Well, it's now a week before we move............EEEK!!!
Yup, seven days and counting. Been heaving boxes and transporting them, via my wonderful little Mazda Demio, back and forth to the new house, and now the garage at the old place is looking nicely empty!! *yay*
( read more, plus pics )
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| Date: | 2009-06-08 15:01 |
| Subject: | A Red Letter Day |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  bouncy | | Music: | me hyperventilating |
some of you will know that over the past couple of months we, my family and I, have been involved in a protracted wrangle over the sale of two houses - one in Wellington, one in Whangarei.
The one in Whangarei had been hardly any trouble at all to organise in the way of contracts etc.
But the one in Wellington has been more stressful than any house has a right to be.
All that aside.....as of two minutes ago when my sister rang, its all been resolved - the contracts are now unconditional and we have a move in date of the 9th July to work towards.
*meep*
which is five weeks away.........*blinks*
good grief.
better get cracking then............bye.
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it's been a funny old week. Started off Monday with a trip to the Doctors and a, not entirely surprising, diagnosis of Type2 Diabetes. After absorbing that blow, it was off to get a new gizmo for recording blood glucose levels, a nifty finger pranger, and a large bottle of pills.
I seemed to have struck gold with my doctor not only being a woman around my own age, but one who has type2 diabetes, and recently went through gastric bypass surgery to deal with her morbid obesity at the same level as my own. So I can talk to her and know that she understands, with acute intensity, everything I'm going through, and have gone through most of my adult life.
so I've been recording every bite of what I'm eating, took my measurments, *faints* and did the finger pricky thing twice during the week. I'm sure there'll be a ton of adjustment when I finally get the call to visit the Diabetes Clinic, but in the meantime I contacted a local support group and look forward to monthly meetings to answer questions and get the latest information on my condition.
I also made contact with Lesley Marshall of the New Zealand Society of Authors, with a view to becoming a member, and attending their monthly meetings. I feel a bit of a fraud, as I haven't written anything 'original' in over eighteen months, and my manuscript is still waiting to be 'accepted' or 'rejected' for publication in the UK, but maybe if I surround myself with those that are quite a bit more successful and dedicated to the whole process of writing than I am, right now, then it will ginger up my muse to return and pick up where we left off.
might even allow me to finish all those outstanding stories waiting in vain to be completed.
all that will have to wait until I can throw off the most disgusting head cold that developed yesterday...haven't had one of these in awhile, and it sucks donkey balls!!
S3 of Primeval will be starting in the UK soon.....am I excited?.......not even remotely. It will be fun reading what other fans think of it, but I've pretty much jumped the shark on that series - dinosaurs notwithstanding.
in fact tv at the moment is one big yawn. I have enjoyed rewatching the x-files late at night, and I find time to watch Desperate Housewives and Lost on mondays and wednesday, but once you count them out, the rest is totally naff. I've even been going to bed around midnight, which is almost heresy, given before I left Wellington I was regularly staying up to 2 or 3am, but still not achieving very much.......now I'm getting up at 7.30am *shock horror* but still not finding my groove.
I think I just need to give myself some more time to adapt to the new environment......how much, I have no idea.
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yes folks...we are now domiciled in the sunny, and hot, far North of the North Island of New Zealand.
Took off by car on Friday, completely stuffed to bursting with belongings, and drove to Hamilton to stay overnight, then drove the remaining few hours on Saturday up to Whangarei, arriving early afternoon to a rapturous welcome from Mum.
only one little fly in the blissful ointment. The blasted movers didn't deliver our few remaining bits of furniture on Saturday as expected. The items included my bed, zoe's mattress and bed frame, our tv and her bicycle.
the tv and the bicycle we could do without...the other items we couldn't!! I ended up sleeping on the floor, something I've not done since youthful folly twenty years ago. Ouch.
next night was spent on a narrow chaise lounge,(deck furniture) little better than a camp bed, and yet another night of less-than-ideal sleep. Ouch.
tonight, monday, I have the spare mattress off mum's bed, zoe is on the borrowed mattress from a kind neighbour, and my goods aren't due to arrive until thursday.....Help!!
on a slightly less whiney note, my computer is up and running, we have a new addition to the family - Kipper - freshly caught from the SPCA this afternoon, and supposed to be sleeping in Zoe's room, but currently sitting snoring behind me. (didn't see that coming much!!)
