Friendships never end

I was dreading going out on a date with my Benny Boy for my birthday. Since Charlotte was born just over three years ago, we are rarely alone and if we are we always end up talking/disagreeing/rucking about the ginger one. But we had a lovely date at one of the posh curry houses locally. Thank you lovely husband for a great night!

My blog this week is about friendships.  What does it mean when somebody deletes you from Facebook? To be honest, I don't really care. The number of "friends" I have on there changes on a daily basis and I don't really give a toss. I love FB for several reasons. Firstly, I have met some great people in my life that I have failed to keep in touch with because of a number of reasons such as logistics and busy lives. I love that I can keep in touch with old school friends, holiday rep mates and ex work colleagues. I even communicate with some of my best buddies through it and its a great way of networking and building new relationships with some of the Mums that I have met. To be honest, it is my social life as long gone are the days when I was out most evenings. I feel sad about that, but I chose to be a Mother and it has been life changing but well worth it as the love I have for my daughter is the most important thing that as ever happened to me.

Recently someone I care about and grew up with deleted me from FB and it hurt like hell. My own stupid fault. I had a falling out with a close friend a few years ago over a man! Not as you imagine, but this friend was going out with a guy she met through me who I did not realise at the time had psychopathic tendencies. To cut a long story short he ended up moving in with me and Benny Boy and played a manipulative game. He had some mental health issues and I find things hard to handle at a difficult time in my life (miscarriages, fertility issues etc). I told the pair of them to get lost always believing that my friend and I would pick up further along the line. Eventually we spoke again and even had a coffee but our friendship would never be the same again, mostly due to circumstances and the directions our lives had taken.

This girl was one of the nicest people I had ever met and took me under her wing when at 13 I found myself alone.  She is kind, sincere and considerate.  We helped each other with our homework, I stayed at her house and her Mum dealt with my Dad who was very strict and would not let me go to the discos.I was her Dad's girlfriend.  I visited her when she lived in Scotland, fixed her up with loads of guys (okay so they were all rubbish and not suitable), was her sole support at police graduation. We were pulling partners, she was my closest confidante. We went on our first holidays together with Club 18-30, backpacked Europe together. She came to see me in Ibiza and I miss her terribly. Why was I so crap?  Since Charlotte, my communication with her (and lots of friends) has become "We must get together" or "I will email you some dates". I see most of my good friends no more than four times a year. I feel so sad.  I must have really pissed her off as we have about 26 mutual friends on FB including my neigbours, people from school that neither of us have seen for years and years, ex partners of old friends and probably the postman!  Do you get my point here?  Oh well, one day I will send her this just to get off my chest how bad I feel about all this and wish that I could turn back time.

The Future is Orange

It’s my Birthday, I’ll moan if I want to!  Ben has taught Charlotte to say, “Don’t moan Mummy”. Well, I wouldn’t have anything to whinge about if you picked up your dirty pants, wet towels and washed up occasionally!!

Charlotte has been trying to guess my age. She has said, “You are not 2, you are not 3 and you are not 21”. Thanks Princess.

Thinking back to my 21^st Birthday, I remember a band called the OJs serenaded me with “You’ve lost that loving feeling”.  What fun, carefree days and then rushing off to Ibiza to work as a rep.

I actually went out on Saturday night! Yes, what fun it was.  I felt excited and liberated getting ready and on route saw the girls in their high heels and the boys in their stripy shirts and jeans. Nothing changes. So, my night out was a 50^th Wedding Anniversary but it still counts as I had a great boogie in between watching Tom Daley win a fabulous bronze medal. 

So, as my birthday treat, I want to treat myself to some Botox but will have to wait until Charlotte goes to school next year and we no longer have to pay twice our mortgage in nursery fees.

I can’t complete my blog without a rant. This time it is about old people. Well not all old people as most of them are cute, but this one lady really pissed me off. It was in the Slug and Lettuce on the day of my birthday lunch when this lady commented about Charlotte’s hair when we were in the ladies loo!  She then proceeded to say that she had ginger hair the same colour before she had gone grey and how much she hated it. “It was horrible” she said over and over again. Poor little Charlotte just looked sad and confused as normally people compliment her on her ginger locks. I asked this lady if she had dyed it. She said she hadn’t but longed for mousey brown hair. No offence to anyone with mousey brown hair, but that says it all. Gingers rule!!!!

Moan Moan Moan....

Why am I soooo moody?  It could be that I am soon to reach 21 x 2 + 1. Now that is depressing.  Or that I need to loose 2 stone and have no willpower.  I am sad and gutted that my poor Mum is so sick and I feel utterly helpless. My life is lacking romance. I am always knackered, stressed and skint. Working full time, being Mum, Wife, Cleaner, Cook and Gardener (well I lied about the last one as I don't have green fingers), is a little bit tricky.

Are all men useless and compete with their children for your love and attention?  Message to my husband: Charlotte is 3! I have to reach up for her hidden jaffa cakes, warm her milk, give her a bath etc because she cannot do that stuff. You on the other hand are perfectly capable of getting a beer from the fridge and ironing your own shirt. GGRRRR. 

We have been enjoying the Olympics and hurray for Girl Power. We have done so well as a Nation and its brilliant to see the ladies of Britain dominating that medal table.

As a country, has our love affair with football gone sour? I am extremely passionate about football. Arsenal is one of my great loves! When I was at school, I was the only girl in my class that went to football matches.  Happy memories of Frank Stapleton, Liam Brady, Willie Young and co circa 1978.  Team GB were knocked out of the Olympics on penalties, but did anyone really care?  Not really. Why should we when so many of our athletes are doing amazingly well. These athletes are not being paid £100,000 per week. They are doing it because of pride, passion and being proud to be British.  I hate football, well until August 18th anyway.....