31 December 2012

If You Fall I Will Catch You

Don't want to put up another post - it's too nice seeing Danger's smile every time I click on my blog.

Maybe I should start every post with that picture?

Anyway, quiet-ish so far. But who thinks that will last? Busiest night of the year in custody...

I hope Sherlock gives in and goes to bed at some point during tonight. He tried his hardest not to last night! Went to extraordinary lengths to stay awake.

He's generally been very good though. He does as he's told when he's on the back of the bike - he's still getting used to it, though. Hasn't managed to stop headbutting me yet. But that'll come, in time. He holds on tight, just about manages not to clamber about too much, although he doesn't like that he can't see where we're going. I think if we did any long rides I'd want a proper restraint belt to strap him to me, in case he got bored/fell asleep/got tired from holding on.

I left John, Mycroft and Sherlock with some homemade burgers to have. Not that I'm jealous, much. Lovely juicy home made burgers with salad and a big wedge of really ripe Stilton, chips... yeah, I'd much rather be here. Honestly.

Also, here's an interesting look into the British psyche.


Anyway, Happy New Year to all of you, whenever the clock strikes twelve in your part of the world (sorry I'm late, if any of you are Down Under.)


And Happy New Year to John, who makes every moment of my life so much better. To Mycroft, who brightens my days with his wit and kindness, and to Sherlock, who ensures there's never a dull moment. I love you all.

28 December 2012

Are you sure you got the room to spare inside

Well, we're still celebrating! Still eating, still drinking, still being given presents, unbelievably - people are far too kind.

Went to Jo and Lisa's today, for tea. We took festive spider-biscuits... they survived an afternoon of non-stop interrogation by Sherlock about...well, everything. Guess he's missing school, really. He very proudly wore his boots.

Jo and Lisa gave me a photo of John. Captures him perfectly, I think:

26 December 2012

Fast away the old year passes

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I hope you all had a fun/peaceful/nice day (delete as applicable), whether you celebrated or not.

I had a lovely day. Everyone was very kind about the food, and seemed to enjoy it (there is barely anything left.)

We made two Christmas cakes - Sherlock helped ice ours, Mycroft helped ice Mrs Hudson's.

I think they...differ in style in a pleasing way.

25 December 2012

I really do believe in you, Let's see if you believe in me

Well...today was long.

Work was mercifully quiet, which means I got a lot done.

Then off to see Mum. She seemed...well, she was a bit more talkative, mainly because she had two of us there to tell off and boss about. But that's still progress, right?

Sam was there, which was nice. He's still quiet, like he always was. But we...get on okay. We're just virtual strangers to each other. He asked about John and the boys, awkwardly, because he was trying to use words that wouldn't offend, and he's clearly not used to it. But he still made the effort. I appreciated it. A lot, actually.

The ride down and back wasn't too bad. Lots of water about, though. So many floods.

And now...bed, because Sherlock will be awake before we know it, and chaos will take over, and there's dinner to cook and dogs to walk and presents to unwrap and games to play and doubtless many other things.

So Merry Christmas, all of you. And any of you who have a little light and warmth to spare, direct it to those not having such a great time.

(Now to go and try to tell Danger why all Santa's reindeer are girls...)

22 December 2012

Don we now our gay apparel

Well, hasn't today been ridiculously wet and miserable?

Still, we did some...most? Of the final Christmas shop. Just need to pick up the meat from the butcher...and...errr...well, I need to buy John a present. What do you get the Nanny in your life? Answers on a postcard...or a comment.

We bought baubles.

I got a ceramic snowflake shape, because John said getting a black one with 'Ho Bloody Ho' on it wasn't 'in the spirit'. But my snowflake is nice, I like it a lot (it's the one on the left.). I'll let the others choose if they want to tell you what they got.

20 December 2012

I was tired and awake for some time.

Did a whole lot of case reviews at work last night, before being called out to a domestic. 'Tis the season, afterall.

Night before was a stabbing outside a take-away, over some 'disrespect'. Last night was a domestic about money.

One year one of Mum's boyfriends went out on a bender - drank the money she'd been saving for presents and Christmas dinner. She threatened him with the bread knife. Thankfully he left before she took it any further. Sometimes I forget that when it came to us kids, she could dish it out as well as take it. When people got on the wrong side of her she had a nasty streak herself. Not surprising, really.

