As far as finding angels goes, I found some more this week. I think someone has been reading my blog and is trying to go some way to proving to me that human nature does in fact, have a caring side.

I arrived at my house, music playing on my new car stereo (thanks Nik :) ) and as I loved the song that I was listening to (Lamb- Gorecki) I left the keys in the ignition and tidied my things before getting out of the car. The intention was to finish the song, then remove the keys and depart for home. I managed finish song and depart for home. The middle stage was somehow forgotten though and I got that sinking feeling as the car door slammed shut and I noticed scooby bug swinging happily from the ignition.

'Sugar' I thought to myself. What to do now? Scooby bug takes care of the house keys too.

So I sent a text message to Matt, the holder of my spare doorkey. On the M25.
So I called the RAC (who helped me last time I locked my keys in the car - yes, to my shame it isnt the first time) My membership had expired (thanks for telling me), and couldnt afford the £125 rejoining + call out fee.
So I wandered my way to the garage at the end of the road and pleaded damsel in distress. Angel #1 appears, complete with car stealing kit.

And begins to dig about with bits of wire and stuff.

Angel #2 arrives, cant find a parking space and goes home.

Angel #3 arrives in the form of Ozzy downstairs, he heads off to find coat hangers, returns and begins to dig.

Angel #4 arrives in the form of Ozzy's son, waits his turn, and begins to dig.

Angel #2 by this time has returned on foot as Angels #3 and #4 give up and go inside

Angel #5 arrives, this time a passer by, on his way to the pub, waits his turn and has a dig about.

Time passes, people queue, people dig, ideas are shared.

Angel #1's daughter appears and observes.

More digging, no luck. Angel #2 phones remote Angel #6 who will head over when he returns to the bay should we need him.

I am now getting embarrassed by the volume of assistance and thank everyone and tell them it is ok, I will hang on for remote Angel #6.

Angel #1 says ok, apologises for having no luck and gathers his things to head on.

But no.

Angel #5 is not giving up. Tools are taken back and the digging continues.

Angel #2, Angel #1's daughter and I watch. We dig about a bit. We watch a bit. We wave at observing cat.

They continue to dig. Ideas are shared, teamwork and male bonding ensues.

I again protest. I am again ignored and the digging continues.

Eventually, after quite some time, Angel #1 is victorious and we all cheer in delight. Everyone then disperses. Later remote Angel #6 calls and asks if we need him.

I owe them all a pint.

My confidence in the selfishness of human nature is beginning to wane. Perhaps Welsh idiot on Saturday and the others are the minority after all and I just have not met my share of Angels.

If that is the case someone is trying to make up for it by sending me the entire deficit in one week!

Thank you :)

Posted by kary at 07:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

There are many different types of people in the world. Saturday evening I met both extremes. My experiences with the Welsh, either directly or indirectly, have not been positive on the whole. Sadly, my trip to Cardiff this weekend did little to restore any faith I may have had.

The day began well, up and away in time, on the train and in Cardiff well in time for a pre-match beverage. I was full of butterflies at the prospect of the game and skipped through the pouring rain from the station to the stadium. I have been to the Millenium Stadium before, but you forget what a great structure it is and I was most impressed with our seats behind the goal. The game progressed as expected, us being useless against Utd, but for once our luck holding out. The referee seemed to change sides at half time and the atmosphere was electric.

I will resist the temptation to provide a ball by ball account of the game, you can read that here. But I will say that as Paddy put that final penalty in - there were tears. I know it is sad, but emotion got the better of me as what felt like 68,000 Arsenal supporters picked me up and hugged me in delight.

So we watched the celebrations with singing, cheering and a feel good feeling I have not experienced in quite some time. Joe and I head off to a local public house to join his friends in their celebrations. Boris Becker who sits behind us at Highbury was there and I discovered he is as much irritated by Irritating Bloke as the rest of us. Anyway, we head off for food and then having realised I had missed my train connection home, to the hotel where Joe and his friends were staying. This is where it all went a bit wrong.

Having allowed me to change, store my things in the room and spend vast amounts of money in the bar. The hotel receptionist decided to stop us on the stairs as we headed off to bed. Apparently as I was not a 'resident' they had decided I was not going to be allowed to kip down in the hotel. In fact I wasn’t even going to be permitted to gather my things from the room. Now we'd had a happy but quiet evening in their nightclub. Not rowdy, no harm to anyone. So this I do not understand.

