JessandCos

just a quick hi to everyone. My year has been eventful, my son is now in Austraiia and showing no signs of coming home. I did my Close Protection course at the beginning of the year, and have since embarked on a new career looking after bands and vvvips. My daughter started UEA in Norwich last weekend, and my partner of two years and I have decided to take the plunge and start living together. We needed to be in a specific area for various family reasons hers and mine and we saw a house today that is happy to have my dogs and is in the right area. My partner is going self employed and has resigned her job and has said goodbye to her career of 20 plus years. It is a whole new start, and it has not only my daughters blessing but my parents too - which surprised me - it is exciting and scary at the same time.

just thought I would pop by and say hi - not been here in a while. News from me is my son is now living in Austrailia after graduating from Exeter Uni in June, my daughter is hopefully going to UEA in Norwich in September. I am now a qualified bodyguard and first responder - I did both courses in January, and it has opened a world of opportunities being female. I am also looking to move to the Cotswold area after September with my two dogs and fingers crossed my partner - dependent on her job/work front. So far 2013 has been hard dealing with the fact my kids have grown up and moving away from home. I seem to have come out the other side and things are looking rosier and more challenges ahead

just a hi from me - the festival season is now over, spent the summer working at festivals from Glastonbury to Harvest @ Jimmys food festival - came home on monday and slept for 20 hours solid. now for freshers, carnage, Christmas parties etc up until New Year with a bit of footy watch thrown in My dogs are still olovely both act and think they are puppies although thye are nearly 8 now, still love country life and only go back to LOndon for work and seeing my parents - which is about very six months. My kids aregrowing up fast my son will be in his 3rd year at uni and my daughter is her second year at college. How time flies I have been here for 4 years now and can't imagine being anywhere else

Have not been around for ages nice to see alot of familiar names. I am now a "Door Supervisor" Or Bouncer, I am self employed and work keeps me ver busy, especially in the summer with all the festivals and events. My dogs are as mad but as loving as ever and they love the forest - so how is everyone - seems like forever

Just thought I would pop bye and say hi, not posted in a long while. Just thought I would do an update for everyone Life in the New Furest cannot be beaten, my son is now ar uni in Exeter and my daughter will be doing her GCSE's. I have been managing a pub for the last year and should hopefully be buying it in the next few months, and will be looking for a live-in manager. Until that happens I will be doing security at events like Cowes week and the boat show and also the doors on a few clubs in southampton. My dogs are forest dogs through and through, both very healthy and permanently tired - and skanky and smelly Life is excellent, in every way

Living in the new forest, there are always cows, calves, ponies, foals, pigs and deer wandering randomly - in the roads and anywhere else. I always try and give cows and ponies a wide berth, and my dogs are off lead all the time and they are used to being around them, and rarely bat an eyelid these days It is a sad story, but even around here, lots of the locals are terrified of cows , but animals are unpredictable and can easily be spooked, and all animals are naturally protective of their young.

Thank you for the birthday wishes , just lurk alot these days and rarely post. I had a lovely day with my closest friends, gf and my kids - we had a lovely bbq and way too much red wine

I have had my house done, and it makes a huge difference to bills and warmth in the house. Depending on the age of the house, they might need to make a few penny sized holes in the outside walls, they all fill them immediately. This tells them if the house has any wall insulation. At the same time they looked at my loft, and when they did the cavity walls they also insulated my loft. Re the walls adjoining houses, they put in a "brush" which is used to seperate the two houses, never heard of foam shooting out the loft though. Stage three is next week, when I get my new boiler installed

My oldest friends that I have known since I was 5 is still in London, she travels alot 6 months of the year, but we are always there for each other and we can pick up where we left off. I have a another close friend down here in the forest, we fell out badly for about a year, and could not talk or see each other, since I bit the bullet nearly a year ago, we have been slowly getting back on track. She has her own views on me coming out etc which I mainly choose to ignore. We go back about 13 years as well, so she knows me better than most. I have met alot of people down here, if there is anything involving relationships etc etc I have my two close gay boys who I can talk to, as they are better than most women , and I know who would stand by me and who would walk away. It is quality of friendships not quantity that is important and I would much rather have a handful I can trust than 10 than I can't

Having worked in a club for the best part of a year, and having an active social life along with my own home grown teenagers nothing shocks or surprises me I spent the weekend in bournemouth, and we were out on saturday, two girls came into the pub, wearing clothes if you can call them that, that left nothing to the imagination whatsoever, and very little of them My only thought was they must be be f*** freezing , as we were both wearing, a variety of fleeces, t-shirts and thermals. If you are comfortable in what you are wearing, go for it and it really does not matter what other think.

