Hi all
Have chilled a bit this week, so hopefully no ranting!!!
Went away this past weekend to Great Yarmouth with partner and Callum as it was Callum's birthday and we took his friend (also a Callum) with us. Was great fun for the boys as they spent most of the time between the beach and the arcades. However, not so much fun for me as my beloved partner who is "not interested in football and I only want to watch the England match" spent most of the day in the caravan watching every bloody match that was showing!!! Grrrr!
Ooops, a rant, sorry!
What else has been on my mind? Well, I've had some strange conversations with people over the past couple of weeks, all unconnected, about paranormal activity! Which kind of brings me back to my first blog about my dad and the Drop Dead Fred video. Those of you of a nervous disposition should probably stop reading now - hehe. So here goes:
When I was young I lived in a two bedroomed Council house in Twydall. I had the smaller front bedroom to start with, but when I got older (probably about 8ish) I moved into the back bedroom which was a lot bigger. The door of the room had a very stiff handle which you had to push down and then push a bit more. A bit like the zoom on a digital camera; you zoom in as far as you can, wait a microsecond and then zoom in a bit more (well that's how mine works anyway). Needless to say the bedroom door had a knack to it and it was one of the reasons I was moved in there; I could do it, but my dad, who was in his 50s by then, was having trouble with it as did my mum. I loved that room! It was big enough for me to separate into two areas; bed area and seating area with my record player and my books!
Anyway I'm digressing, but it is pretty important to lay down the grounding to the story. My parents were both ex Sunday School teachers and mum was very religious. I was sent to Sunday School, but never felt 'right' going and I still feel uncomfortable in a church; but that's another blog. Because of mum's religious beliefs she did not under any circumstances believe in ghosts or anything supernatural. She believed you died and went to heaven or hell and that was it! So when I, at the tender age of 8ish, would come downstairs and announce that my bed rocked every night and that my door was always open in the morning she wouldn't have any of it. Her explanation was that I must have dreamt the bed rocking and the door being open must have been me going to the toilet in the night and not remembering. Hmmm! Every night mum?? Seems a bit excessive. And there was more. We started having sharp utensils such as carving knives, bread knives and scissors going missing and they would turn up buried in the garden a few weeks later. Mum's answer: the dog!! Now I know that dogs are intelligent and Rex our mongrel was pretty cool, but to only steal knives and scissors!? And never to cut his mouth!? That seemed a little far fetched to me! I was convinced we had a ghost! Not an unfriendly one, but a ghost nonetheless!!
This phenomenon went on until I left home at 18, the only changes were that knives stopped going missing, but every time I got upset light bulbs would blow all at once and sometimes electrical items would fuse! Now that makes it sound like I'd get in a temper or a wailing moment and the electrics would go, but it wasn't like that. I didn't cry much as a kid as mum was never sympathetic, so I learned to keep upset inside, but whenever it got bad within a few days something would go; either all the bulbs or the hoover would fuse or the telly. It got pretty weird actually, but I was ok with it.
As I've said I left home at 18 and moved in with my then boyfriend and things were good. No bed rocking, no missing implements, no blown bulbs! But, a couple of days after I'd left my mum rang me rather shakily and said "your bed rocks!" Der!!! Yeah!! I've been telling you that for nigh on 10years!! "I'm not sleeping in there, I'm going back on the sofa!"
Two weeks later I got another phone call from mum saying that she'd slept on the sofa for a couple of days and then went back to the bed. She said that the rocking had continued, but that it wasn't unpleasant, but that it had now stopped! She thought she'd let me know! The very next day every light bulb in my house blew and the hoover stopped working! On opening up the plug, all the wires had been pulled out! The kettle then went and exactly the same thing had happened in that plug too! Now some of you would probably have freaked out by this point, but I'd been living with it for over half my life by this point and I actually rather liked my little ghost! I'd even given him a name - Harry! And I often spoke to him as I did on this occasion. "Stop mucking about Harry, so you've found me, now pack it in!" is normally the kind of thing I say! And every time I've moved the same thing has happened. All quiet for a couple of weeks and then it starts again!