Anyway, the point of all this is it reminded me of an Op I was going to talk about. I suppose, mainly, we think about victims of crime, and we hope to find the attacker, partly because that's a dangerous person off the streets, but also so the family and friends of the victim can have that closure of knowing that justice has (hopefully) been done.

Sometimes, we don't find the killer.

More rarely, we don't even know who the victim is. Seems amazing, in this day and age, but around the country, there are probably about 1000 bodies which have never been identified. Seemingly destined forever to stay in cold storage, and never be laid to rest.

Thames Valley have launched Op Nightingale recently, to try and identify some of theirs. Maybe have a little look. You never know - you might spot your old next door neighbour, or that bloke who used to sleep rough near the bus stop...


18 December 2012

My empire of dirt

Normally, I enjoy my job. It's not easy, but...there's a certain satisfaction in it.

Sometimes, it just makes me sad.


16 December 2012

If you should go skating, On the thin ice of modern life

Well, Nicky and hers have headed off home, after a lovely weekend. Certain instances not being mentioned. It was great to see them, though, and we sort of had a bit of Christmas lunch today - crackers and everything :) Carla and Mycroft made it all - kept them out of trouble this morning, being supervised by me. Which did mean John was the one to brave the shops again...sort of feel that may have been the wrong way around, as she's my sister! But nobody thought he should be left supervising the chefs - particularly him!

And then this afternoon we all went ice skating - Mycroft, as usual, making the rest of look like flailing messes as he slid about gracefully. Well, okay, we made ourselves look that way... Then we took refuge in coffee for a while, and then bid Nicky, Mark, Carla and Paul goodbye. I think Nicky probably needed a bit of a break from Mum, too. Who apparently wasn't exactly happy about it, but Rach and Sam stepped up for visiting her, so she's not been abandoned.

Now...now John and I are escaping into a night of debau...er..luxury.


One thing I saw the other day, on the memos list at work, was an Op run by Sussex Police. Operation Cranberry - They're raising awareness of domestic abuse. So they tweeted about every instance of domestic abuse reported to them in a 24 hour period. This is a tiny snapshot of the types of domestic abuse, and the number of people suffering it. You can read the tweets here.

It shows that domestic abuse can take many forms, and isn't just between couples, but parents and children, brothers and sisters, families, it can be men abusing women, women abusing men, same-sex abuse... there's no typical story behind it. I think it's a great way to get the message out there and educate people. Some people honestly don't know that what they're living with is abuse. Others are too scared or embarrassed to come forward. I hope anyone suffering who saw that at least feels like there's somewhere they can now turn (the police or a helpline/charity/friend or relation who could help.)


Anyway, on a significantly brighter note, I need to go and pack...let's see...um...pyjamas...nope. Clothes - just what I'm wearing now ;) . Other...accessories, yup, let's pack!




14 December 2012

Chocolate cookies!

This is Sherlock.

Lestrade and I made chocolate cookies today and we put nuts in some. Here they are:



And we ate some after dinner. Now Nicky and Mark and Carla and Paul have gone to their hotel but they're coming back in the morning. Tomorrow we're going to do some shopping and maybe ice skating and a museum or something fun.

Nicky was upset earlier because she and Lestrade were talking about their Mum but I gave her Argon and she fed her treats and I showed Paul the degu cage and told him how much bigger I want to make it with runs connecting the bits.

And I have to go to bed now because it's late and Lestrade let me have some pictures of crime scenes from his talk today but none of them have any bodies in them just some blood.

12 December 2012

Ravi Shankar - RIP

I was going to post a video here. But really, you should just go to YouTube and watch them all. Hours of them.

An amazing talent. He was generous enough to share his skill and passion with us all.




I've...well, we've made a light up halo. Sherlock seems happy enough. I think it's reasonably  Sherlock-proof, and can easily have all the glowsticks changed when those ones run out of glow.

Tis the season to kill people at the moment, so work is busy.

I've taken New Years night as my 'shit shift' as they're known.

And now, I need to go and tuck Sherlock in, and pretty soon, tuck myself in. I'm knackered.

