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All good things have to come to an end and unfortunately the seven days I have just spent with Jean, my birth mother has now ended and she has gone home to Nottingham.  Jean, her partner Steve, Bex my sister and her partner Gary, and finally my three month old nephew Alex came down last Friday.  They rented out a holiday cottage at Prospect Road, a really idyllic spot with beautiful views of Brixham Harbour.
This time around my parents also met Jean which really put the icing on the cake.  My mum and dad have been so supportive throughout the whole process so it was very important to me that they got to meet Jean.  They joined Jean Steve and myself on the Friday evening at the Old Market House next to Brixham Harbour, ironically where I met June for the first time last year.  Then on Saturday evening all of us went out for an evening meal at The Prince William restaurant at the Brixham arena.  It was so nice to see everyone getting along with each other, everybody felt comfortable for the whole evening.  Mum and dad then flew off to Portugal on Sunday for a weeks holiday.

Unfortunately the weather was far from perfect this week, although it was better than I was expecting, we did have a couple of days where the sun came out and it was relatively warm.  It's sad that we didn't get to do some of the things that we had planned, such as visiting Brixham breakwater and catching the mackerel or supper, oh well, they will be down again in the summer hopefully so that will have to wait.  I might add that it was Steve who was looking forward to catching macro, I don't think Jean or Bex are into fishing.

Of course little Alex came down as well to meet his uncle Penn for the first time.  What a bonny little lad, I felt really maternal, never felt that way in my life before.  There was a sort of sad but happy feeling when I was holding him, happy that I now have this lovely little chap in my life, but a little sad because I have never had any children of my own and holding him sort of made me realise what I have missed out on.  Oh well, that will teach me for diving into a swimming pool before checking how deep the water is :-)

I have already mentioned afternoon then at the Angels tearoom in Torquay, so we won't go there, no point in repeating ourselves.  Yesterday we were planning on either going to the zoo, or if it was raining travelling down to the National Marine aquarium at Plymouth.  As usual, it was absolutely belting down with rain yesterday so we knocked zoo idea on the head.  By the time we had got ourselves together, it was a little bit too late to start driving down the Plymouth so we decided to go over to Paignton Pier, the last time I was there was back in the mid-80s when I was still at school, so I thought it would be nice to go and see what it was like.  Before that we had lunch at the Prince William, I can highly recommend the Ploughman's lunch and crab sandwiches.

Paignton Pier hasn't really changed much, it is basically a huge amusement arcade, but it was quite fun to spend an hour and a half spending a couple of quid, haven't done that in the years.  Anyway, we all really enjoyed ourselves, even Alex didn't grizzle, he sat there and watched mommy enjoying herself.

So finally today came and it was time for them to go home, the week has flown by far too quickly.  I must admit I couldn't stop myself from shedding a few tears, as much as I tried to be a big tough man.
I have absolutely loved this week with Jean and the family, I have included a few photos from our week together.

After tracing my birth mother last year, she came down in December 2011 to meet me for the first time. One of our little excursions during her three-day stay in Brixham was to travel over to Torquay. It just so happened that we were at Babbacombe looking for somewhere to go and have afternoon tea when we came across "Angels", a quaint little tearoom smack bang on Babbacombe Downs Road. If you are driving then the easiest way to get to Angels is to drive to the end of Princes Street where you will find a public pay and display car park on the left. There are three or four disabled parking spaces available, if you've got a Torbay parking permit then you can park there free.

Angels is the last property on the right at the end of Princes Street, although its address is Babbacombe Road. Angels is completely wheelchair accessible, although you have to be very careful on the pavement outside, it's very narrow but perfectly manageable with care. Although you can walk straight in from the street, you are probably wise to reserve a table before going as they are very popular and will often have to turn people away. The summertime holidays will definitely be extremely busy and I very much doubt whether they would be able to accommodate you without a reservation.

My birth mother and sister, plus other members of the family have come down to visit me again, this time for a week which is really nice, we are very close and really enjoy spending time together. Angels was always going to be at the very top of the list when it came to places to visit again. Last time we managed to get in without a reservation, although we had to sit at separate tables, this time we made sure that we made a reservation which meant all seven of could share the same table. We reserved a table for 2:15 PM, however we nearly didn't get there because I couldn't get my wheelchair clamber into the wheelchair restraint in my van, it turned out that something had got into the mechanism and jammed it, after half an hour we managed to get on our way and luckily we were still able to get a table at Angels.

