Earlier this year, I bought something in Wallis and when I got to the till, was asked if I’d like a store card as I’d receive another £5 off my purchase. That seemed good, so I went ahead and got one – though I intended paying off the amount in full straight away.

A couple of weeks later, I received all the original forms with a compliment slip asking me to sign again s the signature had not gone through all copies. A few days after that, I received my card.

Then I forgot all about it.

Last week when I was in the Metrocentre, I passed Wallis and remembered the card – and realised I’d never had a statement. Surely my payment must be due by now? So I went in and asked if it was possible to just pay them using the card for the account details. It was, and I knew exactly how much I owed, so I paid it in full.

This week, I received my first statement from them – charging me an extra £12 for a “late payment” ! What a nerve! I was straight on the phone…

First of all, as with nearly everything these days, it was a blasted 08 number – which would cost us an arm and a leg (especially as we are not with BT! Why can’t companies give proper numbers anymore?!)

Then I had to go through several automated menus before I finally got to speak to someone ……. who sounded like he was in an Indian call centre. Oh great!

Next he wanted to take me through security and asked my password. What password? I haven’t got one since it’s a new account! No problem – we just went through a series of other questions, all of which most of my family would be able to answer easily. Then I was asked if I’d like to set up a password. I declined and said I intended cutting up the card after this call.

Finally, we got to the problem itself. I explained that I’d never had any statements from them and that I had, in fact, been in to the shop of my accord and paid the balance. So he kindly offered to refund the “late charge” – I should think so too!

Then he said that there was still 56p owing – interest charged!!!! I managed to keep my temper – just – and said that in that case, why didn’t I charge them 56p for the phone call and we’d call it quits? There was a pause, and then he agreed to cancel the interest charge too. Finally, we agreed that my balance was now £0.00

“Would you like to set up a password now, Mrs K?”
No I flamin’ well wouldn’t! Why would I want to continue to do business with such a cowboy outfit?!

The first thing I did when I put the phone down was to cut up the card - which was rather satisfying.

Why is everything such hard work?

On Sunday, Raji, Stephen and I watched the Carling Cup final together and I have to say, it was a thoroughly enjoyable match. I was naturally hoping Villa would win – for Dunnie as well as for ABU, and was delighted when Vidic gave away a penalty in just 4 minutes. What none of us could understand was why Vidic didn’t get so much as a yellow card, never mind a red. I think maybe the ref wasn’t brave enough so early in the game and had it occurred later, perhaps he may have shown the red card merited. Vidic did then go on to commit fouls throughout the game and should have had yellows on a couple of occasions- so in any event, should have been off at some stage.

That aside, ManUre looked the better team once Rooney came on, and Villa tired in the second half. There was only one team going to win it, and of course, they did. Much as I dislike them, they were worthy winners. City fans couldn’t help noticing that had we been playing Villa, we too, would have fancied our chances of winning. But it wasn’t to be.

In the evening, I was pottering around on my computer but checking progress of the Stoke v Arsenal game via the text commentary. Late in the game, I saw that Aaron Ramsey had suffered a horrible leg fracture after a 50:50 challenge by Shawcross. Having subsequently seen the videos and photos I feel very sorry for a young lad who has a long road to recovery ahead of him. Whilst he has youth on his side physically, it may go against him mentally – though hopefully he will benefit from advice and support from Eduardo who was in a similar horrific incident a couple of years ago. I also feel for Shawcross who was undoubtedly upset by what happened and clearly had not intended it to end that way. That said, Stoke generally play a physical game (City fans should know, having watched our team play them 4 times this season!) and you have to think that it was only a matter of time before this kind of thing happened. Little has been said about Glenn Whelan who was the one player to stay with Ramsey whilst he was waiting for medical attention. He comforted him, stopped him looking at the broken leg which was hanging at a sickening angle and stayed with him throughout. All the other players (of both teams) simply looked stunned so well done to Whelan for his actions. No matter what colour of shirt a player wears, none of them ever deserve this kind of horrific injury and I hope both Ramsey and Shawcross recover from this fully.