I suppose the most freakiest moments were after I had my daughter, Terri. We had a border collie then called Max who was very protective of her. When she was born I'd told Harry that he didn't need to look after me anymore and that he should keep and eye on Terri instead. That evening when we took her up to bed, Max refused to leave her bedroom door and spent the next hour staring at some random spot on the wall next to her room. The next day the hoover blew as did the microwave and the kettle. It appeared that Max didn't like Harry watching Terri and Harry was sulking! Another time I lost my rag with him as I couldn't find any scissors again (I think he takes sharp things to prevent children hurting themselves), so I yelled at him to pack it in and go away! The lightbulbs went on that occasion and then it was quiet! A week or so later I was out in the garden with Terri (a toddler by then) and my neighbour came out and asked if I knew anything about imaginary friends. I asked her why and she said that her youngest boy had suddenly started to talk to someone and it was freaking her out! Apparently he was having proper conversations with pauses in the flow of speech as if listening to the reply. I asked if she knew who/what it was and she replied that it was a man called, wait for it, Harry!!!! "Ah" I said, "he's mine!" I then explained everything to the poor woman and told her to tell him to pack it in and come home. I said she would probably feel pretty daft, but it would work. She did and it did. Her son stopped having conversations and my hoover blew again!!! Welcome home Harry!
Harry is still with me although not so active as he once was! I still get phases of things not working properly and they are normally related to times when I'm either extremely stressed or very upset, but it's fine and he's never been violent. I've been told by several 'medium' type people that he's my Grandad, but I'm not entirely sure as I never met my Grandad and I've never seen Harry, although one of my ex boyfriends apparently did! An old man with lots of white hair was his description and that is pretty much what my Grandad looks like in an old photo I have! I think he's quieter now as there are more of them than before. I'm pretty sure my dad is with me as is a old woman and a young boy, but again I've never seen them fully, only in those far reaches of the eye, but things do happen around me and I do get a lot of 'feelings', so I'm not dismissing it at all.
So Drop Dead Fred!!! My dad was a canny one! He believed me even if mum didn't and I think his choice of video was his way of saying it. As I've already said I think he knew what was coming! Bless him!
Wednesday 16 June 2010
Sunday 6 June 2010
MID-LIFE CRISIS, RESPECT AND JEREMY CLARKSON
Right, I'm now a year older!!! Wiser I'm not so sure about; grumpier I'm positive about and definitely older! So what has been going through my head this week?
Well, to start with cars!!!! Now let me first inform you that I do not drive and I couldn't tell the difference between a Volvo and a Golf if you paid me. My normal description of a car is that it has 4 wheels, is big/small, is 3 door/5 door (yes I can tell that difference) and it's blue/green/white/black........you get the picture!! So why this week have I been thinking about cars? It may have something to do with Jeremy Clarkson, but then again it may not! I'm a little obsessed with Jeremy at the moment. It's my mate's fault; you know who you are (hehe)! She bought Phil two of his books for his birthday and one day, while bored and wanting something light to read, I picked one of them up and started reading. We are big fans of Top Gear in this house and I have to admit that Jezza makes me laugh and his books are even funnier! He is probably the most un PC person on the planet, but I find myself nodding in agreement to a lot of what he says even though I feel guilty for doing so and the way he writes is just genius! Anyway, after devouring both books in a matter of a week, I spotting in a local charity shop one of his others; this time about cars! I started to read with a little bit of trepidation as, remember I don't know anything about cars, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it, but I did!!!! I loved it! It was still humourous and still full of his little rants and views on the world he inhabits, so I asked for another one for my birthday! I got 2!!!! Another World According To and a car one Driven to Distraction. I've already finished the World According To one and am about 1/4 way through the other. So my head is a little more car orientated than normal, but it still has not increased my understanding of cars at all. Which brings me onto the other reason I've been thinking about cars.