By this time my stomach thought my throat had been cut, so I was extremely hungry and really looking forward to the full works. The menu at Angels is quite extensive, they have an impressive list of different types of teas you can order, don't ask me to name them apart from the obvious like Earl Grey, but believe me, they have got lots of different varieties of tea on the menu. Teas are served in bone china cups and saucers along with a traditional teapot and strainer, no mugs or teabags here, all proper tea leaves. So if your like me and can't move your fingers, either accept somebody will have to lift these very small handled cups for you, or bring your own mug. However, there's something about drinking proper tea from a bone china cup and saucer that just seems right, drinking from an old mug would probably take the charm out of the whole exercise.

The food menu will definitely make your mouth water, in fact I wish I had made a note of what was on there. Anyway, they serve food according to how many people are eating. So for instance if it's just one person eating you would choose the appropriate item of the menu which is based on what a member of our group had consisted of sandwiches, cinnamon toast, cream tea and a large piece of cake, if it was two people than this is just doubled up. There is a large selection of sandwiches, you just choose what you want. The sandwiches were absolutely delicious, we had two varieties, a BLT and a prawn mayonnaise sandwich, both of which came with plenty of prawns and bacon. There was a large pots of cream between the three of us, far too much for us to eat to be quite honest. A selection of jams and other lovely big scone each, again you could choose which flavour of scone you wanted. All sandwiches are made on site which was nice to see. I don't know about the cake, however it looks as though they were home-made. You get a large pots of tea with the choice of extra hot water at no extra charge, so in fact three of us each had about 4 cups of tea. The whole meal was absolutely brilliant, I can certainly recommend the cinnamon toast, a big thick slice is what you will get. We were absolutely stuffed after our meal, in fact I only have a little bit of salad for my evening meal, I still wasn't really hungry after eating at Angels. Our food for two people was £17, it cost £9 for one person. That may seem quite expensive but I promise you you will walk out with a full belly.

I can't honestly say I frequent many tea rooms in Torbay, but Angels is definitely the one I would recommend to anyone looking for somewhere to go for an afternoon snack, if you can call what we had a snack, more a feast to be quite honest.

I must just mention the excellent service that we got, these young ladies who waitress are extremely polite and professional at their jobs. The food took about 15 min to come and we all got our food at the same time, nobody was left waiting, you really cannot ask for more. So check out Angels, I guarantee you'll be going back again

My birth mother Jean and her partner Steve, plus my sister Bex and her partner Gary and their new baby Alex have come down from Nottingham for the week to see me. I'll be looking forward to this for a few months now, it has been planned since before Christmas. Anyway, it's the first time I have seen little Alex in the flesh, he sure is a bonny little boy and it's so amazing that you feel that love straightaway.

We all went out last night and the Prince William for a meal, that included my parents who have been absolutely brilliant and so supportive. It was so nice for us all to go out and get along so well, life is so much easier when nobody is kept in the dark. I do feel sorry for the people to want to look for their birth mother but don't have their adoptive parents support, that must be so difficult. I'm really not sure whether or not I would have looked for Jean if I didn't have my parents support, certainly couldn't have gone behind their backs. However, some people have no choice but to trace their birth relatives without their adoptive parents knowledge.

Mom and dad have now gone on holiday to Portugal so I will have the rest of the week with Jean and the gang. We had a lovely day today, took a nice stroll to Berry Head. It's been a really lovely sunny day today, but it was in the cold at Berry head in that wind, but I still managed to get flaming sunburned, didn't think about putting some suntan cream on, but I suppose the sun is very strong at this time of the year so even though it didn't feel that warm, that sum was still capable of causing some pretty nasty sunburn.

So it's bank holiday Monday tomorrow, not sure what we are doing, the weather is looking pretty horrific which is really annoying, I was really hoping that this week was going to be really nice and sunny so we could have got out and done some stuff outside. Oh well, at least we are all together, that is what matters.

I am so pleased that Emmerdale won the best storyline in this year's soap awards.  In case you don't know what I'm talking about, please check this link

It has been a bit disappointing that this storyline hasn't got the recognition that it deserves, well it definitely has now, it blew all the other storylines out of the water as far as I am concerned.  It covered a subject that many people would like to sweep under the carpet, however it does happen and it has happened in very recent times in this country so I'm really pleased that Emmerdale covered this very delicate subject in such a brilliant and believable way, and I'm even more pleased that they have recognised for it.