The receptionist and his security monkey threw me out onto the street. Now think about this for a moment. A woman, alone, with nowhere to stay, in a city hundreds of miles from home, being sent out onto the street at 2.30 in the morning. It was also raining heavily. Why on earth would anyone do that? Why, when we had caused no harm or upset to anyone, why would you do that? They claimed it was 'fire insurance' reasons as they physically pushed me without my things onto the street and firmly closed the door behind me. I was stunned. I stood outside whilst my things were gathered in total disbelief.

Cardiff was heaving with drunken locals starting fights with each other and crawling with police and all I could think to do was head towards the station to wait for opening time in the morning. It takes a fair bit to scare me these days, but to be honest, I was pretty well terrified. I phoned what was my first angel of the evening in panic and thankfully rather than be cross with me for calling in tears at nigh on 3am, he was a good boy and looked after me :) thanks. Then I headed off to try to find the station.

When I finally found it, I could think of nothing to do but sit and wait outside. There were lots of people around and some rather unpleasant locals and I settled somewhat apprehensively on the cold ground. That was when my second angel arrived.

The station door, which had previously been locked up, opened and I was called inside. I was lead through the station whilst the locals shouted abuse at the station manager, settled down in the warm, with a heater and assurances of my safety and left to sleep in the station office. This was the quietest, most unassuming man I have ever met. He just did what he did. He didn't want thanks and didn't see he had done something special for me. Obviously sleep evaded me, and at 5am he came back in and took me to the bus stop for the first bus to Newport. He left me in the care of a policeman who was catching the bus with a note that said it was his fault I had missed my train and so to make my ticket valid for my journey home. I really don’t know what might have happened had it not been for him. He was an angel. The policeman said there had been lots of trouble in the area the previous night, locals, not football supporters I hasten to add. I would have been out there in the middle of it all.

My biggest regret of the evening was that I didn’t get his name. I have sent a thank-you to the station, I hope he gets it.

So I headed on my way home, cold and tired. To a warm hug and a coffee, before showering, taking an invigorating walk along the beach and then a very fine barbecue and DVD in the evening. I don’t think I have ever been so pleased to be warm, safe and home.

Posted by kary at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thankfully, the surprise birthday party for mother went well - Happy 50th Mum! It is hard to believe that we were at times, blindingly obvious in our attempt to plan it, yet she really had no idea! I hope that it made her as happy as it appeared to. We were dead proud :) Dont be expecting it on your 60th though will you!

Sunday, we took a belated birthday present to my stepbrother Tom - Happy 18th Tom - I cant believe he is all grown up! ;)

...and picked up my FA Cup Final ticket! Yes, little Goat is off to Cardiff on Saturday! Thanks to Dan and Dad for their generosity in not fighting for the ticket! When booking the train yesterday, I was horrified that a return to Cardiff on the day is £115!

HOW MUCH?!

£115.50 in fact!

Do I get my own butler? A bottle of champagne? Does it guarantee an Arsenal win? Will it pay for the miracle healing of Thierry's achilles?...and you can bet your life it will be late and I will miss kick off. I will be MOST unhappy if that happens.

My poppy red car now has a shiny new stereo all thanks to Nik and his wizardry. The kids noted they could hear it from the playground this morning - note to self: there is no need for excessive volume :)

So, a fine weekend spent with a collection of the people that matter the most. Thanks to all. One of many successes, small victories and reasons to be cheerful. Fingers crossed the result next weekend is the same ;) I hope Essex wasn't too painful for my lovely Kentish guest - you were as ever, a star :)

Posted by kary at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back when I was at school there was a day that was to change the course of my life quite significantly. Each year we did a 'fun' run in aid of charity at a local park/woods type place. The name of which escapes me now. We all hated it.

This particular year we had all been to the twin's house for lunch and John was to drive us all down the the park/woods ready for the start. We all packed into his car and, if I remember correctly it took three trips to get us there. Anyway, we were squeezed in the back of his car and he had music on. It may now be considered a cheesy song, but it was the first time I heard 'Sweet Child O' Mine'. Prior to this I had been a bit of pop princess to be honest. On hearing this song for the first time, I was amazed. It was very new and very loud and I loved it. I took home 'Appetite for Destruction' that day and it did not leave my stereo for some time.

From that, I changed the places I went, the music I listened to, my opinions of people, the way I dressed, the magazines I bought. It all changed in that one moment. (So we have Gun's N Roses to blame!) ...and Richard Nicholls the lad I had a huge crush on liked them, which always helps ;)

I wonder, had I continued on the pop princess path how different things would be. I would certainly know different people, have had different friends. I would not have been so scary certainly!

