2011

2011 is upon us now and by all accounts should be better than 2010. I said it should be better, but 2010 wasn't a completely bad year. I made some mistakes, but doesn't everybody?

January:

In January, I was packing up to move. I was looking forward to moving in with the person I had fallen for.

We were taking the kids and moving to a little village called Sapcote just outside of Leicester

February:

We moved to the village on Saturday 13th. I wanted to be moved in before Valentines Day, so Liz came

and collected us in the horrendous snow. Moving was difficult because of the weather, it was like nature was telling us not to go. But go we did. One of the neighbours works for a removals company, so he did us a cheap - back of the hand - deal. We tried to get the cats into the basket, but one burst his way out of the cage and sent me flying, and the other just did a runner. On this day came the first of the lies. Friday night, Liz had said that we were going to stop at a MacDonalds or something to get breakfast on the way. When I suggested stopping for breakfast, she denied ever saying anything about breakfast.

March:

By March, both of the kids were into their new schools, and they were enjoying the change. They had both made quite a few new friends and my daughter had gone to one of her new friends' house which made me happy to see her adjusting. It was in this month that I saw just how terrified Liz's daughter was of her. Her daughter had done something and she asked me not to tell her mother, although she found out anyway and laid into her daughter verbally so much that it reduced her to tears.

April:

Easter, and the kids had their first holiday from school. They were happy to be in the house with just me, and both of them said that Liz didn't like them. I told them it was teething problems and that everyone would get used to it. At the weekends, the kids were terrified about getting up because no matter how quietly they moved, Liz would still have a go at them for moving too noisily.

May:

I started to see that I had made a huge mistake. All Liz would do, would be to come in from work and slump on her bed, watching telly and being on her computer. She wouldn't move or do anything around the house. It was my son's and her daughter's birthday. Her daughter asked to have a sleepover which I agreed to, although I did tell her daughter to keep the noise down after her mum had gone to bed as she probably wouldn't want the embarrassment of her mum coming in blazing.

June:

My daughter's birthday, and Liz said that she regretted giving my son so much money for his birthday as it meant that she now had to give my daughter the same amount and she didn't want to do that. Had one of the best times of the year - went to a place called Stoney Cove with my kids, and two of my great friends with some of their kids. It was a beautiful day - absolutely perfect. Spending the day with these people was one of the highlights of moving up there. At another point in the month, Liz's other daughter phoned up in tears as she had been threatened with eviction, and Liz's response was "shut the f*** up crying, and call me back when you've stopped acting like a baby." Her daughter then phoned me, and I was calmly talking to her, when Liz snatched the phone, said "I told you to f*** off until you stopped whining" and cut her off.

July:

I started trying to find somewhere else to live, although I had very little money, I had to get my kids out of there as it was destroying them. I put my name down on the council housing list, and started looking through the local papers for properties, but there was nothing available. I didn't want to move the kids too far from their schools as I didn't want them to have another upheaval they didn't need.

August:

The kids went to their mum's for 3 weeks in the summer holidays, and Liz became the person I fell for again, which just proved to me that she hated my kids. I started asking my friends to keep an eye out for places in Kent so that I could move back, and I started trying to save the money I needed which was hard when I was buying most of the shopping and paying the majority of the bills. I worked out that it would take about 5 months to get the money together that I needed, so I had a chat with the kids' mother about them coming to her for Christmas day as I wanted the kids happy.

September:

My luck changed near the end of the month. We got a letter from the Inland Revenue stating that they had underpaid us and gave us a lump sum of £4,800 which meant that I could afford rent, deposit and removals. I started looking online everywhere for a place. I looked in Ashford, Canterbury, Dover, Margate, Chatham and Rochester. In the end, my sister found me a place in an area I hadn't really looked at much, and the type of property I hadn't even considered.

October:

I looked over the property and I liked it as soon as I saw it. The views were brilliant, to property was huge, and the rent was in my price range. The only problem was that I needed guarantors. My ex-wife said that she would be a guarantor for me as it meant that the kids would be nearer to her. So that meant credit checks - at a cost of £200. The checks came back just over a week later saying we had passed, so I brought the kids down on 16th to see the place and sign the forms. That cost £1300 for the property, then on 25th, we moved in. I left Liz a note stating that I couldn't handle her lies anymore and that the kids didn't like the way she treated them. It cost £700 to move the furniture and the animals. To say it was a relief to be away from there would be an understatement. The one thing that was really upsetting was that I had stayed with a couple of really good friends when I came down to view the property, and when it came time for me to leave, their dog got really, really ill. Unfortunately she only made it another couple of days before she had to pass over the rainbow bridge as they call it. This little dog came from a place called TLDR - The Little Dog rescue, and through Molly (the dog) TLDR became known worldwide and donations flooded in to help other dogs like her. Her death may well have saved so many other dogs.

November:

My kids both went back to school. My daughter started her third secondary school, and my son went back to the school he had left when we moved away. They were so pleased to have him back. We were all so pleased to be back in the area. We got to see our friends more regularly - although not as regularly as I wanted to. As with all things moving and such, there were some problems - like money being sorted out. My money was sorted barely before my rent was due. It got to the stage when I wondered if we were going to be able to have a Christmas due to lack of funds. It all got sorted by the end of the month though.

December:

The end of the year. Christmas in our new apartment. Watching the waves in a rough sea is incredible, as is watching evaporation. We won't be staying in this property too long, as it is an old victorian property so we can't even have a satellite dish :-( Kids were happy with Christmas, and so was I, even though half of the presents I got, I brought myself. LOL.

So, that was 2010. Like I said - not all bad, just a lot of the parts I was away. We can say good bye to the year that saw the deaths of Blake Edwards, Leslie Nielsen, Tom Bosley, Tony Curtis, Dennis Hopper, Gary Coleman, Ronnie James Dio, John Forsythe, Peter Graves, Corey Haim and Paul Gray.

Lets hope there are more good points than bad points in 2011. Happy new year to you all.