I loses an S

so, where were we? or, more informatively, where was I?

(and, may I just add - I think I may - it's good to be back!)

well, as I recall. . .

. . .I had a bird in the hand and two in the bush, all three flew away. . . had a nervous breakdown, had ECT, forgot all sorts of things. . . sold a house, rented a house, bought a house. . . one child moved out to live with his father, another child moved out to live with her father, one child spent weekdays with me and weekends/holidays with his father. . . then I's father died AND IT ALL CHANGED

my father, from whom I had been estranged, did not include me in his will; not a huge problem - if I had wanted to pander to a man for his money I'd still be married to X

lol

as it happens, X met a New Girl, who couldn't believe that after seven years X still hadn't gotten around to divorcing me - so she insisted on it

lol

then X had an offer of a great job in The Big Apple

and, being X, he chose to abandon his three children (The Teens) and New Girl, and has gone to live in The Big Apple all on his lonesome (the break-up of my marriage becomes clearer by the day, people, and I am starting to understand how little it had to do with me)

lol

well, not for the children - obviously - but for New Girl

she's not very happy about it, to put it mildly (from what I hear, obviously I only have X's word on that as he and I are still on very good friendly terms as - having known each other for more than 30 years - we understand each other very well and he does love a good old gossip, even when it concerns his relationship with New Girl, who - he admits quite freely to me - would be horrified to know that he and I still get on very well) (lol) so, despite the fact that X is now divorcing me at the behest of New Girl, it looks like he's going to finish with New Girl too

lol

she clearly doesn't know a man she's only known for a year as well as his soon-to-be-ex-wife who has known him for thirty

I digress

so, I,LTV Towers was sold a while ago

a very stressful process, brought about because of the divorce and the decision buy a dead man's house

now if I hadn't been cut out of the will, the latter might not have happened, but I was, so it is

the slight spanner in the works being that Mini-Teen (now living with me again, since her father is living in The Big Apple) still has a year of school to go before she leaves for uni

quick reminder:

The Teen completed an Art Foundation then decided that arting was not for him and instead he wanted to philosophise; he has just completed his second year of uni reading Philosophy (he's doing very well, you'll be pleased to know, finally managing to apply himself to academia and achieving the success he could have achieved all along had he chosen to earlier) (and not just academic success, last year he acted in a play and wrote for the student newspaper last year, this year he directed a play and has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper)

Teen Too has just finished his school exams and next academic year will be heading off to uni to read Astro Physics (might as well be Rocket Science! he won the award for being The Cleverest Boy In The School for the seventh year running this year. . . need I say more?)

Mini-Teen had to change school last year as her previous school did not have a sixth form; she ended up at a school which is just around the corner from where I now find myself (well, actually, I have ended up just around the corner from her school, since its location determines mine)

as I may have mentioned many many years ago, X and I decided when The Teens were little that we were perfectly happy for them to be educated by the state - at one stage, when they were teeny-tiny beings, I was the only mother in The Village not to have her children tutored. . . I was considered a delinquent parent and was very frowned upon. . . this was because I, in my infinite wisdom, thought that coming home after school and playing was more important to a child's development than Extra Maths or Extra French or Extra Anything Else for that matter - so play they did! and look at them now. . . a Philosopher who is Editor-in-Chief of the college newspaper, an Astro-Physicist who was The Cleverest Boy in the School for seven years in a row, and a budding Marine Biologist who no doubt will be as successful as her Big Brothers

more importantly - they are HAPPY

maybe it's all down to playing in the park and climbing trees and having fun with crazy art projects supervised by their crazy mother after school when they were young? who knows!

lol

(and, sour grapes aside, YA BOO SUCKS to all the pushy mothers of The Village) (lol)

I digress

where were we? ah yes: my father died and cut me out of the will; X's New Girl wanted him to divorce me so he is; I sold I,LTV Towers and will be purchasing childhood home in due course; in the meantime I have found lodgings for Mini-Teen's final year of school just around the corner from said state educational establishment. . .

so where am I. . .

. . .in a place with no S in the postcode, which we'll call Nothing Hill

(-: