Mad Day No.3 – did someone mention maps? (by sarah)

Ok I am shy (mostly) I do not but into conversations, I do not talk to strangers, I do not tend to volunteer my opinion - that was until Monday - you'd have thought that the scary man would have have completely cowared me but no obviously not.

I'm sitting there writting my diary and reading paper work drinking a too large cup of hot choc when I hear raised vioces and an arguement about maps - confussion on one mans part about the flate maps and realative sizes of countrys and what latatude means. Another man explaining and the thrid saying that that is besides the point what he was pointing out was the strangeness of England as a population centre when most other equivalent bits of the globe are inhospitable tundra.

Suddenly a well educated, confident young woman informed the of the gulf stream round the UK and the like - to my utter amazement the voice was coming out of my mouth! It didnt even sound like me - and then I ended up embroiled in a huge debate and explaining the fact we are not a perfect sphere even etc... I apologised for butting in but they seemed to be enjoying the extra level of argument and told me it was great and gave me some mental excersises to see if I know, actualltt know my location and the directions of other things - this was really interesting - they also told me of one other person they sometimes meet up with in this coffee shop - hes a geologist apparently.... etc....

The whole thing majorly suprised me to say the least!

Mad Day No. 2 – Grrrr! Super Chains (by sarah)

Right - there was on thing I really liked about Cheltenham - a thing I have adored since the first time we visited it on some long ago Litrature festival. What is this wonderous thing I hear you ask!

I was Otticas a large apparently Tin Tin themed bookshop with a coffee shop deep in its bowls - ok well on the 1st floor anyway. On any outing to Cheltenham we have gone and had a little sit down in there. So when I started about two mounths ago having to go to Cheltenham for appointments I thought excellent - I get physio excersie walking to the shop for coffee and its not a Star Bucks - ok so its a costa but I thought it might help a bit with the whole Star Bucks, Tescos, Waterstones take over thung that is going on - ie the Super Chains as I have dubbed them.

Last Monday Otticas had a notice on the door saying they were shutting for three days for staff training - Oh not too bad I thought as it wont hit a Monday so I can still browse the books - maybe get another one for Als project and drink my hot choc. So I wondered up to it yesturday - past the Waterstones smiling to myself and feeling proud that I support the other book shops when I got to the door of Otticas - but it no longer said Otticas - no in fact it said Waterstones - I stood I stared, I steped backwards - I thought I had gone mad!

Ok I thought if its a take over then all the deals and stock will be different the layout will have been changed wont it? Andwhy is there still the other Waterstones which as always was doing a stonking trade. I said out loud 'Mew - I dont want it to be a Waterstones' then realised I was talking to myself! I went in - it was all the same... same staff, same books, same layout, just with Waterstones written on things.

In the coffee shop actually asked if it had been a Waterstons last Monday and the girl said no - they'd been taken overand I wasnt mad (I suppose lots of poeple would have been thinking the same).

Still I did find a nicer place earlier on to have lunch in a place called Moo Moos - its really lovely I will probably drag people there for tea and cake!

Mad Day No. 1 – social nutters (by sarah)

Man do I attract scary people or what?

Yesturaday I was doing my weekly mooch round Cheltenham - going to the libary and what not - as I was passing the posh girly school (looks like it belongs in Harry Potter) when a smarlty dressed (though not proper suit) large black man (do not know the PC term here besides that wasnt the issue) was heading towards me - I started to think - erm... he's now directly in my path - erm... I'm going to have to move or we'll collide!

I moved - swerving out to avoid collision - he steps in front - panic alarms ring in my head they had been giving me warning bleeps as it was. He says 'You are the most bueatiful one - you should go through that way' jestering to my origonal path. I would like to add at this point that I was dressed in blue bobble fleece, torn combats with a green shreik bag, I am also spotty with cold sores at the mo, look ill and had frizzy hair due to the drizzly rain not too mention still being over weight! Right so now that we've established I am 'the most bueatiful' - well this has happened twice before to me and both times I reacted wrongly so this time I simply said 'thankyou' and went to continue walking - he then grabbed my hand to shake it and told me his name and the country in Africa he is from (I was actually quiet panicking at this point I just remember that they seemed to both start with B).

Now I was still giving this guy the benifiet of the doubt - after all cultural differences may have ment he wasn't aware how inappropriate his actions were and perhapse he was just being freindly - wanting to know our culture or something like that - he asked my name - being polite I told him it was Sarah.

He then said 'Sarah that is a nice name in my country Sarah means ''Suduce Me''. I said 'Really' in a dead pan voice. He said 'Yes in swarheeli my mother toungue it means Suduce Me' now if I'd not been panicking I would have said - oh really strange no one told me that in Kenya! Akoona matata goodbye - but alas I didnt. I got my hand free and moved slightly to try and prevent him blocking me in anymore than he had - again those few months of Whu shu really helped me. I maintained distance without being aggressive.

Looking about to try and estimate my escapeage chances - knowing that last time I ran from one of these blokes it made things worse. He asked me why I was in Cheltenham - this I'm afraid is were my morality went out the window and I begain to lie - I said I was having meetings - well - if me and the libary and medical stuff can be termed 'meetings'. He then asked what sort - I said business meetings - yes I suppose they are if you count it as a staff outing plus research in the libery some of which is for Al. He asked what type of business was I in - I said Computer programming - well I am a director of Warhead. I also siad that I didnt do the programming my HUSBAND did.

I made it plain that I needed to get to my next meeting so he grabed my hand again - asked if I was computer literate - I said yes, he then started going on about how he was too and thats why IBM had flown him in especially (hmmm why did he not mention this earlier). So he said maybe our paths would cross again - I said maybe, he had started to my distress stroking the moon or venus mound thing on my thumb - so I pulled my hand thinking enough is enough - I walked firmly away - although there was a bit of low wall for traversing first!

Ok now I'd best explain the previous two times hadn't I?

Well the first was in my first year of uni - it was 5 in the morning and I was coming back from some goth club - you know the sort thats in the basement of a house - I had remnants of black lips stick and the like on was in a flowing black velvet dress and it was snowing. Just along Queens Gate - which is just round the corner from where I was living, this man tall thin white junky musician type came up and started asking me questions about was I hungry? He would feed me for a week if I went back with him etc... I just kept walking saying no thankyou go away. He then started saying I was being rude and things he asked me where I lived - I lied and told him one of the other streets regretting I was wearing heels n it was icy n I had a chest infection so running was pretty much out - he asked who I lived with so again I lied and said I lived with Dad and my brothers - in the corse of this conversation - it turned out I had three brothers all older than me one of which was a cop. The guy didnt believe me and was closing the remaining space between us -I dont know how badly this cwould have ended cos by a freak chance my friend who is a cop was on patrol and had seem me and thought I didnt look happy so they circled the car around the block and came and interupted things - funnily enough as soon as the car stopped the creep dropped back and was down one of the mewses before anoyone could do anything. Later that week a fellow geologist was accosted and offered a tin of baked bins to go home with probably the same guy. It makes me shudder to remember that - it didnt actually seem that scary at the time - sigh.

Right the other time was just after our wedding - I cant remember if I was coming back from a shift at the union or what but it was say 11 but possibly earlier. I went to get a hot choc as it was cold and there was like a 20 min wait for my train - this shall we say 'bling bling' guy came up to me again using the line that I was bueatiful blah blah blah - would I go for a drink with him?

I said no, he got insistant, I said I was marraid - he said so what! Like it didnt mean anything at all. I then decided to walk to a safer place as there were vertually no people where I was. He started following me saying that he insisted I go for a drink - in the end I ran and he tried to grab me, tried to drag me back. Shouted at me - ran after me - I headed to the one place I knew would be highly populated at this time of night - the McDonalds just out side the station - it was Liverpool st for anyone who can actually be bothered to read this.

i thought he'd go away but no - he was standing just outside the door waiting - making gestures through the glass. I ended up enlisting the help of the staff and phoning Al - who came and rescued me. I felt really silly.

