Trouble in Hackney.

Last night the true extent of my recent gluttony was exposed….I am nearing double figures of weight, which is pretty impressive going seeing as last year I was a mere slip of a thing at 8 ½ stone. Steve, like a true hero waded in with the shock news that he is close to 12 ½ stone. So between us in just over a year, we’ve managed to put on almost 3 stone. Impressive weight gain which falls squarely into the ‘comfortable couple’ category. Long may it continue!

Meeting with Steve’s mum last night provided us both with a real idea of exactly what’s going on in the house of ‘addiction’ trouble, over in Hackney. It seems the new other half (and husband to be) is having no joy at all in keeping big sis on the straight and narrow, and instead after having met his future mother in law for several minutes, told her how much he’s enjoying the pub culture over in the UK and seemed genuinely shocked that big sis wasn’t able to ‘keep it together’ after a couple of drinks, and expressed concern at ‘how bad she gets, she just seems to want to drink and drink….’ No sh*t. Don't you remember where you met her?! Tsk tsk. And as if this isn't bad enough, he's fessed up to Steve's mum to having a violent streak when he drinks. And, as coincidence would have it, she spent a night in hospital having her head glued after an 'altercation', or rather, a 'nasty fall'. Ahem. It's just too sad to really put into words. And too hopeless and too everything.

Nevertheless, in the few short weeks he has been here, he’s already put plans down to buy a nice car, buy a house boat, buy a des-res in Bromley (!), become a professional chef….shame he’s got no money….oh, no, hang on a minute, he has! Hundreds of thousands of pounds at his disposal in a current account. It’s not his of course, it’s his future wifes. Brilliant. I hate to say it, but my prior assertions that maybe he did love her, and maybe he would take care of her have gone right out of the window. What I now see is someone who is prying on a vulnerable, niave and extremely desperate girl who just wants someone to love her. Unfortunately, given her current condition, the only people she attracts are those like this scumbag, who clearly doesn’t give a shit about her wellbeing, and is only in it for one thing. Let’s hope she can see that before the wedding.

In the meanwhile, despite being an athiest, I just pray that she keeps safe from harm. xxx

Here we go....

Recently I mentioned that Steve’s wayward sister has stumbled into a relationship with someone she met whilst in re-hab and I pondered the relationship, questioning the nature of their love and whether or not it was something I felt would be positive or negative in the long run. Well, some interesting updates in that respect. I was pleased to hear from Steve that his sister was very keen to arrange a meeting over his 30th birthday weekend, and even went as far as to ask what he wanted for his birthday….miraculous. Though of course the reality was that no meet ever came to fruition. In fact, we’ve not heard a peep from her (directly) for 6 days now despite several calls and texts, and from this we can deduce that she is in the midst of a massive drink and (presumably given her new love) drugs bender.

You might think this is a shockingly unfair assumption to make, but I assure you it’s based on a great deal more than mere unsubstantiated speculation. Firstly, one of Steve’s friends spotted them being thrown out of a pub in Fulham…..small blonde girl who couldn’t stand up, accompanied by a meat-headed bald antipodeon….snap! Spotted. Also, a friendly neighbour has called out the police on numerous occasions over the last week, one of which resulted in the new other half being arrested. A whole host of other third party stories and I can effectively deduce that things are not all rosy in the world of the newly engaged addicts. It’s very very sad to feel so utterly helpless and to see people inadvertently pulling each other’s life’s apart so lets hope that when the mist of the hammeredness subsides, this time they really do feel more able to question what the f**k they are doing.

In the meanwhile, I’m waiting on a call or an email from Steve to tell me that something has happened as we know from experience that these benders always result in things coming to a head. So, I wait with baited breath to see what pickles she’s got herself into this time.

On the positive, it seems Lindsey and I might be onto a winner with a flat…we have a glamorous new recruit by the name of Natalie, who is currently jet-setting around the globe- in LA to be precise. She’s a medical writer (Sam- is that right?) and will fit perfectly into our vision of the uber-pad complete with massive garden, corner bath (preferably Jacuzzi), gigantic kitchen blah blah blah, you get the picture. If only we could find the bloody thing. New recruit equals higher budget and I don’t want to curse things, but we’ve got a person somewhere high up in the magical world of media who might be able to let us his ‘spare house’ and it’s in Hampstead. Fingers and toes and legs and arms and hands and eyes, all crossed, all at once. Come on…..this must be it….