129 posts from 2006

Video: Show us some great animation.

Always loved this one: 

Everyone else has had more sex than me

As for this one - just adore it

Paul McCartney and The Frog Chorus

I really missed not being able to blog when I was away - I spent quite a lot of time stopping up late (usually chatting with my sister, who talks ten to the dozen) and getting up early (to get her kids ready for school so she could have a few minutes extra sleep). Pretty much the only computer time I had was to get my antler and red nose ensemble and Christmas tree on Runescape, one entry myself on here and a mail to KT so he could post an entry for me.

I had so much planned for posting - news about the Suffolk serial killer (two arrests, one charged), news about my trip, how I missed everyone here, my brother's new dog (a huge rotty), how I got a broody fix by 'pinching' my baby nephew etc., but I've come back with a raging chest infection and so I seem to be spending an awful lot of time coughing up my lungs and and heaps of frothy phlegm - I have even made KT promise to take the kids to his folks for Christmas Day as planned without me if I am still coughing like this. Ah, the joys of being ill at Christmas.

Following a link from Know-It-All, I have made a new South Park characterisation of myself to show how I feel.

Xmas 2006

I hope you all manage to have a safe and fun Christmas and a fab New Year.

Police this morning arrested 37 year old Tom Stephens in connection with the recent Suffolk serial killings. He's been interviewed by police and the newspapers recently and is quoted as saying that he knew all five women and that he was 'their friend'. Photos were shown of him and I instantly recognised him - I had been sent a link to his MySpace profile earlier this year via a blog. He lives in the village which blends into Felixstowe, almost a suburb of it in fact, and a few minutes drive from where the bodies of the last two victims were found. Police now have a few days to link him irrevocably to the deaths, which could be difficult as they still haven't identified the murder scene.

No sooner am I back in the blogging seat then I am off again. Tomorrow, at very short notice, I am off to Northampton for a few days to go and see my folks and friends and to do some Christmas shopping in shops I know. I am leaving KT in the girls' capable hands and although I would like to take them all, KT can't get up the steps and the girls still have four days of school left. It's too close to Christmas to consider going in those last few precious days between the break up of school on the 19th and Christmas Eve. The gals will get to see the family too, just for a shorter time. This also means I have to go now and manically wrap the remaining presents for 'them back there' so that we can leave early enough in the morning for KT to be back in time to take the gals to netball, so hopefully the A14 will be moving swiftly.

I'm stopping with my sister, and she's probably going to hog the computer - I know she's well within her rights to, but heck, I am twelve years older (minus two days) than her, so a little blogging time wouldn't go amiss! Take care all, and keep safe.

What are your top 5 movies/DVDs of 2006?

The Departed - Brilliant

Saw III - Liked the twist in the tale of it - but the dodgy camera work gave me a headache

Final Destination 3 - A few holes, but still a good film

Wilderness - Great British film

Goal! The Dream Begins - Fantastic footy flick

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might swap FD3 for Hoodwinked! - that was a fab family film we all enjoyed

Today the police are going to try and identify the two bodies found yesterday. Although it sounds horrid, it would be better if they are the two missing girls - otherwise it means someone else has been added to the list of victims.

Mark Murphy, local DJ pretty much dedicated his breakfast show to the story and how he feels we should cancel Christmas. Mr Murphy spoke to Paula Clennell's father; KT and I were horrified at the way he spoke over the man - this could possibly be the worst day of his life. Mr Murphy also prodded for more details when he should have been intuitive about what Mr Clennell had already said. We discovered via the Beeb that the road between Trinity Park (the old Suffolk Showground) and here has been shut and that there were news and police helicopters up and about, surveying the area.

Normally, Felixstowe and the surrounding area are fairly quiet and pretty. The areas where the last three bodies were found are areas we go with the children. It does seem slightly surreal. With the slow moving traffic on the A14, it's effectively cut Felixstowe off from the rest of the country, as the train isn't running, and the only other way out by road is closed by the police.

Nick 'Panda' Pandolfi, the DJ who follows on from Mr Murphy is trying to keep the county smiling though. He's giving out contact details for the police and playing the clip of the the assistant chief constable telling people to look out for each other, but he's keeping the tone of the show light. One of the scariest things about the missing girls and the ones who have been identified is how 'normal' they seem when you hear or read about them from their friends and family. Happy. Loving. It's sad that Anneli wasn't even missed enough to be reported as missing. I don't know if all of the girls were drug users, it's not been said, but it really impresses on me how much I want my children to stay away from drugs. It's far too easy to get addicted and to feel the need to steal, or do something else desperate to get the money to feed your cravings.

5

L-R Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell, Annette Nicholls.

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Further Update:

The News of the World newspaper has offered a £250,000 reward for information that leads to the killer - this on top of £25,000 offered by a local business. Three other prostitutes had been reported missing, but police investigations have revealed all three are safe. In the press conference it was revealed it is unlikely that the bodies would be named today as they are still in situ whilst police investigate the scenes where they were found.

It's kinda gloomy around here lately, and it's not just the freezing weather.

Last weekend, one clubber was stabbed, a second shot and stabbed (fatally) and three others shot at the Zest nightclub in Ipswich, twenty minutes up the road from where we are. Zest has now been closed by the police, but it's always had a bit of a dodgy reputation and usually rises from the ashes in a new guise when it gets shut down. The site is close to Ipswich train station which has a line running from London Liverpool Street and up through Norfolk - it's always been assumed that trouble congregates there because of how easy it is to disappear away from the town quickly.

When we were away in mid November, the news broke that there were two Ipswich prostitutes missing. We speculated at the time, that as it was mentioned that they were friends, that maybe they'd run off together - it was a better scenario than we touched on, that they were dead. On December 2, one of them, Gemma Adams, 25, was found naked and murdered in a stream in Hintlesham. The other girl, Tania Nicol, 19, was found on December 8th, also naked and found in water, this time a pond in Copdock Mill. Then, something unexpected; on Sunday a third body was recovered. No-one had been reported missing, so the police took some time identifying her as Anneli Alderton, 24. Anneli was found strangled and dumped in woodland, 20 feet from a well used road at Nacton. Whilst Anneli was still unidentified, two other working girls, Paula Clennell, 24 and Annette Nicholls, 29 were reported missing. Today, two more bodies were found. They had been dumped close to each other in woodland just a five minute drive from where we live. It appears that the two missing girls may have been found.

Paula Clennell, had been interviewed by ITN news about the how the deaths of Tania and Gemma had affected trade in the red light district of Ipswich just a few days before she went missing, and said she would still walk the streets as she was desperate for money. That decision has potentially cost her life.

The killer, dubbed the Ipswich Ripper, the Suffolk Ripper, the River Ripper and other names by the press, has been speculated to be a local boy by some but with the bodies all being found by the A14, a major road that heads from Felixstowe through to the heart of England, it's possible it could be anyone. It's a scary time for many, when we should all be looking forward to spending time with our families. 

KT needed help again yesterday, which meant my blogging furore got nipped in the bud. Didn't help that his comp needed a new modem and it wasn't happy, which meant that when we collected it, neither of us had access to the net - booo. Sorted that out, so now I can get back to being curious when I am round his - huzzah!

Research :: Station
Chuck :: Norris
Insert :: Here
Bang :: Bang! You're dead! Fifty bullets in your head!
Lousy :: The kids of parent who don't comb... grr!
Rehearsal :: Dress
Critics :: Self proclaimed experts
Memory :: Mnemonics
Squid :: Ink
Remove :: From packaging

Unconscious Mutterings