I love music

Barry cleared his throat. “It’s a very nice place, isn’t it?” he remarked to his dinning companion, as though they had booked in at some plush restaurant. Irene shared an amused glance with Laura, the student busy dishing up their food, a small, plump girl with long blonde hair tied back in an emerald green scrunchie, who obviously had a thing for emerald green to judge by her large emerald green clip-on ear-rings and matching chunky emerald green bracelets, as well as a thing for the violinist serenading the diners, a sandy-haired youth who wore the name badge “Simon”, to judge by her frequent coy glances in his direction. Amidst the general chatter and laughter in the canteen of Yabbie Creek Academy a very serious message was being conveyed. A blown-up photograph of a beautiful, large-eyed, skeletal young African child holding a wooden bowl to her mouth was the first sight that greeted guests as they were shown to their tables. The Academy students had arranged the Fun Romantic Disgusting School Dinner “to remind us” as their advertising literature said, “that, in the words of the poet Robbie Burns, “Some hae meat that canna eat and some wad eat that want it” in aid of the charity they had founded. HeartBeat aimed to set up schools in remote African villages, with the hope each school would eventually become the heart of the village, a base where education, food and medicine could all be provided. Heads of education establishments and their partners had been invited to the dinner by the charity organizers so that they could explain how their own students and they themselves could become involved. Principal Barry Hyde was here by accident and, bashful at the best of times despite his ferocious persona, felt ill at ease as he straightened his tie for the third or fourth time... I'm going on a short holiday early tomorrow morning, but thought you might like to know, despite the snail pace, the next chapter is coming along quite well.

God, I write slooowwwlllyyy, I seem to spend my whole life with writers' block. Never mind, I've almost finished a longish Irene scene and I'm getting an Irene/Barry scene in my head so I should get there ..........eventually......... **uh-oh, watch out, snail overtaking**

Oops, sorry, Cassie's cat was originally called Betsy, not Penny! I didn't have time to check back before I posted.

Oh, don't worry, after her holiday in Oz I'll hassle her until the second part is written... I've just been reading through my old posts. Don't think we've forgotten all about that sequel, Kat!!!

When I next have the time, I'll write an epilogue.

Just added a new chapter Chapter 42: Runaway Train to fanfiction.net. And of course you can review either here or on fanfiction.net

I need to edit and add another few paragraphs but should have a Gypsy/Hayley (and a short scene with Irene) chapter ready either today (not sure if I'm going out yet) or in a few more days. Sorry about the delay, it got to be almost 4,000 words...

Ollie isn't the only one. I want his REAL Daddy back too.

Actually, it's probably two years too late to tell you this (and I don't know how I wandered into this thread, I was just being nosey because someone on the online users was in this thread and then I got sidetracked ) but Sally Called! should be in the "Past Characters" index too as it concerns the very first kids that Tom and Pippa ever fostered as well as Sally as an eight-year-old.

I think the best way for her to do that would be to split with Miles and set up home for just herself and Ollie.

For anyone following, 2,500 words into this, could be another week.

It's not a good idea to have a baby when only one half of a couple actually wants a baby. In the real world, the baby would pick up on the resentment and feel rejected and unloved. Also the couple would almost certainly have (or already have, if they can't make major decisions like this together) relationship problems. Anyway, Kirsty is way, way too young to tie herself down. While most girls her age are out partying, dating and carving careers for themselves, she already has a young son and is apparently a mother figure to two teenagers. She needs more freedom, not less!

Thank you! I am now a thousand words into the next chapter and in my mind thousands of miles away in Hong Kong when Gypsy Nash is still only eleven. These are the Nashes next door neighbours: Mr Chang and Mrs Chang lived next door with their teenage son and they and the Nashes often babysat for each other when the children were younger. Their offspring no longer needed babysitting these days, Kuan-Yin, more commonly known by his English name of Michael, had turned eighteen, and Tom who was a sensible fourteen-year-old was considered old enough to be trusted to look after his little sister. The Changs were a great deal older than Natalie and Joel, but despite the age difference they had become good friends. Ivy Chang was a small, busy woman who had been born in poverty in a small village in China, her orphaned unmarried mother shunned by all until she stowed away with her baby to Hong Kong where she was eventually taken in by a kindly elderly couple... I'm damned if I know why I have to go into so much detail about the Nashes next door neighbours tho...

