Thursday 13th of June 2002
The world cup is in full swing and Brazil has just beaten Costa Rica 5×2. As you know I support Brazil! You keep asking me if the team in red has won whenever there’s a football match, because the first game you watched (Brazil x Turkey) had Turkey wearing red. Even if there are no teams wearing red, you always want the team wearing red to win… Little traitor!
Had a bit of a car crash on Tuesday, this keeps happening to me! Law of averages I guess. The driver ran off and I didn’t have time to take the number plate down. Funnily enough it was a white van! A little one, but still a white van. My bumper split a bit and the near side wing got a bit crumpled. The car is only worth about £1500, and I reckon to fix that would cost about £1000, and I’m not prepared to pay that, as the car still works fine. Not worth having a nice car in London. The van’s light got smashed, I did have time to see that. I thought it was a little bit my fault, so I was checking the damage I might have had to pay for as I was telling the driver to pull off so we could exchange details – it was a sort of head on sideways collision. As I was turning right to stop, the van just drove off!!! I just shrugged my shoulders and drove off as I had to pick you up.
Last night I had to go to the police station to report the accident, in case the driver had taken my number plate down and tried to make a claim. I got there at 20:00 and there were 2 people in front of me. I got out of there at 21:30, after talking to a drunk and another ‘criminal’, who asked me if they could come in with as they only had to sign a book. There was also a little boy in there, I also let him go in front of me. He was on his own and was really tiny, and looked so fragile… I let him come in with because I wanted to know what he was doing there. It turned out that his dad (who has an injunction order to keep away from him, his mum and his sister) had turned up at his house at 5 o’clock in that morning and smashed the window in. He said that he used to beat his mum up and once strangled him because he had bought the wrong type of whisky. I asked why hadn’t they moved them away from there? He said the council told them that it would take years… I felt so sorry for him. He looked only about 10 years old, but he is actually 14. He was there because his mum had asked him to go and get a crime number and also an emergency number for the council to board up the window (they hadn’t fixed it yet). I asked him if he ever saw his dad, and he said he had seen him the day before and he had given them (him and his sister) some money. I really don’t understand how people end up like that, so out of control, beating up their own children. They must hate themselves so much. And it’s like nobody really gives a shit, the council won’t move them, the police are too busy (although they did take his dad away, but I’m sure he’ll be back).
The little boy left, I got a form (I can’t believe I waited all that time just to get a stupid form), and then got in the car and had a good cry, for that little boy, poor little boy, who will probably end up like his father one day… Or maybe not, I hope he won’t.
Spoke to Maira, in Brazil, last Sunday. She asked if it was ok for her eldest son, Gabriel, to come over in 2004 and stay here with us for a few months. Of course! It’ll be great. He’s now 17 years old, and I used to look after him a bit when I lived in Rio with them, nearly 13 years ago. I can’t imagine him being so big… Even though I have seen photos. I can’t wait!