Phoenix's Future Plans

Discuss all the girls comics that have appeared over the years. Excellent titles like Bunty, Misty, Spellbound, Tammy and June, amongst many others, can all be remembered here.

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Phoenix
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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

Lois has just rung me to let me know that she got the top mark in her form for the French Speaking Test. Looks as though we might just have another linguist in the family. :cheers:

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Phoenix wrote:
Phoenix wrote:I've been through the contents of every box without finding a single SPELLBOUND.
That's because they were already in the house, hiding under a couple of yearsworth of BUNTY. I'm only missing issue 65 (December 17 1977). If anyone is prepared to scan or photocopy their issue 65, I will be delighted to PM my new address to them, along with my gratitude.
I can email you scans at the weekend Derek.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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peace355 wrote:I can email you scans at the weekend Derek.
That will be very kind of you, thank you very much. I haven't started reading the story yet due to the missing instalment. I look forward to reading your scanned pages. I'll PM you my new address. :) :D

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Not everything has come here from the lock-up. Russ said that as far as he could tell, all the other boxes contain newspapers. This is not good news because I am lacking lots of issues of The WIZARD (picture version), The HOTSPUR (likewise), and every issue of SUZY after issue 86 (April 28 1984) that I have bought at some point. My notes indicate that I have 87 more issues somewhere, which leaves a shortfall of 80 issues, the vast majority of which are nearer to the end of her run than to the beginning. I must admit that I haven't been looking for any recently, what with the house move and the settling-in process. I'll work with what I've got for the time being. I've now got my fingers crossed that all the missing story papers are underneath the newspapers!

