and Pete and I gave them such a bollocking that they shit themselves. I've called the police and reported it, mainly so that if we get bricks through our windows it's on record. To be honest, nothing has happened yet so I'm not too worried. They're about ten or eleven, and he's eight. I fear for my kids futures, I really do.

Pete got me they above bunch of roses for Valentines, which was a nice surprise. He's great for buying me flowers all year round, but he hasn't bought me roses for a few years. We had a nice Italian meal, tried to choose the lowest calorie stuff we could, which was a nightmare. It's our anniversary in a few weeks, the 4th March, so we'll have to try and arrange something for that too that costs as little money as possible. We used to go away for the weekend, but it won't be happening this year with the wedding to pay for. We've got the rest of our lives for that, plus we'll have two anniversaries next year! I'm sure we'll make up for it. :)

Half Term

Well, I love half term. It's been great so far. Monday I took Isobel and Jake to Toddler Gymnastics. It was fantastic, best kids activity I've ever been to, and I've been to a few. It's in a proper gymnastics club, they get free rein on all the full size equipment, even the grown ups get a go! They have a huge 8 foot deep pit full of chunks of foam, you can springboard into it. We had a riot launching ourselves into it with the kids. We met some friends in there too, and it was a good job as you need four adults for the three children we had with us. It was exhausting. They all came back for a cuppa and a chat in more peaceful surroundings. Then at 12 they left and Taylor had to go to his craft club, just as it started to chuck it down, so we got soaked. Taylor had dinner at Georgie's then stayed over for the night, so that was one kid down and two to go! I had a nice chat with my friend Martin on the phone, it always makes me smile to talk about the good old days. Makes me feel old though. We also heard that Pete's Dad's operation has been put back, so he won't be travelling down there until Thursday now, which means I will get to spend time with him on Valentines Day. Then Ryan decided to go to the under 18's night at Ikon, so by 6pm we had Isobel in bed and the house to ourselves. We cracked open a bottle of wine and watched movies in bed. It was sooo quiet here. Ryan came home at 11pm with a friend from school called Reece, who we've not had back here before. He seemed really nice, a real chatterbox. Just my kind of person. They've been inseparable all day, so hopefully he's got another close friend there. Ryan also managed to persuade a girl to snog him last night, it being Valentines and all, so he's been flying high all day today. Teenagers!

Today, we got up and cracked on with decorating the hallway, building a weights bench, building a bookcase, sorting all our books that have been boxed up for years, and doing the usual day to day cleaning, all while looking after two toddlers. Whew! Taylor went ice skating again today with Georgie and his Mum, and then his Dad came to see him tonight. It was his birthday a week ago, and he's only just bothered to come round. We'd made tentative plans for him to have him on Friday, then he never called! I had a right go at him on the phone earlier, but he had the usual 'working late' excuse. He also told me a while ago that he might pay for Taylor's flights to Australia this Xmas as part of his birthday present, and he told Taylor, then he came round with £50 in an envelope tonight(with a few other small presents). Fifty pounds isn't going to get him very far now, is it? Colour me baffled. Why say it if you can't afford it? He's just constantly letting Taylor down.

Spooky stories

I'm posting these so that I don't forget them, as the old memory is getting a bit rusty! We've been talking about spooky stories on a forum, and rather than post a huge reply I thought it'd be easier to put it here!

Black Dog

When I was 14 /15 I spent a lot of time outdoors messing around with a large group of friends. We would meet up after school, hang around street corners being noisy, the usual teenage antics. Because we were such a large group, sometimes as many as 30 people, we were often moved on from our little spots by the police, and had to find a new 'homes', kind of like a wandering band of nomads. I'm pretty sure it was October 1995 when this happened, and we had recently begun hanging around at an old church on a big hill near my house. We all knew the surrounding countryside like the back of our hands as we had grown up roving around in the trees, and never thought anything of the fact that we were hanging around in a graveyard at night.

Anyway, this particular evening a group of 7 girls had broken off from the group and walked down the sloping road away from the church. We were a ten minute walk away from the others, and well out of earshot. We sat down in a circle at the base of a small rise in a field, and the sun had set behind the rise so it had a pretty glow to it. We were chatting away when we heard something being killed in the bushes, like a rabbit screaming. One of my friends said jokingly 'it must be a werewolf', and I just laughed and said it must be a fox killing its dinner.

