Warning to those who dislike anything scary!
I love ghost stories, and as its Halloween I thought I would tell you one of mine...
My dad had a restaurant in Clacton a few years ago and there was this guy, Mark who used to work for my dad so this is his story...
He was driving home alone one night along a long strip of road out in the middle of no where with hardly any street lamps. It was quite foggy and cold so he had his headlights and heaters on, but suddenly his car started to make funny sounds like it was choking so he slowed down to about 10mph and was about to stop to check it out but then it started to run smoothly again but the temperature stayed quite cold still. He thought nothing of it and got home safely...
For the next couple of days, every time he got into the car it would become quite cold and the front mirror would automatically turn to a specific position in the back seat, no matter how many times he adjusted it...
After a few days he was starting to get quite afraid to say the least. Then a few more days later, he had to drive through the same strip of road, when the same thing happened, the road was covered in fogs, temperature dropped and car started choking... however, like before, once he got through that part of the road, the fog cleared and the car returned back to its original temperature...
Afterwards he told my parents about the experience and my mum told him that he must have 'picked up' the ghost on his first journey, and had it with him until he drove through that strip of road again and 'dropped' it off again...
Apparently Clacton is quite a haunted place, there was another story I heard about a man being hung on a giant tree for his crimes, there have been sightings of a black mass ‘hanging’ round that tree late at night ever since...
Happy Halloween ;-)
*
Cackles*
Helen
Warm up your vocal cords!
Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of blog entries... many excuses but lets not waste time and let’s just dive straight in! LOL
Did anyone wake up today and forgot the clocks go back and arrive early (or on time!) for everything?! My internal body clock has been waking me up 9am every morning the past week and this morning I woke up at 8am! Which was lucky as my mum had forgot the clocks go back and decided to come visit me and drag me off to go horse chestnut picking! I think she is approaching her mid-life crisis or menopause, she have taken up ballroom dancing and joined a female only society/group which takes her all over the place trying out foods of the World! She has a much more active social life than I!
Ok back to me (hehehe)... the thought of chestnuts made me think of the Christmas Carole:
#
Chestnut's roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yule tide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos
Everybody knows
A turkey and some mistletoe
Can help to make the season bright
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow
Will find it hard to sleep tonight #
This is not the only song which I had running through my head all day... with the clocks going back, summer is definitely coming to an end for this year (you wouldn’t believe it by the looks of the pictures above). Well anyway the song which was running through my head all day was:
#
Summertime and the living is easy
Fish are jumping, the cotton is high
Your daddy's rich and your mother's good lookin'
So hush, little baby, don't you cry? #
The sky was clear and bright but the temperature was notably cooler – haven’t got my thermal underwear out yet (hehehe) but have just dug out my bright red ski socks!
Oh, I nearly forgot (nothing unusal there!) – I was out with my family on Friday night for dinner at a local Thai restaurant when 2 children TV presenters came in and sat behind me... Lee (my brother) who sat in front of me pointed them out and for the rest of the meal we were all trying to think of what their names were. All I remembered was “swing your pants”... do you know who I am on about yet?! Well to put you out or your misery (?!) they were
Trevor Neal and
Simon Hickson! Oh, how I miss Saturday morning TV and laughing at silly pants!
Helen
Humour is a very sexy quality to have ;-)
I saw ‘
The Great Escape’ on the big screen last night thinking it would be a very intense, serious movie about prisoners trying to escape from a Nazi concentration camp... I was very pleasantly surprised to find it humorous and seeing the magnetism of the late Steve McQueen.
I went to see ‘
The Thomas Crown Affair’ about a month ago at the same venue and did not think too much of McQueen but at last nights viewing I have come to realise that humour is very attractive quality to possess – the little glint in ones eye and the smirk from someone who does not take themselves too seriously...
For those of you have not seen the movie you can find out more about it via this link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057115 and for those who appreciate the simple but ingenious work of
Mr Elmer Bernstein for the soundtrack you can have a taster from here:
http://www.moviegrooves.com/shop/thegreatescape.htm(I was whistling this tune in my head throughout the train journey home afterwards!).
I am not doing the film any justice merely by going on about McQueen as the rest of the cast were excellent. I was surprised that I recognised quite a few of the main cast but not recalling their names until the credits came up. There were even a (solo) standing ovation from a gentleman sitting at the front of the screen.
I have not seen an entire episode of ‘
Ello Ello’ or sat through ‘
Chicken Run’ but I can see that they took inspiration from ‘
The Great Escape’.
Prior to the movie, I had to make a very mad dash to Waitrose on the other side of the venue as they did not serve any hot food! I fully expected hot food to be served, as last time they offered this service – I had 25 minutes to get to Waitrose, queue up, place my order of pilau rice with chicken korma, samosa and onion bhaji for my friend and then a roast chicken and potato wedges for myself, queue up to pay and then rush back just as the lights dimmed!
Helen
Santa Clauses will be coming to Battersea Park on Saturday 9th December!