Today has certainly been an eventful day, probably a day I would rather forget. It was supposed to be exciting as I was getting my van back. Anyway, Derek from GM Coachwork came down just after 12 o'clock to pick me up. There was a little bit of a cock up, he was supposed to bring my new Permobil wheelchair with him so I could transfer at home and go back in the new chair. Unfortunately he didn't bring it with him so I had to take my mobile hoist up to their premises so I could transfer into the new chair. After a fair amount of manhandling which I hate at the best of times, I managed to get into the new wheelchair.

Unfortunately they had put the button that releases me from the clampdown system in a position I just couldn't reach, so Tom had to relocate it. I suppose that took about 30-45 min, but it was in a position that I could reach, great I could now go home.

I suppose I was little naive when I bought my new Permobil Corpus, I was expecting it to be basically the same size as my existing Permobil, how wrong I was. It probably wouldn't have mattered in the slightest if I didn't drive, but since I do drive from my wheelchair even the slightest difference in the size of the chair makes a huge difference. I went up to GM Coachwork on Thursday, I spent the best part of four hours there whilst they measured and pondered over how we could get my chair to fit since it was at least 1/2 inches wider than my old one. To my surprise they did get it to fit, and fit really well actually. So I went up today expecting to be able to drive home with no problems whatsoever. Well, I got about a quarter of a mile down the road and I had to turn around and go back. It was either go back, or carry on and probably have an accident, really, I'm not joking. The problem was with my right arm that controls the joystick. Because my chair is at least two or 3 inches higher than my old one, all my controls are now in a different position. 2 inches may seem nothing, but I promise you it makes all the difference for the are trying to control a large van. The accelerator seems okay, we did make alterations to that on Thursday and it seems okay. However, my right arm was the problem, the support I have on my door was too low and it was just downright dangerous trying to control the vehicle with out being able to support myself. Anyway, Tom was absolutely brilliant, I really do take my hat off to him, he knows exactly what he's doing and he is a very very good engineer.

After messing around for another half an hour we managed to sort things out and I had plenty of support again on the my right elbow. So off I went again, Christ! Things are still not right, what the hell am I going to do? There was no point in going back because it wasn't anything to do with the controls, I actually put it down to the way I was sitting, well I really hope that's what it was. It was that dam mobile hoist, you just cannot get yourself comfy with one of those stupid things. I did manage to get home but boy it was a scary journey, believe me it is really horrible driving when you're not comfy and you don't feel 100% in control of the vehicle.

So if you are a wheelchair driver and are contemplating changing your wheelchair, please pay attention to everything, not just the size of a wheelchair, but the height as well. Don't think that one inch won't make a difference, it probably will. It is not safe to drive a vehicle if you are not sitting comfortably either, never drive from a wheelchair if you are not 100% comfortable, it is just plain dangerous as I found out today.

Today has certainly been an eventful day, probably a day I would rather forget. It was supposed to be exciting as I was getting my van back. Anyway, Derek from GM Coachwork came down just after 12 o'clock to pick me up. There was a little bit of a cock up, he was supposed to bring my new Permobil wheelchair with him so I could transfer at home and go back in the new chair. Unfortunately he didn't bring it with him so I had to take my mobile hoist up to their premises so I could transfer into the new chair. This is something I wasn't really relishing. So after a little bit of manhandling are transferred into the new chair up at GM. To be perfectly honest, it's very difficult to get comfortable when you are using one of those horrible mobile hoists. Unfortunately they had put the button that releases me from the clampdown system in a position I just couldn't reach, so Tom had to relocate it. I suppose that took about 30-45 min, but it was in a position that I could reach, great I could now go home.

