SAM, BLACKPOOL and the EX-ARMY OFFICER

Hello everyone. Sorry - I seem to have missed a week somewhere. Maybe escalating time goes hand in hand with escalating age, huh? Or perhaps there is some truth in the old adage that menopausal ladies are just a bit forgetful? Who knows?

It has been a strange couple of weeks. I think my psychic ability - very prevalent in my mis-spent youth - has come back full force. I saw a man in a green jumper this morning who wasn't there the next second; but he was definitely there, standing in a neighbour's garden. He was in his fifties, quite tall with a full head of grey hair and quite distinguished features - as if he'd been a high-rank officer in the army. He watched me walk by. I didn't know him, didn't recognise him (in my little neighbourhood we all know each-other's faces even if we don't know each other's names) but thought I'd nod at him to acknowledge his presence - then he just wasn't there, anymore. I thought to myself 'I wonder who that was?' and carried on walking, as if ex-army officers in green jumpers just pop up out of nowhere every day of the week! Then there's Sam.

Hubby and I moved into our house ten years ago and within weeks of getting there, I started to become aware of the presence of a small boy. I figured him to be about seven, quite slight, fair-haired and mischievious. He never freaked me out. I hung the name Sam on him because it just felt right. At first Hubby was very skeptical. He had always known that I'd had various experiences. I spooked him one day when we were walking along and I said "Who is that man?" "What man?" he asked. "The one that's following us," I told him. We looked round - no man. "You're weird," Hubby said. Anyway, his explanation was that Cat was opening the cupboard door - which fine until we started noticing it when we got up in the morning knowing full well Cat had been shut in the living room as she is every night.

But I think he began to be swayed when things started disappearing, or moving from one place to another. Walking up the stairs one day, I found one of my Lilliput Lane cottages on the top step, for example. I mean no-one in their right mind would deliberately leave a Lilliput Lane cottage in the middle of the top step, would they? More recently, Hubby put seven one pound coins on the dining room table which weren't there when he went to retrieve them. He seriously began to think he'd lost them. Then, one night, a week or so later, we got back from a show and there on the table, were the seven one pound coins. Another time, he knocked an ornament off of the upstairs shelf which he saw go, I heard go but then neither of us could find it. That reappeared in the downstairs hall about a month later, just out of the blue. We get the occasional knock or rap and sometimes Cat's eyes seem to follow something across the room that no-one else can see. I usually say "Is that you, Sam? What are you up to now?" There have been quite a few knocks and raps over the past couple of weeks, actually. Our house is post-war and around fifty years old - I know that exactly because my lovely old neighbour Lily told us she moved into hers when it was brand new. I don't know how to find out the history of a house that is relatively young, so I am not sure how to find out who Sam might have actually been. I'd like to - just to see how close I am! There have been other things but I won't go into them all now. If you want to hear more, let me know, but I don't want to sound like a loopy old lady! I just find the whole thing fascinating.

Next week, change of subject, Hubby and I are off to Blackpool with Eldest Grandson for a week's holiday. We are making the Pontins site our base and we're going on a half-board basis so we won't have to worry about cooking or washing up - apart from the odd cup or glass. There is a lot to do on site - swimming, crazy golf, go-karts, pool, snooker etc plus there's entertainment every night. But I expect we'll do what we usually do and just go out and about and see what's around. Whether Eldest Grandson will persuade me to join him on the roller-coaster at the pleasure beach remains to be seen, but I do know we are going into the tower both to explore it and to see the circus based there. And there seems to be a lot around the area to do and see, so we are all very much looking forward to it. And I will tell you all about it when I come back.

So I'll see you then, blogspot buddies. Have a good week!

FIFTY-ONE AND STILL NOT OUT

I turned 51 on Tuesday 8th July.On the Friday before, Hubby took me for a lovely meal at Dizzy's Diner in Beckenham and then we head into London on Saturday. I quite fancied a trip to the Natural History Museum in Kensington but it was wall-to-wall people so we left after just a couple of hours - and ended up smack in the middle of Gay Pride. The atmosphere was electric and some of the costumes were amazing. At one point we had a dozen or so theatrical surgeons bypassing us, complete in Greens and masks - as well as a number of gents in full stockings, suspenders and basques who quite outshone their similarly dressed female counterparts. It was like finding yourself in the middle of a Rocky Horror set! I looked out for Gay Colleague, who is one of the sweetest, kindest, nicest people I have ever known, but the throng was too great and I didn't see him. Last year Hubby and I got caught in it and walked into Graham Norton who was talking on his mobile phone and looked exactly like he does on TV - if not a little taller.



Tuesday itself was much quieter in comparison. In the evening, Eldest Grandson rang to wish me happy birthday and Grand-daughter called and sang it down the phone - along with a remarkable performance of Do-Re-Me from The Sound of Music - which she evidently sat through on Sunday and became obsessed with. A couple of months ago it was Mary Poppins and for weeks she walked around saying "Spit-Spot" to anyone who left a shoe out of place. I had some nice cards and lovely gifts. I have been reading Linda Lear's biography of Beatrix Potter for weeks and weeks and Hubby bought me a beautiful hard-backed Beatrix Potter journal from Past Times which contains facsimiles of many of her letters and journal entries, family photos and a re-production edition of her privately published The Tale of Peter Rabbit, all laid out like a scrap book and a perfect companion to the biography. I received a number of Smiths' vouchers, a couple of cheques and Mother gave me a gorgeous personalised pen. I also got a photo-mug featuring lots of cameo photos of Grand-daughter and Youngest Grandson, laughing and giggling. So I have, without doubt, been thoroughly spoilt again.

Of course, for every silver lining, there is a cloud and mine came yesterday when I woke up with yet another cold. And this one's a real humdinger. Even so, I managed to convince everyone, inlcuding myself, that I looked and sounded a lot worse than I actually felt, but today, I have got a searing sore throat so there's no hiding it anymore. I have just bought some tyrozets and taken two and they worked like a charm for the first five minutes, numbing the pain completely. But once the effect wore off, I was back to square one again and I can't take anymore till about 5pm this evening. So I am stuck with it. I don't know what is up with Hubby and I in 2008. He has had one cold after another yet a few years ago he was unlucky if he got one a year - and that was usually over Christmas. And it is only a matter of weeks since my horrendous bout of neuralgia. Basically we are falling apart at the seams so God alone knows what we'll be like ten or fifteen years from now, if we don't watch out.

Anway I will be back later with some news. See you then, blogspot buddies.