Bushman60

Oh Boy! What has happened to Troy?

A great chapter .I think his negotiating skills are good . my reasons for saying this are, 1) It is an adjoining property so instantly becomes of greater value to a neighbour. 2) Clearly offers scope for possible future expansion of amenities and activities. 3) Adds to investment growth potential in median to longer term. 4)Adds capital base security to the whole enterprise. 5)Adds a privacy factor to the owner and his family. 6)Potentially adds protection of a scope towards the surrounding environment etc. This is clearly an advantage for tourism. So all things being equal Grant has shown a greater business acumen than one would think for someone at his age. There is also the added advantage of an offer like that of getting a quick decision in ones favour before word gets out about the sale of a hot bit of property on a holiday haven/private retreat. So what and how much value can be added to that when its considered and done. Heaps I would think.

Nothing wrong with spunk and determination! but Ben has quite a lot of hang ups. He must have been exposed to many nasty people and their cruel put downs and so forth.

Another great chapter of murder ,mystery, mayhem and sculldudgery with plenty of action and misdirection. Love it.

What a great ending to the story! I wasn't expecting this ending given the start as often stories start with the ending. So TJ and Randy get the chance at life and love as does Carter. Drugs are the leprosy of society . They are so dangerous and destructive to those that get hooked and everyone around.

What a great chapter Kes is so like BAs in that he has great manners and cares about others around him and what he might do for them. Already it seems that he and he step brothers are going to get on great. I am curious as to what will happen with the neighbours farm! I feel that Kyle will end up buying it a price that the man can't refuse but might let his family stay there unconditionally or until he decides that town and retirement is the right and only option.

Don't go blaming it on ADHD or add or another such acronym all the time.Much of that is diet related some isn't. And much can be related to discipline issues by the parents at home and in public. Occassionly a child can be a fair little screaming monster in the lolly or toy isle for example. I found when baby sitting and teaching it was best to avoid areas that could be battle zones between adults and kids. If for instance one needed to go to the lolly or toy area better to do it when they weren't present.lol This last is just some thoughts and observations I made over the years of baby sitting over city kids family and otherwise as well as some teaching. The smaller they are the harder they at to reason with so strategy is more important to them where as reason thoughts is better for older ones like teens.

Seville while I agree with your sentiments I would only ever advocate the policy of offense is the best defence only if attacked first.One should never be the aggressor until and unless someone has done the wrong thing. However in saying this it must be said it should always done from a position of strength and morally right as the end never justifies the means. By that I mean the morally right position should never attack first but should only do so in defense and in the right and should be big enough to walk away and seek help from the right authorities. Sometimes that leaves walking away on one occasion and coming back another time to deal with the problem in the cool light of a new day.

I would agree with you suing the school but I do think the mother has a lot to answer for. Olie should have had his mobile on record sliely as Tommy's mum was worse than an outraged mother hog gone wild. You can also bet the father isn't any chop either. So my thoughts are the mother and Tommy should be sued and so should the school as the school on both accounts should be a child safe zone. Tommie's Mum should have been the bigger person and not risen to the bait by the other mother. That would have looked better if she had quietly told the other woman a thing or two with loosing her cool. Plus it would have been a get lesson in how one should act when one side has no manners or what use to be called etiquette and deportment. Since it has been tossed out behaviour generally speaking has gone over the top. It begins at home but also it needs to be reinforced strongly at school and in the public.

Carter himself final admits that he is a stuff up and that if he had been in TJ's position he would have been happy to be with Randy. He tells TJ that Randy is good for him and can't understand why he has rejected it to be with him. TJ is such a bad place emotionally now that he blames himself for it all.A lot of this is because he can no longer see trees because of the Forrest as things are so bad for him.

What an interesting,tortured, twisted and convoluted chapter. It reads more twisted than days of our lives with Old Mrs.Chancellor and so on.

What a sneaky man Grant is and Frank is just as sneaky. I am beginning to think young Lloyd might be gay and may have a crush on his cousin Grant. The Island retreat sounds like a very beautiful piece of tropical paradise and wonderland.

I would agree that the best think would have been for TJ to seen a counselor of some sort or other probablely a school one plus a psychologist who can work hand in hand at dealing with this challenges and issues he faces with out that help the good things for him to focus on things that aren't what he thinks they are. Having a good healthy self esteem and self worth and the two sides of the currency we a talking about here. TJ had neither when he should have both but he does have a bucket load of self loathing and other negative emotion to kill a dinosaur. He hasn't even been shown how to deal with negative emotion problems. Now he rapidly spirally into depression and dispair and usually come with thoughts of suicide among other things . He will naturally gravitate towards people like himself with similar negative feelings

Again we see Carter stuffing up not just his life but everyone else's. he goes so far as to admit this and doesn't understand why TJ wants this and not the good life that Randy and his family offered him. All that TJ has done is turn his back on the people and family that care and unconditionally love. But that is what drugs can do. TJ's thinking is more scrambled than eggs in a New Guinea earthquake followed by a couple spins with a hurricane. Randy,TJ and co need to realise what took years to make can take ages to unmake.