I suppose I was little naive when I bought my new Permobil Corpus, I was expecting it to be basically the same size as my existing Permobil, how wrong I was. It probably wouldn't have mattered in the slightest if I didn't drive, but since I do drive from my wheelchair even the slightest difference in the size of the chair makes a huge difference. I went up to GM Coachwork on Thursday, I spent the best part of four hours there whilst they measured and pondered over how we could get my chair to fit since it was at least 1/2 inches wider than my old one. To my surprise they did get it to fit, and fit really well actually. So I went up today expecting to be able to drive home with no problems whatsoever. Well, I got about a quarter of a mile down the road and I had to turn around and go back. It was either go back, or carry on and probably have an accident, really, I'm not joking. The problem was with my right arm that controls the joystick. Because my chair is at least two or 3 inches higher than my old one, all my controls are now in a different position. 2 inches may seem nothing, but I promise you it makes all the difference for the are trying to control a large van. The accelerator seems okay, we did make alterations to that on Thursday and it seems okay. However, my right arm was the problem, the support I have on my door was too low and it was just downright dangerous trying to control the vehicle with out being able to support myself. Anyway, Tom was absolutely brilliant, I really do take my hat off to him, he knows exactly what he's doing and he is a very very good engineer. After messing around for another half an hour we managed to sort things out and I had plenty of support again on the my right elbow. So off I went again, Christ! Things are still not right, what the hell am I going to do? There was no point in going back because it wasn't anything to do with the controls, I actually put it down to the way I was sitting, well I really hope that's what it was. It was that dam mobile hoist, you just cannot get yourself comfy with one of those stupid things. I did manage to get home but boy it was a scary journey, believe me it is really horrible driving when you're not comfy and you don't feel 100% in control of the vehicle.
So if you are a wheelchair driver and are contemplating changing your wheelchair, please pay attention to everything, not just the size of a wheelchair, but the height as well. Don't think that one inch won't make a difference, it probably will. It is not safe to drive a vehicle if you are not sitting comfortably either, never drive from a wheelchair if you are not 100% comfortable, it is just plain dangerous as I found out today.

Well, the time has come, the Park Holiday lodges are now being installed at the bottom of our gardens here at Douglas Avenue.  The I woke up this morning to find a huge bloody great train behind the hedge at the bottom of the garden, damn thing was there half the day blocking out my satellite signal.  Anyway, the lodges are there now, nothing we can do about it.  To be quite honest, the Lodge that is directly in front of us doesn't cause too much of a problem, I was rather worried that all we would see was the roof, but the impact of the Lodge isn't anywhere near as bad as I thought.

So, all you got to do now is wait and see if anyone moves in.  They're not big enough for a family, not to live in their for 11 months of the year anyway.  I would imagine that people will probably buy them for their holidays, or maybe an elderly couple will buy one.

I took some photos, you can see one of them below, I'm not sure I would like to live in a garden shed on the edge of a cliff, not during a howling gale in the middle of winter anyway.  £120,000, who are they trying to kid.

Do you like Chinese food?  Well if you do then I can recommend you a very good takeaway here in Brixham.  Wongs House is located halfway up Fore Street on the right-hand side.

My sister came around this evening, well she would wouldn't to, I said I would buy our Chinese, that's Gabrielle for you :-) Actually she brought her little puppy that she got recently, I can't remember exactly what breed it is, sweet little thing, although it pissed on my carpet, little bastard.  In all fairness, she somehow managed to break the little finger on her left hand a few days ago, I got roped into taking over to the hospital and then spent the best part of an hour and a half waiting for her.  The last time I was in accident and emergency at Torbay hospital, I nearly died a few hours later, so you can imagine it was a little bit eerie.

Anyway, back to the Chinese, I actually had a chicken curry, they do a really mean curry, it's not too hot, although if you want it hot then you only have to ask.  My mate Peter loves the chicken curry from Wongs house, he always has it extra hot as well as extra hot rice, I reckon he must have asbestos lining the inside of his mouth, I don't know how you manage is to eat it.  So I had a mild chicken curry and boiled rice, and I think my sister had some kind of chicken dish as well as some sweet-and-sour prawn balls, not sure why they call them balls, they're shaped more like penises :-) But I suppose it's a little difficult to make a king prawn look like a ball.
The problem I have got now is that bloody curry is going to do the congo in my colon once I get into bed and probably keep me awake all night.  Well, that is the sacrifice I have to make if I want to have one of Wongs houses' lovely curries.

If you haven't tried them yet, give them a go, they're halfway up Fore Street in Brixham on the right-hand side.  You can ring up and get them to deliver, they are normally fairly prompt unless you catch them on a busy day at the weekend, mind you they came up within half an hour this evening which is a Sunday.

Wongs House
52b Fore Street
Brixham
Telephone: 01803 856314