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Squeezynz is blacked out because :-
Stand up against "Guilt Upon Accusation" new law for New Zealand GO HERE TO READ MORE
This has major implications to all net users if it is adopted at the end of February.
Get onboard and support the protest.
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*sings*
Happy Birthday to you.........
Happy Birthday to yooooou.....
Happy Birthday dearest Kateeeeeee
Happy Birthday to yooooo.......
Hip hip! Hooray
Hip hip! Hooray
Hip hip! Hooray
Hope you have a wonderful day dearest girl.......*hugs*
x x x x x x x x x
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it's all true, my dear, unlamented ex husband has finally sunk to an all time low.
three days out from moving house up to Whangarei and he slaps a "without notice" order preventing the removal of my youngest from the Paraparaumu area. Never mind that the house is on the market and I have to move sometime in the near future or become homeless, never mind that this all comes down to money and not remotely anything to do with what's best for Zoe....the two faced, hypocritical snake.
bastard
I'll find out tomorrow if I have any chance of redress - otherwise if I take Zoe up to whangarei, to our rental and her new school, I could be slapped in jail for 3 months, or fined $2500 and Zoe returned to Paraparaumu in the custody of the police or an officer of the court.
bastard.
Zoe was incensed and so angry at him. How he thinks this is going to promote his relationship with his youngest daughter is beyond my ability to understand. It's not as if I'm taking her out of the country....we're simply moving UP country....and I advised him of all our new details, including phone numbers, and we now have skype, email, text and phone to continue contact....stupid honest person that I am.
bastard
luckily Emma, my eldest was visiting at the time and was able to help her younger sister deal with her rage at her father's duplicity. Emma also took the opportunity to send her father a pithy text on her sisters phone that left him in no doubt how she, Emma, feels about his unwarranted actions.
bastard
later, Glenn finally sent a reply to Zoe's email sent to him on the 23rd - asking him not to stop her moving up to Whangarei - the mealy mouthed ratbag fobbed her off with platitudes, insulted her intelligence and signed off telling her he loved her.
bastard
Zoe was incensed all over again and wrote him another email, expressing her feelings in no uncertain terms. I imagine he'll ignore that, or think I wrote it - which I didn't - but that's not surprising from a man who doesn't know the first thing about what is mean to 'love' someone, in any shape or form.
bastard
okay, done venting for the night. Roll on Wednesday.
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the good news is...our trip to Whangarei to sign up for a rental was accomplished in record time (2 days) and we're back home already starting the rigmarole of moving house. We move in on the 30th Jan and Zoe will start school on the 2nd Feb..talk about 'get ya skates on!'
It was hot up there-very hot, so Mum was in her element....I just glowed...ferociously!!
the bad news is quite heart wrenching for my favourite actor - James Murray, who is married to Sarah Parish - their 8 month old baby girl died last week of complications to do with a heart condition. If you feel moved to donate to their charity, which also happens to be the hospital that supported them throughout their daughters short life, then go here:-
http://www.justgiving.com/ella-jaynemurray
I don't imagine the poor man, who has a birthday(34) this week, is much in the mood for celebrating. I can only wish them both the very best, and say a prayer for their dear EJ.
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Yup....time is flying by, as usual.
The court case got bumped from the 14th of Jan, which sucks. But we're still going up on the 18th to sort out a rental - just hope it doesn't take more than a week to do so.
We have plenty of places lined up, so we should strike it lucky with one of them. This time I go loaded with references and credit checks to satisfy the pickiest of landlords....
