Category Archives: WBIAGW

Inside the mind of an 8 year old.

Family, Parenting, The Blonde Kid, WBIAGW, , , ,

TBK has a key. It is his lucky key (or so he tells me). It’s to an old cabinet that has long since been freecycled and in the imagination of my 8 year old it opens everything.

It has opened doors that criminals have been hiding behind. It has opened boxes where treasures are held. It has been the ignition key for a space rocket, a motor bike and a racing car and it has been used to lock up things only the imaination of an eight year old could think of and, it’s been used to release captives of things only eight year olds can think of.

Sunday morning on our way to Artsfest sitting on the train the key was produced from his uber cool R2D2 bag and it became a mystic key – it unlocked peoples head so TBK could see inside. He opened mine and I asked him what he could see.

“You have two doors mom, one with a heart on it and a big metal one”

“Oh whats behind them?”

“Well the metal one has a long corridor to another big door with a lock on it and behind that is all the things you don’t like, like teenagers and other things that annoy you and the heart has me and James and all our family inside.”

I thought about this for a minute then asked.

“So whats in James’ head then?” expecting teh same answer as the logic was sound 2 doors = 2 opposite emotions

“He has three doors but two of his has hearts on”

This confused me.

“Why does James have three?”

“Well Mom, James has three becaue one has his family Stat and Al and Penny and Rob and one has the things that annoy him, just the same as you, but the other one has just you and me in there because he chooses to love us!”

Make a wish…

WBIAGW, , , ,

Word of advice, Never have children, they have the ability to break your heart in a million different ways and none of them hurt as much as when your child is hurting, and you can’t do anything to stop it.

Yesterday was a rough day.

To end it I took TBK to my parents he needed cheering up. Nannies have special magic powers don’t you know, they make everything less raw, a little brighter and the hurt fuzzier around the edges, easier to swallow – well Jordan’s Nan does, she’s special.

So we went had a cup of tea, had a few cuddles, rolled around the floor with the psycho dog and the even more psychotic “Little Big Uncle” John (and instructed Grandad on the ins and outs of facebook (TBK knew more than he did) and it worked, by the time we left TBK was beginning to act more like his normal self.

On the short walk home we were kicking stones along the pavement and discussing the stars, TBK was pointing out the two brightest ones in the sky and explaining to me that the one was my Dad and the other was his Great Grandad looking down on us when we both saw a shooting star.

“WOAH Mom, did you see that!?! Quick make a wish we saw the same star so we can share it …. Have you made it?”

I said I had, and had he? To which he replied

“Yes I wished that there were these scientists who wanted to do an experiment on me yeah and I said yes but then when they came to do it it was a different experiment than the one they said they were going to do so I said no but then they did it anyway they slipped something into my hot chocolate which I drank and it made me into stitch like from lilo and stitch but still human and it was AWESOME!”

*Deep Breathe*

“What did you wish for?”

“I wished that you’d always be happy” he looked at me sideways and I caught THAT glint in his eye – that look that every parent knows to be suspicious of,

“You know what WOULD make me happy, Mom…. Still giving me THAT look….

….presents!!”

one + one + one = three

Facts About Me, Family, Friends, Home, Parenting, The Blonde Kid, WBIAGW, , , , ,

Moblog user are taking part in a project “Interview52” inspired by Nige, Each week a different moblogger will have to post a photograph and answer a series of questions about themselves.

This week was my turn and here’s my entry:

An old picture but one that sums me up, Converse and my family!

*Where does this find you? Tell us the story of how you got there.*

Well right now as I’m writing this it’s Thursday evening and I’m at home, But
by the time it’s posted it shall be Friday morning so I’ll be at work in
Wolverhampton City Centre and I shall have arrived here on the bus from my
home 20 minutes away in the area I grew up in. I’m a yam yam born and bred,
I have lived in other places (Lichfield (too pretentious)and Wigan (Too
Rough)) but I returned “home” when I realised there really is no place
like it!

* Why do you moblog?*

I started moblogging as a way to pass the time when I was a poor lonely
single girl living alone with no one but the blonde kid for company.

James introduced me to it before “we” were “us” taking me into Birmingham
with a selection of Spied cards and I was hooked straight away, It’s so much
fun, kinda combining social networking with a hobby! Along with TBK telling
everyone we were getting married before we’d even smiled at each other in
THAT way maybe moblog was party responsible for the creating of James and me
as “us”?

* What were you hoping not to be asked for interview52?*

The typical Interview question used in lots of job interviews, Describe
yourself in 3 words….

* Now answer it!*

DOH! shoulda seen this coming. I’ll use the answer i gave in my last job
interview

LOUD, TALKATIVE and TENACIOUS – and they still gave me the job!

* What question would you like to ask the next moblog interviewee?*

I’m not going say now as with the new interview 52 rules I’m going to get
the chance to ask what I want! –

oh new rules everyone says what are they??

