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!