The point of this is that I was sitting in class, listening to the radio whilst the children revised for their test this morning, trying to create a calm and relaxed pre-exam atmosphere and that song came on the radio. The kids were humming along whilst discussing the inference in Haydn Richards 'The Faithful Collie' and I was transported back to that day in the car. It made me smile.

Things could have been so different. Things could also have been a lot worse.

..oh and welcome back Nik, thanks for the goat's cheese :)

Posted by kary at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On my way home from work yesterday I noticed that my car was making a most peculiar noise.

I turned off the ipod and listened intently. A quiet humming sound seemed to be emanating from within.

I was most concerned.

Then I looked at the speedo. I was doing 70. That will be why then! I adjusted my speed and normal service was resumed :)

Phew.

Posted by kary at 02:41 PM | Permalink

If there is a Ministry for Significant Events, then I am of the opinion that they must have been subjected to an Ofsted style dissection of late. I think they have looked at the books and highlighted a neglect of short, ginger people.

In recent years my life has been devoid of those sorts of moments, things have chugged along, nothing changing. This year however, a fair few significant moments have occured for me. I don't mean dramatic events such as your partner of x years coming home and telling you they are leaving, I mean the small things that make you alter the way you look at the world. The small things that shift everything slightly to the left, which is just enough for you to be able to see around them. That little helping hand that arrives from an unexpected source and gently nudges you in a different direction.

Some of them have been obvious, my week away with Mother at Christmas brought about many changes for us both and she knows how much I treasure that time. Some are not so obvious. A different smell for example, the apparently unnoticed need for a clothes brush, high heeled shoes, the colour pink, The Dartford Bridge, stepladders. Little things that shifted the focus. All of them in a positive way, at least for me. I have done things I would not have done had I not noticed them and I feel significantly better for it.

Long may it continue!

Also...

Thanks to Kate, Dave and Niamh for a lovely meal, I hope Alex had a good time :)
Well done to Arsenal for a superb first half display at Highbury today - shame about the second though! Good for little Cesc to get one in the end and now he is legal for his Man of the Match Champagne!

...and Wigan in the Premiership! Wigan?!

Posted by kary at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My years at secondary school were somewhat turbulent. This is due to a range of factors, none of which I am to expand upon here. Over the years in something of an attempt to forget my time there coupled with an overwhelming apathy, I have lost touch with pretty much everyone I was at school with. The odd email files back and forth between the two I considered to be the closest of my friends, but even that has significantly diminished in regularity of late. I am not sure if it is due to my wanting to forget, laziness or having been away too long. (12 years since I left Essex!) For whatever reason it is something I regret, both are married and I missed both weddings, something I am very sorry for.

So it was with interest that an email flashed into my inbox the other day from a most unexpected source. Is nice to catch up and good to hear from you after all this time :)

Something else to think about... how reliable is a general election where they mess up your electoral registration thingy and you dont get to vote? Do they have a look at the demographic and mess up the applications of a certain group of people do you think? So they nag at all those people who can not be bothered to vote and those of us who want to - cant! I am decidedly unimpressed.

Posted by kary at 02:39 PM | Permalink

:)

Posted by kary at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What a busy few days! With the lovely Nik away for a while, I have been inundated with offers - which is great and very much appreciated! A fine weekend based in Essex with mother, involving haircuts, shopping and a fine evening out...then a trip up to London to see my rotten brother and his lovely wife in honour of their birthdays last week. That one involving lunch on the Kings Road (cue Anthony) and ice creams in the square. It was lovely to see everyone, thanks to all for a fine couple of days.

Then yesterday the 'Spring Cleaning' bug bit me and I decided to sort out all of my clothes and then rearrange the bedroom furniture (again)...I have discarded an obscene amount of clothing...more I think, than some people would see in a lifetime. So next time I moan about having nothing to wear- remind me of the pile of bags in the hallway! The evening was then spent in the company of the lovely Matt and Mary, with a glass of wine and talk of the impending SAT's next week.

I was woken in the early hours by a thunderstorm, two cats, slightly unnerved by the sounds raging outside the window, decided to leap on me just in case I was managing to sleep through it. I am glad they did. I watched from the window as the rain fell in sheets from the clouds and the lightning illuminated the sky. There was something very peaceful about it all. (Until Ozzy downstairs appeared in his dressing gown to have a cigarette, it not being a pleasant sight, I returned to my bed) Once the thunder had subsided, I managed to fall sleep to the sound of the continuing rain and awoke this morning feeling rested and refreshed, odd after just 3 hours sleep.

...and a reluctant well done to Chelski for buying the league title this year.

Posted by kary at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)