Band of the Banned
I appear to have joined the realms of the Banned people over at an altered art forum. It is all very strange. A friend of mine came to stay for a few days, and was using my computer. As I am automatically logged in to various forums, she was posting in my name, save keep logging in and out. She happened to ask, on this particular forum, why she was unable to 'pm' one of our other friends. Apparently, due to this awful indiscretion, we were both banned. Turns out that lots of people have been banned and lots of other people not even allowed on to the hallowed ground of AN Forum. All very strange if you ask me. Still, their loss. I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over it. Can't be bothered with such small minded bigots.

Thanks to the wonder that is the INTERNET, I have found my cousins that I have not seen for getting on 40 years. Our mothers were sisters who came over from Ireland in their teens to make a new life for themselves. We were all very close when we were young, but unfortunately, my mum died when I was 13 and my aunt, uncle and cousins had moved away to London by then. Everyone then just went their ways, as we do in life, and we all lost touch. So it is absolutely fabulous to have found them again and we are all hoping to meet later this year. So here are my cousins: Angie, and Patricia. Angie is pictured with Pat's son Robin, Pat is on her own (picture wise that is) cos the lovely looking fella in the flowered shirt is her hubby, Pat's other son Pete is on his own gazing gorgeously out (to sea, I think as he is a Diving Instructor) Angies lad Christopher is the one with the gorgeous long hair. I have yet to get a piccie of my other cousin Teresa and family, but when I do, I will post on. Can ya tell I'm all excited. Can deffo see a family resemblance, and can't wait to meet them all.

Bless
I'm a bit of an overprotective mother, it has to be said. My two boys live in Worcester and I live and work in Swindon. I pop up to Worcester to see them one day each week. I was back there yesterday and whilst in Tescos replenishing their stocks, got a text from Matthew, my youngest, saying to check the laptop when I got back. Ooooeeer, thinks I, looks like Im gonna be spending the night fixing viruses. When I got back and checked, he had written me a poem and left it on the laptop for me to see:

My Old Dear
Never left wanting yea my mum’s a dream
Cook you a dinner n sew up your seams
Unquestioning love gladly received
Think I’ll come home early so you can rub my feet



You’re always up waiting when I come home
Kind of feel bad you’re left all alone
I know that you worry but mummy I’m grown
Finding a way to make this life my own



You don’t have to be there every day
I know your love won’t go away
My guardian angel, my modern day saint
My love for mum will always stay



You never seem to stop til the day is done
Never have time to feel the rays of the sun
Taught me some lessons, I ain’t forgot one
Want you to be proud that I am your son

How sweet is that!

What a Week
I got robbed - and it's definitely taken the wind out of my sails. Got a panic phone call from our accountant asking which one of us was in Bangkok!!! We were both in our dressing gowns at the time - in sunny Swindon - deffo not Bangkok. turns out one of our cards had made 5 separate transactions in 5 separate banks in Bangkok amounting to the princely sum of fifteen hundred smakaroonis. Some robbing sod had 'cloned' our debit card. After scraping DH off the ceiling, he proclaimed that it had to be me cos of all the internet shopping I do, and as he is a total technophobe, he couldn't possibly have done anything wrong. I was absolutely dying for it to have been his card. alas, however, it did turn out to be my card - but absolutely nothing to do with the internet. Although I live in Swindon, my 'home' town (City actually), is Worcester, where I have a house and my children live in it. I travel up weekly to check they haven't totally wrecked the joint (partially, I can and have had to handle,lol). On my way back, I call in at the local petrol station before hitting the M5, which I found out today is under investigation for major fraud. So after lengthy police calls, bank calls etc., it turns out some little weasel at that petrol station has cloned mine and dozens of other cards, passed the information on to an accomplice in Bangkok, where they draw out literally hundreds and thousands of pounds at different banks over a period of 2/3 days at a time. C.I.D Police and Fraud people from the Bank are investigating as we speak, and I am hoping and praying we get our money back. Not a brilliant week. I blame my Buddha, or actually my husband. I have a lovely Buddha water fountain with a revolving crystal over which the water cascades. About 3 weeks ago, my husband decided to clean it out. It stopped working. The past 3 weeks have been rubbish although it wasn't until this morning that DH said, 'things have really gone wrong since that Buddha stopped working, Im gonna try to fix it'. So he takes it apart to find, dah, dah, an on/off switch that he had obviously accidentally switched off whilst cleaning. So Buddha switched back on. Within minutes, had a phone call from a potential customer. A phone call from the Bank saying we should get our money back, and a phone call about a planning application (we erect conservatories), that we have had a problem with due to a sewer pipe, giving us the go ahead. My hubby is now definitely a convert.