On Wednesday night, England were playing a friendly against Egypt at Wembley, and as ever, I planned to watch it. One of our good friends is going through a tough time at the moment and he asked if we wanted to go to the pub and watch it with him. Billy was already committed to going to cricket nets but I went along, and Simon and Claire did too. Our friend was quite quiet throughout the evening but I’d like to think having us around helped him a bit. The match was entertaining enough, though England were very poor initially. Not sure if this was because it was a friendly, or because they’d underestimated Egypt or what. The Egyptian goal when it came, was no surprise really but it seemed to wake our own players up a bit. I was very pleased for SWP making such an impact when he came on, and Barry did a solid job as ever – sadly for Bridge, I think he’d have been better at LB than Baines. I’m still not convinced by Crouch and never will be – and yet he can pop up with a much needed goal at times. I think I mainly object to our predictable play when he’s on – long balls hoofed his way and hoping for his height to somehow win the ball despite the fact he doesn’t jump! Happily, his Bambi-on-ice style of ball “control” causes the opposition defences as much confusion as me and it pays off when we do get the ball to his feet. Rooney was as in form as he has been at club level and you can’t help admire him even if he does play for “them”! There was a man sitting near us who was very, very drunk, and when he overheard us discussing this, leaned over and said “What’s wrong with his team, hm?” As I was wearing my City away shirt, I grinned, pointed to my shirt and said “This is what’s wrong with it.” The man was so drunk, he didn’t recognise the shirt and proudly showed me his ManUre one, grabbed my hand and smiled at me saying “Best team in the world love. Best in the world.” I just gave up – he was too far gone to bother with

What a great week – watching so much football. Love it!

As our game away at Stamford Bridge was on the Saturday lunch time, I rushed around in the morning, getting things done so that I could sit and watch the match on TV. Raji was off that day, so he watched with me, and Stephen joined us too about half an hour in.

I was expecting to be beaten as we have not been playing well lately, and Chelsea have not been beaten at home all season – never mind having anyone do the double over them, and we’d already beaten them earlier this season at CoMS. There was also all the hype about Bridge and Terry falling out after the latter had an affair with the former’s ex-partner and Bridge had publicly stated that he would not be shaking Terry’s hand during the Fair-play handshake. The fallout from this affair was so bad that Bridge had earlier in the week, stepped down from the England squad so as not to cause any division in the team. I shan’t dwell on the issue, but I do feel that Bridge has behaved with dignity throughout and shown himself to be the bigger man.

We played OK in the first 20-30 minutes and I was pleased that it was still 0 – 0. At half time, 1-1 seemed pretty good thanks to Tevez nicking a goal for us. After that, I watched the match in stunned amazement – we played so confidently and positively and fully deserved the victory. Chelsea finished the match with 9 men – though a penalty got them a consolation goal at the end.

It was a victory for Bridge too, as it had been his clearance that led to a goal, and Terry had played poorly, helping towards our score. City’s goal celebrations centred around Bridge and showed good team solidarity. I was absolutely delighted with this result and couldn’t believe we’d beaten Chelsea on their own turf, and done the double over them for the first time in over 40 years!

I was looking forward to relaxing with my team mates on Friday night – and even knowing we were likely to be trounced by the team 2nd from top, didn’t spoil the thought. We were playing the Ex-Service B1 at home and though we are not familiar with their players, we’d had an OK time when we played them away.

Billy had gone straight to a leaving-dinner from work but intended coming back home to pick me up and then we’d go to the pub. However, his dinner ran late so I walked with Simon and Claire and met Billy there. Everyone else was already in – as were the away team and the darts area was pretty crowded. I had to almost fight my way in to have a few practise throws.

The pub was already populated by loud, drunk idiots, and it soon became apparent that the away team had also had a skinful - which all served to make me very uncomfortable and I couldn’t relax at all.

