Happy St George's Day !!!!!!!!!

Ok so its Thursday already and the majority of this week has been spent indoors doing a lot of much needed housework.

Its 15.30 here and the blue sky gives you the belief that its hot outside, but I have just been out on our decking and Summer it definitely isnt !

Thanks to the few people that read my last post and commented on which story I should finish.  So far it looks like story 2 (good old alien) is the one that I shall attempt to finish.  Fingers crossed.

Today is the day that I have decided that I am sick of sitting on my ass doing nothing but surveys and emails, so I am starting a couple of new projects in the next few weeks and will keep you updated.

Just a short post today to let you know I am alive and well and hope you are all the same :)

HAPPY ST GEORGE'S DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dilemma

Ok so this is my problem.  I want to start writing again and I have made a start on a few new stories.  I want people to let me know which one I should finish and turn into a book.  Any help would be appreciated.

Here goes

1.  Murder Story

Mitchell turned back to the car, a huge smile on his face. This is a done deal he thought. He didn’t have any more thoughts as the tire iron was brought down on the back of his head. He fell to the ground unsure of what had happened. He heard the figure kneel next to him. His head was throbbing and he couldn’t see anything. The iron came down again and fortunately for Mitchell killed him instantly. The blood splashed up and bits of brain and pieces of skull were catapulted in the air as the tire iron was brought down again and again. Each blow was delivered with more vehemence than the last and it seemed like it would just go on, but then the assailant took two deep breaths and stopped. They were covered in blood and the sweat that was pouring from them was mixing with the rivulets that were running down their face. They wiped a gloved hand across their forehead and stood up. The tire iron was coated with blood, skull and grey matter from Mitchells brain. The figure stooped and spat on the corpse.

‘You bastard, never again, you fucking bastard’ and they kicked the corpse several times letting all the anger and frustration leave their body.

The figure knelt beside Mitchell’s body and searched his pockets. They found the keys they sought and went over to the car. They unlocked the boot and grabbed the grey holdall that had been put in there just a few hours ago. They looked around but there was no one anywhere in sight. They knew that the area was sometimes used by the odd frisky teenager who would bring their latest conquest here for some undisturbed sex, but tonight there was no one. Tuesday nights were usually quiet. They had made sure. Careful planning was the key and they were always careful. Having left the boot open they went over to Mitchell’s body. They placed the holdall on the ground, unzipped it and took out two gasoline cans and two surgical straps. At five foot five and only 140lbs he wasn’t going to cause his killer any trouble moving him. They wound the straps underneath each arm pit and dragged him across the ground. As they did so more parts of the skull came apart and smeared on the ash path. It looked like skid marks from blood red tyres. They grabbed the body under the arms and lifted it into the boot. Their gloves were slippery from all the blood and it took several goes to get him in. They removed the straps, threw the tire iron in and slowly closed the lid. They went over to the cans of gasoline and carried them over to the car. They placed one of the cans on the ground and took of the plastic lid on the other. They splashed the gasoline all over the boot of the car covering every inch. When the first can was empty the second one was retrieved and having opened the car doors they emptied it all over the inside of the car. There was a small amount left and this was poured over the roof and bonnet. They knew there was still over half a tank in the car itself. Having thrown both cans and the car keys into the car they closed all but one door and walked back to the holdall. After rummaging around in it their hand came out holding a flare gun. Smiling they picked up the holdall, slung it over their shoulders and started to walk away. After fifty yards they stopped. Looking at the car their face broke into a smile. The flare gun was pointed straight at the open door of the car.

‘RIP you fucker’

The flare flew from the pistol straight into the open door of the car and immediately exploded. The interior of the car looked like a barbecue. The glass exploded and sent shards flying in all directions. The upholstery caught and turned the car into a time bomb. He waited. A few seconds later the rest of the car ignited and soon after the fuel tank. The explosion sent parts of the car flying in all directions and the roof almost lifted off. There was a secondary explosion and within a few seconds there was nothing discernible just a ball of flame. Smiling once again, the figure took one last look and then turned and walked away.

When the alarm sounded he did what he did every morning. Steve hit snooze. He knew what time it was and he didn’t need a clock to tell him. He reckoned he had probably had no more than three hours sleep and as he turned over in bed he laid a hand on his wife’s shoulder.

‘ahhh wha…. Jesus Ste your hands are freezing…..what ya….’

He smiled and knew that Amy wouldn’t open her eyes no matter how much of a bollocking she was giving him. She turned back over and resumed her sleep pattern that he knew usually lasted for at least another hour. He lay back on the pillow and closed his eyes. Another day, another crime field

The alarm sounded again and he had to look twice before he would believe that another five minutes had passed.

