It was 9.03 AM on 11th September, 2001 in New York City and Alicia Esteve Head said she was working in the South Tower on the 78th floor of the World Trade Centre when the tower was hit by the second airplane during the terrorist attack.
She had been waiting at an elevator and the force of the explosion caused her clothes to burn and her arm was almost severed. As she crawled through the smoke to find the way out, she passed a dying man, who gave her his wedding ring, asking her to find his widow and pass it to her.
She passed out and woke up as Welles Crowther was smothering her burning clothes, she begged him not to leave her there, and he promised that he wouldn’t before she lost consciousness again.
She woke up in hospital on September 7th.
Alicia Esteve Head
Alicia, also known as Tania, had a powerful story, she lost her fiancé as well that day, he was working in the North tower and they were due to get married the following month.
Head was interviewed by the media, invited to speak at university conferences and was chosen to lead tours for the Tribute WTC Visitor Centre, where she recounted her stories to Ground Zero tour groups. She started an online survivor’s group and when the President of the World Trade Centre Survivor’s Network heard about this, they merged and Tania became the co-president.
A story of pain, survival and triumph was soon to be unveiled as a lie.
Tania wasn’t in the World Trade Centre when the planes hit, she wasn’t even in New York, she was in a class at EADE Business School in Barcelona.
She claimed that she worked for Merrill Lynch, a division of Bank of America, but they claimed they had no record of her being employed there, nor did they have offices in the South Tower.
Another questionable element was her engagement to “Big Dave”, whom sometimes she referred to as her fiancé and sometimes her husband, but this man’s family reported they had never heard of her.
The scars and marks on her arm were caused by a high-speed crash. She used to say that they had to look for the arm and reattach it.
The man she claimed rescued her was Welles Crowther, whose heroic actions were widely reported in the media and who unfortunately lost his own life whilst saving the lives of up to 18 other people.
In 2012, a book and feature film documentary both titled, The Woman Who Wasn’t There was released.
After her fraud was exposed, Head declined all interviews and quickly left New York.
When I was younger I kept a diary, it's not unusual, a lot of people did this, but about 40 years later I found it again and realised that this was from the age of 17, when I still at school, until aged 21 when I was then a married woman. A trip down memory lane for me and an insight into my life for you.
I will update daily, giving an update to each day in each year. Sometimes it's boring, we can't all lead exciting lives, sometimes it's quite poignant, sometimes funny. Be prepared for lots of 80s references, the TV programmes, films and especially the music. Hope you enjoy!
A serial killer is a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparant motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behaviour pattern.
The Burke and Hare murders
Burke and Hare were friends who lived in Edinburgh around the 1820s. During this time Edinburgh was leading the way in anatomical study, but there was a shortfall in the legal supply of corpses which could be used for medical research.
A lodger who was staying in Hare’s house died and the two of them decided to sell the body to Robert Knox, who was a anatomist and ethnologist. They received £7 10s, which was a lot of money in those days. Two months later, Hare was concerned that a lady who was suffering from a fever would deter others from staying in his house and so he and Burke murdered her again, sold her body to Robert Knox.
And so began the killing spree, with the same tactics deployed, they would suffocate their victims, a total of 16 by the time they were caught.
When they were arrested, the police were unsure if they could secure a conviction, due to the lack of bodies they could examine, so Sir William Rae, the Lord Advocate, offered immunity to Hare if he would make a full confession to all the deaths. Hare did this and charges were brought againt Burke.
Burke was hanged on the morning of 28th January, 1829. Hare was released on 5th February, 1829 – his eventual fate is unknown.
Burke’s sketon was given to the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh Medical School where it remains. His death mask and a book said to be bound with his tanned skin can be seen ag Surgeons’ Hall Museum.
Jack The Ripper
During 1888, there was a serial killer active in the areas around the Whitechapel disctrict of London.
The murders involved female prostitutes who were found with their throat cut and in at least three of the victims, their internal organs were removed. There were five victims, but it wasn’t known for certain the exact numberof victims there was.
