Our son moves on to Rehab - and hope! The Government's alcohol policy criticised

Hello again.

Life has not been easy for this family - our son has been mentally unstable for the whole of last year. But now he is quite a lot stronger, and has today gone into the London Rehabilitation hostel ("Kairos") that was promised to him to help with his alcohol misuse problems. We drove him up there in a long difficult journey across London - neither of us (D. or myself) is familiar with these busy streets. When I got home I had a false alarm - I thought someone there had stolen my nice new mobile phone, so I rang up Kairos about it. Then I checked again: it turned up under our car seat. I had to apologise - but I really though it had gone missing up there.

Tom was happy to be going in there - we were welcomed and made to feel at home. Tom went off to put his things in his new room, shared with one another guy. We did not meet him, so I hope they get on OK. They will help Tom to look after his money, shop and cook, do his personal washing, as so on - plus attending therapy groups that will address his drinking. The residents also go to AA meetings in the evenings. Tom can go to our church on a Sunday - so I will see him there soon. We will also go up by train to visit him, most Saturdays, which they have free.

I am still very moved by the Asian (Indian Ocean) Tsunami disaster that has been in the news almost constantly until recently: one local family lost four of its members. (Let alone all the huge local suffering in the coastal areas hit by it.) Now other things are pushing it out of our news - such as our domestic politics here, and even Prince Harry dressing up in Nazi uniform for a fancy dress party. I understand how some people may have been offended by this - but I was surprised at the banner headlines. I do think Harry was insensitive (not 'bad' though); but is still a very young man, not yet 21. He did apologise - now it should be left alone.

More seriously, there has been discussion in our news media of our New Labour Government's plan to bring in 24-hour options for pubs and bars selling alcohol. (I was 'Old' Labour - and now vote Liberal Democrat.) As a parent of an alcoholic son, I think this is a terrible plan. Many of our senior polcie officers are against it. The Government seems to be in league with the drinks industry, which is obviously pleased to sell more booze. It will only increase the amount drunk, and public drunkenness, which they claim they want to stop. They increased the penalties for being drunk and disorderly in the summer - and Tom fell foul of these, paying out a lot and ending up in court (even though he was mentally ill - that was "no excuse").

Well that is all for now - I find it hard to spare time tod o these blogs,a s there is always something else I should be doing! Cooking a meal, preparing my teaching work, housework, ringing a friend - a woman's work is never done. If you have found this website, thank you for reading this. I hope someone trawls these blogs to see what is our there...

Love to you all - Tigey