My wonderful cousin from the UK, over here for a few weeks, bought me the hardware to enable me to set up Skype on my puter...so...I'm on skype now!!! I have a webcam eyeball looking at me, and a microphone/earphone thingy to handle the talking part. The software was free, (21mb dowloaded from http://www.skype.com) and it means I can talk to my cousin when he gets back to the UK and see his mug up on the screen at the same time.......cool.
I'm sure Skype will become more popular when people realise how easy, and relatively inexpensive it is to set up.....only took me half a hour from opening the box to testing the speakers...piece of cake.
If you are on skype and want me to add you as a contact, send me a message.....
Hope everyone is having a positive start to the new year.
I'm still working on finishing two fics on my 'need to get done' pile......but might take a little longer with this week away up north coming up.
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I won't be sorry to see the back of 2008, to be truthful. It has been full of heartache and disappointment, upset and upheaval.
With the court case due to be settled on the 14th of January, Emma still shacked up, albeit now in a much nicer home, thank goodness, with Garry and all the shamozle of the move up North, it's been turbulent at best.
Then yesterday I got a piece of news that gave me a real lift and added a touch of bling to what has been a difficult year.
The UK publisher, who I sent my manuscript to, has finally been in touch, apologising for the delay and saying they still want the option to publish in 2009!! I had sent them an email asking for the courtesy of a formal notice of rejection to at least put my hopes to rest, but instead they said they hadn't rejected it, just put it on the back burner due to the current financial uncertainty gripping the world.
So I may yet be a published author......it'll just take a little longer, that's all.
I can wait.
So on that note, I'll wish you all a very peaceful Christmas and a hopeful start to the New Year.
love to all
Louise
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I think I might finally be coming out of my doldrums of late.
This year has to be one of the worst in recent memory, capped off with the looming election, the recent financial disasters in the US and here, the horror of a current housing market, the still unresolved court case....and on it goes. I haven't been able to write, let alone read in the past six months, something unheard off before now.
Then suddenly, just this week, I decided to pick up one of the books that have been accumulating on my shelves, the first of The Steepwood Scandals put out by Quills, part of the Historical series published by Harlequin. So far I'm up to book 4 - having read six of the novel length stories in the past week and weekend.
I'm hoping this means that my long period of severe depression is at an end and that I have some chance of picking up and finishing my outstanding fanfictions and maybe even have another crack at that sequel waiting for me to start.
Or maybe I'm just overdue for a catch up on my reading.
I'll take what I can get.
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For New Zealand fans, and possibly Australian fans (not sure about that) the Movie starring James Murray and Keeley Hawes is playing on Sky Rialto Channel on those dates below.
Rialto program listings
a gorgeous, romantic movie and a 'Must Have' for any fan of James Murray.
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If you're curious, go take a look see.
All my sister's hard work with the exterior painting, plus getting the floors done, has really paid off and lifted the quality of the property no end.
of course, getting all my masses of junk out of the basement has sure made that look big and spacious, as does the rest of the house with everything taken away, except the furniture!!
Click the link to go see the listing at Harcourts, NZ
so now we just have to hope the right buyer comes along before we all die of old age!! *LOL*
We were incredibly lucky with the weather for both the photographs and the open home on Sunday - brilliant sunshine on both days - so can't ask for better than that.
The sooner we sell the house, the sooner we can move to warmer climes up north.
cheers for now
Louise
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Yup...time to admit to getting older....*sigh*......
Happy Birthday to me.....*rolls eyes*
I'm having a JAG-a-thon at th moment, watching all the series I taped years ago (2000/2001) and enjoying visiting with the characters again.
It's a shame, after all this time since the series ended, that so much of the fandom has been lost, the fanfiction, the websites, the images. I hope eventually to get this series on DVD, along with the rest of Stargate (up until RDA leaves the series), all of Farscape(except the movie, which I have already) and maybe some others for pure nostalgia (Daktari, Rat Patrol, The Nanny)
I have odd tastes *LOL*........
anyway....I'm 47 now (just passed midnight here) so many happy returns to me (tell me, just what the hell is a return, and why do I need so many happy ones?)