The Jack the Ripper murders ended as abruptly as they started, making experts think that the killer had either died or had gone to prison for other maybe similar crimes.
Popular theories as to who could be Jack the Ripper included Prince Albert Victor, Montague John Druitt, Seweryn Klosowski, Michael Ostrog, John Pizer, James Thomas Sadler and Francis Tumblety.
A surprising name that was put forward was Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Author, Richard Wallace put forward the argument that Carroll had a psychotic breakdown after he was assualted by a man at 12 years old. Carroll wrote a daily dairy in purple ink, but on the days of the Whitechapel murders, he switched to black ink.
Perhaps the true identity of Jack the Ripper will never be revealed.
Harold Shipman
Harold Frederick Shipman, was an English doctor, who was found guilty of murdering 15 patients under his care, his total number of victims was approximately 250, about 80 percent of whom were elderly women.
There were concerns raised initially by Dr Linda Reynolds who was suspicious about the high death rate among Shipman’s patients. She was concerned about the number of cremation forms that she had to countersign.
There was an investigation but due to insufficient evidence, the case was closed by the police. Not long after, a taxi driver, John Shaw, told police that he suspected that Shipman had murdered 21 patients, as he drove many of the patients to hospital, who seemed to be in good health, died in Shpman’s care.
Shipman’s last victim, Kathleen Grundy had made a will, which excluded her daugher and children, but left £386,000 to Shipman. Her body was exhumed and traces of heroin were found. Shipman claimed that Grundy was an addict and showed the police comments to that affect in his computerised medical journal, but examination of his computer found that these were inputted after her death. A search of his home found a Brother typewriter which was used to forge Kathleen Grundy’s will.
Police investigated other deaths that Shipman had certified and found a pattern of him administering heroin, then signing the patient’s death certificate and falsifying medical records to indicate they had been in poor health.
What led this doctor to do such a thing? We may never find out as he hanged himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield at 6.20 am on 13th January, 2004, on the eve of his 58th birthday.
Dennis Nilsen
Dennis Nilsen was a Scottish serial killer and necrophile, who murdered at least 12 young men and boys between 1978 and 1983 in London.
He became known as the Musell Hill Murderer, as he committed his later murders in the Muswell Hill district of North London.
Nilsen typically met his victims in bars, but also sometimes on public transport. Some were homeless, some were gay and some were hetrosexual. They would be lured back to his home by the offer of alcohol or shelter and then once there, plied with alcohol and then strangled to death or if they were unconscious, he would drown them in his bath.
He would keep the bodies in his residence before dismembering them. When he lived in Cricklewood, he would burn their bodies in a bonfire and when he lived in Gladstone Park he would flush the flesh and smaller bones down the lavatory and the rest of the bodies in the back garden, over his fence.
Nilsen’s killing spree was ended by an emplyee of Dyno-Rod who had been called to Nilsen’s road regarding their plumbing. The employee discovered flesh-like substances in the drain and numerous small bones. There was even a discussion between the employee, his supervisor and Nilsen about the substances in the drain and Nilsen said, “It looks to me like someone has been flushing down their Kentucky Fried Chicken.”
When the Dyno-Rod employees arrived the next morning, the drain had been cleared , but there were some scraps of flesh and four bones still in a pipe which lead to the top flat of the house. They then decided to call the police, who upon closer inspection found further small bones and the remains of human or animal flesh in the same pipe. A piece of flesh which was examined by the pathologist confirmed it was human flesh and it was from a neck and had a ligature mark on it.
They found out that this flat belonged to Nilsen and on entering could smell the odour of rotting flesh. When told that the blockages were human flesh, Nilsen feigned shock stating, “Good grief, how awful,” to which the police officer replied, “Don’t mess about, where’s the rest of the body?” Nilsen told him the body was in two plastic bags in a nearby wardrobe. They asked him if there were any other body parts to be found, to which Nilsen replied, “It’s a long story, it goes back a long time. I’ll tell you everything. I was to get it off my chest. Not here, at the police station.”
In an interview Nielsen confessed that there were further human remains stowed in a tea chest, while other reamins were in an upturned drawer in his bathroom.
On 24th October, 1983 Nilsen was committed to stand trial at the Old Bailey on six counts of murder, two of attempted murder, where he pleaded ‘Not Guilty.’
After a lengthy trial, the jury returned the verdict of guilty on all counts of the murder and one attempted murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and that he serve a minimum of 25 years.
He died in 2018 having suffered a pulmonary embolism.
There are more notorious killers that I haven’t written about, but rest assured, there will be part two coming up soon…..
Gavin and Stacey
I expect you’re wondering why I have a section entitled Gavin and Stacey? Well, did you know that the families have serial killer surnames….
As a very different 2021 draws to a close, it has had its ups and downs, but we can only hope for a better 2022. So, as we prepare to welcome 2022 and think about New Year’s Resolutions, I asked myself, “Where did the tradition of New Year’s Resolutions begin?”
The traditions of making New Year’s resolutions goes back over 4000 years to the ancient Babylonian festival of Akitu. During this festival, they would plant crops, make promises to their gods and pay back their debts. The Babylonians believed that if they kept their promises to the gods, they would stay on the god’s good side and if not, they would not be in favour.
Janus
In 153 BC, the Roman Senate declared that January 1st would herald the start of the new year, January being named after their God, Janus, who had two faces, so he could look forwards and backwards at the same time, which symbolised looking back at the year and to the year ahead.
Julius Caesar made it official that the Romans would have to make promises to Janus about their behaviour for the next year.
During the Middle Ages, knights would renew their vows to chivalry and place thier hand on a live or roasted peacock, this was called, “The Peacock Vow.” A resolultion to uphold the values of knighthood.
The first recorded use of the phrase, “New Year’s Resolution,” appeared in a Boston newspaper in 1813.
Nowadays, New Year’s Resolutions are often health-driven following the excess drinking and eating of the Christmas period. The most popular being:
To lose weight To exercise more
To eat more healthily
To quit smoking
To learn a new language/musical instrument
To volunteer with a charity
While over a third of the population make these resolutions every year, only 8% follow them through.
I expect that everyone’s expectation of 2021 is high and I have two major events I am looking forward to this year, one is the birth of my first granddaughter in February and the second is the publication of my first children’s book! What are you looking forward to in 2021?
I’ll leave you with my favourite group, Abba’s aptly titled song, “Happy New Year,” and I would like to wish everyone who has read my blurbs and followed me on the various social media sites, a very Happy New Year!!
I do like a zombie apocalypse film and this is my favourite – it is my equivalent to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (my ultimate favourite Christmas movie – blog to follow in December) but for Halloween. It follows the adventures of a geeky college kid who meets three strangers along the way to find a sanctuary-free zombie zone.
Bill Murray shows up in this film, as himself, disguised as a zombie.
Number 2
Carry On Screaming
The 12th film in the Carry On franchise, this time concentrating on horror; it was a parody of the Hammer horror films that were popular at the time. It follows the story of two police officers investigating a missing woman which leads them to a mansion that has strange goings on at and they uncover a plot to turn people into wax mannequins.
Number 3
Beetlejuice
A 1988 comedy horror which stars Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis and Michael Keaton. The plot is a recently deceased couple haunt their former home and they summon a devious poltergeist called Betelgeuse (Beetlejuice) to scare the new inhabitants permanently.
Number 4
Young Frankenstein
A comedic adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel, this film pays homage to the classic horror genre. It follows the story of Dr Frederick Frankenstein a physician who inherits his family’s estate in Transylvania after the death of his great- grandfather, Baron Beaufort von Frankenstein. He finds a secret entrance to a laboratory and proceeds to follow in his great-grandfather’s footsteps to re-animate a human corpse…. A great film with the added bonus of Peter Boyle as The Monster, for those of you who don’t know, he’s Frank in Everybody Loves Raymond!
Number 5
Shaun of the Dead
Another zombie apocalypse movie, but set in England. Our heroes at first do not even notice the apocalypse but when they do decide that the best plan is to hide out in their local pub.
This film stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, but there is a wealth of English comedians, comic actors and sitcom stars including Tamsin Greig, Martin Freeman, Reece Shearsmith and some have cameos as zombies including Rob Drydon, Russell Howard and Joe Cornish.
So there you go, my top five of horror comedies, I won’t be posting top five of horror films as I don’t watch them, I don’t like horror films but love zombie films, no, I don’t understand it either. Happy Halloween!
Halloween or Hallowe’en, also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve, is a celebration observed in several countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints, martyrs, and all the faithful departed – Wikopedia.
When I was a child, Halloween was nothing more than a time to pull over my head either the white cotton sheet or the black plastic dustbin liner, walk round to the neighbours in the street and collect sweets from them. But when I had kids, this progressed to having to make the costumes, perhaps being able to purchase a witch’s hat, but nothing more and walking round with groups of parents, not just in your street, but the entire housing estate!
Halloween here in England is probably not as popular as it is in America, but it is certainly growing in popularity. So if Halloween is a nightmare for you, here’s some shortcuts to enjoying a more relaxed All Hallows.
Pumpkin Carving
I’ve been there in the kitchen with my children, carefully drawing out a picture on a pumpkin, having to cut out that picture without losing a finger, scooping out all that fleshy pulp with seeds flying everywhere.
Well, Not On The High Street have a solution to that, fun pumpkin decorating stickers. Easy to apply, just clean the surface of your pumpkin where the sticker is to be placed, dry thoroughly and pop the sticker on! What could be easier and at £6.50 each, a small price to pay for the time and effort spent in carving and clearing away all that mess!
Halloween Cupcakes
If baking is really not your thing, but you would love to have some Halloween cupcakes, then you couldn’t do worse than buying a pack of plain cupcakes from your local supermarket, along with some pre-made frosting which you can pipe on top of the cupcakes and then you can order some sugar ghost halloween cupcake decorations from CakeCraft World to place on top. These are a very reasonable £8.70 for 84 sugar ghosts, perfect for those homemade-style cupcakes!
Costumes
Unless you are very handy with the needle, costumes always used to be a nightmare, but thankfully you can rely on our trusty supermarket stores now to buy Halloween outfits at reasonable prices. Just remember to heed the instructions to keep away from naked flames. Prices are on average £12.00 and there is an enormous amount of choice. The one shown is a Green Swamp Zombie costume from Sainsburys.
Decorations
For the quick and easy way to decorate your house, why not buy a projector. The projector projects a 4 foot by 6 foot screen which shows 16 second movies – a perfect Halloween decoration and for extra value for money, there is also Christmas films. This costs £21.35 from Amazon.
So that’s my Halloween shortcuts, but remember not everybody enjoys this night, so please respect people’s wishes if you see a poster like the one from my local Hampshire Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service:
When I was younger and growing up in a typical council estate house, where the walls were very thin, I can remember hearing the songs of West Side Story wafting across the landing from my older sister’s bedroom, to where I would be sat in the doorway of my bedroom, listening to the songs and my sister singing them, no doubt with hairbrush in hand. When she was out, I would steal across into her room, take the album and carefully play it on my own record player. I would be lost in the songs, word perfect on them all and falling in love with Tony.
I couldn’t believe it when one day, the film was shown on the television, now not only did I have the words and music, but I could see the characters, Tony was even more handsome that I had imagined. Of course, when the age of video came along, this was one of my first purchases, now I could watch it whenever I wanted.
As soon as I was old enough, I booked to see it at a theatre, it was our local theatre with a local drama company, but I loved it and years later, I would watch it in London with my husband.
The musical is based around William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with Tony and Maria playing the lead characters. It explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs.
The Jets are an American gang and are led by Riff. Ice is second in command and the rest are: Action, A-Rab, Baby John, Big Deal, Gee-Tar, Mouthpice, Snowboy, Tiger and Anybodys.
Tony was a former member of the group and Riff’s best friend. There are also the girlfriends of the Jets: Velma, Graziella, Minnie, Clarice and Pauline.
The Sharks are from Puerto Rico and their leader is Bernardo. His best friend is Chino and Pepe is the second in command. Other members are: Indio, Luis, Anxious, Nibbles, Juano, Toro and Moose. Bernardo’s girlfirend is Anita.
(Yes, I don’t know how they came up with all these names!)
Tony falls in love with Maria at a local dance, who is unfortunately Bernado’s sister. The Jets and the Sharks meet under a highway and Bernardo fights with Ice, Tony intervenes and attempts to make peace, but Bernardo provokes Tony and Riff jumps to Tony’s defense. Riff and Bernardo draw their switchblades and they get into a fight. Tony again tries to intervene but subsequently this leads to Riff being fatally stabbed and Tony then kills Bernardo.
A grieving Anita is angry with Maria for loving Tony, but soon realises that Maria loves Tony as much as she had loved Bernardo and she agrees to pass a message on to Tony for Maria. Whilst she is trying to pass the message, she is accosted by The Jets and she tells them that Chino has shot Maria.
Tony gets this message and he walks the streets looking for Chino and when he finds him, he begs Chino to shoot him too. Tony sees Maria alive, just as Chino shoots him. The film ends with all the members of each gang assembling either side of Tony’s body and they carry Tony away, thus signifying that the feud is over.
The musical score on this film is the best I have ever heard, with perhaps my favourite being the Tonight Quintet, where the whole cast is singing, the video is below. I love Gee, Officer Krupke, for the comedic element, although I do notice that Ice is too cool to join in with this song… and obviously America, the upbeat song about Puerto Ricans living in America. The song that I feel was ahead of its time is Cool, sung by Ice after Riff is killed – I don’t think it ever got the recognition it deserved.
The 1961 film adaptation of the musical was the second highest grossing film of the year in the United States. It won ten Academy Awards including Best Picture. Rita Moreno who played Anita, was the first Latina actress ever to win an Oscar. The album won a Grammy Award.
So there you have it, my favourite musical. I have to give honourable mentions to Grease, Saturday Night Fever and The Rocky Horror Show, each of them so very good in different ways.
What’s your favourite musical? Modern, yesteryear, tragic, funny? Let me know in the comments below.
Some people say that giving birth to twins is twice as nice, which in the majority of cases it is, but there have been some twins that have committed murder and who are most definitely, double the trouble!
The most obvious pair to head this list of Terrible Twins or Deadly Duos, is:
The Kray Twins
Ronald (Ronnie) and Reginald (Reggie) Kray were born on the 24th October, 1933. Their gang was known as “The Firm,” and they ruled the East End of London in the 1950s and 1960s. They were involved in murder, armed robbery, arson, protection rackets and assualts.
It was the murders of Jack “the Hat” McVitie and George Cornell that finally convicted the twin brothers: Ronnie had shot Cornell in the head at the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel in 1966 and Reggie killed McVitie, a fellow gang member, stabbing him repeatedly in a basement flat in North London. they were found guiilty and sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 30 years.
Ronnie died in Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital in 1995 and Reggie was diagnosed with bladder cancer and died a short time after being released from Wayland Prison in 2000.
The Bondurant Brothers
Twins Pete and Pat Bondurant of Tennessee were convicted of the murder of 24 year old woman, Gwen Dugger. She was reported as missing by her family and after a lengthy investigation, the twins were arrested for her murder. During the trial, Pat’s wife testified that she had witnessed them rape, torture and murder Dugger. Despite the body never being found, it was burned and left in the Elk River, they were convicted of second-degree murder and given a sentence of 25 years in prison.
Added to this joint murder, the twins had also murdered separately: Pat was found guilty of murdering his co-worker, Ronnie Gaines, by beating him to death and burying him on the Bondurant property (Pete helped his brother dismember the body) and Pete was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, Terry Lynn Clark.
The Berndt Twins
48 year old twins, Edwin and Edward Berndt from Houston, America were charged with ending their mother’s life. Police were alerted to the house by neighbors who reported that they hadn’t seen her for months and when police entered the building they discovered the twin’s mother laying on the floor face down.
When questioned, the twins stated that she had slipped and fell and that she had remained on the floor for three days before passing, she was conscious the whole time. They had left the body there for three months, walking around and over the body. Because of the twin’s mental state, the charges were eventually dropped.
The Stovall Twins
In 2001, Canon City, sheriff’s depty, Jason Schwartz, responded to a call that Joel Stovall had shot his neighbor’s dog five times. Joel was arrested and so was his twin brother, Michael, who had made threats towards the officer. As the deputy drove towards the police station, Michael took out a pair of handcuff kesy and feed himself, he then pulled out one of the two handguns he had hidden in his pocket and shot Jason Schwartz in the back of his head. The police car crashed and they pulled the deputy out of the car and shot him 16 times before running to a nearby town where they had a rented trailer.
The twin brothers opened fire on a police car which had arrived at the trailer, where a police officer, Toby Bethel, was shot several times and his injuries left him paralyzed.
The Stovall twins then stole a truck and led the police on a high speed car chase. The manhunt involved several exhanges of gunfire, with many injuries to police officers, but eventually they turned themselves in. In total they had killed one officer, paralyzed another and injured 17. They were given life imprisonment without the possiblity of parole, plus 896 years.
Well, there you have it, some less than desirable twins, there were some others that I didn’t include as their crimes were a little bit too grusome or violent!
But, on a lighter note, here’s some twins that everybody loves to see:
The Cheeky Girls
Jedward
The Weasley Twins from Harry Potter
And of course, that unlikey twin duo, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.
Yes, i know they’re not twins but i just loved the movie!
Thomas is reading his newspaper, he is on his way home from work, he is sat in his same seat, with the bus following the same route, but something has happened tonight, tonight the bus is diverted and caught up in a traffic jam. He looks out of the window, wiping the condensation away with his arm, so he can see clearly. He glances at the driver, he is sighing and talking frantically on his radio and Thomas decides that he’s going to get off the bus and walk through the nearby park in the hope of getting home quicker.
Having bailed from the bus, as some of the other passengers had done, Thomas is walking through the park, it is busy, probably due to the chaos of the streets, he quickens his pace, there’s a bite in the wind so he pulls his collar up and heads towards the exit gate.
Now he is walking down a street, it’s a street that he doesn’t recognise. There are big houses either side of the tree lined street. Thomas’ interest is peaked; there’s something we don’t know about Thomas, he’s not what he seems, he’s a burglar.
Oh yes, he has a job in town, which earns good money, but not enough to buy the sort of things his wife loves. She doesn’t know about his extracurricular activities, of course, she thinks that he’s going to the gym when he picks up his black holdall and heads out. Instead of a clean towel, change of clothes and shower gel, it is full of equipment to break into homes, sheds or cars, to enter silently and stealthily, take whatever looks valuable and then quietly leave.
There is an international removal company emptying a van outside one particular house, there are lots of boxes, but the ones that interest Thomas are marked ‘Fragile’. He slows down in order to have a good look at the house. It is overgrown in the front, with ivy growing up the walls, an overgrown bush and a large tree in the front garden. Thomas thinks this house has the potential to be his next target and overhearing one of the removal men saying that they had until the day after tomorrow to finish unpacking as the owners wouldn’t be moving in until then, he knows that he has hit the jackpot.
Thomas finds a small cut way at the back of the houses and he discovers the back entrance to the house. With a low back gate and a glass panelled back door, Thomas knows that this house is definitely his next target.
As he walks home, he makes his plans, he needs to do it tonight, to be sure that no-one is around. After having tea with his wife, Shona, discussing their days, Thomas picks up his black holdall, shouts to his wife that he’s heading to the gym and walks out of the house.
