Phoenix's Future Plans

[Phoenix]

Hi at last from Hayle in Cornwall. It's been a while since I posted, and I still haven't got my computer set up so I'm writing this on my mobile. As I came down here on June 20th, and it is now September 21st, it doesn't require any great effort of thought to work out that I have been here for three months. During this time I have done no work of any description on either of my planned books. Virtually all of my story papers for boys and girls are still in a lock-up in Penzance, for which I am paying 120 pounds a month. In my house, which is now feeling very much like a home, I have one year's worth of DEBBIE (1977) and two of BUNTY, one of which is 1958, the other I think is her last year. I also have six year's worth of DIANA and a handful of issues of JUDY. However, thanks to a lot of help from my younger son, Russell, his wife, Rachel, who live a few minutes drive away, and my ex-wife Lynne, who lives in St Ives, there is plenty of space in my house in which to store my story papers, so perhaps it won't be too long before I'm posting here regularly again. I help them out by collecting their daughter, Lois (12) from St Ives school whenever Rach is doing a double shift, today being one of those days, so I'll be over there in an hour and a half. I also drive her to and from her ballet classes twice a week. I wait for her in the Badger with a book and a pint of Tribute.

[Tammyfan]

Hi at last from Hayle in Cornwall. It's been a while since I posted, and I still haven't got my computer set up so I'm writing this on my mobile. As I came down here on June 20th, and it is now September 21st, it doesn't require any great effort of thought to work out that I have been here for three months. During this time I have done no work of any description on either of my planned books. Virtually all of my story papers for boys and girls are still in a lock-up in Penzance, for which I am paying 120 pounds a month. In my house, which is now feeling very much like a home, I have one year's worth of DEBBIE (1977) and two of BUNTY, one of which is 1958, the other I think is her last year. I also have six year's worth of DIANA and a handful of issues of JUDY. However, thanks to a lot of help from my younger son, Russell, his wife, Rachel, who live a few minutes drive away, and my ex-wife Lynne, who lives in St Ives, there is plenty of space in my house in which to store my story papers, so perhaps it won't be too long before I'm posting here regularly again. I help them out by collecting their daughter, Lois (12) from St Ives school whenever Rach is doing a double shift, today being one of those days, so I'll be over there in an hour and a half. I also drive her to and from her ballet classes twice a week. I wait for her in the Badger with a book and a pint of Tribute.

Good to hear from you again Phoenix! Once your computer is set up you might be able to catch up on all the news, queries and developments on the forum and Girls Comics of Yesterday that have been going on while you were away!

[Phoenix]

I am looking forward to doing so, Briony. Genuinely so. I suspect it will take a while though to read all the posts and get my head round the many issues raised. Another issue concerning me is that about three weeks ago my granddaughter Lois was coming back with me to my house from Hayle town centre through a local park on heelies that I had bought for her the previous day in Sports Direct in Penzance when she fell over a raised area on the path and broke her left arm. I've seen the X-rays from Treliske Hospital in Truro, and it's a bad break so for most of the time she will be watching rather than taking part in her ballet lessons in Lelant Village Hall as her elbow is in plaster, which apparently will not be removed for another month. I'm pretty sure that she will be more careful in future!!

[Kashgar]

A young ballerina thwarted in her dancing ambitions by an accident! The world of Bunty and her sisters is percolating into your real life Derek! Seriously though, I hope Lois is soon on the mend.

[comixminx]

Good to hear from you Derek, glad you are more settled in! I have been very frantic at work recently, and concentrating on other things, so have only just seen this.

[Hawkeye]

Welcome home Derek.

Hope Lois mends quickly.

[Phoenix]

Welcome home Derek. Hope Lois mends quickly.

Thank you all for your kind words. I really do appreciate them. I collected Lois from school this afternoon, and I've been in the Badger again this evening waiting for her to come in from having a ballet lesson in Lelant Village Hall so that I could drive her home. She is still finding the cast on her left arm a bit limiting in some movements, but as it is being removed on Friday she is pragmatic. I raised the possibility with her that she may need a dressing of some description over the break, and not to be upset if that is what the nurses decide to do. She'll take it in her stride, I'm sure, but I doubt whether she will put the heelies on again!

Russell is bringing my comic collection in from the lock-up slowly but surely at roughly twenty to thirty boxes at a time in one of his camper vans, so I now have most of my collections in house and in numerical order. My ex-wife, Lynne, comes over from St Ives about three days a week to help arrange their storage appropriately for ease of access. I'm very glad that the lady I bought my house from was prepared to leave behind the tall wall-to-wall wardrobes in both bedrooms, which are ideal for housing story papers. I mean, let's face it, clothes can go on the floor, can't they? By no means all the issues of BUNTY have surfaced, and no issues whatsoever of DIANA as yet, but it is a big storage facility, and I certainly have enough of my story papers for girls here to allow me to make a modest but effective start on BUNTY AND HER SISTERS.

[Phoenix]

When earlier I said 'no issues of DIANA', I should have said 'no further issues of DIANA' as I do of course have her final six years, as I have already mentioned. The lock-up has now disgorged what appears to be all my issues of M&J, TRACY, and NIKKI, all my issues of DEBBIE apart from the first 50, and a lot of issues of JUDY, mainly towards the end of her run. Maybe Russ will find time on Monday, his day off, to go and fetch me some more. Hope springs eternal in the human breast, as they say.

