Things, as you may have gathered from the sporadic posting, been a little unsettled in the Collison household of late. Circumstances regarding not just MJ but other things - things that I cannot yet speak of without breaking a solemn promise - have weighed heavy on our minds and have been getting heavier with each passing day. The future has been uncertain, the atmosphere has been fraught and tension and various levels of misery have reigned.
And now? Well, now the future is still uncertain, but it is slightly less uncertain than it has been. The part of the uncertainty that I cannot talk about has been acted upon and will be settled, for better or worse, by 31st October. The part that I can talk about, regarding MJ, looks as though it might be settled sooner than that, because the council have offered him a flat.
He should be able to move in by the end of next week, when they have finished what they are calling the "clearance" of the flat (they haven't specified whether they are clearing people or debris, or both. We suspect both) and give him the keys.
He has stated utter determination to move in, despite the remembrance/realization that two of the people that used to live in the Lion Hotel are rumoured to now live in the same road he is destined to live in - there were a few days of silent glowering brooding on his part and abject wretchedness on ours until we finally sat him down and kindly but forcibly extracted that information out of him - and the fact that it would mean money would be uncomfortably tight.
With respect to the Lion Hotel people, there is nothing we can do other than what we have done, which is to point out to him that me regaining my room and mother regaining hers is not more important than he is, and that if he chooses not to move to a flat with the knowledge that person/persons who made his life a torment previously would be (possibly very) nearby and instead to stay with us indefinitely that would be fine with us; we are family and we would make it work. His response to this was a "thanks" and a repeat of his determination to do it.
With respect to the subject of money, mother and I were worried enough that we sat him down again and went through the nitty gritty blow by blow. The bottom line, to spare you the gumph from our lists and my spreadsheet (...yeah, I actually made one...), is that once all the bills are paid - at the cheapest rate they could possibly be - he would be left with a few pence over £3 per day for everything else; the everything else being food (which considering the way and what he eats is not quite enough, so sacrifices will have to be made. ...Cutting out Pepsi and switching to cheaper bread, for example...) and cigarettes (which considering the cost of a single carton of cigarettes is definitely not enough, even without factoring in the food). Our response to that was a statement that in our considered opinion such a restriction will make his life so unhappy as to not be worth living, gaining his own space notwithstanding, and a repeat of our previous little speech regarding family and his importance and making it work etc. His response to that was an airy and nonchalant declaration that he knew all of this already and had accepted that changes would have to be made and things given up, and that he really was determined to go.
So, unless the council themselves back out (which is very possible), it looks highly probable that he is going to be moving to a little one bedroom flat in Avon Road.
How long he will remain there, however, once the realities of independent living (or as independent as one claiming job seeker's allowance and full housing benefits can be) has hit him with what will probably amount to the mental force of a ten tonne truck, will have to remain to be seen.
As the saying goes; watch this space.
Meantime, here are some more examples of my masterful sewing.
1. The Fish:
2. The Cat:
3. The Worry Doll:
Forgive the quality of the pictures: they was taken on a phone in a pub.
And please forgive the quality of the toys: I am learning as I go, so to speak.
And pretty please forgive the background. In picture 2, that would be the poor unsuspecting gentleman sat nearby, and in pictures 1. and 3. ...well... that would be me.
But; I want to make it clear that the angles are decidedly unflattering (...so there).
Alice x
