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Mom

The House Must Go

About the house move situation (see August 18th)… the house wasn’t in very good shape, really, and a lot of things have needed to be done. We still need to get a door fitted to the back of the garage—we bought the door, now we need someone to put it on! Dad did all that stuff, and to be honest, my limit is painting walls. The old door was/is falling to bits, literally. Otherwise, I think the place is just about presentable, although I have some tidying to do on my tip of a bedroom.
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What’s Up?

Life update since the death of my father…

Mom has decided to sell this house and move somewhere smaller, so that we have some money in the bank as savings. Dad left no savings at all and had no life insurance. We’ll be staying in this area, though. We might even get a two-bedroom flat, actually. Neither of us are gardeners, so a garden would be a needless burden.
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Angst Chronicles

Right, to update the last entry: mom came out of hospital the Wednesday after, and she’s more or less okay now. Our dog, Fred, who some of you will know is ill and sadly not going to make it, has been up and down, but holding on. So right now, I guess things are as ‘normal’ as they can be round here.
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New Year Blues

First entry of the year, eh? What took so long? Well, let’s see… I had this short but gruelling tour of book-signings to promote my latest best-seller, followed by a short break in Italy and a couple of extravagant shopping sprees. I’ve been a bit busy!

Hm. So I tried the interesting version. I don’t think anyone bought it, though. Oh well.
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Bad News Explained

Okay, so ‘tomorrow’ was a long time coming. But I guess I’ve had a lot on my mind one way or another.

The bad news I mentioned is that our dog, Fred, who is only seven years old, was pronounced terminally ill by the vet. I was really shaken by the news, and on reflection not entirely convinced the vet wasn’t being overly fatalistic—but technically, Fred is mom’s dog, and she has accepted the diagnosis.
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Down in London

Saturday was time to head down London way again. I was planning to go into Ilford while in town, to see my old pal Tim Bateman, but got caught in a rainfall and had to give it a miss. Although I had a nice, long chat with him on the phone, until he started worrying about his bill and rung off! Then I wandered round Waterstone’s for a while and bought a couple of books I couldn’t afford.

The train home was screwed. Surprise! The rail service has become shambolic. I had to get a train into Watford Junction and wait there for almost an hour to get another one into Brum. Then the train at Brum to take me back home was delayed. And since my feet were by then killing me (it was almost midnight), I decided to get a taxi from the station too. Costly, time-consuming and tiring.
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Loneliness

Nothing much to say still. It’s been a fairly miserable week—mom’s been ill with some bad bout of flu or somesuch, which has knocked her down pretty badly. The atmosphere has been low key and depressing.
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Christmas Cheer?

Well, parents just went to bed a short while ago. Before this, around 3:00am, mom decided to hand me my card and present since we were all up late and it was basically Xmas Day anyway. As I suspected, I got a mobile phone.

Fiddling around with my new toy, I did manage to not watch the original 1931 Frankenstein movie, which is just about finished now. Fancied seeing it… been ages since I watched it. Oh well.
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End of Weekend

Well… another weekend almost over. And it was mostly a very good one.

Friend did get into Brum at 11:00pm Friday night, and I arrived just a few minutes later. A quick hug, then we had a Friday night meal in one of the local Indian restaurants.
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