[Phoenix]

I'm on the school run again this afternoon to pick up Lois and her friend Faye [not sure about the 'e', I'll have to ask her], as tonight they are having a sleepover. Not at my house though, fortunately. Lois had the cast taken off this morning but the metal pins above her elbow will have to wait a fair bit longer. I had a word last night with Liz Nolan, her ballet teacher, to explain Lois's situation, and as I anticipated, she had to sit out and watch at her ballet class. The frustration is clearly getting to her as last night, when she came into the Badger, she refused a bottle of coca-cola, saying ''I haven't done any exercise so I'm not thirsty.'' I hope she's not as mischievous at teatime tonight though as she was last night when she put coca cola in my coffee. I should get away soon after half six when Russ gets home from work, at which point I will start reading the stories from issue 1 of TRACY onwards as it has been quite a while since I read any story papers.

[Phoenix]

[not sure about the 'e', I'll have to ask her]

For those few who are interested, Faye has an 'e'. The reason Faye and Lois are friends is that at the beginning of year 7 last September but one, when they started their secondary education at St Ives School, their form tutor sat the whole class in alphabetical order, which paired Lois Marsden and Faye Mason. Result - a friendship which will surely last. I took the two of them, and Lo's brother, Alex (9), to McDonald's in Hayle for their tea yesterday as Rachel had gone to work, leaving me a ten pound note with which to buy it. Needless to say, it wasn't enough so I had to top it up. I wanted to go to the Brewers Arms, which do very decent meals, but I was outvoted 3 to 1 so we slummed it. On the plus side, it gave me an opportunity to get to know Faye a bit better. What a nice girl she is, so polite and so easy to chat to, and not remotely inhibited when talking to me. It was like having a conversation with a young adult. Even Alex behaved himself most of the time, so I wasn't on edge wondering what mischief he was going to get up to. On the way back we went to Home Bargains as Faye wanted to get a Halloween costume. She had £14 with her but found one to suit her at £9.49. I gave Lois and Alex £10 each so they wouldn't feel left out. Lois bought two gummy bears with her money, Alex bought a soft blanket which he claimed would make life so much easier for him when kneeling on his bedroom floor playing with his games that would normally be played on a table. I've now got 3-day break from looking after Lois and Alex as Rachel isn't working afternoons until next Tuesday.

[philcom55]

I was recently in a local supermarket when I was startled to hear a sweet-looking little girl declare "I WANT TO BE A BLOODY PRINCESS!" in imperious tones to her harassed parents. It was only later I discovered that the 'Bloody Princess' was one of that year's Halloween costumes in Sainsburys' seasonal aisle!

[Phoenix]

I've now got a 3-day break from looking after Lois and Alex

Well that 3-day break didn't last long. There was I, settling down in my conservatory this morning to read a serial in MANDY when the door bell rang. I assumed it was the postman but no it wasn't. Lois, Faye, Alex, and his girlfriend, Autumn, had descended on me. To be fair to Alex, he denies that Autumn is his girlfriend. However, she lives four doors away from his house, they walk home from school together, and they play out together, so I rest my case. They were taking Marley, the family pooch, for his morning constitutional, and thought I might like to accompany them down to the town centre, which in reality consists of one long road, a very good pasty shop, and an excellent pub called The White Hart, which has a huge figure of that animal high above the front entrance. They were actually only interested in SPAR, and seemingly how much they could persuade me to shell out on sweets. I, on the other hand was wondering how Bolton were going to get on in their 5.30 game against Blackburn Rovers, and as I hadn't yet been out to pick up my copy of The Guardian, I agreed to accompany them. Big mistake! What they asked me to pay for cost me £13. In future I think I will have recourse to my father's wise words, "If you ask, you don't get, if you don't ask, you don't want."

[stevezodiac]

Hi, Derek. I saw this article in Jennifer Selway's Daily Express column on Saturday and thought it might interest you. My niece has two little daughters and I wondered if they would enjoy it. I presume the young 'uns in your family have read it?

[Phoenix]

My niece has two little daughters and I wondered if they would enjoy it. I presume the young 'uns in your family have read it?

Well, it's like this, Steve. I have yet to see proof that my grandchildren here in Hayle can actually read. One example should suffice. On Lois's 12th birthday in August I gave her £40 in crisp treasury notes to spend as she saw fit. I also gave her a paperback edition of Anne Of Green Gables, which I told her was a fantastic story, and that I had read my copy countless times because I love it, and I wasn't kidding her. In fact, the reader's involvement is more or less immediate, being carefully eased into the setting when Anne arrives at Green Gables, because of the ensuing conflict. Marilla doesn't want her because she had asked the orphanage for a boy, and is determined to send her back. Matthew manages to persuade her to give Anne a trial period, and it doesn't take that long for Marilla to see what Matthew sees in her. So she can't work in the fields the way a boy might, but she is such an engaging and mischievous personality that it isn't really all that long before Marilla realises just how special Anne is despite the escapades she gets involved in, and how lucky they are to have decided not to return her and exchange her for a boy. My involvement with the action is total so when Matthew dies, tears come to my eyes because I am not in my lounge reading a book, I am there with him, and that capacity for empathy with fictional characters is exactly what I want Lois to experience. Given that she hasn't yet read chapter one, it's beginning to look like a tall order.

[Phoenix]

I am not really able to comment on your newspaper cutting, Steve, because I can't read it. Not having had access to my computer for the last three months, I seem to have forgotten how to increase the size of the illustrations. There is a guy advertising in a local booklet offering advice and assistance with computer problems. I'll give him a ring tomorrow morning.