You are here: Home / Archives for Everyday Life

Lying Kids!

Posted by on February 14, 2008 Leave a Comment

Well, my ’s at it again. He moved out as per my last blog post and we haven’t heard from him since. He’s refused to give us and hasn’t even dropped by to see his sisters. But we may not have seen or spoken to him but we’ve been hearing all about the things he’s been saying about us. Apparently he’s told his mother that he doesn’t want her to give us his address unless his dad gives him a “really good reason”. I guess being his father is not reason enough. Now he’s told his that we’re lying when we said we had no phone numbers for him. He has insisted that he programmed his new into the – he hasn’t – and that we have his number already. I agree he did give it to me on a scrap of paper weeks before he left when I spoke to the girl’s grandmother about him moving in there. But I didn’t keep it, which I told him at the time. But, of course, how could he be lying.

I’m sick to death of hearing all the stories he’s coming out with making out that his dad and I are the ones who are to blame for his disgusting and, I have to say, I’m not prepared to sit back and let him talk this about us anymore. I’m at the point now where, if I do happen to see him, I’m more likely to punch him than I am to make him welcome!

Filed Under: A Family Affair, Everyday Life | Tagged: Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Teenagers!

Posted by on February 3, 2008 Leave a Comment

My 16 year old moved out on Friday to live with his and her . Apparently life is so intolerable for him at home (with me, his father and his siblings) and he’s so in love with his (his first “serious” relationship”) that he has no choice but to move in with her instead of .

He’s spent the last few months making life for his siblings awful – being nasty to his younger sisters, constantly fighting with his brothers and talking to myself and his father with serious amounts of . Anyone who knows me will be aware that I don’t take kindly so won’t be surprised when I say that however he spoke to us he received in return. We got to the point where I had refused to wash his clothes, cook or clean for him because he was giving me so much shit and causing so much grief at home that doing anything for him was more trouble than it was worth.

Anyway, the grandmother of his girlfriend thought it would be a briliant idea to have him move in with them. I rang her and spoke to her about why on earth she would do such a thing as it won’t help resolve the issues we’re all having at home and just give him a way to run from the problems and not deal with them. But, according to her, she doesn’t want them to blame her for not giving them a chance if they split up. Personally, I think she’s a for doing this as the only thing she’s doing is giving them an almost 100% chance of wrecking both their lives.

Of course, people have to learn by their own mistakes but some mistakes should wait until you’re older and more mentally able to deal with the fallout from the choices made. Moving in with a person could become a seriously at any time, but for a 16 year old with no , if she falls pregnant, then his life is pretty much over.

We’ve now stood back and said because he’s 16 we can’t force him to stay at home – and, in all honesty, the is much better now he’s left – but there will always be a bed for him here when it all goes wrong. And, yes, I say when and not if.

Filed Under: A Family Affair, Everyday Life | Tagged: Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Clay Cross – Fast Food Capital of England?

Posted by on January 10, 2008 Leave a Comment

is a former mining village and civil parish in the district of Derbyshire, England on the outskirts of Chesterfield. It is directly on the A61, the former Roman road Rykneild Street. Surrounding settlements include North Wingfield, Tupton, Pilsley and Ashover. There is an approximate population of 8,573.

Why am I describing this little village to you? Because I’m convinced that (as the post title suggests) it’s the fast of England. Honestly, there are more takeaways and restaurants in this than I’ve seen in larger towns!! Not a week goes by where we don’t get a menu through the door from yet another new takeaway that’s opened and it’s always located in Clay Cross!

Take a look at the size of the place – googlemap of Clay Cross.

Now take a look at the list of fast /restaurants that I know of (and this is by no means the entire list!)

  • Bateman’s Mill
  • Clay Oven
  • Ed Nelson’s Diner
  • Blue Bell Inn
  • Massarella’s Restaurant and Coffee Shop
  • Moonlight Tandoori
  • Ocean City
  • Pappano’s
  • Paradise Tandoori
  • Wongs
  • Pirate Pizza
  • Kebab and Curry House
  • Chubbys
  • Five Star Pizza
  • Huang Ying
  • Lou’s Place
  • Honda’s Fishbar and
  • Leon’s
  • The Oriental Pearl
  • The Cannon
  • Princes

I mean come on! How many places to eat out does a tiny village need? Does no-one cook their own food in Clay Cross??? I’d like to know how all these places survive, I really would!

Filed Under: Everyday Life, Randomness | Tagged: Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tracing My Great Uncle

Posted by on July 23, 2007 Leave a Comment

My grandfather’s eldest brother Ron died during . Rumour has it his mother woke up on the night he died with a of his death – and told her husband that Ron had drowned at sea; a while later they received confirmation of it.

Anyway, none of his brothers knew any of the details of what happened to Ron – other than being lost at sea, so during my research I decided to make an effort to discover what happened to him.

Thanks to the phenomenal members at the Family Tree forums we’ve managed to track down Ron, the ship he was on and what actually happened.

The ship he was on was a Catapult Armed Merchantman, with 1 on board, called SS Empire Lawrence. She served in several before her final, PQ16. Older readers will know that means the Arctic… LINK tells us that her final convoy set sail from on 21st May 1942, bound for Murmansk, Russia. Her cargo on this voyage was explosives and ammunition. On the 25th May 1942, she launched the Hurricane and A J Hay attacked a formation of attacking the convoy. He was himself shot down in that attack. During the attack, SS Empire Lawrence was hit by a stick of bombs from the attacking Ju 88’s, and blew up immediately, with an enormous explosion. The ditched pilot was one of only a handful of survivors of the loss.

There is a first hand account of the event from the captain who picked up P O Hay, at LINK, as well as another at LINK . One of my favourite sites to search is LINK and that turns up some verbatim accounts of PQ16 as well.

From LINK ( go to 218.pdf)

The steamship Empire Lawrence was bombed and sunk by German aircraft on May 27th, 1942, off the North Cape on a voyage from Reykjavik to Murmansk. The captain, 11 crew and three gunners were lost.

Ronald Henry Swift is commemorated on panel 43 of the memorial in London, LINK which commemorates men and women of the and who died in both World Wars and who have no known grave.

My aunt went to Tower Hill a couple of weeks ago and located the panel to take photos.

Filed Under: A Family Affair | Tagged: Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Clearing My Head

Posted by on July 18, 2007 Leave a Comment

My are through the roof at the moment. It’s not that there’s anything major going on in my life that’s unusually stressful, but that this is really taking a toll on me. With the other three, I’d have days where I could be irritable, but this one… anything sets me off. I can feel the rise every time the kids bicker.

I guess isn’t helping. I’m at the stage now where it’s uncomfortable to lie down – on my back, baby kicks; on my side, seriously uncomfortable. Baby is more active at night so while I can sit down during the day (ha ha, like that’s possible for more than a couple of minutes) I can’t rest properly at night and so am up and down all night long. The girls generally wake up from 6.30 which is when I’m finally starting to settle, so I’m not getting time to just relax.

Today, just to finally top it off, Erin managed to get hold of a and has chopped a chunk out of her fringe (bangs for those of you in America or wherever).

Filed Under: Everyday Life | Tagged: Tagged With: , , ,
Newer Posts »