The Review of 2011

January I am finding the start of the year difficult, I am getting a little pain between my shoulder blades, I cooked a well received dinner last week for the my mum, Tom and little brother Glen, and I was planning to make it stake but they wanted Vegetarian so made a veggie shepherds pie, roast potatoes, and over cooked Veggies.

Feb its very cold snow is deep, Obi loves it, I am starting to prepare my vegetables for the garden lots and lots of little pots are scattered all over the conservatory window sills potato’s, Onions, sweet corn, broccoli (which turned into Peas!) I am starting to use GTN more and more.

March I am going to hospital for 3 new stints, the operation is so painful, I wish I had died there and then on the operation table, I so want to look after myself more, but I am getting so much stress from the DSS they offered me to lug pig bodies for a butcher, even thought I love animals I refuse such a job and have a doctors note to prove I cannot do this type of heavy work, it don’t stop them asking me to do other stupid jobs, is it worth the hassle? The pain is back and my arm is getting sore.

April, the only fool is me, I am actually letting some jobs worth at the dss push me around, the only thing I am looking forward to is going home and taking Obi for a walk over the fields, there I can get lost in my own thoughts and everything don’t feel so bad even if its only for a short time, Obi hair is getting long he needs a clean he has a bit of poo on his bum, poor mutt, I try to clean him in the field, the pain comes back and hammers me, I am over a mile from home in the middle of the Essex fields. I walk back home so slowly, I wonder if I can actually make it do I let obi make his own way home and follow him? I make it, I tell fox I am having a heart attack, she calls the ambulance and I change slowly to my bed ware, the ambulance comes and a paramedic blocks our drive way fox can’t follow the ambulance and she has to wait for Nicky to come and watch after Obi. I spend the next 10 days getting my body fixed out and I have another Angioplasty this time in my arm, its less painful, which gives me a lot of comfort, but I vow to myself if I have another heart attack, I would rather not say and just slip away, I am feeling so low, I am feeling that my world has no comfort, nothing to look forward to, and I am so tired of feeling the pain in my body day after day, and I feel I just constantly moan at fox and drag her down.

May, I am only out of hospital a week and our Plumbing has fallen apart, no heat no hot water, our baths are filled from the kettle and pots, and the dss are being nasty they refused to accept my doctors sick certificate cause I did not fill out some shit form in time, even when I explained why I did not do it on time, they did not even look at it, my thoughts are so troubled, I am relighting so much on Fox her wages are being over stretched.

June, still no hot water or heat, we are using a really old gas fire in the front room in the evening, I am still taking it easy but its made more difficult from the DWP who are sending me round in circles from one dept to the next this goes on for nearly 8 weeks till me and fox decide that enough is enough and tell them were to stick there money, its going to be hard from now on, I am going to have to get used to having no money in my pockets.

July it’s a lovely hot sunshine almost everyday walking Obi feels so joyful and I met a few new people on Facebook, one in particular helps me to start to put pen to paper once again and start back on blogging and is one of my great supporters and always comments and shares my work.

August I have done a few feet and saved the money up to give to Fox for her birthday even Obi earned some money from being a good boy and gave mummy dog £5 and a card with his own paw print, I make her a lovely dinner and do her feet wish is not a treat its something she gets when she needs it, a good stress relief and helps send her off to the land of nod. A new program has come one My ghost story it runs for 12 weeks I love this show, since it is full of people who have in some way recorded the paranormal, its my Thursday night treat to sit with orange juice and some digestives and watch. Still no hot water or heating, we might have to ask the plumber if he can just fix it up for us?

September, it passes by I had my birthday Fox got me some new boots for the fields, and my sister gave me some money which I got a few books with, Obi is having his hair cut, which seems to be every 4 months, but less these days since the person I was meant to open a business with had let me down so badly, I am reticent in letting her touch Obi but she is the only person I know that can do a proper job, I do forgive but can’t forget I always forgive family- family a love that bonds.