Ta ta for now
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Went to see this, this afternoon at 1pm, hoping that at such an unfashionable time I'd pretty much have the theatre to myself with only Emma for company....turned out that some ten other people thought the same thing *LOL* and some pretty disparate ages among them too!!
If you don't want to be spoiled stop reading now.
.
.
( go here, but don't read if you don't want to be spoiled )
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Indiana franchise crosses over into Xfiles territory
OMG I haven't laughed so long in a while, at least at the movies.
Went to a 3.30pm session, which meant there was me, my sis, my youngest and three other retired couples.
I love these odd sessions, you have the place to yourself.
which meant that Mary and I just laughed out heads off at this welcome addition to the Indy film collection.
Fortunately, no one in the movie takes themselves too seriously, at least on the goodies side. The chase scenes are legendary and the story line the height of silliness....but all in all, it was well worth the ticket price. Was it ever!!!
There are lots of lovely in jokes, references to Raiders of the Lost Ark...as well as film references, homages to actors since passed away and lots of other stuff.
I'll have to see it again, I missed a ton because I couldn't stop laughing at some of the set ups. Classic. Yes, Harrison is looking old...but fit as well. And Karen Allen is aging well without a grey hair in sight *snorts*, but that aside, the spfx are excellent, the chases brilliant and it doesn't drag anywhere.
For anyone who's followed the Indy saga since the early 80's, this is a fitting end to the saga, at least for Harrison as Indy. The ending is a nice completion of the arc started in Raiders, but tends to make the film end on a tiny fizzle rather than a bang, but I can forgive them that.
I loved it, and look forward to seeing it again, just to catch everything that's going on.
10/10 from me.
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Well, that might be pushing the envelope...but for this fangirl, it was definitely a moment to squee.
I had an email yesterday from a London based musician called Jer Randall. Jer and his brother Chris are the boys behind the songs and music in the 2001 movie Phoenix Blue starring, you guessed it, my current actor, James Murray.
Because of my interest in the film, I had tried to find a soundtrack for it, but drew a blank, other than snippets of Steven Parson's lovely intrumentals, a solo video clip and one single cd of Tailspin(through Amazon), by Jer and Chris plus their band Widescreen. Other than ripping the music off the soundtrack, there appeared to be no other avenue to hear the music sans movie.
Then yesterday I get a brief email from Jer himself. Apparently he read my review of the single on Amazon and got in touch with me.
*squee*
I didn't believe it at first...but he wrote back and directed me to his myspace site..
http://www.myspace.com/greyghostwidescreen
where there is some of his more recent work. How cool is that!!
Now I can add Jer to my list of backroom boys that I've been in contact with since my Primeval fandom jumped into high gear. I've 'talked' via forum and LJ with Steven Savile, author of the first Primeval tie-in book, chatted on myspace with one of the lads in the publicity department for Primeval S2, and now made contact with Jer Randall....only two degrees of separation from Primeval through James Murray/Phoenix Blue.
It's a small world....
*squee*
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Review: Shadow of the Jaguar by Steven Savile (Titan Books)
Disclaimer: I make no claims to being a professional reviewer, not even a competent one. I'm a fan of the first two series of Primeval, with a particular liking for the character Stephen Hart. That said, I've tried to give a balance review as much as possible without entirely spoiling the plot.
The Book:
Nicely presented scaled down hardback, unusual choice in cover design colour(green with red lettering), but eye catching with a crisp image of Nick Cutter(Douglas Henshall) wielding a Japanese sword with a Smilodon baring it's fangs behind him on the front, group shot on the back. No equivocation about it being a tv tie in and also hints at whose perspective will tell the story.
The Blurb:
A delirious backpacker crawls out of the dense Peruvian jungle muttering about the impossible things he has seen... A local ranger reports seeing extraordinary animal tracks and bones – fresh ones – that he cannot explain....
Cutter and the team are plunged into the hostile environment of the Peruvian rainforest where they endure a perilous journey towards something more terrifying than they could possibly have imagined....
