the year is 1992

I hope my letter this year finds you in the best of health.  Please excuse the lack of an individually addressed letter.  At the moment just putting pen to paper (or fingers to the keyboard) for long enough to write a reasonable letter is difficult.  Please don’t interpret it as an insult.

This year has been incredibly hectic, but immensely varied and rewarding for all of us, with no great disasters and lots of good things to remember.  We started off the year without a bath for a month which was quite a problem with 7 of us and involved a tour round most of our friends with baths – a great novelty for the children, but an organisational headache for us.  The bathroom was eventually finished in October having employed the talents of half a dozen different experts who charged us phenomenal rates for arguing with each other.  It looks great and we try not to think about how much it cost.

We went to Czechoslovakia at Easter and Tunisia in the summer.  FH was smitten with Prague, although parts of it are very smelly and polluted and it’s murder trying to find a restaurant that will let you in with kids.  We were greatful for the Macdonalds there.  They don’t have B&Bs.  You stay in a private flat which is an adventure.  The area around the Charles Bridge is breathtakingly beautiful.  Tunisia was more of a beach holiday though we did go down to the Sahara and rode on camels there.  I am continuing in my life’s ambition to see as much of the world as I can possibly afford before I die!

FH is fine.  American football went out the window this year to be replaced by a fascination for Celtic art, druid stones and tatooes.  he now has two on one upper arm.  He is getting on well in his job although he finds it boring at times.  He still goes to all the Millwall home games and is in a darts and quiz team as well as campaigning for labour or rather mediating in all the squabbles and petty jealousies down at the local HQ.  Everyone wants him on their side!

I was a delegate to the Labour party Conference in the Autumn which was a real eye-opener for me.  A week up in Blackpool came at a good time as I had just had all the veins stripped in one leg and was a virtual cripple for two weeks.  However, I went to lots of fringe meetings and came away surprised to discover how left wing I actually am.

The job at The Children’s Society continues to be an enormous challenge and I enjoy it.  They send me on loads of management courses and I feel I have learnt a lot.  I appreciate how poor management is in schools in comparison.  My project is becoming well-known in the community which enables us to campaign more effectively on local people’s behalf.  I do live and breathe the job a bit too much!  However, I am still ballroom dancing and did a course in steel drum playing this year.

A* gets leaner and leggier by the day.  She now speaks with a distinct Luton accent i.e. wrong verb tenses and no t sound and is very enterprising and a natural leader.  The sensitive side weeps copiously at injustice (we are always forking out for some charity on her behalf), not getting some mega expensive toy on every trip to the shops and the worst thing of all – not having a baby sister, but two baby brothers.

J1 finds it much harder to assert himself in a group though he is braver than A* over things like the dentist or jumping over a little stream.  He has a natural physical ability we are trying to encourage by taking him to gym club.  He is very gentle and plays with J2 for hours which is why they have such a good relationship and A* gets fed up.  However, he and A* still choose to sleep together sometimes and they are very caring as well as argumentative with each other.  His vulnerability touches me, but I get irritated by his laziness at times.

J2 is adorable and a monster.  A* and J1 let him have everything he wants and he asserts himself by all means at his disposal including biting.  We haven’t got round to biting back yet, but he gets sat on the floor on his own which mortifies him.  He is naturally happy, sleeps all night, tries to do everything as if he was two years older and makes all of us laugh.  He is very independent and spirited.

Our foster sons have caused us some self-questioning and sadness this year.  Bear failed his exams, came out of care on his 18th and has chosen to stay with us for good.  He now works at a Bingo hall.  Danny walked out after a row.  Avinash stayed for a few months and then went back to his mum and Tim came, stole and went twice.  We’re thinking of asking to take younger boys in future.  Sometimes it’s too difficult when boys are 15/16.  Unless there is something they like about being here we can not hold them and they run rather than face the consequences of their actions.

That is our 1992 update!  We do realise how lucky we have been not to be facing a redundancy this year as many friends and relatives have.  Fate has been kind to us this year and we have made the most of it.