Andy78

Welcome to all of our new members. Hope you all find something to read you enjoy.

A nice Christmas prezzie for Josh with his kids coming around, albeit slowly. I love seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child like Jesse when the world still holds so much wonder.

I love the prompts and I love seeing so many authors taking them on. Another poetry one **runs screaming into the hills**

I love the interaction between Drake and Jack, but sometimes I just wanna bang their heads together. The dream sequence was great as well. Keep up the great writing.

A lovely ending. I'm going to miss Peter, Ted and Barry and the way they interact the others. Though Josh's attitudes to freelove never cease to amaze me.

These guys really need to work on their detective skills - they keep on getting busted

So Jesse is still in there somewhere, a really touching moment that brought a tear to my eye. Just a shame it took something like this to make it happen.

Now they're just dropping them off on the doorstep I think Josh needs to track down this magic hat that all these kids keep being pulled from.

Thanks guys

Wow. The very last person I expected to be the trickster, but I love the way Josh has agreed to play along.

Not two weeks of doing the dishes The humanity! I wonder why the muffins were spiked? Surely they haven't been caught out already? And those poor dragons.

Not the happiest thing to have as my first blog entry, but who ever said blogs had to be happy. I've been working on a children's oncology ward for the past year or so, doing the data collection for our national cancer register and managing the medical files of the patients. One of the children (who for this blog I'll call Max) passed away a few weeks ago from leukaemia. It really is true what they say, "Paediatrics is the best and the worst of medicine". Usually, I don't have much to do with the children or their family since I work on the administration side of things, but somehow I got to know Max and his parents really well - when that happened he stopped being a medical file and a diagnosis, and become a real person with feelings and a life. For him having been twenty-some years younger than me, we actually shared a similar sense of humour, and both had a love of all things sci-fi. I'd first met Max about six months ago, and at the time I couldn't figure out who was having a harder time dealing with his diagnosis, him or his parents; though to be honest it was probably his parents, I think it always is the parents who have the harder time coping. I never saw any of his friends up at the hospital, which I later found out from his parents was because the parents were unsure how his friends would cope being around Max at his worst. I've worked in oncology in one department or another for almost ten years, but it hadn't prepared me at all for working on a children's ward. I've seen patients who have been told there is nothing left that can be done for them, patients who have been told their cancer has come back, and those patients who have been given the really good news that the cancer is gone. And yes, cancer affects not only the patient but also their family. I've lost five members of my own family to cancer over the years and it has always been devastating. Though someone who is eighty or ninety years old and being diagnosed with cancer is one thing, but a ten year old or a teenager is something completely different; it shouldn't be, but for some reason it is. Today, I was finalising the data collection for the cancer register by entering Max's death record and closing his oncology file to be sent off to our records department. And that was when it really hit me; this fun-loving, carefree twelve year old boy was gone. Oh, I knew he had died, since he had died on the ward whilst I was at work, but this was confirmation he really was gone; he'd never grow up, never have a girlfriend, never get caught sneaking one of his dad's beers, never to college. What I did today was the hospital equivalent of what Max's parents are doing; packing everything up, putting it away, saying "Max is gone so we no longer need this". God, no parent should ever outlive their child. I've entered death records and closed patient's files before without feeling anything even close to this, but then again they have simply been a medical file with a diagnosis. They weren't a real person with feeling, hopes, aspirations and family, were they? Of course they were, but the difference was I never knew them. Today made me realise just how much I had come to care about Max and how big of an impact his passing has had on me. Today has made me decide to get to know the children, the mums, the dads, the aunts, the uncles. Rest in peace Max.

They is good for perving over, but tis about all. I'm more of a 60s and 70s fan when it comes to music.

Great prank, but I wonder who is gunning for Ricky's title? I even had one moment of total insanity when I thought it might have been Josh getting some payback

Things end on a hopeful note. I hope the reconciliation lasts, but it's all down to whether Vinnie feels he truly trust Kevin again.

Awww, the poor Bieber **kisses his boo-boo better**

I love it. I love the interaction between the four of them, and I love the idea of the multiple dimensions. A society powered by dragons? Sounds very intriguing. Can't wait for more.

Thanks for the review, and the compliment. I've always wanted to play around with the idea of a character who is half-angel and half-demon, so there probably will be more; just not yet. It depends on how long it takes me to finish one of the two stories I'm writing at the moment.

Wow, you could knock me down with a feather. With everything he's been through, Kevin is the last person I'd expect something like this from. What an idiot. I feel so sorry for Vinnie.

How on Earth does Nick think there can be still be a future with Shannon? I don't even think chutzpah comes close. That boy certainly has a pair of brass ones.

Thanks for reading and reviewing Dolores, glad you liked it. There may be more, I'm not sure. I've already got two stories on the go, so it wouldn't be any time soon.

“Oh my god, I think I killed him!” Malcar couldn’t believe it was that easy to take a life. They approached the body (well corpse is probably a more accurate term) to examine their handiwork. “No shit, Sherlock. It’s your job to kill.” “I’ve never killed before.” Malcar studied the lifeless body and he could still see the look of abject fear on the face of their victim. “That was your first? I can’t believe I got saddled with a bloody newbie!” “Kalshann that’s not fair, we’ve all got to

Being Welsh on one side of my family I can understand your mum (or mam as I'd call her) struggling to hear what was being said, though we actually speak even quicker when speaking in Welsh. I have had fun trying to teach friends of mine a few words of Welsh and I really struggle to speak slow enough for them to pick it up; you should try watching S4C sometime and you'll see what I mean. Plus being Scottish on the other side of my family, after my attempts during childhood to understand the Glaswegian accent of certain relatives, you'll get no sympathy off me . Having spent most of my life in London I've picked up the habit of using the term "treacle" (used in the same way as Duck, Cock etc), which is Cockney for "sweetheart" (comes from treacle tart). Outside of London that can go straight over people's head. One of the best phrases ever though concerns the c-word which in English is always considered rude and offensive (and banned in certain areas here on GA) has been used in everyday speech in areas of Wales without the negative connotation . The expression "Shwd di c..." means "How are you mate?" (I know, only the Welsh! ). Though like other countries in the UK, Wales has its regional variations. For example in the south we use the phrase "Shw mae?" (pronounced "shoo my") as a greeting, whereas in the north they use "sut mae". There are also two separate counting systems - the south typically uses the modern decimal counting system (the same way we count in English), whereas the north uses the more traditional vigesimal, or base 20, counting system (similar to the way counting is done in French).

The one word I have always hated is "plough" when being used as a euphemism for sex, as in "plough her furrow". I just want to reach for the nearest bucket and hurl.

I wonder who's got the death wish taking Ricky on like this? It's a bit like poking a lion with a sharp stick