Notes from an appalling blogger

Well I can't really call myself a blogging poster but I am still a blogging reader! Its 3 months since my last post which is particularly bad I should think I have been erased from any previous readers of my blog - which I totally deserve. The photos above that even with tuition some time ago from Marmalade Rose I cannot get in the right place! are of Scarborough and my son's wedding in August

I am now officially a mother-in-law which is lovely as I have a smashing daughter-in-law. The wedding day in August was perfection. There were 30 guests and it was intimate, perfect and memorable. The hotel which was Chapters in Stokesley were discreet, professional, well organised and made the dat into one that was better than any of us expected. The food was sublime, very special and well thought out. The weather was OK not fantastic but pleasantly warm, it rained when we were eating inside but got out again when we were mingling they had huge parasols in the garden which meant we were under cover. The next evening they had a 'do' for 100 with a fantastic disco who were also a live Blues Brothers which were as good as the real thing. Vicky danced the night away in her wedding dress and sparkly flat shoes! A great time was had by all.

My Dad is OK at the moment still with us but tires easily. He has gone with the caravan to the War Weekend at Pickering and then they will shut it up for winter. We had a lovely family bbq in September for his birthday and a gathering atmy brothers for Mam's birthday. He loves it when we are all together and thought the wedding was wonderful.

We went to Scarborough for a few days over the Bank holiday and had a lovely time- the weather was good and we walked miles. We are very lucky to live in such a lovely part of the country and it was nice to stay away for a few days especially when the weather was good.

A month ago we had a traumatic time with our daughter. She had been going out with a nice guy and she was very happy and we were cos he seemed lovely. Whilst we were in Scarborough she and he were driven down to Worcester by a car salesman friend of his to buy an Audi TT. We discovered later that he couldnt get the finance to buy it and he persuaded Kate to take it on as they were now 'together' she didnt think she would be granted the loan but she was (we knew nothing if this until later when she told us) and so there she was with a £16.5k loan over 5 years - aaaarrrgghh - Yes its a lot for someone who actually earns £16 per year herself. Anyway a couple of days after getting the car he was never available and started over the next couple of weeks to cool off and started telling her he had been seeing someone else etc - just generally being horrible and she could never drive the car. This is when she told us what had happened and that it actually belonged to her in the finance and the DVLA log book. To cut a long story short when she asked him for it back he siad he would trash it and cancel her from the insurance policy so she got nothing for it and would be left with the loan. In the end we got the police to go round and point out that he was driving her car without her permission. They got the keys and the finance documents off him - he was threatening her within minutes on her phone. We took the car straight to the local Audi dealer and explained the situation - we were anxious to get rid of it before the first payment was take out of her bank. Wegot a trade in of £12k for it and a financial settlement figure of £16,696. So had to find £4,696.

My parents have £3k put aside for the grandchildren to go towards a deposit for a house when they are ready so we persuaded them to let Kate have hers now - we then had to lend her £1,696 to pay the car off completely. As to the ex boyfriend he kept calling her (we advised her to ignore him) and then the nasty texts for three days until she checked her online banking and realised that he had used her card once several weeks ago to top up his phone and of course it kept the details in his phone - he had been topping up his phone (£40) to send her the insulting texts!

At ths point she changed her phone number. All was quiet till he somehow,through someone else got her phone number and it all started again so she had to change her number again andthat was another £35!!

It has been a strong learning curve for Kate she will be paying us off for a long time and her heart has been broken in the process as she had real feelings for this guy...........its hard being young isn't it and you can't be everywhere looking after them especially at 23 but I would love punch this lads eyes out for hurting my daughter so much.

The worst thing is that he has no debt, there were no charges against him and he is swanking around conning other people now. I wanted to write to his Mum and make sure she knew exactly what her son has done but Kate is scared of the recriminations that might follow.....so I have to live with it.

Right I am off to bed now - we have doors on the landing to paint as the bathroom is almost finished and the cushionfloor will be fitted at the same time as the stair carpet (which has been in storage at the shop since last September!) the tiling will be grouted tomorrow by me and the frame around the bath can go on - the panelling there can go on after the cushionfloor goes down - I am sooooo excited.