A friend of mine, who shall remain anonymous, has just bought herself a 2 seater sports car! What's the problem with that I hear you ask? Well, there are 3 of them in the household: herself, her partner and her son plus they have her partner's son every other weekend. Now, my uncarlike brain says why on earth would you buy a 2 seater car when you clearly need a minimum of 4 seats!? Her answer was that they rarely spent any time with all 4 of them in the car at the same time and that they could always use her partner's car if they needed to. Plus she wanted to be able to have a posh sporty car before she entered the world of senile dementia that she was so obviously heading for, now that she was nearing her 50s, and be unable to drive one! Good and fair point, but this got me thinking! Do woman now have the classic, if cliched, mid life crisis that men are supposed to have? You know the story; man hits middle age, goes out and buys the fastest, flashiest car he can find and runs off with his secretary who is half his age and has large breasts! It is terribly cliched, but not uncommon and you do see them driving around. Or do you? This was the problem; I don't! I've only ever seen them in television dramas or in glossy magazines where they end up looking, well, a bit of a prat!! So I've made a conscious effort this week to look out for flashy cars and to see who is driving them. I might have to re point out here that I know nothing about cars, so a flashy car to me could actually be a complete dumpster to a petrolhead, but on the look out I was. What were my findings? As I don't live in the most upmarket of places in the first place I only saw about 3 cars that I would possibly class as flashy and one of them was a pick up, so that one probably wouldn't even count! And who was driving these cars? All men; one woman, two men; no, all women! Yes, all 3 were driven by women! But that's not all, all 3 were driven by woman who were also blonde. All had enamelled fingernails that had sparkly trimmings. All looked pretty anorexic and only one, the one in the pick up, looked under 30 with a child in the back; the other 2 looking pretty much my age. I could be completely typecasting here but I swear that if I could have seen what they were wearing it would have been designer jeans and each would have had a designer (or at least of copy of a designer) handbag! Now, I'm not disrespecting my mate or, in fact, these other woman; at least I'm trying not to. How they live their lives is up to them and I dye my hair blonde now that it has turned salt&pepper grey and my original brown hair makes my face look washed out as my skin has gone paler as I've got older. Fair play to them if that is what they want to do and they can afford to do it. But, just as middle aged men in fast, flash cars with 'trinket' girlfriends look complete prats to me, these woman basically look like wannabe WAGs to me too! I just hope that they are not trying to relive their youth or, worse still, have a fear of getting old. Remember the phrase "mutton dressed as lamb", well now it seems it isn't just clothes, it's the car you drive as well but, I hate to say it, it still looks bad!! Sorry girls, my opinion only!! And I still love my friend dearly!
The other thing I've been thinking about is respect, or lack of it! My mum may not have wanted me or been the most loving or protective mother in the world, but she did teach me respect and I'm hoping that I've taught my kids the same (on reflection of what I've written above, I'm not being very respectful this week, but I did warn you that you might not always like what I'm thinking). However, this week I've noticed that there really isn't a great deal of it about nowadays. It all starts with dogs barking and ends in noise from neighbours!
I'm a dog owner/lover, in fact I love most animals, and even if a dog is launching itself at my fence with what can only been seen as a view to getting into my garden and ripping apart my child and dog (this has happened recently, but has now been resolved), I know it isn't the dog's fault, it's the owners. Although, saying that, I wouldn't think twice about grabbing the nearest item and beating the shite out of the animal should it have succeeded in it's mission. But back to the barking. I have several houses around me that own dogs and there is definitely 3 of them that consistently allow their dogs to continuously bark. If my dog barks, and obviously he does otherwise he wouldn't be a dog, I tell him to stop or I bring him indoors. I'd be mortified if I thought that anyone was sitting in their house/garden thinking "I wish they'd shut that bloody dog up!", but these owners obviously don't think like this at all. If fact, I don't think that they think much of their dogs either to be honest! A dog normally barks for 3 reasons: intruders, boredom or fear! Now if it is an intruder, surely you should be going to check it out; if it's boredom, then you aren't looking after your dog properly and if it's fear, you should again be checking it out. But these owners don't, so personally I'd like to go round and remove their dogs and rehome them in better homes, but I'm not allowed to do that so I have to put up with the barking.
