Journal Entries
Accosted...
Posted Feb 10, 2012
My sister has on three occassions now been accosted by a stranger because she has parked on the street.
This street is lined with houses, but is not residential parking - trust me, if it was she would never dream of parking there! The parking on the street is public, where people park every day, all day. My sister works in the afternoons at our parents business which has been there twenty years, has no parking facility of its own and has meant my parents have parked on that street and the adjacent ones every day from 9am to 7pm for the past twenty years. With no problem.
The man accosting her is a relatively new resident and has decided to pick on my sister, calling her stupid, getting right up in her face and being threatening. My sister, who has parked on those streets for the 10 years she's been past her driving test, is now scared of parking so she can go to work.
Mum talked to a police officer the first day it happened, who said it was public parking and anyone could park where they want. This week after the third accosting she went to the police station and talked to the community support officer who said exactly the same and said my sister could make a complaint. But she's convinced that would only make things worst.
I'm so angry and upset and scared myself because I park there, I will be in the next week or so to do the next window, but I admit I'm now pretty scared of parking there myself.
The thing is, no other resident has ever complained, in fact my dad knows alot of them through his work and none has ever had an issue. In fact one I'm positive said she didn't have an issue with anyone parking there. The other kicked is, the street my sister was parked on isn't the street this ass lives on. He lives on the one that everyone parks on and my sister never does.
Yes, we could pay to park, but it's expensive and the carparks are in poor condition and people park horrendously in there...plus there are always spaces on the street and when parking for five minutes yes, I'd probably pay, but we don't, we park for hours, not know when we'll be done at work, thing which we're there for taking anywhere from an hours to five or six.
I can't get it out of my head, so I thought I'd get it off my chest here. And yeah, I'm partly scared he'll do it to me but mostly I am angry and so upset that he's made my sister this upset and freaked out. Which is something I've rarely seen. Freaked to the point where she not only hid the other day after parking, but walked down three different streets to avoid him.
This man is an a**hole and a coward. He's picking on a young woman, who's 5'4" and was nothing but polite and apologetic to him. He would never pick on my father or any man, he's picking on women because he knows he's intimidating.
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Latest reply: Feb 10, 2012
Why do people hate trees?
Posted Feb 7, 2012
It's been a sticking point for me for years. Personally, I love trees, but I've noticed more and more people hating them.
And what's too hate? They're big, beautiful, CO2 chomping, oxygen spewing, home and life giving entities which no one seems to have any love for these days.
My neighbour, for example, is a tree hater. She cut down all the trees in her garden, both those which where there when they moved in and those her husband planted before his death and is constantly jokingly complaining about our garden and all the trees around it. But we like trees, they were there when we moved here, they'll be there when we leave and her bullying won't persuade us otherwise. We've already taken down two which were an issue to her, but for our reasons (one had died and I bet she was responsible for that and one which should never have been there), but we certainly did not do it for her.
Today however, she had this beautiful, majestic 50+ year old tree pruned...except it wasn't. It was hacked up and may as well have been removed all together. It's limbs have been badly butchered and there are now a lot of homeless sparrows.
That tree was a big tree when we moved here, which is 21 years ago this May, and they bought the house with huge established trees around it, including those in our garden, 13 years after us.
Why buy a house with huge trees around it if you hate them so much?
In my future I would rather have trees as neighbours than people.
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Latest reply: Feb 7, 2012
Keeping Resolutions...
Posted Jan 21, 2012
For the last two years, on my blog, I've written a 12 days of Christmas series, and so last year, on the first of January, which was my 8th day, I wrote 8 resolutions...
...then failed to stick too.
This year, I had one, with 7 sub-resolutions (http://snowinateapot.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-8th-day-of-christmas.html). So far, 21 days into the year, I've been sticking to two. But a third is being pushed to the front and it's starting to get to me.
My friend emailed my mum - after not being able to get hold of me because I've been MIA from Facebook and haven't been answering emails and having a stupid phone which didn't work. Anyway, she emailed mum, saying she's getting married and she wants me to make her wedding bands. I really want to do it, but I have no idea how to tell her the reason I've been MIA and have disappeared for over a year, is that I've been so depressed that I've not been working and have been progressively becoming a hermit.
My 8th sub-resolution was to reconnect with my friends, including sending them my new phone number, but, as with every time I've tried to write to my friends about it, I can't because I feel stupid for getting into this situation.
I know depression takes all forms, mine's been like this, and it's one thing blogging about it, or writing here about it, but explaining it to my friends - who I know on the whole would probably be supportive - really scares me.
I hate feeling like this, especially when doing this for my friend would be lovely, I just can't shake myself into pressing send. 
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Latest reply: Jan 21, 2012
Christmas Windows 2011
Posted Dec 4, 2011
They're all in and I've finally had five minutes to edit the photos and post them to my blog.
I'm so happy with them, particularly the houses in Blair which I spent so much time drawing up and making. This was particularly fun for the the ones based on real building, which I had to scale from photos. 
http://snowinateapot.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-window-2011-x-3.html
I love doing the Christmas windows, they're stressful to get made in time as everything's handmade, but it's the one time of year where I can legitimately go insane with the glitter! 
The whole house has been covered for weeks and the back steps look icy at night because of all the glitter I was shaking off out there.
It has made me desperate to put up the Christmas decorations! Is it too early?
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Latest reply: Dec 4, 2011
Good night, sleep tight, kill all the book mites in sight.
Posted Nov 29, 2011
I'm currently settling down on the couch for the night, having had to spray my chest of drawers with flea spray, pull everything out and clean it all to try and get rid of book mites which have been living behind it.
Makes my skin crawl and I'm just happy the clothes I'm wearing have only just been washed. But now there's 4 drawers of washing to be done when I get up. Lucky I was due a cull!
Not that they are harmful, or bite, they shouldn't even damage clothes unless I've put anything in the drawer damp, or the wee patch of damp has gone far enough into the drawers to cause mildew (it has but I'm hoping the bottom drawer hasn't got anything really important in it)...
...but I swear, if they're noshing badly on my books, I will be seriously pissed off. And all my lovely - unused - sketchbooks are sitting on top, waiting to be used. I will cry if they're ruined!
Evil little blighters!
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Latest reply: Nov 29, 2011
Emily...overly fond of the ellipsis...and top ten lists...submit yours @ A87824361...
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