One of the other team was the most obviously merry, and at one point he stood close to me, with me sitting on a bar stool behind him and he backed into me. Normally you’d expect someone who did that to quickly move away and maybe apologise. However, he pushed himself back further so that my knee was wedged firmly between his legs at the level of his groin. UGH! For the rest of the evening I felt unclean. He even tried it again later, but luckily Claire spotted what was happening and leaped off her bar stool next to me so that I could swiftly turn sideways and avoid him. Thanks Claire.

All this, coupled with my bad week, made me very on edge all evening and I hated every minute. It definitely affected my darts though I wasn’t awful – I was just aware that I could maybe have done better if I’d been relaxed. Paul shared my feelings I think and his darts were uncharacteristically poor. Roger was not on form either though Simon and Claire were good – thankfully!

We lost every game bar Simon & Claire’s doubles, and Claire’s singles. Well done both – at least it wasn’t a whitewash. We all left the pub pretty early – it says a lot when the pub’s own darts team can’t bear to drink in there afterwards!

It was a thoroughly horrible evening to round off my week

This week has very much been one of “one step forwards, two back” in just about everything I’ve done – or tried to do.

On Monday at work, I didn’t get much work done at all – partly through the usual Monday chaos, but also as I had a pre-appraisal meeting. I have my actual appraisal in a few weeks time and before that need to have completed a fair bit of e-learning (mandatory training which can be done on the Trust’s intranet) and print off the certificates to prove it. I also have to fill in my appraisal documents and produce evidence for my fulfilment of the various key attributes required for my job. In short, I have to find time to write about and prove my worth doing the job for which I don’t have enough time as it is! What a crazy world we live in!

All of this meant that on Tuesday I had to catch up with Monday’s work as well as Tuesday’s workload and all our patients seemed to be in cantankerous moods – but I stayed calm and very polite – somehow! I was absolutely wiped out by the end of the day (as I am most Tuesdays these days) and said to Billy that I’d need to sit down for 5 minutes before cooking. When I went in the kitchen a little later, he was already in there and cooking a gorgeous homemade curry. Yummy!

Wednesday and Friday were spent in my own clinic - I did get my accounts up to date, but need to dig out a couple of missing receipts which is annoying. I was pleased with the progress of the patients I saw this week, but one needed me to write a letter summarising their treatment – which took extra time to do. On Wednesday I had to phone a supplier to chase some herbs which I’d had on backorder for a while, awaiting their incoming shipment being cleared through customs. When I spoke to them, it was discovered that they hadn’t actually done my backorder and so we had to start the order from scratch! The package arrived on Friday which as good as one patient was in desperate need of one of the herbs and I planned to drive over and deliver it myself in the afternoon. When I opened the package though, they’d sent me the wrong products! Five of them! That took more time to sort and by Friday afternoon I felt like I’d had a week of chasing my tail.

Thursday was to be my one day of getting things done and I particularly wanted to sort out a new mobile phone contract as mine is coming to an end. I decided to go to the Metrocentre to do it in person, and set out so I’d arrive as it opened. As I got near the A1, the traffic was queueing right back along the A69 and I crawled along the A1 at a snail’s pace. As I approached the Metrocentre turnoff I was pleased to think I’d soon be out of it – but once I got there, I found it blocked off by fire engines, police and ambulances and the evidence suggested a very nasty car accident with one burned out husk visible. Nasty! Whilst my thoughts went out to those involved, I was presented with a new quandary. How to get to the shops, or back home? I took the next exit and hoped that at the worst, I could get back on the A1 and return home – though as it turned out, I managed to find my way to my original destination, albeit to a different car park and the uncertainty of the way back – still I’d cross that bridge later.

I tried to relax and first went to the Orange shop to discuss my contract. The girl in there was not very enthusiastic and it was like plucking teeth getting the information I wanted out of her. Eventually I decided on a new tariff and handset – the handset was actually the one I thought I would want – four models up from my existing one and with a much better camera. However – that shop was out of stock! Agh! She suggested I try their shop in another part of the centre, so I did, and happily they did have the handset I wanted, and the girl there was much more switched on. She said I’d get a new SIM card for the handset it he post – and when I asked why I couldn’t just put the existing one in it, she explained that it was important to swap it over. I said I didn’t want to be without my phone at all as it was my business one and she promised me I would not and that I’d get texts telling me when the switch was to be made etc. She did offer to do it right away for me but I declined as the new handset needed to be charged up first anyway. In actual fact my plan was to do as I am now – use that handset for my personal use (which is on Tesco mobile PAYG) and continue using my current business phone handset as it does everything I want it to do. I intended to get the new handset unlocked to enable me to do this, so I left the store quite happy.