It doesn’t take him long to get to the house, and, under the cover of darkness, he steals his way up to the back door. There’s no sign of an alarm, so Thomas smashes a small glass panel in the kitchen door and reaches in to find the key in the lock of the door. As he unlocks the back door and enters the kitchen, Thomas cannot believe his luck, this job is going so smoothly. He enters the living room, he is grateful for the large tree and overgrown ivy hiding him from prying neighbours. There are packing crates left all over the floor and Thomas shines his torch around the living room until the beam rests on what he has been searching for.
Thomas retrieves his crow bar from his holdall and forcibly opens the crate. When he sees what is inside, he is amazed, never in all his years has he come across anything like this, it looks like a native man wearing some sort of mask. Deciding that it must be valuable, Thomas puts it in his holdall and not wanting to get caught, he quickly leaves by the back door.
On arriving home, Thomas puts the black holdall in the cupboard under the stairs, he knows that this needs a specialist to take a look at it, but he’s not quite sure where to go, this will take some research. This will buy Shona an unbelievable gift, perhaps even that new car she has been hinting at. He carefully closes the cupboard door, so the squeaky hinge doesn’t wake up Shona.
The next evening, Shona has a surprise for him, his twin brother, Dominic is returning from Peru, where he had been staying with his wife for the past five years and better still, he’s moving to the same town. They are having a housewarming party tomorrow night and of course, Thomas and Shona are invited.
As he’s getting ready for the party, Thomas remembers when they were young, growing up as twins, Dom and Tom, the terrible twins, their teachers used to call them. Dom was the intellect of the two, having gone to University to study archaeology, while Tom enjoyed making things with blocks and bricks and had gone on to become an architect. He smiles as he remembers the fun they had confusing the teachers and even sometimes their friends, it was fun to be somebody else now and again. They had each married within months of each other and Dominic had moved overseas, Thomas had moved into the next town to where they had grown up, to Shona, who was a hairdresser. He had found a job in an architect’s office, which had provided a good wage for them both, but then Shona’s demands for bigger and better things escalated to where Thomas’ wages weren’t enough.
His first foray into the world of crime wasn’t planned, he was shopping in a big department store and saw a diamond bracelet, it was left on the counter top whilst the assistant had gone to answer the phone, he was sure that Shona would love it and there was no way he could afford it, so he simply took it, slipped it into his pocket and walked out of the shop.
When he gave it to Shona, her face lit up and he loved the feeling that it gave him, that he could spoil his wife and from there it simply escalated, stealing from cars, breaking into sheds and then houses.
They arrive at the address that Dominic had emailed Shona, and park in the street, near a lighted lamppost as it is dark. Whilst walking up to the front door, Thomas thinks how tidy the front garden is, like it has just had a makeover. He rings the doorbell and his brother answers, it is good to see him after all these years and they spend time catching up.
As they sit on the settee, Thomas looks around him, there is something about this room that makes him feel uneasy, he can’t quite place what it is, but it is definitely making him feel unnerved. After the laughs and jokes, Dominic informs Thomas and Shona that the day before they moved in, their house was burgled and an ancient artefact was stolen. The statue was from Peru, it was an Inca artefact and was priceless, it was what Dominic and his wife had been searching for, for five years in Peru.
Suddenly the penny drops, Thomas realises that this is the very house he burgled two nights ago, he remembers seeing the settee that night, how the front garden is now tidied up, that’s why he didn’t recognise it. Dominic asks him if he is all right and Thomas stutters a reply that he just needs a glass of water, he goes into the now familiar kitchen, with the small pane of glass boarded up in the back door, he needs to leave.
When they return home, the dog has knocked over a houseplant, there is dirt surrounding the fallen pot plant. They discuss the burglary, Shona questions what sort of lowlife would steal an artefact and she asks Thomas why he wanted to leave so quickly, he mutters that he isn’t feeling very well. Thomas goes up the stairs to clean his teeth, he hears the squeak of the hinges of the understairs cupboard as Shona opens it to retrieve the hoover. He freezes as he hears her shout to him, that she will empty his black holdall to wash his gym clothes…
Last year, my husband, Phil and I went on a National Trust road trip. We visited Erddig Hall first, then to Speke Hall and finally to Charlecote Park. But this blog is concentrating on our visit to Speke Hall.
