Day Seven - Life in a Homeless Shelter

Saturday, 18th April 2009

Up early again today, we had a quite an eventful night with Casey, he had another nightmare which meant he woke up screaming and we could not wake him for 30 minutes and then we could finally calm him down.

Taylor has Gymnastics today, so we are meeting my mum and dad over the Gym ready for her class. One of the girl at the Shelter is going for a trial today so she walks over with Steve and I to attend her class.


Taylor is like a cat on hot tins when we meet her and looking forward to her Gymnastics today. Taylor's class is for 1 1/2 hours and starts at 9.45am. There are 8 girls in the group with two coaches. Today they work on floor and bars and at the end of the class do a little springboard practise. On the floor today, they working on their bridges, back bends and extending each leg in the air ready for kicking over from a bridge.


Taylor concentrates very well and is determined to learn. Her bridge has come so far since she has started, I am very proud of her.


On bars they done strengthening work, which means pulls up in the forward and the revserse hand position and leg lifts in straddle and pike position. These seem very basic exercises but they are the foundation exercises needed to improve their strength and will eventually lead them to having the strength to up-start etc (this is the start you will see alot of interntional gymnasts do to start a bar routine). They also work on pulling their selves over the bar and laying away from the bar and circling down from bar, but pulling their chin over the bar at the same time.


Finally they practise basic springboard techniques, these again are important as it allows the follow on to using the vault and these are techniques that even the greatest of gymnasts would have done at the early stage of their career.


The bar technique would even be used by great gymnasts in their basic everyday training i.e. Nastia Lukin etc would enhance these in their strength training daily.


Whilst I am watching Taylor at Gymnastic Steve and Casey go over the market to get the fruit and veg. My dad finally persuades my mum to leave, as he needs to go to hospital has he has hurt his arm.


Mum today is talking about the World Gymnastics which is being shown at O2 in London in the Autumn. Steve and I had said a little while ago we hope to get the money together and take Taylor and have a nice day out the 3 of us, but suddenly mum is like, we need to get tickets and me and you take Taylor, I have never been and would love to go. She knows we were going to go with Taylor and suddenly I shrink into myself and don't know what to say, as if I say that we are going, oh, but Steve won't like it and all this crap, but Steve is going to speak to my dad, who is really understanding. Steve and I cannot do anything on own, my mum has to do everything!

Steve is a very hands on dad, he loves spending time as a family unit when he can and my mum tries to take this away. She does not do this to my sister.

This afternoon the children played outside with the other children for while before Steve went off with another resident with the metal detector. Whilst this is going on my mum and dad stop by to drop off our washing and to let us know how my dad got on at the hospital.

My dad is wonderful man, who also has no self confidence due to being severely dyslexic, he feels he cannot cope on his own. My mum is awful to him and he just plods on with his life feeling he has no other options. We have told him on many occasions that he would be fine on his own. He does everything at home, cleaning, ironing, washing, hoovering and cooking and my mum most of the time either sews or sits in front of the computer. She is so awful to him that she has woke him in the past to sk for a cup of tea when she is sitting next to the kettle! Also, if my dad is watching TV in bed and has fallen asleep she gets into bed and then wakes him to turn the TV off. This type of behaving does not register with me!

Anyway my dad takes the children for a walk in the forest for about an hour. As I have said in the past our chalets back onto part of Epping Forest and it wonderful to take the children for walk in there. They get to see lots of different animals, including some wild Peacock!

Whilst they are at the forest our friend Dave turns up. Dave is a retired and has never had a family of his own and he has taken under his wing and treats Taylor and Casey like his grandchildren. I know Dave from my day's on the railway, that is what I did prior to having a family, I was a Revenue Control Officer on the London Lines which meant we use to ensure safe travel and that people were paying for their fares and dealing with fare envaders. Unlike in the US we did not carry guns and the part of London we worked could be quite dangerous. We use to work with the police a lot and do undercover work to catch frequent offenders. I really enjoyed my job.

Today Dave has, yet again turned up armed with presents and sweets for the children and they think the world of him.

We spend the rest of the day talking and playing on the WII. Other residents come in to have a go and before we know it is dinner, baths and bed. Casey is exhausted and goes to sleep straight away, but not Taylor. She is just a bundle of energy and finally goes down at 8.30pm.

Dave, Steve and I were hoping to sit down and go through Profit Lance course but did not have time, but Dave is coming round in the week so we will go through it then.

The Shelter has been quite today, even though the weather is lovely and we go and see if the family across from us have a film we can watch but I fall asleep.

Mind you, I am not asleep long as Casey wakes a 11pm and is wide awake and does not go back to sleep to 2am. Taylor then wakes, but she just gets into bed with us and I go in her bed.

All is finally quite on the western front!

See ya tomorrow