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Conversations with my bailiff: 9th November
9th November 2009 | 1 comments | 2 people like this
I have the money! I have it in my bank account. I keep looking at my bank account. It hasn’t had four figures on it for as long as I can remember. I want to cry. I just want to look at it. Not the money, the figures!! £3,028.00! I had £28.00 in the account, left over from last week’s wages from Pierre. As I am salivating over those pretty numbers the...
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Conversations with my bailiff: 31st July
31st July 2009 | 1 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Life is good.
Daughter is on school trip, and she’s having fun, canoeing, abseiling….is that the same as bungee jumping?. No it can’t be. Health and safety wouldn’t let a bunch of ten year olds jump into the void.. Of course they wouldn’t. What am I thinking about? Just to be sure I call the school. School secretary puts my mind at rest. I inform ex. He says he was never... -
Conversations with my bailiff: 29th July
29th July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Michael is taking me to a gig. He says I have to come. His friends don’t believe I exist. I don’t want to go. I’m scared, ridiculously scared. How long is it since I’ve been to a gig? Daughter suggests jeans, and a sexy top. Says its better not to try and copy the young, just be myself.
Michael is playing his flute. It is hauntingly beautiful. This man, this beautiful... -
Conversations with my bailiff: 26th July
26th July 2009 | 1 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Barry is on his cruise. I am wading through my sea of debt. I have spoken to the Council about the Council Tax. They were surprisingly helpful. Suggested I go down to the housing office, in case I loose the house. I push that suggestion to one side. That isn’t going to happen. Someone, somewhere is going to pick up my debt idea.
I’ve reported the subsidence, and a man from... -
Conversations with my bailiff: 23rd July
23rd July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
I can’t sleep. My stomach feels as if it is crawling with rats. I can see myself in a prison cell. Trouble is I am not alone. I have a very large cell mate and she has a moustache! I turn on the radio.
“Madelaine for heaven’s sake, let a man get some sleep will you? “Barry! Barry? Is that you? You’re in bed with me!“No, I am not. I am... -
Conversations with my bailiff: 22nd July
23rd July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Daughter returns from school with her friend Claudia. Claudia’s mother is Harriet Crawling, but I don’t hold that against her. Daughter and Claudia think remains of disembowelled lavatory, and me with a wrench in a wrecked McCartney top, it is very funny. I do not. Claudia, it seems, has a love of motor bikes. Pipes and wrenches offer no challenge to her and within fifteen minutes the ten year olds have...
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Conversations with my bailiff: 21st July
21st July 2009 | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
I am sitting on the floor with the remains of what was our lavatory strewn around me. I wish I had worn something more sensible than my Stella McCarteny top I had snatched from a pile of items being purchased by a very tall woman in the scrum of pushing, shoving women in the very early hours of a sale. I am not proud of my behaviour. Karma has come...
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Conversations with my bailiff: That morning, 20th July
20th July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
My daughter has gone to school. Her hands touched my eyes. Gently. I am ashamed. Great parents we are! My ex and I! The phone rings.
Oh God, I forgot to ring Barry.I know I sound awful .“You not sleeping, Madelaine.”No, not really.“I know all about worry, I do. My wife, Vivienne, to be honest, she’s a bit of a spendaholic. Afghan brushes for skin toning. Twenty seven quid! Now you tell... -
Conversations with my bailiff: 20th July, 4.30am
20th July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
4.30 in the morning
Michael hasn’t rung, or even sent a text. He’s never not sent a text during the day. My stomach is crawling. Is it because I have to sell the house? Was I just a place to stay? What is he doing? Who is he with? I am trying to remind myself that I am the older woman, twelve years older. What do I expect? Happy ever after? ... -
Conversations with my bailiff: 19th July
19th July 2009 | 1 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
“What do you mean, sell the house?”
I am in bed. Michael, God he has a beautiful body, has just come in from the bathroom. I have broken the devastating news to him. The estate agents are coming round next week. Could he mow the lawn?Michael asks how things could possibly have come to this. I remind him of those congestion charges he told me not to worry about, and the...
CONTRIBUTOR
Madelaine Greene
My name is Madelaine Greene. I am 38, a freelance journalist, divorced with a daughter of 10, and I am in financial melt down. I've been fired from my one regular column; more work seems a distant dream. My ex husband has difficulty remembering he is supposed to pay maintenance, and now, Barry, the bailiff, has come to call. Oh... I am hopelessly in love with a younger man, a flute player in folk band. I am not sure he is faithful, but I'm older than him, so I make no claims. I am a thoroughly modern statistic. Welcome to my world.
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