11 December 2012

Sitting here wasted and wounded

I don't really know what to say about Mum any more.

Nicky said that she'd said she didn't want me bringing 'him' (John) to see her. That she had enough doctors telling her what to do.

Christ, I know it can't be easy for her, but she still should be able to realise that I'm bringing John because he's my partner - my family, not because he's a doctor.

They say it's good to talk to people in hospital about what's going on - so I was telling her about Mycroft being home, how well he gets along with Carla, and Sherlock's play, and she just didn't want to know. I thought...maybe being sober, she might...take it in, more, I suppose.

It certainly doesn't make me feel like making the effort to see her again any time soon. Perhaps that's what she wants. Who knows.


Anyway, onto more interesting things. Found these pictures. They're just beautiful. The guy found a way to replace the pigment in living, growing flowers with pure water. Amazing.


8 December 2012

And the load, Doesn't weigh me down at all

Post title from another song I have to 'learn' for Sherlock. (His response was an accusatory glare at Mycroft, a scowl and the insistence that 'He is heavy though!')

Right, first things first. That mystery red powder...


Here's the end result:

6 December 2012

And every lock that ain't locked when no one's around

Played at the pub again tonight, which was good. Sherlock and John both came, and I sang one of 'Sherlock's' songs - 'King of the Road'.

As far as I can figure out, their show is sort of the part of the nativity where Joseph and Mary are trying to find a place to stay....and then the Kings trying to find them? It gets a bit blurry....anyway, it seems to be about helping each other on a journey, and celebrating good things together, whoever you are... or something. It's hard to tell, when it's Sherlock explaining, as he's far more concerned with what he's doing in the play at given moment, and if he isn't on stage, it's not important...

Here's a fantastic video of two brilliant guitarists/singers. Wish I had half their talent. A quarter of it, even!


4 December 2012

Loneliness took me for a ride

Started today by biting the inside of my bottom lip. Swore. Apologised to Sherlock for swearing. Made him promise not to swear. Made him promise again. Immediately heard him practising...

Headed to work, and to court, which always takes longer than it should. Then had to rush back to the yard because we had info regarding a suspect.

(En route, picked up a text message from Mycroft asking that I 'lose' John's yellow hat. He's said he'll buy a replacement 'tasteful' one.

Later, got a message asking me to promise to intercept the post man if any jumper-shaped parcels were to arrive...assured him that plans for that were already in place.)

Went to an address, and after a bit of waiting, executed a pincer-like move to nab the bloke... well, that went about as well as they ever do. Ended up chasing him after one of the PCs tripped over a small shrub...

Anyway, running about isn't my idea of fun anymore, nor is scaling walls or leaping fences or any of that, especially when there's a bloke trying to kick you in the face every time. However, London's criminal classes aren't known for their healthy attitude to keep-fit, so he tired before we did, and we got him in the end.

Then, once he'd been checked out and got a brief, into interview. Which... I dunno, they're long and boring and entail going over and over and over things waiting for him to say anything slightly intelligent and/or truthful.


And finally, home! For a bath, but not before Sherlock had virtually leapt on me from the window, because he got the part he wanted in the play.

From what I can gather, he's an Angel, and he gets to dance, and he gets to 'tell people when we've moved from one place to another place if they're too stupid to tell.'...let's hope he's slightly more diplomatic than that...

I think he has to do at least one dance with the three kings. Or possibly some camels. Or both. It all got a bit muddled in the telling, because he thinks I know the story, and I clearly don't...

Anyway, going to go and smile sweetly at my other half and see if he'll give me a neck rub. Then practice these songs on the guitar, or I'll face the wrath of Sherlock, the world's harshest critic...

2 December 2012

Does the lipstick on your lip stick on my face

Busy day today. Walked into all the chaos of the Christmas stress building, people getting into all sorts of trouble with relationships and money and mopping up the inevitable Friday and Saturday nights anyway.

There's been a huge push recently on domestic violence crimes - Op Athena. So everyone's busy with that. Nearly 300 arrests since it began last week. Some people who come in for that are already wanted for other crimes, or we then find out we ought to want them...

So today, after meeting John, John's hat and Sherlock for a quick break, involved me going over to the labs and seeing some evidence they've collected.