‘So much for that’

He threw back the covers and eased himself out of bed. The sun was shining and even at seven thirty-five it was already bright enough to make him squint and close the gap in the curtains that had mysteriously appeared overnight. He smiled and looked once more at Amy who had started to drop back to sleep. As he was rubbing the sleep from his eyes the phone rang, breaking the silence. Snatching it up after the first ring he listened to the voice on the other end. He yawned while listening and turned to make sure that the phone hadn't reawakened Amy. He sat patiently waiting for the voice at the end of the phone to finish its message.

"Okay I'm on my way"

After replacing the handset he finished rubbing his eyes then walked over to the chair where he found the trousers he had draped the night before. Balancing first on one leg and then the other he was able to manoeuvre himself into the trousers without sitting back down on the bed. He opened the wardrobe door removed a clean shirt and chose a suitable tie. As he walked out the bedroom door he blew his wife a kiss. As he got downstairs his personal phone rang only this time he let it ring a few times so that he could find it. He picked up the phone and recognising the name on the caller ID he answered it.

"Yes I just got the call, about 10 min" He paused waiting for the response "Okay, okay make it fifteen, and say hi to Karen and the kids for me"

He shook the kettle and finding there was enough water in he switched it on. Pulling a mug from the nearby rack and placing a teabag in, he opened the fridge and got the milk. He went to the front door and grabbed the post of the doormat, returning to the kitchen he leafed through the post until the kettle had boiled and he finished making his cup of tea. The first mouthful burnt his throat and he closed his eyes as he felt the pain the liquid caused. After adding some cold water he drank the rest and grabbing his car keys headed for the front door. Just before he left he turned and saw that Amy was halfway down the stairs.

"See you love, don't know what time, could be a late one"

She smiled and with a nonchalant wave accepted that this meant she might not see him until the next day.

He walked over to the blue Mondeo that was parked on the drive. After admiring his new car for a few seconds he opened the door and climbed in. Before starting the ignition he opened the glove box and grabbed one of the many CDs that were in there. This was the same routine he carried out every morning. It was basically a lucky dip of music because there were over 40 loose CDs in the glove box, everything from Depeche Mode, Meatloaf and UB40 to Vangelis, Jarre and Oldfield. He selected a CD and slid it into the stereo, wondering what he was going to get this morning. It was Meatloaf. He waited until he had heard the intro to bat out of hell and then started the engine.

Sgt Collins was waiting on his doorstep and as the car pulled up he walked slowly to the door opened it and climbed in.

"Morning Dave"

"Is it?"

Steve realised Dave and his wife Karen must have had one of their arguments. Dave had told him on many occasions of the arguments that arose on a daily basis. Most of them revolved around the fact that Dave had moved to Spilton. Dave's wife had been a successful mobile hairdresser and she resented the fact that her husband had moved her almost two hundred and fifty miles away from her regular customers. All his promises of a new start, new clients and new opportunities had done nothing to lighten her mood and she was constantly reminding him of the life she had left behind. Steve knew that this was one of the reasons Dave worked every hour he could, it wasn't that he loved the job it was that he didn't want to be at home. Steve was lucky because he and Amy had always lived in Spilton and he had met her at the village Christmas fete. At the time he had not long graduated police college and she was a primary school teacher. Now he was sergeant and she was deputy head of Spilton junior school. Totally different lives they both had but Steve trusted Dave with his life and he knew the feeling was reciprocated.

The drive was mostly done in silence and even the tones of Meatloaf belting out Not a Dry Eye could lift Dave out of his moody silence. Steve knew that he would open up sooner or later and that by the end of the day he would know the in's and out's of the latest argument.

2.  A story using the characters from Supernatural

Sam had been down this road many times, in fact he had been down all roads over and over again. The only difference this time is that he was in a foreign land. A foreign town in a foreign land. And the worst part of all was he had no idea how to handle it. He had fought werewolves, witches, ghouls, spectres and a million more creatures known to man and another million man had no idea about. But this, this was worse than that. This was England and ever since his arrival six days ago he had heard more strange accents and sayings than he cared to remember. From day one it had been confusion avenue, mystery road and seriously dude where am I street.

He recalled the last message he had received on his cell and played it back in his head.

'Sam, Sam Winchester?'

'Hell no sorry but you must have the wrong number'

'Well that sure as hell is a shame because I thought this was Sam's number. Be sure to tell him I called and that I have his brother Dean'

'Wait a minute, did you say Dean?'

'So that is you Sam' a laugh followed by a cough were the next sounds heard before the message continued. 'Do you like travelling Sam, I am sure you do. You better do because you are going on a journey, and I don't mean from state to state like you hunters usually do. I am talking about overseas. You are going to England, more specifically a place called Stonehenge. That ring a bell Sam?'

The voice on the phone waited patiently while the implications of the message had sunk into Sam.