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Phoenix wrote:I've now got my fingers crossed that all the missing story papers are underneath the newspapers!
As Russ has paid for the lock-up in Penzance until next Sunday night, he went over yesterday to assess how many trips he will need to make in order to empty it. During this assessment he discovered that my missing issues of SUZY that he had claimed weren't there, are there. Apparently there are other story papers there as well, but as he hadn't paid any attention to their titles, where they and the unexplained gaps in the runs of my picture versions of THE WIZARD and THE HOTSPUR are concerned, I will just have to wait and see. Things do seem to be looking up though, I'm relieved to report.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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I went up to Russell's this evening, basically just to see the children. "Surprise, Surprise", as Cilla regularly said. He had already been to the lock-up and brought back a box full to the brim containing 88 issues of SUZY between 87 and 237, and 120 issues of M&J between 191 and 315. I was so delighted, particularly with their condition, that I forgot to ask him about the picture WIZARDs and HOTSPURs. I'll slot them all into their rightful positions tomorrow morning.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Phoenix wrote:I'll slot them all into their rightful positions tomorrow morning.
Job done. I'm on the school run again this afternoon as Rach has got some extra hours at work. Alex first from St Erth Primary, then we both go to pick Lois up at about 3.30 so she'll have to wait in school. Next stop McDonalds. Lois has ballet tonight from 4.45 to 6.15 so Alex will have to come with me to drop her off and to pick her up, unless he is allowed to stay at Autumn's. I know which option he would prefer.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Now that I have added the issues of SUZY and M&J to their respective piles, I will be rereading them with a view to adding worthy contenders to the BUNTY AND HER SISTERS list. Then I will put all the selected serials from all the story papers for girls into alphabetical order, and start writing the synopses. I won't try to write ADVENTURE AND HIS BROTHERS at the same time. That will have to wait for a comfort zone some time next year.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Well that was a strange day. I took Lois to school this morning because her mother had an early hospital appointment, but I'd barely got back home when Russ rang my mobile asking if I could do him a big favour, as he was very busy at work, and go and pick her up from school as a secretary had rung to tell him that she had complained of stomach pains and was in the medical room crying. It must have been a bad pain because I can't actually recall her crying even when she broke her arm. I didn't break too many speed limits on the way there, but even after I got there she had to wait in the office while I filled in a form stating my name, my relationship to their pupil, and, the reason why I was taking her out of school. I took her back to hers after assuring Russ that I would stay with her until he got home. Actually we stopped off at Tescos on the way to get her one of their containers full of Hot Chocolate. Russ collected Alex from school at home time, dropped him off at his and went straight back to work without even coming in, so I didn't see him until half six. I did have a book, a local weekly paper, and The Guardian with me, so once Lois had changed into some casual gear and settled herself on one of the settees with her pillow and duvet from her bed, I managed to settle down and read. She put the television on and watched several hours of childrens' programmes, which I managed to blank out. Then I made lunch for her. That was just the morning sorted. I even washed up and tidied round so that Rach wouldn't have anything to do when she got back. I'll go up tomorrow morning to see if there's been any improvement overnight.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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I'm up there again this evening to keep an eye on the children as Russ and Rach are going to a wedding reception. We've all been in PC World this afternoon in the out-of-town Truro Business Park. I didn't ask what Russ and Rach were investigating but Lois and Alex spent a lot of time checking out cameras. None of them bought anything but I suspect that R&R were running the rule over potential Christmas presents. All I got was a ream of A4 printing paper, which cost me £3.97 so I can't grumble at that price. It will do fine for the first skirmish with DCT's serials for girls.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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I took the children to an indoor Trampolining venue in Pool, near Camborne yesterday. They had been before, so they knew they would enjoy the exercise. Rach had paid on line for their hour because you need to have booked in advance. You don't just walk in as soon as you get there. Alex had a satnav on his phone so I didn't have to stop and ask the way at any point. As it was my first time there, my heart was in my mouth watching their forward rolls and backward flips onto and off a highish board, to land flat on their back on a large, well-filled mattress. Lois's bandaged elbow withstood the impacts very well. As at Penzance baths, there were two trained observers, one at one end, the other on one side. We had a late lunch at what they call Mackie Ds, and then returned home on the A30.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Yesterday the postman brought me Wendy and Jinx and the Dutch Stamp Mystery, complete with its HULTON PRESS dustwrapper, A Girl NOVEL by Valerie Hastings. When I will get round to reading it is very much another matter, as it hasn't made my list of priority tasks. The text is 170 pages long so I might just ask Lois to read it to me between now and Christmas Eve. It'll be something useful for her to do, and will help to restrain her excitement. From the 25th onwards she will not be quite so amenable as she will be spending quite a lot of her holiday with her head in one or other of the complete set of Harry Potter novels that I've bought her.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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This afternoon I took Lois, Alex and Autumn to the indoor play area at Paradise Park here in Hayle. For once Autumn's mother gave me a tenner to cover her entry fee and lunch. Alex and Autumn had a great time, Lois rather less so because Alex was being awkward, showing off in front of his girlfriend. He even threw one of the hundreds of plastic balls there and deliberately hit Lois in her right eye. She withdrew and returned to our table really quite upset. Eventually I persuaded her to join in again, but first I had to read the riot act to Alex. I told him in no uncertain terms that if he caused any more upsets I would take them all straight home. His behaviour improved, so although I had to keep an eye on him, I was able to read the first 37 pages of Alan Hemus's novel The Trust. I took the three of them to McDonalds for tea. Tomorrow morning Lois has a ballet exam that she isn't looking forward to, so I've got to be up at hers by 9. Rachel is taking her up there. I reminded Lois this evening, and will do so again tomorrow, that she knows all the dances thoroughly and therefore she can stop worrying and just dance. Later in the day I'm taking her and Alex to the baths in the Tregenna Castle Hotel that we went to recently. It's less of a hike than taking them to Penzance, and I should be able to read most of the rest of The Trust while they are swimming.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Paradise Park again this morning with Lois, Alex and Autumn. Four hours of play for them. I took The School In The Woods by Dorita Fairlie Bruce to keep me occupied and stave off boredom. It didn't entirely work because I was drafted in as some sort of arbiter in a dispute between Alex and Autumn. It was a case of who was lying? Alex told me that although he had told lies in the past, he swore blind that he definitely wasn't doing so today. Lois told me he was. Autumn was in floods of tears, and only came down to our table to get her phone to ring her mother and ask her to come and collect her. Eventually I got Alex to tell me what the argument had been about. Apparently Autumn (11 years old) was asking Alex (9 years old) for some kind of sexual favour, and he was refusing. I won't go into details. At first I admit I didn't believe him. Nor did Lois, but as time passed it became clear that Alex was telling the truth. Even Lois eventually believed him, albeit reluctantly because Autumn is her friend too. No longer though, even though she lives only four doors down their road. I rang Russ and Rach to explain the situation. We didn't leave the play zone until a taxi ordered by Autumn's mother turned up. I wasn't at all happy about her going in the taxi on her own, and I was prepared to go with her, but fortunately her mother came in the taxi. Things calmed down quite significantly after that. I rang Russ to say that I was taking L&A to McDonalds for an early tea. By the time we had settled down there and ordered our usual meals, there was a lot less tension between Lois and Alex, which was mainly due to Lois accepting that what Alex had complained about was substantially true. This evening Russ drove the four of us to the Copperhouse for a few jars, and the children spent some time on the pool table. What will happen tomorrow is anyone's guess, but the one certainty is that it will not include Autumn.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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On a completely different matter, has anybody heard of a hardback novel with a colourful dustwrapper, with the title The Truth About Horror? I haven't checked every page but textually it certainly appears to be a clone of The Truth About Wilson. There is no publisher's name anywhere, and no price, but all the b/w illustrations within the book are like those in the text version in The WIZARD of The Truth About Wilson, although facially Horror does not look remotely like Wilson. My copy is in mint condition, but I have no recollection of where I acquired it. It was probably from a book fair in the North West. It is certainly a very interesting curio.

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