October OMG I felt like a pedo at the village party it was full of kids and I mean full of kids, it was for the pre school in the village, I stayed all but 20 minutes before I had to get away, I took obi for a long walk over the fields and sat in St Mary’s church yard among the dead and gravestones took some pictures which look kind of spookily good. Still no hot water and heating, we have talked to the plumber he tells us its will cost us nearly £800 to fix it up and no guarantees that it will work its been so un used for so long.

November I am well in the swing of my blog now and have picked up from where I have left off, still less blogs than I am used to but I am getting a fair amount of readers from friends on Facebook and what I put on Twitter and adding the links to Yahoo news and answers. Still no heating or hot water, but we have saved enough for it to be done but there are consequences to pay.

December the plumbers arrived and get to work it takes the whole day the heating is fixed the hot water is fixed and its all working according to plan, we pay the plumber £780 in crisp £20 notes, our Yule money gone in the space of a second, no presents no tree in fact the only person to get a present was Obi

from me and fox he loved his squeaky toys and tinkling rain deer, we had a visit from Mum Tom and Glen they got us a little present me a Celtic hat and scarf which I will treasure, I am meeting my sister soon its her birthday on the 28th/12 I plan to bake her a cake, as my statement of love for her.

I had a hospital appointment on the 23rd seems my heart is still blocked and I will once again be going to have a radio nuclide test at one of the London hospitals in the new year.

http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/tests/radionuclide-tests.aspx That’s my year in miniature I hope you have had a good Yule and new year I hope that the year ahead is one of wonder and good cheer and joyful change that is both positive and lucrative for you all.

The cold caller

The cold caller It was just gone 7pm and a Sunday its very dark, and not a cloud in the sky when the door bell rang, I tend to move between the conservatory and sitting room Fox is doing some work on the laptop for an upcoming event. I look at fox she looks back and Obi stands pointing at the front door, not really knowing did I hear the door bell or not, it rings again… I put on the lobby light and gingerly open the front door, on the other side of the door stands a scruffy, dishevelled and intoxicated man, he tries to put my mind at rest but he nearly in my face, my fingers grip the door frame, as he thrusts a tatty old green care into my face even though its dark I can make no sense of what was on it. There was no picture of the scruffy fellow, but as soon as I smelled the Alcohol on his breath, my mind races how do I get rid of this unwanted intruder from my property? It don’t take long, we don’t use cash only cards in this house mate, that’s ok I can take a cheque no problem mate, sorry mate we only use card, Fox shout’s out tell him to fuck off were bloody busy, Oh the dragon speaks, I felt like flooring him but you never knows who’s waiting in the wings. He leaves and I have a look in the green room I keep the CCTV viewer there, and see him walk across the street and get into a car with at least a driver and pull of and drive up to Hatfield Heath about a mile up the road. In one word this whole episode is dodgy, and I intend to contact my community police officer this morning Tue 06/12/11. I was given this Link from the Essex Police who I find incredibly helpful when ever I have a quire or need a bit more of understanding on how to deal with crime no mater what. http://www.essex.police.uk/be_safe/bogus_callers.aspx One can never be sure of who or what is on the other side of your front door, best to have a chain or a good porch light I just forgot to use mine but I do have CCTV but I have learn a valuable lesson, keep spiders at bay, these little critter love to spin a web over the lens simply because a lot of flying insects are attracted to the Infra red light emitted, which basically you can’t see the face of the caller too well, I expect the police could do more with it, but I have reported it and had a word around the village to see if any one else has had a caller which s few houses have there was actually 3 different men all reeking of booze, and one was driving. Ummm not nice is it. So be safe be careful, and if in doubt don’t open up your door and keep 999 ON speed dial.

A month to forget!

March the 10th 2011 It all started with a dog walk, and Obi had the runs and he had poo all down his lovely long curly tail. I had another heart attack and spent 9 days in a cardiac ward in the Princess Alexandra hospital in Harlow. All the family rallied around, I have never felt so much love and care even my own sister came from Brighton and stayed for 2 weeks to see me get all right, during my time in Hospital I was missing home so much, a hospital can and is a lonely place when your alone and away from your familiar surroundings.