Okay, I guess the answer is no then. To be honest, I've suspected that for a long time. But seeing as I wrote my first H&A fanfic six years ago I think it's well past time I called it a day and concentrated on more original work. If anyone does want to continue reading I have begun the opening paragraph of the next chapter (because I hate leaving stories unfinished) .......... Gypsy Nash never stopped talking. Or singing or dancing. She couldn’t help it. The bright yellow light of the sun that laughingly stole in to wake her each morning drew her to life as though it were her own personal spotlight and the whole world her very own stage. From the age of three or four, sometimes even before the birds had had time to organise conductor and choir for the dawn chorus, Gypsy would fling back the bedclothes and, lisping snatches of nursery rhymes, toddle off to her parents room, where (with difficulty and determination, for she could barely reach it) she would turn the round brass handle, fling the door dramatically open and happily announce, “MOOORRRNNNING!” . ........but I'll be asking for this to be moved to The Vault and anyone who's interested enough can carry on reading later chapters on fanfiction.net.

Does anyone SERIOUSLY want me to continue with this? Only I personally thought the last chapter was pretty poor quality and the fact no one has reviewed in a week backs me up on this. I don't know if the chapter is bad because I couldn't do any writing at all for about three or four weeks (being away on holiday and then computerless) or if I've lost my way with the fic or if it's because I had loads of other stuff to do inbetween writing little bits of it...or if I'm just not as good at writing as I thought I was... The ball's in your court. But please don't reply if you're just being nice or feel sorry for me, I'd rather know the truth.

Well, I'm reading it anyway!

I'm finally back on line! Unfortunately, I won't have any time to do any writing tonight and I'm out tomorrow night but the next chapter is more or less finished so should be ready to post by Sat or Sun. By the way, I realised this fic was begun way back in Sept 06...which means Hayley's party has now been gong on for 2 years 9 month Some party, huh?!!!

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I added another sentence just after the bit about Miles being "safe". Glad you all got the message that she sacrificed her one true love in favour of a stable, but very boring marriage.

Just in case anyone's still following after the long delay in updates I should finally have internet connection back on Thursday. I have occasionally checked in online at a couple of friends but only for a short while and can't log on at work. I'm at the library today again for a while tho. I've managed to write quite a bit more of the next chapter anyway so it should be ready to post in about a week.

Well, back from hol (we had lousy weather and it's beautiful this week! ) but won't have internet connection for at least two weeks, maybe four. I'm using the library at the moment but only have an hour. Be warned, if you ever change your internet provider they make it as difficult as possible for you to leave and delay it for ages - so don't go with supanet, who are being very bolshy because I want to change to BT and who are delaying the whole process on purpse. I need to refer to previous chapters so I can carry on wth SBH and it's driving me mad that I can't gain access to what I've already written. Will get back to writing asap but it's going to be another 2-4 weeks before I can get back to beginning a new chapter.

LOL. I know, that's usually my excuse whenever I have writer's block!!!! Thanks for your comments, everyone. This will be the last time I'll be online now for at least two weeks, maybe longer, depending on when I get a new computer after I get back from hol. I'll start work on the next chapter soon as that happens.

Thanks for your comments. I think only Irene and Barry fans are following now. LOL Maybe I should forget about all the other characters and write exclusively about Irene and Barry! Or, better still, I could just write about Aden and Belle...

Well, it's good to know that since I posted the latest chapter about 140 people have read it, but it would be nice to know if anyone liked it...

Thanks for the 580+ hits since I posted the last chaper I'm amazed and flattered that so many people are still following after all this time. Okay, I'll stop being lazy and get offline to go write some more of the latest chapter now...

Thanks for your reply, Red Ranger. I've been finding other stuff to do all day when for once I've actually had the time to write because I feel I really want to introduce the Barry/Irene first meeting so that I can get into the flow of the chapter. So Irene was a school secretary? And theydisliked like each other on first sight? That's great, I can work round that tho I'll be writing my own version. Many thanks for the info!