Sepa seeks freedom

Sepa74

Hi Sammy, thanks for posting. I live near Sutton, which is pretty much south south London! Was a bit shocked and saddened by Reeves in Croydon going up in flames this week - it's just a few miles away and I go past it regularly on the bus

I hope everybody on here got through the smashing and grabbing OK. It's pretty sad, saddest of all that it's so senseless. I don't think there are any reasons for it apart from the Edmonton outbreak, just the collective madness that humans, especially young ones, are prone to. Everything is sad about the business - I know not many are sympathetic to the rioters, but my heart does ache for all the teenagers and twenty-somethings who are now up in court, with their hopes and dreams in tatters because of a few hours of stupidity. So many of them were doing something useful with their lives - law students, trainee youth workers, athletes, and now their careers and futures are in jeopardy because they followed the herd.

But what they did was wrong, so very wrong, and they need to face the consequences. But those consequences should be what they would be for similar actions under other circumstances, even if the sentences seem light given the gravity of the situation in its totality. And once they've paid for their crimes, the convictions should be considered spent after the normal period (seven years, isn't it?).

I think it's easy to forget in the heat of our anger that the pillars of our justice system are there for a reason and we should respect them - things like the presumption of innocence, due process, that everyone is subject to the same laws no matter their background or class. These principles are very precious and easily eroded, so we need to stand up for them, no matter how angry we are.

Anyway, rant over!

I'm having such an expensive week I went out last night with colleagues and am now wondering where £60 went!! A round of drinks, some food and a head massage for charity, of all things :eek:

That's London for you.

However, on the bright side, I have bought pretty much everything I need for my bathroom, and am coming in well under budget! In fact, if the plumber and tiler do the work for the price they have quoted me, I will be £1700 under budget! Amazing. Not sure how that's happened

My new seeds arrived this week, so I need to plant them out... tomorrow! For some strange reason I'm rather hung over today!

Sepa74

Radish, forgot to say :rotfl: I do love your sense of humour!

Oh, boyfriend update... we had a chat on Thursday which I feel pretty good about. He told me some of the stuff he's been talking about in therapy, including some stuff about me, where I'd upset him in the past but he didn't say anything about it... Unpleasant as it is to be told you've annoyed someone, it is SUCH progress for him to even say it.

I'm going to continue to give him a lot of space over the next couple of weeks to see how things go, and then after my mum leaves I'll have a more serious conversation with him about what he wants out of the relationship and what I want out of it and we'll take it from there.

That's the plan, anyway!

Lois_E

Sepa,
I didn't want to read and run. Just wanted to say I agree with your rant, and I'm pleased about the progress with your boyfriend.

Radish72

Sounds promising with BF, if he can talk to you about things that he has previously bottled up this sounds like a huge step forward, might be slightly upsetting to hear for you in all in one go

My BF just sulks and waves his arm around so we never actually discuss stuff, luckily we don't have many arguments about 3 in 8 years, might all change if we ever move in together :rotfl: but it does make me think how we would cope with the big "stuff" what ever that is

Sepa74

Hi all,

I worry about how he would deal with the big stuff too, but I guess you've just got to get on with things and sometimes take a risk because the big stuff is inevitable!

I have had such a busy couple of weeks with work, but I am now on holiday. Hooray!! :j

However what I've been working on isn't sorted yet, and next week is crunch time! And I'm not there to babysit everything! If the procurement deal falls apart because I wasn't there, I'll be so upset!

Financially, it's been an expensive week! Went out on Thursday night for an unplanned dinner with colleagues... it was very pleasant, however, and luckily I'm in the position to be able to afford to do things like that on the spur of the moment

I'm off to Jersey on Monday for 5 days. Really looking forward to it, but then the following Monday my mother flies back to Oz, which will be sad.

I think that's all my news really. Have a good week, everyone!

pippa80

Hope you have/have had a nice holiday Sepa!

Where abouts in Oz are your family? Mine are in Perth

Sepa74

Hi Pippa, my mother lives in Darwin with my sister, and my brother lives about an hour outside of Canberra with his wife and son. I have another brother in Italy with his wife and son, and aunts and cousins in Canada and the States... we're a very spread out family! Although I was born near Sydney, I was a teenager in Darwin, so that's where I consider 'home'. Having said that, I've been in the UK for 13 years now, which means I've lived in London longer than I've lived anywhere else! I guess that makes me a Londoner

Had a great holiday, Jersey is fantastic - there is so much to see and do. I'd love to go back with my bike and just spend a week cycling around the island. My mother is in her late 60s, so we hired a car... drove everywhere for 3.5 days and used a quarter of a tank of petrol!! It was also nice to go somewhere that wasn't too 'touristy'. Although tourism is their second biggest earner, finance is the biggie, so tourism takes a second seat and you don't feel like everyone is trying to grab as big a share of your cash as they possibly can.

But it was an expensive holiday because we stayed in a nice hotel and ate out pretty much every lunch and dinner. But I don't mind - it's nice to have a treat every now and then!

Was very pleased, though. We got home yesterday with hardly any veggies in the house, but was able to conjure up some courgette, potatoes and beans out of the garden I like this time of year!

Sepa74

Have had a productive weekend - I sorted through the linen cupboard and threw out a lot of old pillow cases... but in hindsight I should have put them in the textiles recycling bin down the road, though. Bit late now!

I planted some winter leaf seeds - a bit of a mix, and I'm not sure how they will grow, so it will be a learning experience.

I also cut back the old stems from the raspberries and tied in the new stems, cut back lots of ivy (horrible job) and have spread some compost on the raspberries, which frees up some space as my compost bin is FULL!!

I ordered a new compost bin - here. Very expensive, but cute, which is important in my pocket handkerchief garden. I already have the blue one (which is FULL!!!) and this time I ordered the lavender. It's going to take about a month to arrive, but because I've cleared the space where it's going to go and will start a new compost pile in the hole I created, so hopefully when it arrives I can just put it over the top of the compost that is there.

Then I will leave my existing compost bin to mature, and spread it on the garden this time next year when it is lovely soil, full of wriggly worms. :j

Bit annoyed as I've not heard from the bf since I got back and his phone is switched off. I suspect he's gone away for the bank holiday, but he should have told me. He is pretty messed up in his head at the moment, and I really feel it is time to make the break. I love him a lot, but I'm better than this.

At least he isn't trying to sponge off me, unlike Cozza! The opposite, in fact, he retreats when he's unhappy or needs help, rather than talking things over with me.

Anyway, we'll see how things go when he switches his phone back on and we talk!

Sepa74

AND I've pruned the courgettes and tomatoes to reduce the chances they rot as well as done lots of washing

viola_brandywine

Sounds like you've had another productive time in the garden. You get an amazing amount out of a small space. I have just been to see another allotment much closer to home which I'm going to take on which is great.

Hope it all works out with the boyfriend.