RMF : Tonight we are going to the beach for the QE2 farewell , I might actually take a decent camera, if I remember. RMF: Just had my hair cut and coloured

I will be out again tomorrow, with my two, there are so many woods, and hiding places, but I will do what I can,

I have just sent Corinne a text, offering to help out all day tomorrow. I know the area very well, and all the surrounding walks, car parks etc.as I walk in the forest every day. I can be there from 9 am on wards with my to dogs , for as many hours as you want If anyone wants to update me, please PM me for my number

We orginally had Scrappy a JRT, to keep her company when she was 8 months old we got Jessie a GSD x. Jessie had been brought up with her littermates and then came to us. We lost Scrappy six months later due to suspected poisoning. Jessie howled, whined, and stopped eating and went into serious depression. We had not planned on getting another dog so quickly but on the vets advice, we did, as she was rapidly loosing weight and had forgotton how to wag her tail After a long talk with both my kids, we decided what dog we wanted. My kisa description " a puppy or young dog, GSDx, MUST be black, with a bit of collie as well " I looked on another forum, and Cosmo jumped out he fitted the bill perfectly. He arrived at our house within a week and Jessie from that moment on, started eating, wagging her tail abd grinning from ear to ear. Cosmo I think found us, and it was the bext decision we made otherwise we probably would have lost Jessie too. Jessie is now 5 and Cosmo is nearly five, they are great together, although they are chalk and cheese. Good luck with whatever you decide

I live and walk in the New Forest everyday. During winter a large percentage of car parks are closed anyway, which limits the amount of places you can walk. By making dog free zones, it means that you will be concentrating the dog owners in specific areas which imo will cause more problems. Even in the height of summer it is possible to find a car park with one car in it, and not see a soul. Unfortunately the "touristy" areas are the ones that suffer as people do not keep their dogs under control, and the ponies get stressed as "tourists" try to pet the foals, ponies, and cows . There is a small element of dogs that do cause problems mainly with the deer, not the ponies and these are the ones that should be targetted not all dog owners Below is a link of the greater implications that affect all horse owners and dog owners, which is why NFDOG have taken this on at the same meeting on the 12th October to get everyone involved. Daily Echo There is also talk about introducing toll booths to get in to the forest as well and a number of other ludicrous ideas - just gets worse week by week : Toll booths in the New Forest

divorced my kids dad when they were nearly 3 and 5. For the first two years (whilst fighting over the house) he was the came over as being the model father - so he would look good when it went to court - which is what he wanted. He would see them fortnightly - he only lived 20 minutes away. Once the divorce was sorted and finalised, he got more and more disinterested, he subsequently met someone else and started letting the kids down, to the point were both were getting distressed as they were never sure if they were seeing him or not. I confronted him, by now my son was 8 and my daughter 5, both in primary school. and told him in no unvertin terms he committed to seeing his kids on a regular basis as per the court order or he will have no choice but to give up his parental rights, as the distress that was caused was tremendous, and his new gf hated the kids beyond belief, and the kids drew drawing of what was happening at his flat, which was passed on to mysolicitor in case it was ever needed. A week later he put in writing that there was no way he could commit to being a father, parent etc and would not be able to fulfill the terms of the court order and would therefore give up his parental rights. My kids have not seen him for 9 years, never had a birthday or christmas card from him or anything else. They have both grown up as well rounded, polite, responsible young adults. They know how to contact him if they want to, and that has always been made clear that I would not stop them getting in touch with him, they have seen his friends reunited entry where he does not acknowledge their existence IMO it is more damaging to be around a dad who does not care, who has been forced to see his kids for whatever reason, than being without dad at all, within a stable, caring enviroment. In years to come he will realise what he has missed out on, and it will be his loss

AS long as I am happy and healthy, and my kids are happy and healthy that is the most important thing to me It was my dream many years ago to move to the New Forest, now I am here I would not change it for the world .

as long as whatever goes on is between two consenting adults - and no one gets hurt, I honestly fail to see what it has to do with anyone else and what they think. The why's and the where fores - who cares - they are happy. Working where I do, anything goes, however bizzare, live and let live, as long as there is a smile on his/her face that is all that counts