Ok why I am on a rant about this sort of behavour I just want to relate the fact that when I used to go to Heavan and the equivalent clubs - I was always horrified at the number of men who would try to pull me - along with such stock phrases as oh your only here becuase you've never had a real man! Now I obviously like men - but I was at a gay night - mainly becuase I didnt want sleezes trying to pull me etc... and alot of my friends vertually lived in these clubs. it always amazed me - every flipping time and they were soooooooo sleazy - I'd be chatting to a friend and some would actually come up and ask if he could see some lesbo action!!! Grrrr!!!!

Right anyway - I will now merge a draft post into this one - a post that was from about twoo weeks ago! I hate the fact that I always assume the worst of people who friendly start conversations up with you in the street. I wounder to myself why I feel like this - today me and Al went into Gloucester obviously we had Jean in the push chair - this girl came up and started chatting - asking how old Jean was etc... she had a plad pram etc... but there was something odd about her - at the time I was worried it was a pick pocket diversion, then maybe a sales pitch as she wouldnt stop talking and followed us for a bit - but what it was is simple she is a bit mentally slow her little girl has just started school so shes back at college and it was her first lunch time. I felt so guilty for thinking the worse 🙁

I now see why I felt so jumpy!

Anyway to conclude - you probably all think I was being paranoid about this guy but there I was later on sitting on a bench when I heard shouting - this guy had got himself into a sort of fight and was being shouted away from this girl when - he spotted me and started heading over - fortunatly he was the other side of the road and its a bizzy junction - i legged it and hide in the side road where Al picks me up. I seemed to spend a long time fretting Al would be late.

Jean’s Day (by sarah)

Today we woke bobble up and she was HAPPY - grinning and squealing with excitement just becuase she could crawl towards us and hug us and crawl to the next perant and be tickled and hugged and sung to! She is generally really happy like this most mornings but often we dont have the energy/time to truely appreiciate her and that cheeky little grin.

She eat a hearty breakfast of weet-a-bix with goats milk and friut - well actually due to cutting another tooth she didnt eat all her brekki but she tried - got distracted by kittens - and then helped us tidy the bedroom. She was a great help - taking everything out of the laundary bag! The bag that is that I had just filled. Lunch was a similair story to brekki and she seemed a bit crumpy so we tried to settle her with some milk and a napp - nope! No chance she was too energetic - so we had a great time playing 'Jean Do!' - we did funny noises with our mouths and clapping our hands and saying A both vocally and in sign. Jean even pointed to things she wanted and almost managed patta cake without getting distacted or just missing the point of the game.

We went out for dinner just to Pizza Hut as an end of the week treat - she as always wowed everyone and got herself a balloon! Then home to sleep (we thought hahahaha).

The tooth had liturally just broken the skin - I looked in to see the white/pink spike in her gum away from the other teeth - this explains the three 'eggs' she laid today. Obviously this ment she didnt want to sleep but was tired, wanted to be hugged but felt wriggly - the solution?

We watched on of the Winni the Pooh DVDs Michelle gave us at Christmas - Jean was entranced - it was so sweet to watch and then - just as the second fromlast story wound up the eyes started drooping and by the end of the last one she was practically asleep!

Lovely bobble - even teething she was being a lovely baby today 🙂 🙂 🙂

Jean Says Thanks! (by sarah)

Jean has finally opened all her presants and cards and is very happy with them all 🙂 We are not entirely sure who gave her what as there was mix-ups with cards and lables falling off - but thankyou everybody 🙂

And thanks to everyone who came to the parties:)

Jean now walks with assistance 🙂 which is cute. I also noticed yesturday how much she looks like an elf or something with her facial features and baby hair! She also decided to give Barabra part of her dinner yesturday which was funny to watch.