'I know you are dying to ask questions Sam and that's all good, but I know how you hunters like to trace calls and that will never do. I don't want to spoil anything by you trying to locate me. As long as I know where you are then your brother is safe, understood? Now you wait a couple of days and you will receive a letter and some money to get you to England. Be seeing you real soon Sam'.

He had hung up the phone and stood for several minutes taking in the contents of the message and the implications. Someone or something had his brother and Cass had disappeared three weeks ago. Something was going on and for once he had no idea what. His brother had said that he was working on something that could stop Crowley but instead he had vanished. All calls went to dead numbers, all contact details had been wiped, even secret ways of communicating that the brothers had long since employed had lead to dead ends. He had even tried the lost dog advert in the local papers as a last ditch attempt, but so far nothing and Dean never disappeared without leaving some trace. Sam had to admit to being worried. Dean had been to hell and back, purgatory, Lucifers realm and yet this was something else, something different. His ears to the ground had turned up nothing. He had even tried contacting Bobby through a medium the brother's had helped before but even that drew a blank.

Three days later he received a call and was told that a letter was waiting for him in the mail office of the town he was driving through, which happened to be Austin, Texas. The letter, such as it was, contained a map, co-ordinates and a plane ticket to England, more specifically London. That was it.

3.  Hitman

   If the clouds above him told him anything it was that the day was going to be as unpredictable as his moods. He had woke up that morning smiling from a soon forgotten dream but when he had seen the news report the smile had turned into a frown. At first he had thought that it was a joke, some kind of April fool prank, but when he switched channels he found the same report. A UFO had landed on the planet. In Mexico to be exact. There were several fuzzy photos and some garbled video messages from reporters of various races and colours, but they had all said the same thing, usually by sweeping an arm outward and letting the camera follow to a pointing finger. The film had not been too clear but it was there right in front of his eyes. A UFO, but not like he had imagined it. His love of science fiction movies had got him to imagine that a UFO would be silver, always silver and that it would be cylindrical in shape with no discernible doors or windows. This thing was no shape at all, it was just angles and metal points. A large glass fronted metal shape at that. It appeared to be balanced on four equally positioned points. There was a yellow glow from the base of the object and very faintly a strange humming sound could be heard as the reporters stretched their arms to point a microphone at the object. None had got too close and in the distance he had been able to make out several official looking military personnel. As the report ended he could just make out the start of a cordon being erected. As he switched the set off he remembered all the times he had said that he had hoped that there was life out there but he probably wouldn't live long enough to see it, maybe he was wrong. He could but hope.

He had dressed with a million thoughts in his head and a million more fighting for space. After leaving the house he proceeded to Stan's Diner where he always breakfasted when he wasn't on assignment. His name was Jack Barnes, to everyone who knew him. That's all they needed to know, the rest, well they would never know and if they did, then they wouldn't be alive long enough to tell anyone else, that was the nature of the beast. Everything about him was ordinary to the everyday eye. He breakfasted at nine-thirty on the dot every day. After breakfasting he usually took a stroll down the local park or if he was feeling energetic then he would be seen happily jogging his way past the mothers with the screaming toddlers, the old men feeding the ducks and even the tramps who had made their night time arrangements on the local benches. He would jog past them all and return a smile as he listened to his mp3 player. He was the picture of the modern thirty-year old out of work single guy. On a Friday night he would head into town and drink a few beers while putting the world to rights with his drinking buddies Steve Anders and Ralph Parker. They thought they knew him too, probably thought they could tell you his entire life history, and they could. Well they could recount what he had told them and if they believed it why shouldn't everybody.

4.  T-Red

‘Hey you tramp, why don’t you get a job ha ha ha ha’

T-red opened his eyes quickly and looked around the corner of the cardboard house he had built himself. He knew how bad this area was and after trying to sleep with one eye open most nights had instead learned to wake very quickly and be alert at the slightest noise. Sometimes he didn’t wake quick enough and he had the cuts and bruises to prove it.

‘You smelly bastard’

He looked again and saw two of the neighbourhood ‘hard kids’ or at least that’s what they claimed to be. The mouthy one was about fifteen he guessed. He was dressed in designer jeans and wore a Chelsea football shirt. He had a smartphone in one hand and was holding it out like some sort of status symbol. The other one looked slightly younger and was not so smartly dressed. His clothes were almost no better than what T-red himself was wearing. The only designer item he had was on his feet, a pair of navy blue Nike Air trainers which ruined the overall downtrodden look. He either didn’t have a phone or else his wasn’t of good enough quality to wave in the air. The only thing the two seemed to have in common was the fact that they were both wearing Raggers baseball caps. This was the local gang and they recruited just about anyone. Their escapades covered everything from writing graffiti to stealing from the local shops. Most of the local shops had banned the Raggers and now they sought enjoyment insulting people instead. He had had trouble with them before and had even chased a few, which is why now they preferred to shout their insults from the entry to the alley where he slept. Close but not so close as he could catch them if he chased them again.