But after my initial scare and all the tests and investigations were done, I found that on the 10th day I was aloud to come home and to take it so easy, not to over do it well that’s what the doctor told me, little did I know what was in store for me in the coming months Spring, Summer, Autumn and the beginning of winter well December. On the first day I got back the heating was playing up it was cold, and my sister in the green room was complaining that the room was so bloody cold and being north facing it can get a bit chilly.

I said I would bleed the radiator for her and get rid of the air inside the pipe, there was no air and the little screw that holds the water at bay popped out on the 3rd attempt, we could not stop the water from pumping out of the pipe, we had to keep our finger firmly on the pipe thank god it was not too hot.

Fox made a frantic call to Nicky our sister in Harlow who knows everyone including Plumbers, and one was dispatched right away Paul was knocking on our door with in 30mins he fixed the pipe with a new screw, which was loose fitting and still dripped till my little brother Glen stepped in and fixed it proper with something he and Fox got from B&Q.

Up until then the central heating and hot water worked fine but there was something different about it now the damn thing was getting colder and colder and the hot water was slowly getting colder and colder as each day progressed then one day it did not work at all.

I was only out of Hospital 2 weeks when it died on us, a few times before I rested the timer and switches and it would start working again not really understanding that was going on in the pipes was far worse than I would have expected.

We invited Paul to come and have a look, we well I was thinking that maybe there was a massive air bubble inside the pipes and it was blocking the hot water from moving, how wrong I was. It took several attempts to get Paul to come to the house but for various reasons he had let us down, and we dismayed you see in order to have a bath we would boil up a kettle and use our good expensive pots to fill the bath, I tried to clean them every so often but because I had just got out of the hospital, I found the cleaning so difficult, and I was in pain a lot of the time till my doc put me on really powerful pain killers Tramadol. In time the Lime scale got so bad at times big flakes would come out of the pot and into the bath, I ended up using the sieve, I use for mashed potato to collect the filthy deposits from the pots and kettle. In our house we are both Nurses, well I’m an ex nurse but one thing we have always done is bath every day, its like a ritual washing away the days vibrations of what we would come into contact as the day or nights wore on.

When I worked in London my speciality was to spot the person who was so close to taking there own life, the person so close to ending it, grabbing them from that dark place we can at times find ourselves, most of the time I would be very good and spot it and deal with it, other times I would be too late.

I remember once standing in a patients toilet, who had just slit his writs, he died, sitting there mute and silent the life drawn from his eyes, my back against the door cause of the other patients wanting to see his dead body pushing against the door, the staff took a fair amount of time to empty the corridor so that the police could come and see and the ambulance crew to take the young man away for his last ride from the hospital, as I left the small cubicle I noticed I was ankle deep in blood. Hence why most nurses was daily always just before bed, the bath roasting hot, as if to sweat the emotions of the day back out, but now I was down to 3 baths a week less than half of what I feel comfortable with.

It takes nearly a month for Paul to arrive and give us the verdict and what he tells us leaves us in shock, its not air but a sludge clogging the pipes, and some of the pipes are in such a bad state that they will have to be repaired and what the pipes needs is an acid wash possibly a lot of it, and out fire in the front room should be condemned and scrapped. And really we should put a new boiler in which was going to cost us nearly £5000, we said we think about this, our savings would just about cover it and had to think our car the Suzuki wagon would need an MOT in a few weeks, we decide to battle on and just fill the bath from pots and since the summer was coming in we would not need any heat, so the day of the MOT comes and the wagon goes to Bumbles for its yearly health check, he tells us to bury it and claim the insurance! Now we have a dilemma we can afford the boiler but a car is so badly needed as well, we decide to get a new car, which takes all the Money a Mercedes A class, a fancy car for Fox and why not we always had crappy cars except for the wagon which was expensive but we got 5 years out of it.

So we start to save all over again but for some reason we just cant make any savings something comes up, our washing machine screws up and we have to get a new one, a Hoover, which is such a good washer, which cost us £600 but least it will last a very long time, there is the twat that smacked the side of the Merc, that cost even more money, our saving just keep dwindling and as time progresses when we hit the 1000 mark something comes along to swallows it up, bills mostly over priced utility bills phones etc.

The weather is starting to change summer is giving way to Autumn, although the weather is not so bad, but the mornings are getting terribly cold and the night time, we start to use hot water bottles, and my blood is so thin I get even colder and I am starting to get chest infections almost every week as well as Fox having to deal with the increasing, demands on driving me to the doctors for antibiotics, we decide early November that we will ask Paul if he can patch it up at least till we can afford a new boiler, this starts a dialog that will take almost a month till they arrive.

Mid November the weather in the mornings are so cold for me, I find it difficult to get out of bed, but I drag my arse out cause of the medication I take has to be done at a particular time, I can’t face cereal, as the cold milk is too much to take I take digestives with my meds not nice but better than nothing. Like an early Yule present the plumbing engineers arrive at the door, they take a whole day to fix the plumbing out, the sludge was as they said is thick and like black oil, the smell of rust is very evident and I watch it slowly slip down the sink, as they rotate the water in they system tackling the problem from both sides the central water system ones in one direction what they do is clean the pipes from both directions the acid dissolving the lumps in to bite size chucks.

It takes a whole day to fix the plumbing out all the crap is out and the radiators are heating up, the water from the tap is piping hot, I burn my hand and feel glad of it, just the sheer feel of warmth on my skin feels so nice, I wash all the cups I used during the day as I made the plumbers tea as the day wore on. So nice to rinse cups in warm water once again, my bath that evening was a full on bubble affair, next job get the whirlpool installed, we been dragging that big bugger around half the UK.

Ely the Christmas lights and ghostly happenings.

Well any good day out start’s with an early rise, this was no different the travel to Ely via Cambridge takes around 2 hours with a change at the University City. For a change Fox has offered me the ability to travel first class, which being a meaner with money I thought no way, but then thought well maybe I see how much it costs?

Actually it was not as expensive as I was thinking double or triple the price but in fact only a quarter of the price if you travel from Sawbridgeworth which is the nearest station to me under 3 miles if you go via the back roads. It’s a beautiful morning waiting for the train to Cambridge the sun is warm thought it feels chilly I was wondering if I should have brought my gortex jacket, but there was little use for it, a little bit of rain around 4pm which only lasted seconds was the only wetness there was.

The train pulls in to the almost deserted Sawbridgeworth station, I quickly locate the first class carriage, via one of the standard carriages, it felt nice to walk out of the standard and into the first, it was deserted like the platform I got on from.

It was so comfortable, it had it’s own WiFi and plug sockets was wishing I brought my power lead for the Iphone for coming back knowing I would be low on power and I would have been able to listen to music as well, I will remember that for the next time I go on a day out. As the train trundles along the stations whiz pass at times the sun is in my face, so most people just try and change seats if they can, but in first class you pull the curtain to block out the sun, neat, I settle back and await my arrival at Cambridge station. It intercom burst’s into voice please remember to take your belongings and thank you for travelling with south central, we are now approaching Cambridge where this train will terminate.

The station is in full hustle and bustle of a station that on a modernization run, there seems to be only two platforms that are being used in fact there is only 3 platforms, so its easy to find the train for Ely I only have a short time to wait, when the train pulls in its first class is not as luxury minded as the London train, the seats a bit tired still comfortable but no WiFi or power points for mobiles or computers.

Lucky it only takes 15 mins from Cambridge to reach Ely, the train slowly pulls into the clean but empty station, its not dilapidated or anything but a no thrills commuter train for the people who possibly commute to Cambridge.

Its car park a similar size to Bishop Stortford, the first thing you notice when you come out of the station, is the Cathedral sitting on top of the hill, over looking the whole area.

Busy lay bys as cars, trucks and buses going about there daily business, the sun is still out but its cold, as I climb towards the cathedral, through a little park, I notice the wind picks up, the autumn leaves fly around in swirls, a happy boisterous terrier jumps and kicks up the leaves on its extended lead, I think of Obi being home with fox, I miss him, fox texts me a few times I stop and respond, giving her a blow by blow account of how it is so far.

To reach the little park you turn into Broad street and about 250m its on your left, this is all the cathedral grounds its massive it has horses grazing lazily, for some reason watching them it reminds me of the pink horse in Devon so many years back, I carry on walking towards what looks like another structure I recall in Devon again the entrance to Berrypomeroy Castle.

It’s an easy place to navigate, and well sign posted all it’s attractions with in a square one third of a mile, when I made the booking for the haunted happenings encounter over the phone a week back, I was asked to make the TI my first port of call, and true to my word, I stopped off there first, as I made my way to Oliver Cromwell’s house which is also the TI I came across something I did not expect… Drunks!

So far, Ely has reminded me of many other places I have visited or stayed near by to the houses reminding me of Lewes in East Sussex, structures reminding me of Devon and the horse of course, but drunks I did not expect, although it’s a city the second smallest in the country, so far what I have seen was people who had money, big cars, big houses and big plots for gardens, veg or orchard.

I have an aversion to drunks, I have never trusted them, most drunks are so easy to fly of the handle if they feel your scrutinizing them in any way, out of there own shame with the predicament they themselves cause.

There is the Russian cannon I wanted to explore but the drunks are near to it, so I walk along the footpath another guy a tourist is taking photos of the massive Iron cannon, the drunks pay no notice, and are in a world of there own, the man apologises for getting into one of my shots.

I smile and reassure him not to worry, and say with him in the shot will show how big the cannon really is, we chat for a few seconds he asks did I know where the TI was, I point down the road from where we are and say its down there, near the red telephone box, his wife walks into my next shot, I just laugh it off and wish them good day. The cannon was captured during the Crimean war, the cannon found its way as a gift from Queen Victoria in 1860, to mark the creation of the Ely rifle volunteers, how nice of her!

It stands in front of the cathedral, in a very prominent position, its unmistakable that a weapon of war would stand in front of a place of reverence of god, but then one just needs to turn it around to the six o’clock position and it would blow the catholic cathedral to bits.

It takes only a minutes walk to reach the house of Cromwell, which sits next to St Mary’s church.

The church yard has a interesting history, of grave robbing, and ghosts have been sighted in the grounds one of a woman looking for her body which was taken by the robbers and sold to Medical students of Cambridge and London during the times when the body was looked upon as property of god.

For some strange reason all the grave stones are neatly lined up against the walls of the church the green carpet of grass, so neat and tidy, some of the head stones are really beautiful looking the best one included here you can’t read what it says but you can get an idea of what it must have looked like when it was first done.

The building looks Tudor, built around the 13th century, the exposed beams inside and out the white washed walls, warm and inviting taking photos from all angles I noticed something that I did not recall before in the picture below, you can see what looks like a hat that during the Tudor/Stewart times might have worn?

The front entrance to the house, two manikins stand still, but give an Idea of what people wore during the time of Cromwell the hat similar to the one I took at the window, during my tour of the house and I had two tours I do not recall seeing any manikin sitting at a window with a hat on, and the only time they did have an effigy of Cromwell, he was hatless and no dummy was sitting at a window.

The staff were helpful and polite, and remember my call from last week, my tickets in a plain white envelope with still to pay on it, I hand over the cash and do my first tour of the house it’s self, it was enlightening but to be truthful there is a little book you can get for £1.99 and it will give you all the same information but then you would not get to walk around the house, there are several rooms the parlour they show a video, from there you go to the kitchen it smells of lavender, a large kitchen with a big open fire, wax moulded food, electric flickering lights to represent candles light, on to the war room its rather cold, recently build umm the 17th century one wall I was sitting near to felt really cold to the touch it was a cupboard of some sort, chances are it had very little insulation.

A short walk into what is known as the Haunted Bedroom, a replica of Cromwell lays in the bed, still, one almost expects to see his chest rise and fall, the guide tells us the story of the ghostly encounter of this room, to cut a long story short, some couple were staying over night when the house was the vicarage of St Mary’s and during the night the woman found herself standing in the corner of the room a force had a grip of her wrists, and a voice said Tis not my way over and over she claimed it was Cromwell having to make a decision when he was presented by a half white goose feather, which was claimed if he the king ever needed help the feather will give him the help of the fens men, and Cromwell was a fens man, but ignored it and still executed Charles the 1st

From one of the back rooms it looks on to the grounds of St Mary’s graveyard and it has been noted that a grave robber has been seen with spade in hand, at the dead of night. He was spotted between the bushes on ether side of the main doors, can you see him?

It’s an incredible place to visit and would recommend it to anyone visiting the sleep little city, and only 15 minutes from Cambridge its well worth the time and travel. On to the imposing Cathedral, the grandeur and splendour of this place, over shadows everything, from the pubs, shops, cafes, and Town Square you cannot miss it, everything of note and worth is there.

From modern continence, toilets, parking and shops it has a fair bit to offer the traveller from piping hot chips to creamy coffee and decent clothing companies like fatface, starbucks, nero’s, and Argos it caters for all and sundry.

I walk around the imposing structure taking pictures from all angles trying to cram as much into each shot as possible but the place is so big that, it proves difficult I had to go to the grounds of the Almonry restaurant and café to get the back of the place in the whole frame, it was here that a peculiar thing happened when I was framing a shot of a cross in the gardens that I saw something like a black figure dart across from the corner of my eye, I looked at the shot I just took and nothing was on it see the picture below.

Inside the Cathedral the high vaulted ceiling, stretches off into the distance, the large 20foot doors that only open for special occasions, entrance is via a small door cut into one of the bigger ones.

Along the main channel of the Cathedral is adored by fresco’s and paint, rather imposing in the far end of the holy place voices echo in song and prayer, I see no singers

To enter this part of the cathedral will cost you £6, no concessions, a trip to the main tower will cost you £8 no concessions and a visit to the Stained glass museum will cost you £4 no concessions, not nice if your unemployed or low waged is it? Or you can have the whole tour for a modest sum of £16 no concessions.

I know that places as big as Ely Cathedral cost a lot of money to up keep, but being its Catholic one of the richest organizations in the world, you think they would do concessions for the under privileged, and there is no poorer than me since I, well we have decided to tell the government to stick its dole and sickness benefit up its fucking arse.

I made the mistake of paying for the entrance fee into the main church and the stained glass, I think I would have rather given the money to a tramp, it was wasted and I told them so as I was leaving, I only wanted to see the stained glass anyway, ooh yeah they do not like you taking photographs, one poor sod was made to delete all the pictures he took, I was a bit more discreet and took some as I walked around, other than a few well placed tombs and writing and interesting stained glass, it was never worth the entrance fee.

I visited the café and the soup was scorching hot, it burnt my tongue the bread was lovely a French blend of white crusty baguette. I walk around the small city a few times each time the square is getting busy as each passing hour, to pass the time I visit a fair few café and one pub for second lunch chips, beans and garlic bread and a mug of tea, my first since leaving the house in Sheering several hours ago.

It is fairly easy to spend more than you intended like for instance the average cup or mug of coffee in any high street café will set you back at least £3 a time depending on the type of coffee you drink, for me it has to be a latté with lots of sugar, ok I’m diabetic but the though of drinking coffee with out makes me want to be sick and I tend to sip it unlike tea I will just wolf down, its quite easy to spend over £20 just on coffee for the day.

And as the day progressed it was steadily getting colder and colder, due to the fact that everything of interest was up hill, and I also forgot my Tramadol painkillers which is never good, I ended up having to get some other painkiller, it worked but only just getting up after having a coffee was painful.

I walked around taking photos of the Market square, more and more stalls are filling up, the stage area, from where the Overtones are going to sing from has its first dedicated fan’s arriving young old alike staking there pitch, for the best view in the square.

4pm has just come and gone I been sitting inside the cathedral entrance, for sometime not wanting to spend even more money in the coffee shops, Idly I watch people as they come and go thought the great oak doors, lots of local school kids start to walk by with there tutors or is it masters?

I sit and wait for the next 30 minutes fiddling with my iPhone looking at FB twitter, anything to pass the time, I feel a lull in my attention, I am starting to feel cold, I got the sniffles, I could walk back into the Cathedral, and sit by the massive heaters and they themselves look like works of art, and just spend my time waiting there till it was time to go to Cromwell’s house.