Next up was a visit to a Clarins counter for a set of 3 samples and some advice on skincare. The samples would hopefully be worth having anyway, but since my skin has realised that it’s over 40 now, it’s feeling a bit dry so it was worth finding out what I should be doing differently to help it age gracefully. I had to wait a couple of minutes for the girl there to be free (she was in demand) but she was worth the wait. She was very friendly and knowledgeable, grasped what I wanted quickly – and didn’t tell me off too much for not having a proper skincare routine I can’t be doing with spending hours cleansing-toning-moisturising twice a day, nor with trowling on make-up, though again, I’m starting to need a little makeup just to even out my skin these days. She showed me the products she thought would suit me and I got a free sample of each after she tried them out on my hand. She even showed me quickly, their new foundation make-up and how it’s best applied with a brush. I’d never have thought of applying a liquid with a brush, I confess! She then gave me a leaflet with the relevant products marked and wrote down the prices. £32 for a pot of moisturiser?!!!!! Never! The stuff was lovely, but my skin better not get addicted to the stuff ‘cos once the samples are used up, that’s it! (However, I have managed to work the basics of the products and think I can make my own from herbal supplies I have in my clinic so maybe I can use those instead.)

After this, I went and got Billy a pen from WHSmith with his Christmas voucher – and even that wasn’t straight forward as there were umpteen Parker pens from which to choose and no explanation of the differences between them. However, eventually I made a decision and Billy was pleased with it.

Finally, I wanted to pick up another free sample, along the reasons already mentioned, but when I got to the counter, I was told that this wasn’t starting until Friday. Nowhere on the promotion did it mention this! Grrr!

When I got back to the car and checked my phone for any missed calls or messages, I found that the SIM card had already been deactivated and I was furious! Since I didn’t want to have to go back inside again, I had no choice but to wait until I got home to try and sort it out.

When I contacted Orange, I was advised that it was automatic for the SIM to be deactivated so I voiced my dissatisfaction and reiterated that this was my BUSINESS phone! I did find a new SIM enclosed with the new handset, fortunately, and was able to put this in to my own handset so actually, I was only unavailable for a couple of hours or so – I just have to hope no-one wanted me in that time.

On Friday I popped out from my clinic to take my new phone to the shop to be unlocked - only to be told that it couldn’t be done! It was apparently very difficult to unlock this particular model, and though there was one specialist place that might be able to do it, it would cost me £22+ How bloody frustrating! Instead, I am going to have to switch to Orange for my personal phone as well, which I have never wanted to do, being very pleased with the service and price plan I have from Tesco (I don’t use my phone much so £15 usually lasts me about 3 months.) I also like having two different networks so that if one isn’t working, the other is. I have now ordered a Tesco SIM to put in my old phone so I can keep it in the car for emergencies, and an Orange one for my new phone – and I’ll have to then organise switching so that I keep my number. More work! Even getting the Orange SIM wasn’t smooth as I did it online, clicked the final button and had a message telling me I needed to phone to complete it! Grrr!

THEN, there were two automated phone calls for Billy claiming to be from his bank’s fraud department - which seemed odd. Surely that would not be automated? So I looked up the fraud number on their website which did not match anything like the number given in the message. Hmmm. So I called the website number – all automated of course and was on hold for 20 minutes before being cut off! We don’t use BT and it was an 0845 number so it will have cost a fortune. Feeling this was important, I tried again – with the same result. So I tried calling our branch – no answer, just an open line! Finally, I e-mailed them via the “contact us” link and explained that all we wanted to do was find out if this was genuine and safe to call the number given. No response yet – someone could be gaily spending Billy’s money if this is genuine! I did try calling the phone number given in the message but that made me even more suspicious as it was again automated and gave Billy’s name as the person required as soon s it was answered. So, I spent the best part of 2 hours on his, without ever speaking to a real live person.