We arrived at Speke Hall at about 7.15pm, a bit late in the evening one would think, but not for us, it was time for a ghost hunt!
Other people began to turn up with varying degrees of nervousness, we all smiled nervously at each other and then the previous ghost hunting party came round the corner. We tried to read their faces, see how nervous they were, but they weren’t giving anything away.
We were greeted by a National Trust guide who issued us with torches which apparently were only for helping us around the house from room to room, once in the room, they were turned off!
After a few do’s and don’ts from the guide, we headed towards the Hall. It was pitch black and the hall was lit only by a couple of lights, making it look very creepy indeed. (I may use the word ‘creepy’ a lot in this!)
We entered the Hall via a small door and stood in the entrance hall to await The Lady in Black (or Sheila as she is known in everyday life). I have to say that none of us saw her arrive and she gave us quite a start, dressed in a period black costume. She explained that she was a paranormal investigator with over ten years experience and that she had investigated all sorts of places. She showed us her paranormal equipment which consisted of a rem pod and EMF detectors, both which are used to signify the presence of something.
Then began the hunt… In each of the rooms we were told of the things that had happened to people: being touched, being pushed, voices heard, dark shadows, spirits manifesting in front of people’s eyes. There was one particular room where the presence of children is felt and someone in our group did feel cold air in front of them. “Children, do you want to come and play?” asked The Lady in Black, “Come on, hold somebody’s hand, let them know you are here,” at which point I placed my hands firmly in my pocket!
The room which I felt most comfortable with was The Great Hall, there seemed to be a relaxed feel about it which was surprising as this was the room that the paranormal guide had seen spirits manifest in. The room that I felt most uncomfortable in was the blue bedroom – it was a small room and once the torches were out was extremely dark. I was going to grab Phil’s hand at this point, but thought that that was probably the worst thing I could do…
I think that both Phil and I wanted something to happen, for the EMF detectors or rem pod to go off, to hear a bump in the night but unfortunately the spirits were obviously taking a break that night. All in all though, it was a great first ghost hunt, it wasn’t scary, just very, very creepy!!
We stopped off at Charlecote Place on the way home and whilst I was in the kitchen I heard a voice in my ear say, “Come on!!” in a very impatient manner, I looked at Phil and asked him, “Did you just say something to me?” His reply was, “No, I didn’t say a word…..”
A very creepy Speke Hall, Liverpool
A journey through the meaning of life and anything else that grabs my attention!
Making My Home A Haven is important to me. Sharing homemaking skills. Recipes and food. Bible Studies. This is a treasure chest of goodies. So take a seat. Have a glass of tea and enjoy. You will learn all about who I am and Our Neck Of The Woods.
Bill Murray shows up in this film, as himself, disguised as a zombie. 
Halloween here in England is probably not as popular as it is in America, but it is certainly growing in popularity. So if Halloween is a nightmare for you, here’s some shortcuts to enjoying a more relaxed All Hallows.
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Unless you are very handy with the needle, costumes always used to be a nightmare, but thankfully you can rely on our trusty supermarket stores now to buy Halloween outfits at reasonable prices. Just remember to heed the instructions to keep away from naked flames. Prices are on average £12.00 and there is an enormous amount of choice. The one shown is a Green Swamp Zombie costume from Sainsburys.
For the quick and easy way to decorate your house, why not buy a projector. The projector projects a 4 foot by 6 foot screen which shows 16 second movies – a perfect Halloween decoration and for extra value for money, there is also Christmas films. This costs 
The Jets are an American gang and are led by Riff. Ice is second in command and the rest are: Action, A-Rab, Baby John, Big Deal, Gee-Tar, Mouthpice, Snowboy, Tiger and Anybodys.
The Sharks are from Puerto Rico and their leader is Bernardo. His best friend is Chino and Pepe is the second in command. Other members are: Indio, Luis, Anxious, Nibbles, Juano, Toro and Moose. Bernardo’s girlfirend is Anita.
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