(26 Dec 2014, 9:27 pm)MarcTheA4 Found this pretty moving quote...

'Never complain about what your parents couldn't give you. It was probably all they had'.

Hopefully people can work out what that means.

With it being Christmas, I think a lot of us who are still kids forget about what our parents do for us. I'll always be grateful for what my parents do for me, because they only want what is best for me. They know I'm always happy with my life, even if I've had two tests on a Monday and I hate life, or if I'm pissed off at them because 'we have to go and see Grandma on a Saturday morning to listen to her complaining about her next-door neighbour'...even if it just puts me back about an hour for my usual plans.

My point is - I think there are a lot of things I don't appreciate, yet can't live without. Here I am, sitting on a Friday night, off school for another week, with a drink, listening to some music and writing this. A lot of kids don't have that. They'll be sitting on the cold hard floor, with no food or anything to pass the time with. Some of the things I've received this Christmas wouldn't be given to a child in that position.

My dad has a very highly paid job as the Head of Purchasing for Cummins, a billion dollar company over in America who provide vehicles with engines,....Davey Bowyer, I believe you'll be interested? Dare I say he makes in excess of about £80,000 per annum? It comes at a cost, however...and not just bills, necesseties or for my sister and me. I've never had a proper relationship with him. He spends half of his life in different countries; China, Japan, India, America, Germany; he spends about 2 weeks in a month away from us, in another country, doing his job. And when he is in the UK, he is either sitting at a desk in a building in Darlington, answering emails, talking to other people doing the exact same job as him, and not with us. When he is sleeping in the same bed as my mam, he wakes up at 06:00, leaves at 07:00, and typically gets home for 18:00. We have tea, we tend to all talk for a bit, and then he goes and sits in his study to answer more emails and call his collegues. If he does get a spare minute, he rings his mam to ask how she's doing.

Some of the things my dad does aren't appreciated up-front, but are in the long-run. As a result of his work, we get everything we'll ever need; me and my sister....my mam only works 3 days a week because of what he earns. My sister and me are guaranteed to get to University, get qualifications, get jobs better than most of the children who woke up to nothing this Christmas...I only found out recently that all of 5% of what my parents make combined in a year gets added to bank accounts, made specially for my sister and me the day we were each born, 3 years apart, and we will get to use that to build our own lives when we leave home.

Might not seem like much when I say 5%, but think about the maths. My dad makes (at a rough estimate!) £80,000 doing his job, while my mam makes about £20,000 working 3 days a week as an Administrator for a radiator firm, Rettig, on the Drum Industrial Estate close to Birtley. It's amazing to think my family bring in maybe as much as £100,000 per year, and £5,000 of that gets given to each of us a year - and we have no idea about that. I'm 14 now, so when I'm 18, I'll have enough to get through University, maybe even buy a flat, even a house, start my lifelong ambitions....and all because my parents have had the foresight to do so for me.

On the exterior, I make it almost look like I'm some sort of outcast at school. To be honest, I'm not. I have lots of friends, I'm intelligent enough to be of Set 1 quality, but I spend any free time chasing this girl, who I haven't spoken to for over a year because I'm too scared to do so, why I do that - I have no idea! She's a bitch. She gets her friends to intimidate me into not saying anything and looking like an idiot. When I go back on Tuesday the 5th January, I'm not going to think about that. I'll just focus on my academics, preparing for my GCSEs, and my life. Fuck that posh bitch...when I have a job, a life, and a future, she'll get absolutely nothing from me but a middle finger. Because of what my parents have done for me.

I'll admit I don't appreciate everything at first glance, but I am really grateful for what my parents do for me. My mam doesn't just sit and have coffees with her friends in Costa or Wetherspoons, she goes out and does shopping for my sister and me. She buys us clothes, food, and everything we need. Sometimes I'm a bit hard on her, I'll swear and curse when she tells me tea won't be out for another half an hour, and take the huff if she forgets my Oreos, but she wakes up at 07:00 every morning to drop me at a place where I meet with a friend, who's family probably only earn half of what mine do, fo 08:00. She could easily lie in until that time and drop me off at school about 10 minutes before the start of the day. But she doesn't, because she loves me and does whatever I need her to in order to keep me happy. And when she gets back from dropping my sister off at the other site, she either goes to work for 09:00, or on her days off, gets her ironing board out to make sure we both have a clean uniform for school the next day, have clean clothes to pursue our own interests at weekends, and be happy. She does a lot of things that I wouldn't know how to do.