I was in a very annoyed mood indeed by Friday evening and hoped for a good evening playing darts to put me right.

I was not optimistic about this match - we seem to have a block where Stoke are concerned, and it was away. Having met so many times this season in league and cup, I felt the managers could probably predict their opposite numbers’ tactics for him.

Mancini had said on the club web site that he intended to change tactics, and that, coupled with our wonderful play in the opening 30 minutes, gave me hope.

Silly me! After Stoke’s 3rd goal went in, I did something I never do. Turned it off and went to bed in utter disgust! How is it possible to play so well for half an hour and then just switch off? I just don’t understand it.

I’m too disgusted to say much else about this game except that I’d rather we lost in normal time so I could have gone to bed earlier – I was desperately tired that night and felt the extra time was a complete waste of mine.

I suppose at least, we don’t have to waste our energy on playing Chelsea away in the quarter final now….

I was really looking forward to this game as I was taking Stephen with me for the first time in about 8 years! He went off football for a while and was more into his music, but he’s very much into football generally again now. He’s still a NUFC fan, but he seems to enjoy admiring individual players – partly through playing Championship Manager constantly, I suspect. He admires many of the Liverpool players, and especially Torres, though he also likes City’s Tevez too. (Shame Tevez was in Argentina for this game and didn’t play.) All that aside, I was going to take my son to CoMS for the first time ever, and was looking forward to his easy company for the day.

Imagine my feelings then, when I woke up to hear that Manchester had been badly hit by snow and the airport was closed! Would the game go ahead? Trying to find out was a nightmare with my usual favourite City site down meaning I couldn’t ask the locals. So I asked on Facebook and Twitter and hoped for the best – after all, it’s a 3.5 hour drive so I needed to know quite early and I didn’t want to waste £50 worth of petrol if the game was off! I did eventually get news via a friend on Twitter and finally through the official site, that the game was on. YAY! Just had to hope the roads were OK for driving then. I had arranged tickets for a few friends so I dropped them a text to let them know the game was going ahead, and then Stephen and I set off, early enough to allow for any delays.

Sod’s law came into play and we had a very smooth run – albeit through bright sunshine (home); thick fog (driving west); absolute blizzards (Lakes); Sleet (Lancashire); Hail (Bolton); and rain (Manchester)! And so we arrived at the car park with almost 2 hours to go until KO! I didn’t think any of the usual suspects would be in the pub that I tend to use if I’m meeting anyone, but Stephen was up for a quick drink so we went there anyway. It’s set back a bit and is reached by walking through an alleyway through a housing estate – Stephen had me giggling as he didn’t believe there was a pub there. It was, as usual, packed, but we squeezed our way to the bar once the “bouncers” let us in, and I gave Stephen the money to get the drinks. (I was brought up to know that a lady does not go to the bar unless it’s an all girls group. Besides which, we ladies get ignored at bars, especially on busy match days!) He had no such problem and soon we both were sipping a nice cold half We found our way to a comparative gap in the crowd, and watched a bit of the Villa v Burnley game on the TV before being spotted by a couple of my friends. Cuddles and introductions followed, and a pleasant little chat about the match was had. We left in good time to get to our seats (and Burnley were 0-1 up, which was good news for City) having enjoyed the interlude.

We bumped into another friend I hadn’t seen for ages, as we made our way to our seats, so that was nice. We were using a friend’s season tickets as he was away on holiday and we couldn’t have got much closer to the pitch if we’d tried! Great view:

Stephen’s pics:

The downside to these seats was that we were exposed to the weather - not something I have to worry about in my usual seat and therefore not something I’d even thought of. We were rained, and snowed upon, and at one point had hailstones bouncing off our legs! The other disadvantage, compared to my own seat, was that we couldn’t clearly see all parts of the pitch and had no overview. We missed bits of action taking place on the far side and in the north-west corner. That said, we were very happy with the seats and enjoyed the game up close.