My Review:
Hmmm well.....I have to say that the descriptions of the Peruvian jungle, its wildlife and the general climate were enough to put me off going there for life. The depiction of the expedition to investigate the strange going's on just drips with sweat, bugs and blood. Buckets and buckets of it.
This is one of the most blood soaked stories I have read in a long time. It quite surprised me, not expecting things to get quite so R rated in its depiction of shredded bodies and wholesale bloodletting by the prehistoric creatures prowling the jungle.
I surprised me only for as long as it took to remind myself that the tv series hasn't exactly been squeamish about throwing around body parts and blood itself....it's just done off camera or within the PG rating of the prime time viewing, rather than in the graphic way it was portrayed in SOTJ.
It made me really wonder how Cutter and his team actually survived at all...but that's jumping ahead.
The story is supposedly set sometime after the second episode of season two as it mention the raptors(yes I know they're not but humour me) in the shopping mall and the worms in the tower block. Jenny is very much in evidence but I did wonder about her being sent into this situation. She's PR, not diplomatic relations, but hey, she's accepted as part of 'the team' so she had to be there. The core, Cutter, Connor, Abby and Stephen all dance around each other and work reasonably well together with only brief lapses into angst of the whole 'affair with Helen' scenario, although there is plenty of foreshadowing and it keeps within the canon of the series as regards the banter between the characters.
It does veer off at times into purely gratuitous scenes as remarked by other reviewers. I thought the flying suit by Stephen and the walkabout by Abby and Connor not entirely out of context as they were supposed to be doing touristy things, and the 'cloak & dagger' got a bit tiresome as it only held up the story rather than moved it along. Each of the characters were given a chunk of the story to take center stage in – Jenny with the hospital, Abby with the sewing kit, Stephen and the tracking, Connor and the village, but on the whole they were all given fairly equal 'screen time' throughout the story. In between the action bits were very well researched informative bits – like one part where Stephen explains how he does the whole tracking of animals thing – and there are others spread out throughout the text which imparted snippets of hyper-knowledge and made it more interesting. Alongside those were a liberal use of scientific terms for the creatures without any elaborate explanations, so I'll be looking some of the references up to satisfy my own curiosity.
The last few chapters raced by, the action thick and fast albeit a little improbable. I really didn't grasp the why the 'thing controlling the others' creatures felt the need to use them for wholesale, senseless slaughter, or get a grasp of what it was or where it came from, the past or the future, and against the odds they were facing, no one should have survived the rope bridge, let alone the temple.
I also tended to skip past the scene of Stark getting Jenny – it smacked of these first person virtual reality video games my sister plays ad nauseum or maybe a Rambo movie.
As the story was rubber stamped by the creators of the series, one can only boggle at what they'd do if they didn't have to make the series suitable for minors to watch.
Conclusion:
SOTJ is an often violent, flesh rending episode of a Primeval gone horribly pear shaped, to quote Connor. Steven Savile has done a superlative job in getting the reader right there beside the characters, suffering the heat and general ickiness of the environment, of portraying just how out of their depth they truly are beyond the boundaries of the civilised English countryside.
Will I read it again? Probably not for a little while. Would I recommend it to read? Certainly, if you like the series and the characters and don't mind a body count to rival a Die Hard movie. The author drops you into a world that is entirely alien to most of us, makes you sweat along with the characters, gets you good and filthy, scares the bejeezus out of you then gets everyone back – well, nearly every one back – safe and sound in time for the next episode.
I only hope they all had some serious, post traumatic counseling afterwards – they sure would have needed it.
Oh, and Lester gets some wonderful, snarky lines to utter from the safety of his pin striped suit.
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| Date: | 2008-03-29 12:33 |
| Subject: | March been and gone |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  crushed | | Music: | soundtrack |
Firstly.....Happy birthday Rosemary x x x x x Hope you have a good one. x x x x x.
Secondly..ah heck..can't be bothered with secondly, thirdly or the others.
