I: Steven CunioNews archive 2002December 24th, 2002 - Mystery doorstep gift... The scene is my house. I'm in my bedroom pottering about and Elaine shouts me through from her room, do I have anyone due to arrive. I say no and say shout down through the window to see who it is. But no one is there... Looking puzzled we both go downstairs and I open the front door. In falls a bag that contains a package with a single note attached which says: FAO MR CUNIO
Stranger and strangerer... we look outside but no one is there and Elaine says she saw a car drive off and that was it. Very excitedly I ran upstairs and stripped the paper off this mystery package and who was inside but BUBBLES!!! Yeah.. it was soo cool. I immediately unwrapped the cord from around her tiny neck and body and making sure she was okay pressed her tummy.. 'Cool', 'I like fun', yeah! Bubbles rocks. I kissed her on the cheek and put her to bed as I was getting ready to go out to Fab Cafe Film Night with my close friend Debs! I LOVE BUBBLES! Thanks Mystery Present Giver! xx Here's a photo of bubbles with her note! December 17th, 2002 - Claire's cool I keep being asked if Claire is okay and yep she is! She now has a new boyfriend who has been on this site, downloaded her photo and sent it to all his friends - awwww! Thanks to all who have asked, it really showed you care. :) xxx December 17th, 2002 - County Court Order [Previously] [Update] Well I went along to the County Court over the rent (£2400+ owed) by my ex tenant and the court has agreed with me. The ex-Tenant did not show and with not providing a residential address the order will have to be served on him at University. He now has to pay by the 24th December. I am not expecting this to happen given past events and am preparing to enforce the ruling by other means. Salford University have been notified. One thing I keep on learning: War and Peace, yeah that's okay, Love and Hate, yeah okay that's okay, Apathy -- now that's the real killer. December 17th, 2002 - Staying in touch with David [Previously] [Update] Things have now reached a point where I feel confident enough and well enough to face up to David's mum and fight for our rights. Two weeks ago I gave David my old mobile phone. He had been dying to have it once I recieved my new phone from getting a 0% interest credit card from the Halifax. Finally it arrived and I fitted my old phone with a new Sim card for David. There's no top up fees, no vouchers just a very simple £20 cap on the amount he can text or ring. He took it home and the first message I got was :)LOVE YOU, he then sent me a joke and a few other messages before saying LOVE U mums up. Okay fine... then nothing for ages... then MUM HID MY PHONE BUT I FOUND IT. AM SWITCHING IT OFF. Great. He hadn't even had the phone a day and already she had hidden it so he couldn't contact me. I knew exactly the position he was in, I'd been in it myself. There was nothing I could do. On Monday I received an email from David's school asking me for my address. All it said was '..can you let us know your address in order to send you information concerning David.' and that was it. No explanation nothing. My mind raced. I worried. I panicked. I replied giving my address and telephone numbers and asked them to let me know what it was all about as I was really worried. They had never been in touch before. Based on what I went through I thought he'd turned into school with bruises or maybe he'd told someone he wanted to live with me... Fortunately that night at about 9pm I got another message from David that was an advent calendar that must have taken ages to do.. I thought 'whatever it is, it can't be that bad' but even so I didn'd stop worrying. School never replied to my email and the next thing I knew was a big envelope landing on my door mat. I took it upstairs and sat down with it in my hands, wondering what it was, hoping it wasn't anything to do with what I had thought. Slowly I opened the envelope and took out the letter. I tried to calm myself before reading the letter.... and then found it was simply a letter about a Spelling Assessment that he had done! As you can imagine I was a mix of emotions. I was really, really annoyed, extremely relieved and quite sad that things hadn't moved on for us. How could they open an email, not respond to my request and send this letter marked up as Confidential concerning only his spelling! I couldn't believe it. I let them know what anguish and suffering they had caused me and pleaded with them that should they contact me again would they please say if it was just an academic matter. Then to add insult to injury I got a message from my mum to say that X wanted David back at 3.30pm on Saturday for a 'family' party. Now that just tipped me over the edge. Here we are trying to get more time. Giving her letter after letter stating our want of the full weekends together and just being ignored and now she was going to parties abusing our time together, a seamless transition from simply abusing me. I have friends, single mums who don't let their partners see their offspring because they had been abused and here I was having my time eaten away by the person who abused me and forced me to leave for the sake of my son. When we finally got together on Friday, David said that the party was at his house and he had said why couldn't it be on Sunday. Why did it have to be on Saturday when he saw me? Apparently, the reason given was because the family hadn't been together for a while and it was Christmas! Furthermore, it wasn't a party they needed to travel for, X had actually arranged it and it was being held at their house! I said, that being so, he could stay until 7pm as usual if he wanted. It turned out that she had invited his friends around for 4pm so I said if he needed to be there that was okay. We tried to decide what to do together the next day and we had to rule out Santa Claus 2 at the pictures because of lack of time. Instead he decided that he would like to go to my mum's and spend the day there. This we did and we made Shortbread and cut out a winter scene and went swimming before I had to take him back. All the while he kept saying he wished he could stay until 7 which I really appreciated hearing and told him so. He's been really, really kissy and cuddly this weekend going to bed extra late and getting up extra early just to make the most of his time with me. This isn't right at all and I think it's time that things changed. If you have found yourself in a similar position or are a single parent with the child living with you and can offer me advice please get in touch. I'm on email at steve@stevecunio.co.uk. We'd really appreciate your support. Thanks. December 3rd, 2002 - County Court Order Against Tenant [Previously] [Update] Well my ex-tenant who is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Salford who owes me over £2400 is now facing a county court order. The judge reckons that he will not have a great chance of protesting against it and thereafter I should be able to effect enforcement by deductions at source from his wages. This is great news! I have been moving balances from credit card to credit card to take advantage of the 0% interest balance transfer offers whilst I've not been able to pay it off. Hopefully now I will! I have been most disappointed with the attitude towards the whole affair by the University of Salford staff, supervisors and Pro Vice Chancellor. The last communication from whom stated: '...Whilst I am sympathetic to your difficulty, you will understand that it is not possible for the University to intervene in disputes to which it is not a party. To take any other view would be to walk into an absolute minefield...'