Sugar Puffs

Gilbert - the cat - has black stuff up his nose. I reckon he's been in London for the day, riding the tube and doing a bit of shopping. He's quite accomplished when it comes to using public transport you know. I once bumped into him on the night bus coming back from Manchester to Sale.

Moochie - the other cat - is not quite as talented and regularly has trouble walking in a straight line.

Anyway - that's by the bypass...

Ghosts. Real or not real? Maybe we'll never know. I personally don't believe in them but having said that I am very curious. As a kid I would regularly take part in Ouija board readings. I always cheated and pushed the glass around the board - just to liven things up. One of my friends, Becki, would take it all very seriously and have all sorts of accouterments in order that spirits may be contacted. One of these was a glass of water which represented purity and was part of the safety net against evil spirits crossing over and getting us. I did wonder just how pure a glass of tap water from Clarkesfield actually was. Becki had a spirit guide when she used the ouija board - if I remember correctly he was called Bill. Bill had a sign with which he would indicate to Becki that it was really him and not an intruder. His sign was a figure of eight. I caused chaos on the night when I pushed the glass around in a figure of eight so that we could get on with it quickly and it turned out that Bill had changed his sign just the day before!

Becki had some right run ins with the other side - like the time that she told me about going into her bedroom and some malevolent ghoul had turned each and every one of her Corey Haim posters up side down.

I recently lived in a seventeenth century converted coach house where some friends of mine sensed things. I did not sense anything but they still put the willies up me by telling me about it. Two separate friends on different occasions and without prompting told us about a young girl upstairs on the landing which was odd.

As somebody with a very scientific outlook on life I have trouble believing in ghosts and spirits and the like but sometimes I would like to believe. I don't go to my mum's grave because of this. My cousin believes that her dad is watching over her and her family but when I go to the cemetery where my mum is buried I don't feel that and I just get upset at the thought that my mum's body is in a box under the ground. I get no comfort from going there.

On that miserable note I will leave for the evening but before I go - just one question... Have you ever noticed how Fizz on Coronation Street has an uncanny resemblance to the Sugar Puffs Honey Monster?