He chose to ignore them and instead looked around the alley. There had been a few drops of rain in the night and parts of his cardboard house needed replacing. Several other occupants had built their living quarters along the length of the alley but these were all idly vacant and awaiting their inhabitants. All that was present in the alley, apart from the rubbish that had blown in of the main street was him and the kids. Judging by the absence of anyone else he guessed the time to be around twelve. Anton, Rabin, and the rest would by now be strung out side of the supermarket on Wayling Street waiting for the odd hand out or offering of charity from either someone who was genuinely concerned with their plight or with someone who just felt so guilty that they were living it up when there were others who barely had one meal a week. He could see them now like some sort of bedraggled queue for the toilet. He smiled and realised he had lost his place. Ah well he thought must have needed the sleep.

‘Hey you ugly old tramp, why don’t you go home, oh yeah you don’t have one’

This witticism caused the two kids to break down laughing at how funny they were and T-red moved to chase after them. The laughter stopped almost immediately and before he was on his feet they had vanished down the alley.

Those are the 4 choices.  Please help..................lol

Ok where is this year going?

Its now two thirds of the way through April and I cannot believe how fast this year is going.  It seems like five minutes since I was opening my Christmas presents and then a week later wishing everyone a Happy New Year.!!!!!!

Well so far this year we have had a brilliant week in Leicester with sis and mum (Sarah and Janet Hovell).  It was sis's 40th birthday and she very kindly invited us down there to spend the entire week with her and her mum.  We had a truly awesome time and though sometimes people get bored when they are away for a week, I can honestly say we didn't have time...........lol

We arrived on Monday the 16th March and apart from one day where we all stayed in (the following Sunday) we were out every day.  Not me as I got to stay in on the Saturday too while Deb, sis and mum all went to a craft fair (definitely not my scene).  So poor me had to suffer a day of lazing about on the sofa and watching netflix.  Its a hard life but someone has got to do it. :)

In the time we were there we shopped at Leicester town centre, Loughborough and Hinckley.  A lot of walking I can tell you but worth it as the days were very enjoyable.  Sarah had a great birthday on the 19th and in the evening we went for a meal at the poshest Wetherspoons I have ever been called The White House.  My sister Mandi watched out ever faithful dog Jess for the week and it must have been hard for the dog having a massive back yard to run and play in !!!!!

Its been a strange old three months with various family issues most of them concerning health problems (some of them mine), but here we are coming up to the warmer months of the year and we all appear to be fighting fit (well almost).

We have just had my Sister Mandi and Nephew Oliver staying with us for a few days.  I was supposed to be accompanying Oliver on his trip to Anfield last Saturday but unfortunately I was not well enough to go :(
He had a great time and he even managed to get my Liverpool shirt signed by two more of my Anfield heroes.  So now I have a shirt signed by Jimmy Case, Alan Kennedy, John Aldridge and Phil Neal.  Not bad if I do say so myself.
They only stayed here from the Friday to the Tuesday but it was enjoyable enough.

Deb has got into baking (The Great British Bake off has a lot to answer for) and has planned a lot of cakes she wants to make.  This means that I will have to be guinea-pig and try all the cakes (Another hard job, dont know how I cope :) , but I do).  We are also in the process of transforming our small box bedroom into a craft room for Deb.  Its about time she had one as her craft stuff is all over the place and it makes it difficult for her to find anything.

I have finally succumbed and joined the infamous xbox live gold.  I decided to give it a go as they now give away free games to download each month.  In two days I have downloaded Army of two;The Devils Cartel and also Assassins Creed Black Flag.  Well that is almost worth the price of the gold membership there !!!!!!!

Football wise Liverpool are having a strange season and this afternoon we play Aston Villa in the F.A.Cup Semi-Final.  I have a bad feeling about it but it depends on which Liverpool team show up.  If its the team that plays good football and runs their opponents ragged while maintaining their discipline then we have a good chance, but is its the team that played away to Besiktas in the Europa League then we are going to get hammered.  Who can say?

I am still doing some writing when i can get motivated to do it.  I have hundreds of ideas for stories but with me being ill for the last few weeks its hard to get my head around them.  Well my health appears to be improving so who knows what the next few weeks will bring.

I have a new hobby/collection thanks to a certain person from Leicester.  I now collect Funko pop figures and what started with one at Christmas (said person got me the Swedish Chef from the Muppets) has now turned into ten more figures which include Groot, Dancing Baby Groot, Starlord and Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy. grrrrrrrrrrr@sis

Adios amigos and catch up again real soon.  Be good.  And as a sadly missed actor was famous for saying 'LIVE LONG AND PROSPER'