It has been a tumultuous few weeks. I had no internet connection. My fiscal position means that too many folk cough awkwardly and one loving friend immediately offered to pay my internet provider for me! Indignation and embarrassment cannot possibly describe my emotions!  I paid the bloody internet bill. I did not owe the broadband supplier any money. It was a mistake!  A mistake made by … whoops, I almost named them! Heaven forefend. The gods of the internet have now granted me my Christmas wish and I am now “live” again! My blogs can flow free, my emails can be answered, my research can continue.

Before I bury myself in web sites telling me “how to fire a gun”, or indeed “how it feels to fire a gun”, “guns in use in the early 90’s”,  I succumb to a few old habits. It is Christmas after all. A quick stray into Marc Jacobs territory, a peak at Stella McCartney, window shopping at Aspinalls, a lingering moment with Vera Wang., all courtesy of the internet, remind me I don’t have a credit card!

It’s credit crunch Christmas in our house. Even so the daughter needs presents. I have found her a genuine Biba jacket. It’s purple. I am so excited. I hope she is. For those of you who were not alive in the first years of the seventies, Biba may well have passed you by. For we few who were lucky enough to slide into its glittering emporium, Biba was our temple. Biba was style!

I found the jacket in the charity shop. I am sure they didn’t quite realise what they had stashed on that rail. It was on sale for £4.00. I added £10.00 to the purchase price.  

Barry thought I was being ridiculous. 

“It what you call bargain hunting.”

It was for the local hospice, I told him.

“Even so, business is business.  If they didn’t know what was on their rails that is not your responsibility.”

My daily phone calls with Barry had not vanished along with my internet connection.   He doesn’t much like Christmas.

“Going into a tower block, taking a television, seeing the kiddies cry, it’s not a job you want to do, Madelaine.”

I am sure it isn’t.  Do you actually have to take it before Christmas?

“I am not happy!  I can tell you!  It’s not like its some geezer with a Mercedes.  Usually it’s a single Mum with kids.  I worry that we’re the least of her problems.  God knows they’ve usually gone down the loan shark route long before we appear. “

Loan sharks!  

“It’s not a nice world out there, Madelaine”

I know.

“What about this armed robber?  Have you written any of it? How much does he want to see before you get more money? Do you have a delivery date?”

This is from the man who didn’t want me to write for an “armed robber”, who worried for my safety. Now he is worrying about delivery!