About two minutes later I looked up to the rise and saw the biggest black dog/wolf/thing I have ever seen. I'm pretty sure I uttered swore, and everyone turned around to look. I know a lot about dogs(I'm animal mad and used to be a vet nurse), and this was taller than an Irish wolfhound, but bulky like an Alsatian. It started to growl at us, and just stood and stared. I can still hear the sound it made in its throat even to this day. Everyone got up really slowly and walked away, and I said 'DO NOT RUN', in case it chased us. We all took about 5 steps, someone shouted 'RUN', and we all descended into mass hysteria and bolted back up the hill. Of course no-one else in the group believed us.
My best friend still hasn't forgiven me for leaving her behind, as she hated dogs anyway, and was traumatised for ages. When we all get together we still talk about it, all these years later.
On a related note, we recalled on reflection that years earlier, probably in about 1992, four of us had been climbing trees in this same field and had seen five men with shotguns stalking in the trees. We were scared as guns are quite uncommon here, and we had never seen 'real' guns before. Also, we were scared that if we moved they would shoot us thinking we were whatever 'game' they were looking for. Maybe they were local farmers who knew of this 'wolf', and were hunting it down?

Also, about 4 years ago, I had almost forgotten about the sighting, and I took my dog for a walk up there. I don't often go there, as I now live about 3 miles away, and I kind of stumbled into this field not thinking. I paused on the rise as I suddenly remembered where I was, and the dog started to growl. We shot out of there pretty quick!

Man in the Woods
I was walking the dog with Pete, Taylor was playing with a football and Isobel was in the buggy. We were at a place in Basildon called Nevendon Bushes. Its a tiny piece of ancient woodland in the middle of a housing estate, I used to go there alone with the dog often, which soon stopped after this happened. I've never been back since.

I was holding the dogs lead, and had just been saying to my partner how I always feel as if I'm being watched there, you feel surrounded by nature there. The place has an atmosphere, not necessarily bad, but it feels quite magical. I joked that I always expect fairies to pop out and surprise you. Its very dark as the trees are so tall, and I love it in summer as its so cool.

The dog had an extendable lead, and all of a sudden he zoomed off into some trees barking. He's was a Fox Terrier, so I let him go as I thought he was hunting something. I followed him into the bushes to see what he was after and was surprised to find a man dressed all in black just standing there. I was a bit embarrassed that the dog had barked at him, I mumbled an apology and turned to go. As I turned I realised that he had no face, no features at all! He was just the darkest black all over. I spun back round on my heels, and he was gone. I had been standing about 3 feet away from him and there was no mistaking it, he was just nothing all over, but it had taken my brain a while to register it. He had vanished in the time it took for me to turn and then spin back round.
I shot out of the trees and told Pete that there was a man in there. He is terrified of the paranormal, so I didn't go into details, but I told him something wasn't right and that we had to go. This bothered me for ages, I felt like I'd seen something I shouldn't have. I don't think I'll ever go back over there.

Vanishing Taxi

This happened in 1997, and myself and my boyfriend at the time were driving back from his house to mine at around 9pm, the journey was only about 20 minutes and he was driving. We were coming up to the estate where I lived at the time, and the roads were clear. As we came up to
a pedestrian crossing we both noticed a taxi behind his car. It was a white modern taxi, probably a Ford escort or mondeo, but we didn't notice the actual make of car. The reason we noticed it was that it was driving too close to his rear bumper, and we were both cursing the driver. I actually turned round in my seat to have a look, and my boyfriend was watching in his rear view mirror. As we passed the crossing, the taxi suddenly disappeared. It didn't fade from view or anything, it was just gone.

Even now every time I go past the crossing, I relay the tale to whoever I'm with at the time. I'm sure they are all sick of hearing the story by now!


My Mum finally saw a ghost!

As a child I was saw weird stuff a lot, and my Mum always laughed the stories off and made me feel stupid. Well, finally, at age 53, the sceptic saw one right in front of her! She now agrees with everything I ever told her about ghosts, to the way they appear, to the way you feel during the experience.

She works in a County Court as an Usher, she's been there about 8 years. One morning she was the only person in, except for security at the front desk, even the cleaners hadn't arrived yet. Security is very tight, due to the nature of the work.
As she walked past court room 4, a little face peeped through the glass running vertically down the side of the door. She said the face was of a petite, blond, elfin looking woman, just smiling serenely at her. She stood there and looked, and the woman looked back. There was a definite interaction there. My Mum walked away to get security, and when they came back she was obviously gone. There was no one else in the building.
My Mum has called her Geraldine(no idea why!), and says hello to her every morning.


Pauline sees her Mum
>My Dad and Stepmum Pauline live in an old house(built in the late 1800's) in Maldon, Essex. There have never been any paranormal occurrences there.

About three years ago my stepmum went up to bed before my Dad, and could suddenly smell an overpowering perfume in the air, which she recognised as the one her mother used to wear. Her mum died in 1995 from cancer all over her body, but which started in her lungs. The smell was so strong that it was making her gag. As my Dad came up the stairs and into the room, the smell vanished.

