A few months ago, after having a DNA test done, I discovered I have an older brother. Older than the older brother I had already.
Well imagine my surprise!
Plus I have 2 nieces.

Back in those days, babies would regularly be taken away from unmarried mothers and adopted by other people who probably had no children of their own.
That’s what happened in this case.

To grow up knowing that you were given away.. is an emotionally confusing experience, one which quite possibly scars you for life.

So now they know their family line.

I mean, you’d want to know if it was you, wouldn’t you?
There’s a whole series on TV devoted to it, hosted by Davina McCall. Tearful reunions are the norm. Of course that doesn’t happen every time in real life, but they only show the positive outcomes in the show.

Personally I think it’s brilliant, with nothing at all negative in it. In this my own case, it’s not even scandalous as my own parents hadn’t even met yet. If my new brother had been conceived after my own parents were together, that’s clearly far more tricky to explain. To be honest, even if he had been, it wouldn’t have been a big issue to me. Life isn’t straightforward. Well look what happened to me … 💥♿️

So big ♥️ to my newly discovered brother and nieces.

PS watch out if you submit your DNA to ancestry.com. You might just get a surprise!

It’s 6.04 am and I haven’t slept for a second.
I realised yesterday that I had a UTI.
Christ it makes my life awful.
Antibiotics take at least 2/3 days to kick in.
🤦‍♂️

I have things to do today. Can I do them without sleep? I’m not sure.

Blimmin great to see my first ever ( proper ) boss for the night.
Mind you he wasn’t the standard kind of boss. Me and him used to go to the gym every work day for 2 hours at ‘ lunchtime ‘. I think I thought that all jobs were like that?
Imagine my surprise when after he’d left to start his own business, his replacement was very put out when I disappeared for 2 hours on her first day in charge?!
I actually remember feeling pretty aggrieved.
😳

And spent yesterday with da lovely Leighton and Bev. Both rock stars. One old, one much younger.
♥️

I planned to try a solo drive to Oxford today. All set up, it was.
Then last night was dire. I slept from 1am until 3am. And that was it, my legs just jerked hard.
Ffs!

So my big drive will be to Wales. I’m seeing my relatives ( brother, aunties, uncle, nephews, cousins ). It’ll be bloody excellent, I have to say. I haven’t seen them for many years, so it’s something I’m really looking forward to.

Obviously GG will come with me for the 2 day trip. 😊

When I was a student, I always worked in all my holidays. No money, see.
For 2 years of holidays, and it was every holiday, because I didn’t go home to my parents house in the vacations, I worked for the landlord that we rented our student house from, a guy called Paul Abrahams.
He was a wide boy, for sure, liked to give the impression he had underworld connections…
but he paid ok and was straight up in his dealings with his employees. We basically renovated his new house purchases, which he then rented out to more students.
I thought he was ok. I even got socialised a bit with him, he invited myself and my then girlfriend to my first gig – The Human League ( no less ). I went to his house on a few occasions.

Anyway- my buddy Charlie P, who lived with myself and Hartley and Little John ( who actually was a shortarse ), sent this to me ..
This would have pretty much been around the same time we lived in one of his houses …

I found another report, which was far more graphic about what he had done.
Well now he’s in prison, in his late 60’s and a convicted child rapist… well, his life for the next 12 years at least, isn’t going to be worth living.

Good.

I wrote to the Brentford FC Disabled Assoc about my experience with the aforementioned post.
Five days on and I haven’t had a reply.

What is it with disabled people?
Useless fuc***s!

(That really made me laugh, writing that mind.
😂)

Here’s an example of how ‘ complicated’ wheelchair life is.
I’ve been a season ticket holder at Brentford Football Club for 3 years. As such I get all the emails/ offers etc.
Ever since the start of Euros 2024 I’ve had emails advertising the club showing the England games at the stadium.
For the final tonight it’s the same. Come and watch the game at Brentford Stadium. What better place to see England play etc etc.

EXCEPT… it doesn’t say how you watch it.
The stadium seats themselves, right? With all the seated fans watching on the stadium big screen?
Right ?
Answer – not necessarily at all. There are lots of bars within the stadium with television screens inside, just like pubs have.
I bought 2 tickets.. but in the email acknowledgement there’s absolutely zero indication of how you watch it. You can buy ‘ allocated seats’ or you can pay less and you don’t have an allocated seat.
There’s no option to buy a wheelchair space.. which the stadium obviously has ( because I use ‘ mine ‘ at every home game ).
Well if there is no sale of wheelchair spaces, then it can’t be outside in the open air stadium, can it? There won’t be wheelchair spaces in any of the bars, because bars don’t have wheelchair spaces. So the game must be being shown in the bars, right?
It’s completely unclear though.

The stadium is selling ‘ a limited number of tickets’ to watch the game. So that implies it isn’t being shown in the stadium arena itself? Or does it mean they don’t want 18,000 people coming?
They don’t normally allow people to drink in the stadium seats, and everyone else watching the game at home/ in a bar will be holding a beer/ drink. So it must be in the licensed bars inside?
Or have they relaxed the rules for today so that people can drink in the stadium seats .. and it’s being shown on the massive screens?

I’ve emailed ( 2 weeks ago ), called ( no answer) , been to the ticket office ( closed ).

Jesus how hard can it be? To just say how you can expect to watch it? Except it doesn’t.
I’ve even contacted other people I know from the Brentford wheelchair section. They aren’t going because they couldn’t find out either.

If it hasn’t occurred to you as to why this is a problem.. think about every single time you have been in a bar / watched footage of England games being shown in bars. …

As soon as anything exciting happens…

EVERYONE STANDS UP.

Meaning I miss every single ‘ exciting’ bit because I can’t see the screen, because no one ever considers the fella in the wheelchair.
It’s just how it is. I can’t hold it against the other fans.
Why should they be obliged to sit down because I can’t stand up?

But Christ, a bit of information would be helpful.
Is that too much to ask?

Bloody hell.
Will it ever stop raining?
Of course I live on the edge of the river, me.
There are boats parked up all over.
But the rain?
I’ve just seen animals going onto one boat, in pairs.

Odd. Is it a sign, I wonder?

I’m supposed to be going to Richmond, to the theatre. My wheelchair isn’t amphibious though.

A massive thank you to Leigh n Bev for inviting me to Leigh’s birthday party.. at their lovely house.. it was great to go.
The ibot is far better in crowds than a weeny height wheelchair is… just more complicated getting there in one!
Trains…

But it went pretty smoothly, as far as railways go and GG and I had a lovely time.

Happy ( big ) birthday, Leigh.
And lovely to see all of your family from Wales, that stretch allllll the way back to my childhood and beyond..( as your mum was in the same junior school class as my own father ). And that was bloody ages ago!

Plus all your family ( descendants ) that now live in England…
Leaving Wales seems to have been a thing… 🤷

And RIP Alan, my father in law of 25 years..very, very sorry to see you go. 😰