WELL:
The week after the last interview with FF when there was no interview I
though hmm thats strange, then the week after that when again there was
still no interview i though hmm even stranger It’s not like Nige to start
something and not finish it, so I emailed him something along the line of
“Oi you, giving up already?” and it transpires that Nige is a busy busy bee
and time had just ran away with him.
Organising questions and participants whilst running around the Notting Hill
Festival and generally having much fun was a time consuming thing so with
revised rules and with me being next on the “hit list” and silly enough to
wonder why he’d stopped he sent them to me….

From hence forward the interviewee will become the interviewer for the next
willing victim….So once you’ve read this today I will be on a hunt to find
someone to take part next . Then I will forward the list of questions and
instructions how to post on BUT

I will have to CHANGE AT LEAST ONE of the questions in the list

And so it will go on – my interviewee will become the interviewer, finding
the next participant and again changing AT LEAST ONE of the questions before
they forward it on. So taking the onus off Nige, continuing the project and
giving it a life of it’s own!

So who want to be next use email/text/contact button to get in touch

* What do you think your job was in your previous life? Tell us why..*.

I think I must have been a psychologist/guidance counselor in a previous
life, for some reason I’m usually the Agony Aunt, Dishing out advise to all
and sundry my friend Nicky seems to seek my advise on everything and even my
local shop keeper stops me in the shop and asks for marriage counseling –
And I’ve never even been married.

James reckons I was Pippa from Home and Away. I love kids and we’ve usually
got a houseful of TBK friends, I’ve worked as a youth worker, I’ve helped
out at school, taking part in sleep overs, & going on trips, He thinks
(quite rightly) that I’d have a horde of my own given the opportunity

*Whats the story behind your moblog username? Why did you choose it?*

Oh everyone knows this as I answered it on spikes moblog ages ago:

Essitam is Matisse backwards, It’s been my online name since school when in
an IT class the teaches asked us to think of a username.All the “cool kids”
were calling themselves “Sexygal1994” or “hotchick” and as I was neither a
cool kid, sexy girl or an hot chick I wanted something different.
Inspiration was at hand with a huge Matisse display on the wall i was
sitting next to. I wrote it down, I then rewrote it backwards and is stuck!

* What was your childhood obsession? What happened to it?*

I didn’t have one – seriously. I even called my mom when I read this
question to find out if she could remember something I’d forgotten, The only
thing she could come up with was I used to like emptying ashtrays into the
dustbin, Which apparently amused her no end as neither of my parents smoked
and my dad only ever threw loose change in there and according to her I just
one day stopped doing it aged around 3.

*Where do you go to my lovely, when you’re alone in your head? (Filbert
Fox’ question)*

I try not to spend too much time alone in my head I find it a pretty
worrying place at times!

That’s not avoidance either, I’m being serious. I suffer autophobia
(J.F.G.I.) as a symptom of stress/depression caused (according to the people
in the know) by the sudden death of my Dad when I was just a little Steph.
So I avoid being left alone for too long when I can help it. I’m better now
than I used to be. At one point the panic attacks were so bad I would be
physically sick – now I just sulk lots and get snappy if I’m left alone for
too long!


*If you had to draw a moblog family (and friend) tree, who would you be
linked to, and how?*

Oh now this could be quite interesting, If i were to be literal about this
then there is:

James
TBK
Goonflower
NickyC
Miguel Sanchez
Stato
HippyJack

Who are all really (or via James) related to me in some way and registered
mobloggers and then real life friends (as in people I see in the flesh with
the family mobloggers)

Dicko – although I’m sure he should fall under family
highwirer
aj1905
Rich (not the one with Elvis)
shrontthebaron
baronshubby
GhostMonk08
Spongvid

Then there are the mobloggers who I’ve met in person purely through moblog,
at meets, if cafes (Dhamaka) in shopping centres (Nige) etc. I’m not going
to list them all as I’ve already rambled on too much but my ultimate moblog
family are my ultimate real life family:

Me + James + The Blonde Kid

—
Steph xxx

I’ll never be, but I can do!

Facts About Me, Home, Parenting, The Blonde Kid, WBIAGW, , ,

I’ve felt “off” most of the day.

I can’t quite out my finger on what was wrong. I’d blame it on PMT but it’s not quite that time of the month. I’d blame it on lack of sleep, but I slept just fine. I would even try to say it was over work if it wasn’t so stupidly quiet around here today I just don’t know what it was. I do however know what cheered me up.

THIS blog post over on Moosh in Indy.

It got me thinking, I’ll never be a lot of  things but for everything Isay I’ve missed the opportunity to do I’ve opened up doors to other possibilities so much more rewarding.

So, Here’s mine to add to Moosh in Indy’s list

I will never win a Nobel peace prize,  But I can always make peace between warring 8 year olds!

And that my friends is characteristic that comes in very handy some days when the blonde kid and his friends start!

V2008 – (the part that wasn’t wet)

WBIAGW, , ,

For all the gripes I had about V2008 in my last post, in spite of the coke heads and the piss heads. In spite of the miserable weather I still managed to get a couple of photographs. Mainly from artists performing under cover, Mainly in fact from Jack Mcmanus –

I was on the barrier, It was fairly easy to shoot and it was before the rain had started in earnest and I was scared to take my beloved camera out of its bag. The rest of the day it didn’t really come out of the safety of it’s carrying case for fear the wind would somehow snatch it away from me and fill its vital parts with rain or it would get dripped on in the tents from the spray coming from the soggy masses.

You can visit my flickr for more photos of Jack (link over there on the left) and photos of other stuff too!

V 2008 – What a wash out!

Music, Opinion, WBIAGW, , , ,

Saturday saw me attending the V festival in Weston Park, Staffs. What a waste of a Saturday – I could have been doing something interesting like cutting the lawn with some nail clippers or cleaning my toilet with a toothbrush, but instead I was battling the elements to attend the WORST festival I have ever been to!

The rain I could cope with, I had a rain jacket, even if it did make me look like a pea with legs I could cope with the cold, hey I’ve camped at festivals in worse weather. The line up wasn’t too bad plenty of bands for me to see, Even if James didn’t approve of all my choices but what absolutely drove me mad were the coked up middle class pissed tossers who couldn’t give a shit about the music and were only there to get off their faces!

Grrr!!

The day didn’t start off too badly, We saw Jack McManus in the Union Arena Tent and then the latter half of The Feelings set on the main stage before I parted company with James and made my way over to the T4 stage for a good old festival sing along to Scouting for Girls with James’ friend Ruth and her friend Becks.

There was a bit of jostling as some of the coke fiends by us barely stayed upright and burnt each others rain jackets with cigarette ends. (Cue for us to move further into the crowd) but they were good to see as it was a proper festival moment, the band look genuinely pleased and amazed at the crowd reaction and the crowd fed off their energy singing along with all their songs and generally having a good time.

Once they’d done I caught the last part of Tom Baxter’s set back in the Union Arena Tent stepping over the bodies in the tent that had collapsed through drug/alcohol abuse and at merely 6:25pm that was my bands done for the day – I didn’t get to see anyone else!!

Yes I know Amy Winehouse made it on to stage (30 mins late, I quote one friend of mine in saying “it was like watching the aftermath of a car crash) but the lure or the V.I.P area dry seating and food was more important at this point. _ The V.I.P area had Nando’s dammit how could I resist something resembling “proper” food at a festival?

Yes, Yes I know Kings Of Leon were playing – I tried to to watch them, I saw and heard none of it from behind a group of 5 of the biggest twats I have ever encountered in my life screaming and shouting and flailing about through the entirety of their set, at one point they stripped off one of the female members of their group to the waist screaming at everyone “don’t look don’t look” well I was trying to look BUT AT THE FUCKING STAGE MORONS. Unfortunately I was too short to see anything but the back of peoples heads or a face full of tit and too far back in the crowd for the sound of the band to carry above the idiots so I missed it but a few chords of “Charmer” and “On Call” – I did consider moving but a quickie scan of the surrounding areas convinced me to stay put as it was no better anywhere else, Where was I supposed to go – to stand next to the guys who started fighting behind us? The only saving grace was we’ve already bought tickets to see them again in December where I will be very carefully selecting who we stand behind!

By the time KoL had gone off stage I was exhausted and quite upset so we made our way back to the Union Arena for The Guillemots but with an hour to wait before they started I sat on the floor while the crowd sang along to Echo and the Bunnymen and ruminated about all the idiots I’d encountered during the day. Desperately tried to dry out and slowly lost the will to live looked up at James to hear him ask “Do you want to go home?”

Hell yeah I did! So at only 9:30pm we packed up and shipped out pausing only for a quick chat with James’ cousin Steve who we’d not managed to catch up with all day.

I don’t think I’m going to bother going again unless the line up is too good to miss, V 2008 sucked, V 2006 wasn’t much better and who can forget the flying torch incident of 2005?? I leave most years thinking why did I bother – so free tickets or no free tickets I think in future if one of “James’ Artists” are playing we’ll go watch them and then leave again!

Too cute

WBIAGW

I took this photograph and then melted into teh sofa – Just look at those fingers

There is something really magical about little babies. For some reason when ever I see a baby I HAVE to look at their hands, for me it kind of epitomizes everything they’re about – perfectly formed tiny fingers with
tiny little finger nails and little folds of skin but never really “used”.

This hand belongs to my friends 7 week old son, Samuel Adam Murphy (S.A.M. Can you see what they did there), he fell asleep in my arms and I stared at his hands long enough that I swear I felt my uterus contract and then I knew I had to hand him back or James would start panicking and run away!

Congratulations Bryan, Gemma and big sister Megan – he is truly adorable!