the clouds lifted and there is blue sky and sunshine.

French, cheese, bread, pastries and cakes.



We were up very late because Match of the Day was much later than scheduled and after that there was the Championship Football program.

One good effect of the collapse of the Irish satellite company Setana was that the rights to half the Championshi0ps games were up for grabs and the BBC bought them.

Really enjoyed seeing Southend and Charlton and other clubs, saw Reading, I used to live there until 1981 when I moved to Amsterdam.

Funny how happy I was when the news came that Reading had gone up to the Premiership, even sweeter once I heard that Oxford had not only gone down but had gone right down to the bottom of the lower division.

Strange how suddenly I had quite a passion for Reading Football Club, was gutted when they went down a couple of seasons ago.

Reading was quite a shock after Trinidad, and finding myself in the show house on a newly built Wimpey estate outside of town was not easy.

Think if we had lived in town, I think life would have been different, perhaps even better, than living out of town.

The bus service was very bad when we were first living in Emmer Green, and then there were only buses 4 times a day.

There were only a couple of shops, 2 newsagents’, a butcher and a fish and chip shop, and 3 public houses, The Black Horse and The White Horse, the were opposite each other.

One The Black Horse, was the working class pub, the other one The White Horse had a garden and served chicken in the basket.

And The Gardeners’ Arm’s which had a skittle alley and used to be very popular as there were always large numbers to play skittles (bowling).

I was placed in the local school called The Grove, nice name shame that the reality was so different.

Turned out my parents had put me in the worse school in town, there was really not much chance of doing well at The Grove.

Right from day one it was clear what sort of school it was when our class teacher told us that none of us would amount to much.

We could count ourselves lucky to get jobs with local businesses such as Courage Brewery, or Sutton Seeds or Huntley & Palmer’s biscuit factory.

That was our charming class teacher opening message to us, a class new to him, where he knew nothing about us.

For him we were all the children of working class scumbags and we were no better, he was just expressing the contempt most of the staff at The Grove felt for the children entrusted to their care.

So no good English education for me, funny it took me so long to realise that I had been told a story all these years about us moving to the UK for me.

So I could get a good English education, a good plan but better if I had done the 11 plus exam and then I could have attended a good school.

Thanks to my auntie Jo and Richie I now know that was a lie, that we moved to England because my mum had pushed for the move.

She thought that living in Northern Europe would be better; sadly it was not better, as we did not thrive in England.

We were not going to be living life like country squires as both my mum as well as my dad had hoped.

They had neither the money nor the connections to achieve these aspirations; sadly they could see no way out.

Shame they did not see education as the way out and did not start doing courses to get themselves and me out of the rut we were in.

We should have had perspectives for the future, they never ever encouraged me to think or plan for the future.

They just echoed my school and kept telling me that I would never amount to much, now I think that it is a strange way to treat children and each other.

So very wrong, we need to nurture each other and support each other, there is really no other purpose that I can see for our existence but to co exist peacefully.

We need to acknowledge that we are all the same people, and we need each other, everyone does.

Glad that here was no further shocking revelations on the radio today, had a very slow awakening today.

Woke up and it took some minute for me to become fully conscious of all the MS pain, a after several minutes I was moaning in pain.

Richie and the dogs came through right away, Richie got some thc and did the leg exercises and the leg massage.

After that washed my face and brushed teeth and took my baclofen tablets and Richie got the table wheeled over and put over my bed and set up my laptop.

Enjoy getting my laptop everyday and connecting to the internet and logging on to my blog.

The internet and the blog world have helped me so much to be able to cope with being in bed for as long as I have been.

On Thursday next week the first step will be taken to getting the adaptions done, Elwyn form Summit will bring their c hair with the vac uum cushion and my posture wsill be registered.

On Friday next week the paperwork will be sent to the WMO department of Amsterdam City Council.

As soon as they give the go ahead Elwyn will make the mould and then after fine tuning, which will take a couple of appointments over 2 weeks.

Quite exciting that finally this week there will be some action to make sitting up again in my wheelchair a reality.

It is a very grey and overcast day, there are no sounds of childrenplaying outside only the sound of cars driving off and the sound of the radio.

The light by Richie’s bed is on to give a feeling of light, strange to be getting used to less light now autumn is here.

On the other hand it is good to see a visible change in the seasons, hope that there will be a proper winter, with snow at Christmas.

But first I am enjoying today, even though it is not a pretty day, hope it is a better weather elsewhere.

Just then the clouds lifted alnd there is blue sky and sunshine.

Have a good day.