Another good chapter.Apparently Lloyd has quickly developed a major attachment to Grant and misses him

Michael Wellsteads problem could well stem from untreated and undiagnosed P.T.S.D. The way he is behaving points to that being the major problem. If he has been in a situation/s where this could be a problem,then he would most likely be erratic and loud and violent. He might have even been a soldier who went to war and came back with this as a major problem and it doesn't meant that he had been receiving any form treatment.

Ssoo we get answer to the were they in Scotland and yes it seems that the and been in Scotland and spent some time there. Lloyd seems to be really well adjusted for a thirteen yr old.He seems to like to compare things and is a bit of a live wire with a mischievous bent. He seems to be quite precocious but well adjusted. Elspheth and Anne seem to be getting along famously.

The great start to another great story that revolves around dysfunctional lives that is family. Plenty of possible monkey wrenches to mess up the family dynamics which seem to be hopeless from the get go!

The more one tries to codify the law so justice is done and not just seen to be done, the more it will need codifying because of gaps. The principle of K.I.S.S. keep it simply stupid should apply always because for whatever reason it works while complexity breeds contempt and harbours vacuous exceptions. Our so called christian leaders could learn well from the Jewish lawgiver Moses and by extension Alfred the Great who wrote the precepts of English law ,which are the foundation of our laws today.

Rigby ,this was a very interesting story and a very good one. You call it a bitter victory, if it is such it has come at great cost to many people with no clear with winners and no real sense of either, the rule of law or a strong sense of justiçe being rightly achieved. From my experiences there is very little justice to be had through the legal system and the bias attitudes of the investigators in this story namely the inspector are demonstrative of this. He clearly thinks he has the right to do whatever it takes or is necessary to achieve an outcome that he believes fulfills the requirements of the law,which even he admits in the story, "many are poorly written," which by extension and extrapolation means injustice flourishes and justice is rarely if ever seen to be done. It is as you say rough justice. I'm not sure that in this situation that is even applicable with all the accusations and innuendos and bias running around and clouding the scenery very badly. My experiences with the law, the justice and the legal system as such is very much along the lines of what you discuss within the confines of the story and also in the afterwards at the end. Of course with lies and innuendo and deceit clouding things badly it was s very difficult to achieve. I suspect many people have a very jaundiced view about justice when they hear the mention of it in same breathe as law of things.

I tend to think that with this later scare with Ryder a number of relationship issues are starting to fall into place and people are starting to see them as bumps in the road and not insurmountable issues. Take Olie for instance he his beginning to understand his parents and vis a vis. He now sees what His brother Teddy has been saying about Ryder's health being so bad and tenuous at best to be true as does harry now.Harry even has a conversation with Ryder that should have been by rights had prior to Ryder and Teddy's bust up.If it happened then maybe many issues back then would have been resolved and much of the current problems would not have happened. A big plus for Olie is that he is beginning to know when to back of and seek help for Ryder or even himself and he sees his mum for what she really is, a she bear who doesn't like others messing with her little Olie cubby bear even when his temper goes of. The fact that she can give it just as well as she gets it comes as pleasant surprise for him and he realises now I think his parents and Teddy do actually genuinely care about him even if they can't be there all the time. I think Olie even gets that the now issue he has always had is not as important as he first thought , but rather its people and what they do and they need to be happy and well is the important issue and everything falls in around that in some sort of ordered priority fashion that Olie is suddenly realising actually works. No one ever said Olie is actually dumb except the bullies bullying mother and the teachers who are failing in their jobs to prevent bullying at school plus flaming students for things that they weren't often responsible for. Certainly this is the case for Olie. I think in many ways things will get better for Olie now. Maybe, this suspension from school needed to happen to shake thinking and actions up of everyone in their lives. This is certainly what is coming across now to me.

I have it and have been told it doesn't go away . The longer one has it , the worse it gets and like most things stress related either you avoid what causes it and the triggers all together or bye bye mortal coil.

Nah.I haven't made that conclusion yet. Think another chapter might tell the tale so to speak. Often its not who we thought it was anyway. Very often its not one of those who we thought it was. yes he was hit on the head with a bag of lead. But was he actually dead or just knocked out? Did someone else turn up who used this opportunity to even the score so to speak and actually pin the blame on someone else? Remember, not all blows kill! Many only stun or concuss the victim. Lead is heavy but we have no idea how much was in the bag nor are we told if blood ,fractures , broken skin or bone is present. It's all just surmisation at the moment. Only once during the questioning does someone say something to the interviewing police.Then that line of questioning clams up and goes very quiet and asks for his lawyer to be present. However it could almost be to late now,as the person of interest has potentially opened the can of worms which the police can now exploit. Once something is let out it is very hard to hide again. That is why it is best insist on lawyers presence first as once that has been made the hands of the police and the crown prosecutors etc; are tide

This reads more like a TV script at the moment and not a real life drama. I am eager to see if this line of thought continues or if it become's more realisitic and akin to what happens in the real world.

There is an awefull lot of could be's, maybe's, might have been's, and so on! They need to question Bart. There is a lot of misdirection at the moment because so much is at stake ,for so many ,for so many reasons and so on. Usually, the reason for a crime is a simple one! At the moment, they seem to complex and complicated.