Sunshine on a rainy day

It's been a beautiful sunny day in Brighton today.  The sea looked extra blue from my office window & the Pavilion Gardens were packed.  I've felt uneasy today though - from a mixture of having bad dreams last night, reading FB updates on June's funeral yesterday and hearing news of mass shootings in Cumbria.

I know the bad dreams probably came from the Cumbria news.  It brought back very bad memories of the Hungerford massacre in 1987.  I lived and worked very close to that pretty little town and had driven through that very same high street on my scooter just a day before.  I was at work when it happened and news came through from a colleague's wife who was trapped in her house just a stone's throw away from Michael Ryan who was going mental with a shotgun.  That day was one of the scariest ever, knowing that had he turned right instead of left out of Savernake Forest, Marlborough would have been in the news for all all the wrong reasons and not Hungerford, and things could have been very different for me and everyone I knew back then.  I did actually know someone who got shot but luckily survived - I imagine his bad dreams are a million times worse than mine.

On a much nicer, happier note - I met up with Kristin for lunch at The Dorset.  I forgot about dieting again and scoffed on nachos with chorizo - a million calories and fat content through the roof but I needed it today perhaps.  Lovely to catch up with Kristin regarding important things such as Manchester nightlife and the fact that the male species up there are just about as useless as they are down here.

Thanks to Facebook, I saw this lovely afternoon advertised today.  I'd like to see what someone could do with my curly mass of hair in the way of a 1950s style!  A definite must and a chance to take lots of lovely photos of no doubt lots of lovely people!

and finally.......the teenage skanky squatters have gone - removed it would seem as all their badly handmade banners have gone and the beer bottles binned.  Maybe they've found a better establishment - we'll never know!

Squatters Rights

I've turned into a NIMBY and I don't like it!  Squatters have taken over a run down house in my usually pretty, quiet road.  I'm fairly sure that it was used by some hardcore drug users previously so I guess squatters are a step up from that.

I've seen these squatters coming back from the Co-op with carrier bags full of alcohol and Pot Noodles (probably).  At one point, two of them were asleep on a urine-stained mattress in the front yard.  The upstairs window is kept open with used beer bottles.  There's unfortunately a poor little toddler living there amongst the chaos too I think.

Over the past couple of days, handmade banners have appeared - "Save my Squat", "Too Many Empty Houses in Brighton" blah blah blah and while I sympathise with their situation and agree about the housing situation, I think that if they want a property, they need to take a bit more care of it - you know what I mean, a bit of Cillit Banging, booze bottle recycling, that sort of it.  And maybe respect their neighbours a bit more.

I know what I'm talking about as regards squats you know!  I havn't always been the clean cut lady I am now.  I've stayed in squats (lots of them) - good & bad, and was even going to live in one once.  Good:  A 3 storey Victorian House in Eversholt Street, NW1, with a working bathroom & kitchen on each floor, and electric (provided of course by a friendly fixer).  Bad:  Drug infested hovels in Kennington/Brixton where people came & went, taking everyone's belongings with them.

I don't know if it happens much these days but in the 90s, there were stories all the time of long-term squatters being allowed to keep their squatted properties as the owners had died, given up or gone mad!  I'm positive that this was only because they made these places their own little homes, looked after them and treated them in a way in which anyone would be proud.

Blimey this was a bit serious today.  I might go and have a word with the squatting kids - tidy up or go away!  I really don't want their mess ruining my pretty road.

Tomorrow's blog will hopefully be prettier!