. Now I for one see this not only as an abuse of my trust by the tenant but an abuse of every British tax payer who is footing this guy's bill. In fact he not only owes me rent but also credit card debts to Barclays Bank and Natwest Bank. Sky Digital are chasing him as are Britsh Gas, TXU Energi, Blockbuster and a range of bailiffs and client acting solicitors. I don't think this is the first time this has happened. This particular guy is from abroad in Malawi and will no doubt head back once he has been graduated. I don't think he deserves to be graduated as not only has he flitted away the grant and opportunity that we all paid for but has also run up debts across a whole range of UK products and services. International Students and home students like this rip everyone off. The local community and landlords, the nation and the chances of future students being supported in the same fashion. I thnk maybe they got the wrong idea about rip off Britain and thought it was an invitation. I'd be interested in hearing your comments steve@stevecunio.co.uk. Money Saving Tip:
November 20th, 2002 - Organ Donation I'd like to live forever in my present state but that's not possible. However, I can help others live longer once I progress and let some of my physical parts live on too. So today I became an Organ Donor online at http://www.nhsorgandonor.net/. Why don't you? Just click Join Now on their site and then use the Next buttons at the bottom of each page to progress with your application for a donor card. If you would prefer to ring or write to them, do so on the Organ Donor Information Line (0845 60 60 400 between 7am & 11pm 7 days a week.) for a form, or write to; NHS Organ Donor Register If you have any further questions about organ donation you may wish to access the UK Transplant website on http://www.uktransplant.org.uk November 3rd, 2002 - Missing David [Update] It's getting more and more difficult to deal with the issues surrounding David. He wants to stay here with me more and I want him to stay more but his mum keeps saying no. I didn't even see him through the half term as when he asked his mum she simply said no. When he asked why she said because she said so. I don't want to go to court about this. I don't want to go to court about anything. I just wish everyone could be nice to each other. Is that too much to ask? Unfortunately solicitors letters are simply being ignored and I am being given no choice. So what to do? Going through court will simply add to my worry and depression and I don't know if I can take it. I have court issues with a tenant who hasn't paid over £2000 in rent and I'm not looking forward to that. It just seems that everything is out of my control and no one in particular wants to take a rounded view of it. This whole issue is bigger than just me and David though. People throughout the country are facing similar situations. Sometimes it's happening to the father, sometimes to the mother but always to the child. I do have an idea to get other people involved to stand up for the children's rights in ways that I can't seem to by myself. Solicitors and the courts are not the right people to be trying to uphold individual children's rights. It takes too long and the abusing party forces the system to take even longer. What's needed is a person or organisation that gets involved when parents separate to stand up for the needs of the child. It would be better for people who work with children to have a system in place that gets them involved straight away. They would talk to the child to assess their preferences and to each parent to get to the bottom of a situation. Primarily they would look to uphold the rights of the child to see each parent an equal amount of time throughout their lives. Residency would then be worked out from a 50/50 stand point to something that suits everyone even more. The point would be that a third party would be involved from the start and any emotional abuse of the child, if any, would be minimised before it started. An abusing partner would be held responsible for misdemeanours and would have to behave in a responsible manner whether or not it was to their liking. In other words the child would come first. The rights of the child would be paramount. No such system exists for situations like this yet. If it had then me and David would not have suffered the eight years we've now been witheld from seeing each other more. Get in touch if you feel you have anything to add or to help. Cheers, Steve steve@stevecunio.co.uk. October 18th, 2002 - Powerpuff Girl Quiz 
Today I did the Powerpuff girl quiz on AOL and this is what they said.. and I agree!! ;) Your score: 2 out of 10 Wey heyeeyy! Go bubbles! October 8th, 2002 - Tenant and rent (or lack of!) [Update] On tidying out the cellar prior to him picking up his last bit of gear, I came across boxes for hifi separates, a dvd player, 2 different mini disc players and a digital video camera.. now if that didn't take the proverbial I don't know what would. All bought dare I say it with rent money that should have been coming to me. Argh! Well that's the last time I rent out through an agency who doesn't pay you up front or directly to the tenant.. I tell ya, you try and be the best landlord in the world then you suddenly start to see why landlords hate tenants and tenants hate landlords! Life's too short to worry though. I will get my money back else there will be hell and high water to pay. :) Note to self and all prospective landlords, get an agent who pays you no matter whether they collect off the tenant or not -- that's their problem, that's why you pay them! Sheesh. Mid September 2002 September 15th, 2002 Glastonbury June/July weekend 2002
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