The match itself was not the boring affair the media seemed to think. Lazy journalism I presume: 0-0 must mean dull. Not at all, as anyone who actually watched the game will attest. It was, rather, the meeting of two equally matched teams, both concentrating on their defences and being pretty rubbish up front. There was plenty of play though, and the main thing that spoiled the day was the ref! He was diabolical. As was the lino on the east touchline. (Both sets of fans thought the ref was bad so maybe he wasn’t as biased towards Liverpool as we home fans felt, but he was so bad that he needs to go back to ref school!) We looked to have a nailed on penalty – but the ref didn’t think so – or rather, he DID, but changed his mind! Apparently Liverpool should also have had one, though from our view, we missed this.

Stephen and I could not understand why Johnson was not given more of the ball - he was often in yards of space and every time he DID get the ball, he looked dangerous and we felt something might come of it. Zabaleta was brilliant and his hard work and many tackles were apparent in his very muddy kit by the end. Clearly he caused a nuisance as far as the visitors were concerned as he constantly clattered by them! The only players of Liverpool that gave me any worries that they’d cause us problems, were Benayoun and Torres when they came on as subs. However, even they gave me no major scares.

Both teams were there for the taking, and would have been slaughtered by any decent team, but as it was 0-0 was a fair result.

Ireland was woeful and would have been my first sub – I never have been a great fan of his, though he did imrpess even me at times, last season. Ade was terribly poor, but for once he was making a lot of effort. He’s no football player – more a goal poacher, in my opinion, so he needs others to do the work and give him the ball to pop in the net.

From our seats, we heard, and almost felt, the ball smash into Ryan Babel’s face when he got in the way of a ferocious cross by Johnson. OUCH! Sometimes, sitting further away from the pitch, it’s easy to forget that the players are full grown men, (pretty big too!) running at full pace and using quite some power in their efforts. If any of them ran at me when I had the ball, I’d step back and let them have the thing

Kippax Blue’s photos here.

Stephen and I both enjoyed the game, despite their being no goals to cheer and came away frozen, but cheerful. We walked round to the store in the pouring rain, to meet up with friends, but the weather stopped us talking long. It took us a while to thaw out as we waited in the car, with heater full on, for traffic to move. I usually picnic whilst waiting but Stephen didn’t feel like eating so we waited until we got to the Lancaster services.

When we got there I was looking forward to my mocha, and grabbed a sandwich to eat with it, whilst Stephen went to the shop (to buy cigarettes, it turned out! I hadn’t even THOUGHT about the fact he hadn’t smoked all day – as a non-smoker, it just doesn’t cross my mind.) I was a bit puzzled to see the mocha being made with hot chocolate instead of the usual chocolate syrup – and when I tasted it, it was utterly DISGUSTING! Instead of being a coffee with a hint of chocolate, it was chocolate with a hint of coffee! And I HATE hot chocolate I took it back and politely asked for a refund as I couldn’t drink it, and was told that this was their new way of making mochas. Bang goes my post match hot drink then – NOT happy!

We arrived home, at about 9.20pm having had a trip absolutely clear of any bad weather (bizarre, given the blizzards we’d encountered in the morning) I had loved having Stephen’s company for the day, and enjoyed talking football with him. I’d love to do that more often

Last night, we played away at The Traveller’s in Slayley, which is currently the home pub for the team from The Rose and Crown whilst their usual home is closed. I haven’t played there before but it’s a pleasant, cosy little pub. The dart board area is slightly cramped, but nicely separated from he bar and restaurant and quite nice because of that.

Theirs is a strong team and we did quite well to come away with a 7 – 4 loss. We won: Mine & Roger’s doubles; Mine, Roger’s and Paul’s singles.

My own darts were terrible in the trebles, slightly better in the doubles and a mix in the singles. To be honest, my singles opponent should have beaten me but he just couldn’t finish, and gave me time to catch up and get my double. A flukey win, but I’ll take it.