You may remember I got my new wheelchair a few months ago and have not had a chance to take it onto any race event... well, I have entered myself into a ‘Santa race’! LOL
The race is to help raise funds for ‘
Disability Snowsport’. The race will be held at
Battersea Park on Saturday 9th December. The event is looking for
2500 runners to dress up as Santa and run/jog/walk/roll 6km! To find out more please visit:
www.runnersworld.co.uk/santarunWhats great about the race (besides from raising funds and awareness of snow sports for the disabled) is the entrance fee will include a Santa suit which we get to wear and keep... if anyone out there who needs a Santa suit, sign up for the event, come enjoy yourself and take away the Santa suit as a souvenir (plus a medal at the end of the race as well) which you can use over and over again.
I should enter myself into some ‘training’ but the last time I did anything exercise wise I came down with a cold which lasted close to a fortnight! I will ease myself into a fitness routine slowly... first I will start with getting the right training outfit as I think my baby pink tracksuit from the
Cancer Research ‘Race for Life’ 5km run is a bit chilly for the autumn weather. Next, it should be my diet... less kebab and more fresh/raw fruit and vegetables. And after all that, not to strain myself too much in my everyday life as I don’t want to pull a muscle (which I did just before the ‘Race for Life’)!
Helen
Lost in ye ol London Town
On Saturday I visited the World’s oldest surviving grand music hall... the
Wilton’s Music Hall (http://www.wiltons.org.uk/). They are currently putting on ‘
Amadeus’ by Peter Shaffer. The music hall was so secluded that even local proprietors had no idea where it was or even heard of it!
First, I must say something about the play, Amadeus itself. Matthew Kelly headed the cast as Antonio Salieri with Jonathan Broadbent as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole performance – I am proud to say I even recognised a few (well known) pieces of Mozart e.g. ‘
The Marriage of Figaro’. But I have to confess, I had not heard of Salieri before the play... Kelly’s performance was mesmerising, I was transfixed to see how a simple item like a shawl could transform Kelly from a man in his peak to a withering old, slowly going insane with jealousy man, who one feels both sorry for and loathed. The whole production was a great joy to watch – the stage may not be as impressive as those in the West End but the performance by everyone and the musical arrangement was brilliant. I will now have to go watch the film version...
Ok, secondly I need to talk about the music hall itself... it certainly did not look very impressive from the outside – in fact it looked very much like a run down, old building housing ghouls and goblins than highly praised actors of such calibre. The interior of the music hall had obviously undergone some restoration – the fresh coat of paint on the ceiling, fitted disabled toilets and adequate ramp access. I did take a few photos of the auditorium and luckily tucked away my camera before I got told off by the usher, unlike the unlucky lady behind me!
This was a well spent day, I was entertained, educated and to follow had a lovely 3 course meal with fantastic company ;-)
Helen
bums awaaaaaay
well hello there...
sorry tis been a while since i have written, just started the College of Law and I am already inundated with work..booo hooo... i want a 9-5 job!!!!
Well after a sudden turn of ill health Helen, my doc and family wanted me to postpone the jump. So after careful consideration - the London Parachute School has re-booked us for 17/6/07...
SEVENTEENTH JUNE TWO-THOUSAND AND SEVEN!!!!
We are still collecting sponsorship money so dont you run away just yet!
Shirin x
Oversea visitors and free meals ;)
More donation updates... went for a family meal last night as some of my parents old neighbour (from 30 years ago in Vietnam) came over to visit us from Germany. After much consumption of alcohol I hit them with the BHF jump! LOL
The owner of the restaurant, ‘
Hap Lee’ in Norbury,
Mr Vong is of course one of my dad’s friend and he generously donated
£50, and
Ms Lau (from Germany) also donated
£20 which I added to the official sponsor page as soon as I got home last night – which were well after 1am... I was starving around 5ish but thought we were going to eat in about another 2 hours so I only snacked on a pecan nut croissant, a packet of cheddar and onion crisps and a few Rolos... well I was so glad I did as we didn’t mange to settle down for dinner until 10pm! The first few dishes served up were lobster and crabs which I don’t eat so I had to wait until they finished all that before I got the type of food I eat! The clams, fish and vegetables were well worth the wait.
Oh I nearly forgot, I tried
durian for the first time last night... the smell is quite overpowering and somewhat off putting and the taste... well it tasted like a raw spring onions to me! Hahaha
Helen
'Strange Chocolate'
Woohoo! Had a brilliant time last night at our friend, Harriet’s gig... Harriet is the ‘Mistress of the skins & metals’ – Daryl, her brother and lead singer’s word not mine! The band, ‘
Strange Chocolate’ consists of Harriet, Daryl, Jason (bassist) and Shane (lead guitarist). They have their own myspace, you can find out more about them on:
http://www.myspace.com/strangechocolateThey are available for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, weddings...!
Just wanted to say ‘
thank you’ to the band inviting Shirin and I along last night, also thank you to Steven for getting us on the guest list so we didn’t have to pay for the entrance fee ;)
It was my first ever live gig and I enjoyed the whole experience – even the sound checks... actually thought it was a private gig just for Shirin and me!!! LOL
‘
Strange Chocolate’ is featured on the ‘
Replugged in New Cross’ album, so support them and go out and buy their album.
Helen
