Marty

Hi Page Just turned midnight. I'm away to bed. Night all!

Look after yourself, Lord B.

Hmmm... Same to you, Gary!

I still haven't made a final decision on this. I can afford to buy the place. I have more than enough money in the bank to do that. It's not going to actually fall down in the near future (or even the distant future). I could even afford to buy it and still pay the rent for the place I am living in, which is actually right behind it. The garden would certainly be a welcome addition, as the house I am renting has no garden at all, just a paved yard that's shared with six other houses. If I bought it, I could slowly make some improvements to it and, even if I never actually live in it, I would probably be able to sell it on again in the future and likely make a good profit off it. So I'm still considering my options.

Well, Albert, young man. How are you this fine day?

Highly recommended piece of literary reminiscence. Lee made an eventful decision sixteen years earlier. Now, almost unwillingly, he finds himself having to face that past as his wife and young son unwittingly plan a holiday that will bring him back to the place where he made that decision. Not only that, but he will meet again Dean, the boy who had been responsible for the decision Lee made. How that turns out, and how both Lee and Dean react to meeting again, is what this story is about, in which @Luc weaves the past and the present together to leave the reader feeling both happy and sad, and this particular reader reaching for the tissues on more than one occasion. I would highly recommend this bittersweet tale to others.

A wonderful piece of reminiscence! Well done, @Luc! And thank you.

What a wonderful piece of reminiscence. I wouldn't normally read a single chapter story of almost 16,000 words, but this one pulled me in, and I read it in a single sitting. Thanks for the recommendation, Cia. Well worth the read!

Glad to see The Major is on the road to recovery. Ward Sister Judy Evans certainly seems to be a force to be reckoned with. 😮 Now, I wonder just what's in that special box that The Major is insistent that John recovers from under the arches...?

Interesting developments... I wonder how things will now change for John/Chris now that his secret has been inadvertently revealed. He certainly won't be able to keep pretending to be homeless any more. Not sure I like that Bill character. He could cause trouble. Nice interplay of characters and motivations, @Mancunian!

Better to know now, rather than find out later. I only have so much in the bank. I'm also retired, so dependant on my pension. It is a beautiful place, but if I can't afford to fix it up, it would be foolish of me to start spending all my life savings on it, and then find myself completely broke...

Yea. I paid a deposit that is returnable in full before final contracts are signed, which hasn't happened yet. My only financial loss will be to pay my solicitor for his time. That is likely to be no more than 3 or 4 hundred euro.

What I was really trying to do in this chapter was to give an insight into Sean's family. This is the first time Johnny has really interacted with them, apart from maybe occasionally saying a quick hello or goodbye to them when he has been collecting Sean, or dropping him home again. All Johnny really knew about them before this was what Sean will have told him. And often that would have been when Sean was drunk or depressed, and maybe not thinking all that correctly, or seeing things clearly. This meal, and the chat that Gary may be about to have with him, could possibly give Johnny a clearer insight into the family dynamic...

It looks like even Johnny found Sonny's questioning funny. As for what will come out of meeting the family, maybe Johnny is thinking the same thing as he sits on the tow bar of the old caravan rolling a cigarette and watching Sean's father walk towards him...? Spoilers? I never give out spoilers!

Well, now that Simon is finally out to Niki and his mum, hopefully things will improve for him in his social life.

Hi, Page. Indeed it is! And a far healthier and less expensive way that spending the day sitting on the high stool... (A wet day is often referred to as a day for the high stool in the west of Ireland - meaning a day sat at the bar in the local pub,)

Greetings, young Albert. I don't know about ghosts, but there was extensive dry rot found in the inspection yesterday. Dry rot that extensive that it had even penetrated the plaster on the walls, and perhaps even the mortar between the stonework under the plaster. The advice i received was that just to get a proper engineer's report on the extent of the dry rot is likely to set me back at least €5k (and possibly even more), and that the cost of treatment could run to well over €100k. I don't have that sort of money, so am seriously reconsidering my options.

Today started, and continued for most of it, overcast and rainy. Gave me a chance to catch up on some of my reading. Especially welcome was to see that @Jdonley75 had posted Chapter 26 of his great novel The Empty Spaces Between Us which, if any of you haven't yet come across, I would highly recommend you check out and see what you've been missing. Mind you, I would advise you to read the his novel, The Acquittal, first (which isn't, as I had assumed it would be from the title, a courthouse drama). Towards the end of the day the rain started to ease, and a few patches of blue appeared in the sky. The forecast is for the most, if not all, of next week to be much better, with mainly sunny, warm days, but cold nights. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the forecast is correct.

I'm not sure what the solution will be. I suspect Johnny knows that a hard confrontation may have unforeseen consequences, so I don't think he knows what to do for the best, either. I suppose I shall just have to continue writing the story, and hope that the characters can show me a way out of the problem. And hope that the final solution isn't too dramatic...

Been a slightly productive day... Firstly, I managed to finish a bit of editing for someone this afternoon. But, more importantly, I actually managed to get a bit of writing done as well, and Chapter Four of my story Fragments of Sean has now been uploaded. Yay, me!

"Hi, dad," Sean said in a subdued voice. "Good to see you, son. Don't just sit there. Dinner's almost ready. Go in the house and let your mother know you're home. She's been worried about you." Gary's voice was warm and welcoming. As Sean exited the passenger side of the car and started walking to the front door, his dad leaned in through the driver's side window to speak to me. "I can't thank you enough for what you've done, Johnny. Please come in and have a cup of tea or coffee bef

Morning all, Slightly overcast, but dry at the moment. Currently 13 degrees Celsius (just after 10am). Forecast for good daytime weather for the next week, but it could be cold at nights. Just finishing breakfast. Then need to borrow the key for the new property from the estate agent (realtor). A friend of mine who works in building renovation (joiner by trade) is going to check out the old house I'm buying and give me some advice later today.

That's a blast from the past, Albert!