When we got back, our home pub was rather full of drunken idiots so Simon and Claire went home whilst Billy, Roger and I went into Ant’s for a drink or two. We were having such a pleasant evening and one of our number needed some moral support and companionship so it just seemed right to extend our night. Roger left after one drink as he had to get back for babysitters, but Paul, Billy and I stayed and swapped tales of camping and expeditions and it ended up being a late night (for me)

I enjoy playing darts, but more than that, I do love my team mates.

City again. Stoke again. Rubbish again! It was a chore to watch this match and though I DID watch it (online) I confess I pottered around with other things at the same time (something I don’t normally do whilst watching my boys – I usually give them my full attention.)

Not only were we utterly outplayed by a team who wanted it more, but we also managed to concede against ten men! Faye was sent off for bringing down Ade – I have no idea why anyone thought this was a controversial decision as it looked obvious to me. As often happens, ten man Stoke gave it all they had and you’d have thought it was City that had the disadvantage from the way they laboured to get even a point. In fact Stoke had a perfectly good goal disallowed which was bemusing, if a relief for City. As was the fact that Viera remained on the pitch after kicking out at Whelan. It should have been 10 v 10 at that point.

I can’t even claim that Stoke have played us so much this season (twice in the league, and once-soon-to-be-twice in the FA Cup) that they have our measure – though of course, they probably do. For whatever reason, known only to them, our team just can’t get themselves into gear at the moment. We are extremely fortunate to somehow have got ourselves into 4th place but if we don’t buck up our ideas, we won’t be staying there.

What with Valentine’s Day, Billy being so thoughtful and helpful, and this week being the 8th Anniversary of our first meeting, it seems an appropriate moment to waffle about Billy and I – how we met, and our life together. (The sick-bucketly challenged need read no further )

We first got to know of each other on a football message board which was for fans of all clubs and we had a really great bunch of people posting there. With Billy being a Newcastle fan, as Stephen was, we had some common ground. When Man City were drawn away to Newcastle in the 5th Round of the FA Cup in February 2002, Billy met a group of us City fans in the pub before the match – despite not actually having a ticket for the game himself. My first impression of him was that far from his claims on the message board, he was by no means ugly – in fact he was drop-dead-gorgeous. But he was very, very shy and quiet so I didn’t really feel I knew much more about him.(In case you’re wondering, it was a great night with City fans singing non-stop and left feeling very proud of our 10 men (Dunne was sent off) who made the home team battle hard for their 1-0 victory.)

After that, we e-mailed a little and Billy sent Stephen some NUFC magazines – and generally corrupted my first born off the Blue path which I was just getting him onto, and back to black and white which he’d first chosen at the age of 6 (thanks to Alan Shearer and Euro 96.) Then one day he was on his way back from visiting family in the south and stopped by to visit us in Chester, and stayed for dinner. After this, he visited a few times, and stayed overnight – in the spare room of course, and always when another friend was also staying over. At this point we were still “just” friends and to cut a long story short, I for one, had no idea that we might ever be anything more. We used to chat on MSN and ICQ for hours and got to know each other pretty well, and though I was completely unaware of any attraction myself though a couple of people, including my mum, noticed. I denied it because I hadn’t recognised it.Even when the penny did drop, I dismissed it as there was no way Billy could possibly be interested in a woman 9 years older, divorced, with two children!

Towards the end of 2002, we had an online conversation in which he said that actually he was – I was stunned! We decided not to rush into anything yet and discuss it when we next met. On Boxing Day that year, he went to his match (against Bolton) and fibbed to me saying he couldn’t get back home again so would I go and pick him up and bring him back to Chester for the night. I did, and we decided to give a relationship a go and see where we ended up.

Well after that, things flew! Of course, we’d been chatting for hours every night online for months, but our getting together was rather a surprise for friends and family – and there aren’t words to describe their shock when we got engaged in April 2003! (Billy proposed after England beat Turkey in the Euro 2004 group stages, on MSN. His friends pushed him into doing the job properly the following weekend, and he duly arrived with an engagement ring and went on bended knee. I accepted (again) having checked how the children felt about it and gained their approval.) I moved up to live with him in August 2003 and we married in December 2004.