The next day, she was ironing in the dining room adjoining the kitchen, looked up and saw her mum walk through the kitchen wall into the conservatory, then on into the garden. Her mum turned round and smiled at her, then vanished.
Later that afternoon she had a doctors appointment as she had been feeling unwell and had an infection, and they discovered that she had a lump in her breast. It turned out to be grade 3 cancer, which is about as bad as it gets.

Thankfully, she's been in the clear for about 5 years now. I always think its a lovely story though, as her mum was coming back to check up on her.

Ice Skating

We've just been ice skating for Taylor's birthday. We had a nice meal first at Pizza Hut(cheap too as Jane works there, half price!). I was dreading the skating part as I've only been once. About 5 years ago was my first time, when Pete and I took Ryan. After about an hour of clinging onto the sides for grim death, I managed to get the hang of it and let go, but I hated every minute of it.

This time it was was actually really good fun, and I managed to start up back where I left off 5 years ago, admittedly I'm not very good but I can go round without holding on. Taylor couldn't even put one foot in front of the other, but within an hour I had him skating round without holding. He loves falling over, that boy, so of course it means nothing to him to hit the deck. He spent a lot of time on his arse, laughing. When the staff took his boots off for him they were full of about a pint of water. I wouldn't have been surprised to see a fish plop out, they were that full! Here are some pictures, not very good ones I'm afraid as it was an outdoor rink and it's dark. My camera just couldn't hack it.

Happy 8th Birthday Taylor

I was up at the crack of dawn as the snow woke me up. I always wake up just before it thunders or snows, it must be the pressure change. This picture shows what Isobel thought of it in her sleepy state this morning!
Taylor opened his cards and presents this morning. We got him 3 new games for his DS, Cars, Nintendogs and Zoo Tycoon. They should keep him busy for a few months. We decided to keep both the boys home, as when we checked the school closures they hadn’t announced it yet, but it was coming down so heavy we didn’t think it was worth it. I’ve heard now that they are closed so it was a good choice. I’ve never seen the boys get dressed so fast. We all went out and had a snowball fight before I came to work. I’m gutted, as it’s the first time Isobel has played in the snow, and my digital camera is broken. I’m lost without it. My Mum is over tonight for his birthday, and I won’t be able to take any pictures of that either.

Where has my little blond baby gone?

It's gone so quickly. The same amount of time again and he'll be 16 and leaving school. If anyone reading this has a toddler, make the most of it, because before you know it they are off out into the world where you can't always protect them.

This time 8 years ago, my due date of 27th of January had come and gone with no sign of labour. I was in the hospital on the Sunday night, waiting to be induced at 42 weeks. I didn't know if I was having a boy or a girl, but everyone thought it was a girl(including me). I made friends with the girls on the ward pretty quickly. None of us had our babies yet and we were placing bets on who would go first. I'm still best friends with Becky to this day(we spoke on the phone yesterday).
I was induced that evening at about 10pm, but nothing happened. Becky kept me up all night moaning as she was in very slow labour, and completely spaced out from the drugs. I was woken up at 6am Monday to be induced again, and then I went back to sleep with the monitor strapped to me. I was woken up at about 10.30am by a midwife saying that I was having contractions. The labour only lasted 4 hours, I had it reasonably easy, except for the stitches! My son was born at 2.03pm on Monday 8th February 1999. He weighed 8lb 2oz and was perfect.
Back on the ward, his Dad stayed on the ward with us for what seemed like hours, and I still felt out of it from the gas. I remember Becky getting out of bed at some point and her waters going everywhere! We still laugh about it now.
I stayed in hospital for another day as I enjoyed it there with the girls. Becky eventually had her emergency c-section and her son Robin entered the world. I couldn't decide on a name for a few days but eventually settled on Taylor Michael Rowan.

Taylor is 8 tomorrow and is the sweetest, gentlest and most loving little boy anyone could wish for. He's the best thing that ever happened to me, and I can't believe the tough times we had together for the first year of his life. His personality lights up the room, and I can't wait to see what the future brings for him. He's a very quirky and eccentric little guy, but I like that about him. I hope he never changes.
Here are a few photos(well, a lot of photos!) of him over the years:

Secrets

I don't keep anything from Pete, ever. I share everything with him, and it eats me up when I can't. Therefore, I hate it when people tell me secrets, as I can't keep them from him, I end up telling him, and he's terrible for judging people. I should just keep my mouth shut.
Someone told me a secret a few days ago, and it's driving me crazy, but this is one I really can't tell anyone. The person even approached me again a few days later and swore me to secrecy. Arrgghh!

Pete's Dad had his tests today, and some more tomorrow, and it's worse than they thought. He's got to have open heart surgery, which of course he'll refuse to have blood for.