The other is neighbour's noise and in particular DIY noise. The house next door to me has been sold and they are totally gutting and renovating it. I don't have a problem with this as it's something we need to do ourselves, but is it really necessary to start banging at 10.30pm? Yes, I said pm, not am! It has been known to be as late as 11pm before they start! Ok, I'll own up and say that it is rare and only once has it been 11pm and it normally is finished by 11pm, but even so. Are there not enough hours in the day already to get this sort of thing done? And the fact that they know that there is a child living next door really pisses me off (sorry)! It just comes back to respect; they haven't any! My worry is that, at the moment, they are not truely living at the house as it's pretty uninhabitable so what will it be like when they finally do move in permanently? Will I then have neighbours like my last lot that played European disco music (they were Polish as are these) really loud until God knows when! I truely hope not as I don't want to have to start another mini war. And that's another thing, why is it always crap music that's played really loudly. My next door neighbour but one was playing some excellent music the other week while out working in his garden, but I could only really hear it when the wind blew in the right direction; I was almost tempted to yell at him to turn it UP!!
Oh well, my rant is now over, my brain has been downloaded and possibly half the population has been ostracized, but I don't care as I'm off for one last cup of tea before going to bed! See you next week.
Well, to start with cars!!!! Now let me first inform you that I do not drive and I couldn't tell the difference between a Volvo and a Golf if you paid me. My normal description of a car is that it has 4 wheels, is big/small, is 3 door/5 door (yes I can tell that difference) and it's blue/green/white/black........you get the picture!! So why this week have I been thinking about cars? It may have something to do with Jeremy Clarkson, but then again it may not! I'm a little obsessed with Jeremy at the moment. It's my mate's fault; you know who you are (hehe)! She bought Phil two of his books for his birthday and one day, while bored and wanting something light to read, I picked one of them up and started reading. We are big fans of Top Gear in this house and I have to admit that Jezza makes me laugh and his books are even funnier! He is probably the most un PC person on the planet, but I find myself nodding in agreement to a lot of what he says even though I feel guilty for doing so and the way he writes is just genius! Anyway, after devouring both books in a matter of a week, I spotting in a local charity shop one of his others; this time about cars! I started to read with a little bit of trepidation as, remember I don't know anything about cars, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it, but I did!!!! I loved it! It was still humourous and still full of his little rants and views on the world he inhabits, so I asked for another one for my birthday! I got 2!!!! Another World According To and a car one Driven to Distraction. I've already finished the World According To one and am about 1/4 way through the other. So my head is a little more car orientated than normal, but it still has not increased my understanding of cars at all. Which brings me onto the other reason I've been thinking about cars.
A friend of mine, who shall remain anonymous, has just bought herself a 2 seater sports car! What's the problem with that I hear you ask? Well, there are 3 of them in the household: herself, her partner and her son plus they have her partner's son every other weekend. Now, my uncarlike brain says why on earth would you buy a 2 seater car when you clearly need a minimum of 4 seats!? Her answer was that they rarely spent any time with all 4 of them in the car at the same time and that they could always use her partner's car if they needed to. Plus she wanted to be able to have a posh sporty car before she entered the world of senile dementia that she was so obviously heading for, now that she was nearing her 50s, and be unable to drive one! Good and fair point, but this got me thinking! Do woman now have the classic, if cliched, mid life crisis that men are supposed to have? You know the story; man hits middle age, goes out and buys the fastest, flashiest car he can find and runs off with his secretary who is half his age and has large breasts! It is terribly cliched, but not uncommon and you do see them driving around. Or do you? This was the problem; I don't! I've only ever seen them in television dramas or in glossy magazines where they end up looking, well, a bit of a prat!! So I've made a conscious effort this week to look out for flashy cars and to see who is driving them. I might have to re point out here that I know nothing about cars, so a flashy car to me could actually be a complete dumpster to a petrolhead, but on the look out I was. What were my findings? As I don't live in the most upmarket of places in the first place I only saw about 3 cars that I would possibly class as flashy and one of them