MB - March 2015 £256.28

3 months in already! Would've hit my target but for a lazy bet on Real Madrid which lost (at 1.08!). March is Cheltenham month so the bookies threw some tasty offers. Refunds if the favourite won, regular enhancements - I need to get my head round horse racing to unlock bigger profits if I can.

A.

The Devil's Chimneystack

Cool, ominous and tumbledown, it still retains a desolate charm. Closed to the public now sadly, it will probably become overgrown and lost within a few years. 

MB - Feb 2015 £178.08

Below target for the month. Not much time to devote to MB as other commitments. Juicy refunds from Paddy's and 3 6 5. A mug punt on Real Madrid at 1.2 cost me a few quid though!

Her Ladyship at 3...

The kiddies on the Wishing Stone 14.3.15

Dizzy has turned 3. She has inherited her mothers' warmth and engaging nature, but also the iron will and stubbornness on my family's side too. It's a heady mix..

One day she can charm the birds of the trees. The next she can knock those same birds out cold with an indignant shriek when things aren't going her way! Case in point? Trying to extricate her from the soft play today when it was time to go:

I tried to put her boots on. She screamed and wrenched them off.
I tried to put them on again. Same response.
'Fine' I said 'No boots then, Dizzy'. 'I WANT MY BOOOOOTS!!!' was her banshee-like wail.
'You want to wear you coat, Diz?' I asked, carefully trying to guide her arm into a sleeve.
She wrenched it off her arm and hurled it to the ground with a gesture of disgust.

I followed this with a mixture of shock and amusement. Watching my little pocket rocket throw a paddy is still kinda cute. When will it make me want to throttle her? At 5? At 7?

Xander turns 10 end of this month. Being the unique little man he is, we approach him with a similar mix of love and patience. For Comic Relief he coloured in his nose red with a pen.... it looked like he had a new one grafted onto his face which was in the process of being rejected! He doesn't deal well with tiredness either, as I was reminded of today. Whereas most children will get morose and unresponsive, X barks at passing animals and drapes himself over street furniture. Such things simply remind me how unique my boy is. Infuriating but very unique and wonderful.

A.

Dinner on the bed. 12/3/15

Patch a year on...

Can't believe it's nearly a year since I wrote this. Life and its' distractions continue to fly at me apace since I did so. New experiences. Things to enjoy. Things to plan for. Things to worry about. 

We're all the same, I guess. Running on our private hamster wheels and trying to the Right Thing by the world. When kids come into your life, their priorities become your own. You can view their future needs in the years to come before they arrive. Girlfriends? (I hope my advice to X will be of use, not that I had much luck in the day?) Boyfriends? (I hope I can resist the temptation of seeing all D's male callers as spotty little hornbags.. much as I was). I have a roadmap of cultural titbits I would like to feed my children in the next decade which I hope will enrich their lives as much as they did my own...

Watership Down and the Annotated Alphabet for X next, if you're interested. 

Nonetheless I still get reminders of simpler times: a thought or a memory that will freeze me back in another time when the future was still undefined. Patch features prominently in these thoughts, like all my dearest friends. He's been gone a year now and the little things he enjoyed or was passionate about still stir me. I would've have loved to have shared my new life with him, to deluge him with the charms that my family and my Island have to offer. Despite the complexity of life and its' strains I know how lucky I am and wish I could've shared that fortune with him too...

Wherever you are, buddy. I'm thinking of you. I look forward to sharing a pint and a chat next time we meet..    

A.
 

MB - January 2015 £305.31

Profits for first month of the year. Mostly from the football, horse racing is a sideline I need to investigate more in order to unlock further £s. This will be my target per month for future planning - £10 per day.