Isobel's Pre School has cost us £30 so far, and what a waste! She hates every minute of it, and screams the whole time she is there. We've both tried staying with her to settle her in, but it makes no difference. I've just sat there with her for 45 minutes, and given up and brought her home. She won't even let me out of the chair next to her. There is a horrible little boy there who seems to follow her around, so I'm not surprised she hates it. Every toy she picks up he snatches off her, even with me there watching. He kept trying to lock her out of the play house, so she just kicked down his barricade. At least she's not a pushover.
I've paid up for this week, then it's closed for half term, and to be honest there is no point in sending her back afterwards. She obviously isn't ready yet. Taylor didn't go until he was over three, and we had no trouble at all with him. She doesn't have to go either, as we are at home with her anyway.

Haircut

I got my fringe trimmed on Friday as I was starting to look like a sheepdog, peering out from underneath. I swear it gets shorter every time I get it cut. I must be getting braver. I guess this is as short as I wanted it in the first place, but didn't have the guts. It's taking some getting used to.

We've been over to my friend Jane's tonight for her daughter Jacey's birthday tea. Jane's been trying for a baby for about three years with her second husband, with no luck. She has two daughters aged 10 and 11, but lost her son at 34 weeks a while ago. She's thought she might be pregnant for two months now, but all the tests have been negative, but tonight she got two lines. I'm so pleased! I just hope it works out this time.

It's Taylor's 8th birthday on Thursday. Where has that time gone? I should be making his card right now, but I'm stalling on here, as usual.

Pete's Dad is still in hospital, but doing okay. He was moved to Southampton last week for his Angioplasty and some tests, but he caught the flu when he got there. He's starting to get better now so they should be able to go ahead with the tests soon.

Ryan got upset last night because he realises that if he wants to see Holly, he's going to have to speak to his Mum, and he just isn't prepared to do that. He gets upset because he knows how shit Holly and Eleanor's lives are going to be, but there is nothing he can do about it. What can you say to make him feel better though? You can't pretend it's all going to be okay for them. It won't be.

Ahhh...cute puppy!

My friend Jacqui got a new puppy yesterday. His name is Bruce and he's a
Dogue De Bordeaux, which is basically a French Mastiff. She lost her baby Monty (who was a Bull Mastiff)to cancer a few years ago and he was only 5, it's taken her a while to get over it, but her partner couldn't wait any longer so went out and got a Bordeux. He's basically the same as the dog in Turner & Hooch. I can't wait to have a cuddle, before he gets too big and slobbery!

Best weekend EVER!

Firstly, I was off work on Thursday as I've had this virus for weeks now, it comes and goes but just won't piss off entirely. I needed a day in bed. Pete had James over so him and Isobel were occupied, which left me free to do, well, nothing really.
I went back on the Friday, to be faced with an envelope full of cash as our syndicate had got 5 balls on the lottery! Only £210 each, but who am I to complain? Unfortunately, if we'd got the bonus ball too it would've been £20,000 each, but we aren't that lucky. It means that I can now book the DJ for the reception, purchase my tiara making materials and get the two bridesmaids dresses.
Friday night I'd been invited by my friend Allie to her boyfriend Martins club night called Mata Boo Boo. They run it themselves in a little underground club in Southend. Allie played the first hour set so I had to be there at 9pm to support her. She had quite a big crowd already dancing, which is unusual for a first set. Here is a picture of one of Sam's mates whose name escapes me, Sam and I: The whole crowd in there were wicked, and we went back to an afterparty which didn't finish until 6am. There was a really random woman there who was off her nut, and she kept telling everyone her name was She-Ra. Very funny, well she kept me entertained! It was really nice to get to know everyone better. We headed back to Allie & Martins in the camper van, with a guy called Spider who was a friend of a friend, whom at the time we assumed was a safe person to bring back. He used to be a heroin addict(probably still is, in hindsight), and was obviously a bit messed up, and he'd been taking Valium all night and could barely walk. He had work in Rayleigh the next day, where Allie lives, so we did him a favour by bringing him with us. Sam and I shared a bed upstairs and left him on the sofa, but he came in to us at about 9am and we kicked him out. When we all got up at 11am we realised he'd been in Martin & Allie's room while they slept and stolen £160. Later that day we realised he'd also taken Allies brand new Camera and MP4 she'd got for Christmas. Their huge circle of friends obviously now have a bounty on his head. Their house insurance doesn't cover the items as they invited him in. It's so disappointing as the dance scene doesn't normally attract people like that. He was staying with a friend of theirs called Pedro, but he's been on the streets for years so chances are he won't come back. It ruined a great weekend for everyone and I hope Karma kicks his arse! I called my Mum last night for a chat and mentioned this guys real name(Bobby Jo Franks), and she only knew him! She works in the Crown Court and he's been up in court quite a few times.
I didn't get home until 6pm last night, then we got a curry, which saved me from having to cook. Pete's taken the boys to football, and he's coming back to get us girlies to go down the club at 12, so I'd best get dressed.