I'm still steaming about the news released by the producers of Primeval, series 3. Despite all the teasing at the end of series two, and getting our hopes up that somehow, someway, they'd write a way for Stephen, or Stephen in the guise of another character, would be returned to the 'team'......instead they announce that everyone else is back except James Murray....their reasoning that his character had no more reason to be there after the revelation of Stephen's affair with Helen Cutter.
Hell and damnation...they did the same with series one...teasing us with the build up of a relationship between Stephen and Abby, right up to within a few minutes of the end of the final episode.
Then, because of the real life bts relationship between Hannah and Andrew, and no offence, but few off screen romances translate very well to on screen, evidenced in series two between these two...they decide that the Stabby is not working *blinks* and decide it's time to off Stephen because of an affair he had with his friends ex wife eight years ago??
Never mind that the affair was long over and Helen had been missing for those eight years, and never mind that Nick, her husband, had already moved on and was falling in love with Claudia....they decided to make it the be all and end all of cliche'd angst, making a mountain out of a mole hill and effectively killing off Stephen because of it, as well as ending any hope for the fans.
I can forgive writers if the progression is a logical one, and I can understand that from an actors point of view James was happy to have more to work with in regards the angst between Stephen and Nick, and the interaction between Stephen and Helen....making him more interesting (or more stupid, if you believe the critics and some fans)....but it's still not reason enough to give him redemption through heroic sacrifice, a promise of a return in some form...then to snatch it all away for no good reason at all.
It sucks...and makes for a great many very unhappy fans.
I can only hope that James Murray is now inundated with offers of tv and/or film work, enough to keep him on our screens long into the future.
Of course, he could just be looking forward to being a father in June, with plans to be a house husband when Sarah goes back to work on her new series in September. Either way, he'll be missed from Primeval, his character mourned, but also immortalised in fanfiction for a long time to come.
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Well, I reckon life, the universe and everything is conspiring against me.......
On my current plate I have.......
One - chest infection.....after a week of mouth ulcers, I get this little bug on friday night. Pretty much lays me out for the weekend, but I still manage to take my eldest to her job on sat at 5am, and pick her up again, drop my youngest down to her weekend job at QE2 park, before dropping the eldest off at a birthday party at midday. I then collapse into bed.......someone else collects my youngest in the afternoon.
Two - unwanted boyfriends - continuing the saga of my eldest and her ridiculously old(at 32) trucker/biker boyfriend - she phones up twenty minutes before we're supposed to be at an appointment for her knee on monday am to announce that said boyfriend has put his back out and needs to get to the doctor. I end up taking said boyfriend, my eldest and myself - hacking small pieces of my lung out - up to Team Medical, then sit there for an hour and a half while they poke, prod and inject said boyfriend to get him back on his feet. My eldest's appointment has to rescheduled for the next day as I can't prise her off said boyfriend.
Three - unwanted ex husbands - the continuing saga of the custody court case over my youngest, who really really doesn't want to go down and visit her father anytime soon, and with the latest information regarding his stability and association with his sister, seems fit to tie us up in court for a few months more.
Four - juggling appointments - previously mentioned physio had to be rescheduled, then had a call to say my eldest's year 12 dean had an accident on the weekend, and she had to schedule for later in the week. Then my eldest phones up to say that aforementioned boyfriend will need to go to the doctor again tomorrow.....at which point I said I was taking her to her physio, and if he happened to slide into the back seat, he could go up and see the doctors then. At which point I find out he doesn't have any money for his prescription......after pointing out that this is not her problem, that she's not old enough for all this, and he should call his own parents to help him out....I gave up. I'll be picking her up tomorrow morning, and I'm sure he'll be along for the ride.
Five - my mum is threatening to call the doctor on me if I don't stay in bed...........
Six - my favourite actor/character has just met an incredibly messy end in the Finale of Primeval, series 2. I'm so depressed.
oh, and Seven - as if that isn't all enough to contend with, my TOTM appeared for the third time in two months, proving that menopause sucks.
I think thats all for now..........I need to lay down, I can hear mum coming down the stairs..........*sigh*
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