Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Foxing

My neighbour came round to see me last night with yet another list of questions that she thought I might know the answer to – and as it happened I did know the answer to most to them. They were things to do with the freeholder and so on. She also said that she really wants to do some exercise at the moment and was wondering if I might be interested in joining her, to which I replied that it was rather good timing as I was just on a fitness regime myself (another 40 minutes last night folks!). She’s off on holiday for the next couple of weeks but then I think we’re going to do something when she gets back. She also told me that she thinks the garden next to hers, which is totally overgrown and untended, has a family of foxes living there which she quite regularly sees wandering about in the mornings. My neighbour is now feeling paranoid that there is a whole range of wildlife living there as well and basically is hoping someone (not sure who!) will sort the garden out and deal with any creatures that live there.

I think I might have turned the corner on feeling totally worn out from the exercise. I went to bed earlier than normal on Monday night and felt much better when I woke up yesterday morning and then did some more exercise last night and felt fine after it – although I did flag a bit mid-exercise. Anyway, hopefully I will be able to keep this up and really begin to reap the benefits.

There was a letter in last night’s London Paper which said “The McCanns should go home and leave others to enjoy their holidays. There are many missing children – what makes them so important? They left their babies alone, out of sight and earshot, advertising the fact by returning. It’s time they started facing up to that and living with what they did to poor Maddy”. I just can’t quite get my head round that letter. I do think it is bizarre how much publicity this case has got but I think that just reflects the concerted effort that her parents have put in to find her and they obviously have good connections to make the most of the media. Does the person who wrote that letter really expects that McCanns to say “it’s been about 3 months now, she hasn’t turned up, to be honest we’re just causing a nuisance now and people should just be allowed to enjoy the sunshine. Let’s forget about finding out daughter and instead we’ll go back to the UK and wallow in out own guilt” I don’t think any family would look at their child going missing in such circumstances and just walk away form trying to find them – and as for why this little girl is so special, surely that is a question for the media. As out of proportion as I think all the media coverage of this is, all it says to me is that her parents are desperate to get her back, which is perfectly understandable, and that it would be good if other cases were able to get an even tiny amount of the exposure that this case has, but I don’t think you can knock the McCanns for trying to find their daughter.

I got an e-mail from a friend on Monday and she said that her sister in law had been at the park with some other mums and their children. One of them went off to change her child’s nappy and they then came back and joined the group. A few minutes later this woman realised that her young child was nowhere to be found, so my friend’s sister in law rushed off to get the park keeper (do you get park keepers any more??) to shut the gates and they then started searching the park. There were some women sitting in the café and they had a small child with them and they insisted the child was theirs – but actually it was the child that had gone missing. I guess by getting the park gates shut the women couldn’t escape with the child and so hoped that they could somehow abduct him by pretending that he was theirs. Quite scary really.

2 comments:

Soup said...

Quite a though-provoking post. But the final paragraph does make me wonder about some people and their kids, especially in light of the Maddy McCann case! I mean, I am generally not all that maternal, although this trait is becoming more apparent as I get older, but if I had a child, I can't imagine that I would let it out of my sight for long enough that someone could come up anf get it.

I do find your final story astounding in light of the coverage of child abduction recently and no doubt the mother is breathing a sigh of relief and perhaps feels terrible and maybe even rather stupid, but what should it take for people to actually sit up and take notice?!?!

Random Reflections said...

BlueSoup - I know what you mean. In the curent climate it does seem strange to have left a change unattended for even a moment - and I guess it also highlights how a whole group of people can still mean that no-one notices. It was just fortunate that someone had the foresight to get the gates closed or who knows what the outcome might have been...