was a pick up, so that one probably wouldn't even count! And who was driving these cars? All men; one woman, two men; no, all women! Yes, all 3 were driven by women! But that's not all, all 3 were driven by woman who were also blonde. All had enamelled fingernails that had sparkly trimmings. All looked pretty anorexic and only one, the one in the pick up, looked under 30 with a child in the back; the other 2 looking pretty much my age. I could be completely typecasting here but I swear that if I could have seen what they were wearing it would have been designer jeans and each would have had a designer (or at least of copy of a designer) handbag! Now, I'm not disrespecting my mate or, in fact, these other woman; at least I'm trying not to. How they live their lives is up to them and I dye my hair blonde now that it has turned salt&pepper grey and my original brown hair makes my face look washed out as my skin has gone paler as I've got older. Fair play to them if that is what they want to do and they can afford to do it. But, just as middle aged men in fast, flash cars with 'trinket' girlfriends look complete prats to me, these woman basically look like wannabe WAGs to me too! I just hope that they are not trying to relive their youth or, worse still, have a fear of getting old. Remember the phrase "mutton dressed as lamb", well now it seems it isn't just clothes, it's the car you drive as well but, I hate to say it, it still looks bad!! Sorry girls, my opinion only!! And I still love my friend dearly!
The other thing I've been thinking about is respect, or lack of it! My mum may not have wanted me or been the most loving or protective mother in the world, but she did teach me respect and I'm hoping that I've taught my kids the same (on reflection of what I've written above, I'm not being very respectful this week, but I did warn you that you might not always like what I'm thinking). However, this week I've noticed that there really isn't a great deal of it about nowadays. It all starts with dogs barking and ends in noise from neighbours!
I'm a dog owner/lover, in fact I love most animals, and even if a dog is launching itself at my fence with what can only been seen as a view to getting into my garden and ripping apart my child and dog (this has happened recently, but has now been resolved), I know it isn't the dog's fault, it's the owners. Although, saying that, I wouldn't think twice about grabbing the nearest item and beating the shite out of the animal should it have succeeded in it's mission. But back to the barking. I have several houses around me that own dogs and there is definitely 3 of them that consistently allow their dogs to continuously bark. If my dog barks, and obviously he does otherwise he wouldn't be a dog, I tell him to stop or I bring him indoors. I'd be mortified if I thought that anyone was sitting in their house/garden thinking "I wish they'd shut that bloody dog up!", but these owners obviously don't think like this at all. If fact, I don't think that they think much of their dogs either to be honest! A dog normally barks for 3 reasons: intruders, boredom or fear! Now if it is an intruder, surely you should be going to check it out; if it's boredom, then you aren't looking after your dog properly and if it's fear, you should again be checking it out. But these owners don't, so personally I'd like to go round and remove their dogs and rehome them in better homes, but I'm not allowed to do that so I have to put up with the barking.
The other is neighbour's noise and in particular DIY noise. The house next door to me has been sold and they are totally gutting and renovating it. I don't have a problem with this as it's something we need to do ourselves, but is it really necessary to start banging at 10.30pm? Yes, I said pm, not am! It has been known to be as late as 11pm before they start! Ok, I'll own up and say that it is rare and only once has it been 11pm and it normally is finished by 11pm, but even so. Are there not enough hours in the day already to get this sort of thing done? And the fact that they know that there is a child living next door really pisses me off (sorry)! It just comes back to respect; they haven't any! My worry is that, at the moment, they are not truely living at the house as it's pretty uninhabitable so what will it be like when they finally do move in permanently? Will I then have neighbours like my last lot that played European disco music (they were Polish as are these) really loud until God knows when! I truely hope not as I don't want to have to start another mini war. And that's another thing, why is it always crap music that's played really loudly. My next door neighbour but one was playing some excellent music the other week while out working in his garden, but I could only really hear it when the wind blew in the right direction; I was almost tempted to yell at him to turn it UP!!
Oh well, my rant is now over, my brain has been downloaded and possibly half the population has been ostracized, but I don't care as I'm off for one last cup of tea before going to bed! See you next week.
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