Tuesday 29 December 2009

Seasons Greetings!

Quick note to say hi and bye ;-)

Me and the boys are off to sunny (ahem) Wales with some friends for the New Year. There'll be 8 of us in total in a lovely cottage together, should be awesome fun, just hope we don't get snowed in!!

Although hugely looking forward to this break I'm apprehensive about the damage that'll be done to my already suffering diet over the next few days! My clothes are already feeling tighter and I'm registering additional poundage on the old scales already so it looks as if January will be a veeeeery sensible and quiet month for me ;-)

I'm not sure this cottage will even have mobile phone reception, let alone wi-fi... in fact I'm positive it won't have the latter so updating y'all is unlikely to happen until next week so please be patient!

I have lots to tell and photos to share, I've had a wonderful Christmas at Joe's parents though thought this year that it might have been a bit too much of a strain for his Mum as there were a lot of us to cope with and she is not a young lady anymore (despite not looking anywhere near her true age!).

Next Christmas however should be a different matter, we've put in an offer on a four bedroom house which is just a couple of mile down the road from our current one but is in *such* a nicer and safer area.

My son got mugged by a fully grown man at knifepoint in November and that was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back. Living close to Brixton (aka Scuzzville) is bad enough but I can cope with the scummy people as long as they don't trouble me or my family. However, at quarter to five in the afternoon on a week day some lowlife piece of shit decided to put a knife up to my son's throat and tell him that if he didn't hand over his phone he'd cut it.

Nice.

Fortunately my son's not an idiot and gave it over straight away, he knows that a) his phone cost £30 (last year his phone was nicked again, but this time by an opportunist older boy who snatched it from his grasp) and b) no material possession is worth taking a kicking, or worse, for.

He was pretty shaken up though to say the least and was hysterical for a while from the shock and fear, as I said, what kind of scum puts a knife up to a kid??

Anyway, as I said, that was the final straw so we started looking around at different areas and we've found one a little further away that we know and love and also have friends in and around (very important as we're not quite ready to move out to the sticks yet!).

House prices in that area are sky-high though, because it's such a nice place to be for families, so we're having to purchase somewhere that needs a bit of work, but it'll be a fun challenge and will be so worth it to be able to put our individual stamp on it instead of paying developer's premiums for someone else's idea of 'the finished article', but it'll be a good couple of years before we reap the benefits!

Saying that though, having an extra two bedrooms and not having to look over our shoulders quite so much will be worth more than anything, it'll just be a bit of a pain in the arse to get to work now, no more 20 minute journeys, dammit!!

Anyway, that's my recent news, I still have to update with pictures from Christmas parties and a wedding to boot!

Hope you're all well and had a truly fabulous Christmas, I look forward to updating you all in the new year.

If I get the chance I'll try and send some phone blog updates, either on here or twitter but I can't promise anything as I may just find myself in two states over the next week...

1) Drunk
2) Hungover

Actully, there's also a strong possibility I will be:
3) a combination of the two! ;-)

Lots more festive love and best wishes for a Happy New Year!

TJx

5 comments:

  1. let me just say I am beyond jealous of you heading off to the great beyond and sitting in a cottage.
    I wish I could...however, I am not enamored of where you currently life and I don't even live there.
    we are having similar problems in the springs.
    I think it's gangs coming in from out of state.
    Burglary and carjackings have really picked up.
    That must have scared the bejeesus out of your son.
    Not much of a man, to rob a boy.
    good brother what is with people.
    I hope you love your new home.
    Have fun on holiday.

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  2. Shit mate, I didn't know about your son! What a cowardly shit to rob a boy! That is just disgusting, I am so happy you are moving and have got a lovely new house.

    Enjoy your holiday in Wales, I'm sure you'll have a ball :D

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  3. Hope your boy's OK after that shock from such a cowardly scumbag! Moving house seems like a pretty good idea to me.

    I'm still pretty proud, on your behalf, of your Maximuscle contest acheivement; I was on the Maxitone site only yesterday and had a huge grin on my face when I saw your photo :D

    Hope you have a great time in Wales; try not to worry about the extra poundage, you know how to make that go away when you've had enough enough relaxation/loose leash time.

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  4. Chris - thanks but can one truly be jealous of a potential 7 hour drive in the rain?! We worked out that it's well over 200 miles to get there, it's practically in the sea, arghhh! Hopefully it'll all be worth it and we'll be able to chill with friends.

    Not much of a man at all, I suspect (although definitely no excuse) that he's a drug addict as they're really the only type to mug children for beat-up battered looking mobile phones, this phone looked like it couldn't have been worth more than a couple of quid and I doubt he got more than a fiver resale value... in fact I'd hazard a guess that it got slung in a bush somewhere!

    I'm just glad it wasn't worse and I can't feeling a little bit sorry for someone who's that desperate that they have to resort to candy from baby tactics, he can't be in a very good place right now...

    Brixton, the area I deplore, is just up the road to us and, as you come out the station you are openly offered drugs by a number of low-lifes, case in point.

    JAG - yeah, shitty thing to happen huh? Like I've said I'm just so glad it wasn't worse, lucky he was just savvy enough to hand it over!

    This site is brilliant: http://maps.met.police.uk/ but I think it's only for the London area. You can filter by ward and sub ward and then further by crime and definition... turns out we're in hot spot for personal robbery and burglary - go figure!! Luckily the area we're hoping to move to isn't!

    TOTKat! Good to hear from you, yeah that guy was a total cowardly shit eh? I guess it's the price we pay for living in London? Hope you've not experienced similar :-/

    Thank you for your kinds words, the maxitone page is v v exciting!! I can't believe I have my own one and that I actually *like* the picture they have of me which says an awful lot eh? Should really post a link but I want to learn a little more about the differences between the maximuscle promax diet vs maxitone first so will investigate some more first!

    xxx

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  5. I'm sorry for your son's brush with crime. A couple of weeks ago someone kicked in a door to my home and made off with all my jewelry and a laptop. I was not home at the time. You have to wonder how bad someone's life is that they take to this type of behavior. The thief did close up my two dogs and cat in a bedroom and I realized that my most valuable possessions escaped harm. SOB also knows that I have a gun. He threw my bullets in the bathroom sink. Here's wishing you and yours a Happy New Year.

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