Another thing I must point out is how they've always supported our education. All the way through primary school, I had a private tutor to ensure I got Level 5s in my SATs for both maths, science and english, and my sister did to. That was our Sunday mornings. My sister isn't as bright however, she continues her tutoring on Sunday mornings. She didn't do as good in her SATs, she only got Level 4s and 3s, and wound up in Set 3 for maths and sciences, and Set 4 for english and languages. But my parents continue to get her tutored, in hopes that it will finally rub off, and that she will get good GCSEs, A-levels and a degree in whatever she wants, and that she will not end up in Morrison's behind the till for a life. That's probably one of my main bugs, education. But I haven't got it tough; look at the way I write and structure things - I was given extra help. There are plenty of children my age who can't do that - because their parents didn't give them the push they needed to be good.

This christmas, I may as well point out that my sister and me probably had about £2,500 spent on us both combined. Add Alfie the puppy's extravagent set of matching coats, toys and his crate and bed being renewed into that, and we're looking at £3,000. Put grandma's books and perfumes in there, about £3,500. Add themselves about ten tickets to five concerts, perfumes for my mam, books for my dad, about £5,000. About £5,000 of money they've earned, by themselves, for us. If they didn't have us, they mightn't work so hard. My dad might not have decided to go and get a degree in order to become Head of Purchasing, when my mam told him she was pregnant with my sister, and that there would be two of us, and he wouldn't have had to work on nights after working all day to gain his degree. He might not have even bothered to get a job with Cummins. He might not have even started working for Purmo in 1990. If that had not been the case, he might not have met my mam by accident, after accidentally knocking into her in the canteen there in 1994. He might have just carried on, not apologised, and just gone for something to eat with his friends. But he didn't, he apologised, they sat down and they ate together that lunchtime, they went out, moved in together in 1997, got married in 1999, and I was born in 2000...

My point is, I love my parents and appreciate they do for me. And I don't think I realised how much until yesterday.

Marcus

• In an effort to appease my customers and build the business, I have split the longer routes in two. They used to be like that years ago and it did work.
  

• The newspaper boys and girls don't all follow each other now, because I have sent some of them down roads that weren't served in the recent past. They used to do that years ago and it did work.
  

• I have reduced the amount of 'fingers in the pies', by getting rid of investors only wanting a share of the profits and not being interested in the business. It used to be like that years ago and it did work. This will mean more profits are reinvested into the business, benefiting staff and customers.
  
• The cheaper, but less popular lightweight bags have been replaced by more expensive heavyweight bags. Although they cost more in the short term, the quality is better, they last longer, are much comfier and are much more popular.
  
• Over the Christmas period, when customers don't get a service, they don't get charged for one. Ditto when bad weather means we can't give them the service they have been promised.
  

(28 Dec 2014, 11:11 am)Andreos1 A passenger ferry is on fire too.
http://metro.co.uk/2014/12/28/ferry-carrying-466-passengers-sets-on-fire-between-greece-and-italy-5001229/

(28 Dec 2014, 11:08 am)Michael Search Under Way For Missing AirAsia Plane

http://news.sky.com/story/1398597/search-under-way-for-missing-airasia-plane

(28 Dec 2014, 3:09 pm)MarcTheA4 Discovered today that my grandad's brother, Peter Pendlington was awarded an MBE when he still alive!

Peter Pendlington. Higher Executive Officer, Child Benefit Agency, Department of Social Security. (Chester Le Street, Durham)

(31 Dec 2014, 1:52 pm)Davie my nanna just died aged 90

(31 Dec 2014, 1:52 pm)Davie my nanna just died aged 90

(03 Jan 2015, 11:15 pm)MurdnunoC Tried the Tapatalk app today - I don't really see the point of it to be honest.

Would anyone care to extoll its virtues?