So that’s a potted history of our getting together – but in the time since then, we’ve been through so much.

Billy took on a ready made family, and a 4 bedroomed house (with associated mortgage!) – a complete change of lifestyle from his single, carefree life before. Moreover, I’ve since come to realise that his childhood had not actually shown him any sort of normal family life so he hadn’t a clue how to go on as part of a family unit. I had had years of only having to think about myself and the children and had to get used to sharing a home with a man again. But I was used to running a family home, so it was left to me to organise, unpack and turn the house into a home.

Billy actually doesn’t much care where he’s living or what state the house is in, as long as he has somewhere to store all his sports stuff and sleep at night. He is so messy and unorganised, he had no routine, was not used to sitting and eating family meals, and certainly had never had to communicate where he was going/what his plans were to facilitate planning of said meals.

I would say it took us five years to get the hang of living together – we are such opposites in the way we live our day to day lives that we’ve had to chop and change ideas and routines constantly until we’ve found a way that suits both our needs. He is ridiculously messy, I am obsessively neat and tidy. I am organised and like routine, he lives for the moment and acts spontaneously. I am disciplined and get things done when they need doing, he puts everything off as long as possible even if it’s something important. I am very cautious with money, he likes to spend. I am a morning person but fade fast in the evening, he doesn’t get going until late afternoon but wants to be up all night.

And yet we HAVE found ways of making it work – because the very thing we love about each other is that we don’t try and change each other. I love that Billy lets me be myself and accepts me for who and what I am. He doesn’t mind me going off to do my own thing, he seems to enjoy my company when we do things together and he doesn’t try to crowd me when I need my own space. For my part, I don’t mind him doing his own thing either, whether that be a football trip to Amsterdam with the the lads, or lending a friend some support untilt he wee small hours.

We don’t really argue and we’re not ones for sulking either. We have a sort of unspoken rule that we don’t play guessing games with eachother, we don’t prevaricate if asked about something, but we tell each other honestly how we feel about it and if necessary find a compromise. This is very, very important to me as the thing I hate above all, is lies. Given that we are such opposites, of course we disagree over things but I love the fact that we can both see the other point of view when we talk it through and we can work out a way forwards.

We’ve had a pretty tough time of it since living together - my dad died a couple of weeks before I moved, and we’ve had more family bereavements since – my beloved Nan, both of Billy’s grandparents, his aunt (under tragic circumstances) and then his mum after a very intense year of illness. We’ve lost pets to old age, illness and accidents. We’ve had Billy’s demon with which to cope. We’ve had the usual challenges of family life – two teenagers who are good well balanced people,but nonetheless, teenagers with all the associated hormone ridden angst. We’ve had Raji move in with us which has worked out well, but like Billy a few years ago, he too, has no idea how to live as part of a family. We’ve had some pretty major financial worries which have put a severe pressure on our relationship at times. At those times, Billy retreats into himself worrying about things and I lose my husband for a time, which I hate and which makes the stress of keeping it all together even harder on me.

Somehow though, we’ve survived this far and surely, surely, if we’ve managed to stay close and loving through all these bad times, our relationship is going to be absolutely amazing when we get to good times. We’ve both matured, both learned some hard lessons, both taken on each other’s “baggage”. But some day, the kids will have flown the nest, finances will ease, and we will get the chance to just “be” and to enjoy a life together.

That’s the hope and it keeps me going, because I love Billy. When all is well in his world, I love the warm, caring, gentle, loving person he is. I love his intelligence and his generosity (of self). I love his cuddles and the way he loves my cuddles too. I love being with him whether alone or in other company. He makes me laugh, he makes me feel loved and he makes me feel special.

We’ve just come through a very stressful couple of months and this last week has been so wonderful because I’ve had the man I love back. He’s even been extra helpful (he’s no domestic God! ) and considerate, and I’m loving it. Please God, let it last.