Working on the gay scene, I think there are more isms there then anywhere else. some gay men just hate lesbians - whethere or not they are people has no bearing Some lesbians dislike gay men - same thing applies Trans Sexuals - unless you are part of the in crowd - they do get barrage of abuse from both gay men and lesbians TV's/cross dressers are generally ridiculed unless they are part of the professional drag acts or again part of the in-crowd - or it is for a birthday party then it is all of a sudden seen as cool And then there is anyone else inbetween - some get a hard time and are disliked because of the way the are/dress etc - again not seen as people does not enter into the equation. The gay scene down here covers Southampton, Portsmouth and Bournemouth and everyone knows everyone, and has some hsitory even if it goes back years. You also have the straight people who come into the club, too show how cool/tolerant they are and then they start offending people as they don't like what they see, and they either end up leaving or being asked to leave in some cases. I find it really sad that even the gay community can't get on with each other because of the predjudices that exist. Again like others I came out because I knew if I didn't I would have a miserable life pretending to be something I am not. I belive that you are born "gay" and it is genetic, it is not a choice that you make, the choice that is made is whether you embrace who you are and what you are, or else live a life, thinking and trying to convince yourself and everyone else, that you are something you are not. I lost a few long term friends in the process, and got blackmailed by my brother , but I see it that I am still the person that I was the only difference now is that I am more open about who I really am - if my so called oldest friends don't like it well they are no longer part of my life.

I am another member who had restictions put on me on DP. I was also a sponsor member who never got a refund The crime I had committed - was questioning the Terms and Conditions that seemed to change constantly at a whim. I questioned each part point by point in a very civil manner and just wanted explanations as to why they were changing and RB would implement those changes. I had my PM's removed without warning and also was put on pre-mod without warning - not the way to run a "community". I was also resposnsible for setting up another forum for another rescue and was admin for the first year in which it ran. The owner of that board and the mods had their passwords changed and were unable to login - so I guess they were banned too. The reason that was given was that there was no link to DP on the forum. Even once the link was added, they were still unable to put the dogs up for rehoming. I am not sure if this is till the case - now, as I am no longer admin on the board. I personally have not re-registered on DP, as I disapprove of the way the board is run - though it would be nice to have my refund - as I am clearly unable to use the service I have paid for. One of my dogs is also a Dasha Dog. We have had him 4 years now, and would not change him for the world. I did not know the politics of what had happened, and it was only when I tried contacting Dasha to give them an update on my dogs progress and changes, I found that they did not post anymore. It is sad that one man feels that "communities" cannot work together - and causes alot of upset and anger amongst people who have one common interest which brought them altogether in the first place

Graham my son who is now 17, was always years ahead at school. He was never disruptive, but always spoke his mind. I spent alot of time with him developing his interests out of school, he also got a tutor who put him on GCSE level work by year 6. The primary school were not interested wahtsoever - not their problem When he went to secondary school he was put on the gifted and talented register and they provided after school projects and more stimulating homework. He was fast tracked on Japanese and took his GCSE a year early and his AS a year early. He also took a ridiculous amount of GCSE's. He is now at 6th form college after exceeding all expecations of his secondary school, in the gifted group doing 1 A2 this year and 5 AS's and he is looking at doing 5 A2's next year and being tracked for Oxbridge Ar each stage of education the schools react in a different way, GRaham has not gone to private school but with the right guidance he was kept stimulated and excelled. Good luck in years to come you will have an amzing daughter to be proud of

One of my jobs being an IT manager/consultant was to look for these files that everyday people thought and believed could not be found. One instance involved a director of long standing within one company. Files were found, his laptop confiscated, directors informed etc and the police were involved. This was a man early fifties, with a family and previously good reputation etc etc. It was an awful side to my job,but since then I have made everyone aware, just because you can't find these files - any IT professional can and so can the police as well. Dangers do lurk and yes invariably with "trusted" members of the family - it is a very sad story all round and I hope that Shannon will be getting all the help and support she needs over the next few years of her life and beyond.

Hi Helen I have just called you and left a message on your answerphone, I have the paper in front of me call me back I will PM you too

We have had snow, sleet and hail with a bit of rain thoughout most of the day here

I went round to a friends on wednesday night, she has a rescue pug that she has had for three weeks. She started to tell me about the photos of her frined who committed suicide at the age of 22 two years ago. Within 10 minutes of this conversation her dog who has not relly barked, suddenly woke up, and was clearly looking at something sitting next to me on the sofa. my hairs on the back of my neck shot up and I got a chill down my spine, my friiend started freaking out as her dog was clearly wtaching someone. I started to get her to talk more of what happened prior to her friend committing suicide and she told me that they had had a row that night and not spoken again, and her friend had made contact with everyone that night apart from her. It was one of the strangest hours I had, a few things just popped into my head which I then told my frined - and I got answers like how do you know this ? you did not know her etc etc ? This sort of thing has happened before with me but only with people I have known like family etc, never anyone I have just met or known anything about very very strange