Yesterday
I cut my hair last night before I started doing any writing.
It was the first thing I did after getting home from the haunted abbey.
Did anyone see that on TV by the way? We were forced to sit in an old monks' sleeping quarters that they had made into a studio. I would have preferred more interaction.
Kept smelling incense, cigar smoke and convincing myself I had heard a fragment of a chant.
I thought they may have been burning the incense for atmosphere, but only a few of us smelled it, and it went away as soon as I mentioned it to someone who said they couldn't smell anything. Very odd.
There were far too many people in the room - I would have thought any ghostly actvity there would have been unlikely.
We watched the rest of the events on a monitor - Derek Acorah was possessed at one point by someone nobody seems to have heard of. Everything else he sensed seemed to be so well-documented that it was a bit pointless mentioning it.
They did claim a maid had been murdered on the stairs by a butler and Yvette Fielding didn't seem to know what to do when he said she had just tripped. They had set up an experiment where Derek was supposed to write down the name of the murderer so that viewers could text in to guess. Instead he wrote down the name opf a 'grey lady' ghost whose name was on the tickertape at the bottom of the screen a few seconds before.
Most people texted in 'Isabella' - and unsurpringly they were right.
The hotel we stayed in was odd. It was like the place in The Shining. My room was very far from everyone else's, up dark corridors, and through building works. I stood in the centre of the rooom for a few seconds and realised there was no way I could spend the night there - there was a terrible noise up above the room. Sounded like a little tricycle wheeling about.
Went down to ask the night porter for a new room (it was 3am by then. Told him about the noise. He said: "Water".
"What do you mean, water?"
"The roof broke - it's probably the sound of all the water coming down. I told them about it - but nothing's been done."
"Well can I have a new room. It's too noisy to sleep."
"I can't do anything about it. He's gone now.There are no other rooms"
Didn't ask who 'he' was. - but I noticed there were at least four room keycards left ( not all the journalists invited turned up).
"Can't I have one of those?"
"No - they are for people who haven't turned up yet."
As I said, it was 3am, we were in the middle of the New Forest (two-and-a-half hours coach journey from London) and the programme was over. They were not going to come later.
Fortunately I noticed one of the names on the notes with the keys.
"I know her - she's not here. I'll have this room."
I took it and wouldn't let him make any objections.
Her room had a box of chocolates with a note. I hadn't had chocolates. I think the TV people had only given them to newspaper journalists (to curry favour). TV PRs are always going on about how much more they value national newspaper coverage - mostly because the national newspapers very rarely give the non-terrestrial channels any coverage. Whereas my magazine mentions them all the time. They are not grateful at all.
Even though it was very late (or early) I went to meet some of the others for a drink.
Went to bed at 4.30am - but apparently they had a seance and were up until 6am.
----
Got back into London at about 3.30pm. Got back to my house at 4.50pm.
I cut my hair as soon as I got in. It looks much better now - a lot shorter than usual (a bob). It was getting horribly straggly - it looks a lot thicker and in better condition.
Today I am up early writing - but, as you can see, I am procrastinating already.
It was the first thing I did after getting home from the haunted abbey.
Did anyone see that on TV by the way? We were forced to sit in an old monks' sleeping quarters that they had made into a studio. I would have preferred more interaction.
Kept smelling incense, cigar smoke and convincing myself I had heard a fragment of a chant.
I thought they may have been burning the incense for atmosphere, but only a few of us smelled it, and it went away as soon as I mentioned it to someone who said they couldn't smell anything. Very odd.
There were far too many people in the room - I would have thought any ghostly actvity there would have been unlikely.
We watched the rest of the events on a monitor - Derek Acorah was possessed at one point by someone nobody seems to have heard of. Everything else he sensed seemed to be so well-documented that it was a bit pointless mentioning it.
They did claim a maid had been murdered on the stairs by a butler and Yvette Fielding didn't seem to know what to do when he said she had just tripped. They had set up an experiment where Derek was supposed to write down the name of the murderer so that viewers could text in to guess. Instead he wrote down the name opf a 'grey lady' ghost whose name was on the tickertape at the bottom of the screen a few seconds before.
Most people texted in 'Isabella' - and unsurpringly they were right.
The hotel we stayed in was odd. It was like the place in The Shining. My room was very far from everyone else's, up dark corridors, and through building works. I stood in the centre of the rooom for a few seconds and realised there was no way I could spend the night there - there was a terrible noise up above the room. Sounded like a little tricycle wheeling about.
Went down to ask the night porter for a new room (it was 3am by then. Told him about the noise. He said: "Water".
"What do you mean, water?"
"The roof broke - it's probably the sound of all the water coming down. I told them about it - but nothing's been done."
"Well can I have a new room. It's too noisy to sleep."
"I can't do anything about it. He's gone now.There are no other rooms"
Didn't ask who 'he' was. - but I noticed there were at least four room keycards left ( not all the journalists invited turned up).
"Can't I have one of those?"
"No - they are for people who haven't turned up yet."
As I said, it was 3am, we were in the middle of the New Forest (two-and-a-half hours coach journey from London) and the programme was over. They were not going to come later.
Fortunately I noticed one of the names on the notes with the keys.
"I know her - she's not here. I'll have this room."
I took it and wouldn't let him make any objections.
Her room had a box of chocolates with a note. I hadn't had chocolates. I think the TV people had only given them to newspaper journalists (to curry favour). TV PRs are always going on about how much more they value national newspaper coverage - mostly because the national newspapers very rarely give the non-terrestrial channels any coverage. Whereas my magazine mentions them all the time. They are not grateful at all.
Even though it was very late (or early) I went to meet some of the others for a drink.
Went to bed at 4.30am - but apparently they had a seance and were up until 6am.
----
Got back into London at about 3.30pm. Got back to my house at 4.50pm.
I cut my hair as soon as I got in. It looks much better now - a lot shorter than usual (a bob). It was getting horribly straggly - it looks a lot thicker and in better condition.
Today I am up early writing - but, as you can see, I am procrastinating already.