From the Cathedral its only a shore walk to Cromwell’s house, right across the green by the Russian Cannon, and right next to St Mary’s church it stands proud facing the main road its 20 to 5 and already there is an assortment of people waiting inside the North Range which faces St Mary’s road and is also the TI centre, I walk in and almost Immediately I’m offered mulled wine, I decline and instead take the fresh Orange juice and a hand full of peanuts as I wait for the tour to start.

A woman old and white haired gathers the party and bacons us to follow her into the parlour, we take seats thinking I hope they don’t start the video again, I will be miffed but the video does not crack into life, and she tells us of a little 5 year old girl who saw a ghost here in 2010, she said she saw a little girl the same age as her, the ghost asked her did she like her pink bonnet? The little girl replied yes the ghost told her other things and when she reached the haunted room she be came hysterical and left, the mother phoned the TI the next day to tell them why the little girl acted so strangely.

In the darkness we follow her into the kitchen, here she tells us that a woman in Blue has been sited at the open fireplace lost in her cooking this is believed to be Mrs Cromwell, who had 9 hungry mouths to feed including Mr Cromwell, its also been said that a window that looks on to the church yard of St Mary’s harbours a few ghosts one of a woman looking for her body and the ghost of one of the gravediggers still plying his traded in corpses We go upstairs to Mrs Cromwell’s room children’s laughter has been heard in this room they think that this may have been the nursery in days gone by. From there you come to the Civil war room its adored with the weapons that were used and a full size portrait of Cromwell in his horse uniform, rather dashing, the ghost associated with this is from across the road where the chemist is or above it there is flats a woman has been seen looking across to Cromwell’s house, maybe a secret lover of Mr Cromwell?

From there we find ourselves in the Study, a large cosy room a model of Cromwell sits at a table, though he never actually did this it was a bedroom but to make it more inviting they changed it! Stupid if you ask me, but anyway this room has been said to be extremely cold, and in fact it was bloody cold the seat where I was sitting the wall next to it was so cold to the touch, and was part of a cupboard, and the void could easily make this cold if there is little insulation.

One of the party asks the guide does she believe in ghosts, she says no, for some reason it deflates me, I did not want to hear that I mean why do a tour if you don’t actually believe in what you do, what it does is negate everything she says, she hurriedly tries to change it knowing the mistake she made by trying to say well I have never seen one, but I believe that some people are sensitive.

How to close the mouth of a believer in one easy lesson, I don’t mind people how don’t believe but if your doing a ghostly walk and tour, recounting tales from people who were kind enough to donate them the last person you want recounting your story is someone who don’t believe in what they are saying it takes a passion, and that passion shows each and every time.

I was wondering why I was being silent from the start I usually like to ask questions that get people thinking ooh yeah did not think to ask that, but instead I was silent the first time ever. From there we approach the haunted bedroom, the guide recounts a story quite famous, of a couple staying the night and someone or some thing grabs her. I have recounted the story early on in the blog so scroll back lol.

From the Haunted bedroom we go back down stairs to the Tithe office where Cromwell did all his work for the Cathedral money was not exchanged for the rents from tenants but wheat oats hay animals etc, it was said that a woman who was with a choir group singing in the cathedral had some time off and went on one of the tours say a man in a red cowl at one end of the room by using her side vision when she looked directly at him he disappeared, and again she saw him using the periphery vision at the other end of the room, this was the first time any thing was seen in this room. From this room you head back into the North Range and the end of the tour.

I enjoyed the tour, very much the story telling was ok, but lacked passion and belief, you could not take any photos of the house inside, this always gets me, next time it be a spy camera I take with me and film the whole house, I do intend to go to one of the local ghost walks around the city and might look out for the ghost happenings again. So many questions I wanted to ask but felt flattened. On my last part of the Ely house of Cromwell, I think I took a photo of something a bit strange if you look at the window above where you see the lights on the Tudor side you can clearly see someone a man possibly sitting with a hat on, like on the shop front dummy in one of the early photos. What do you think? In fact I got a response from the TI and its a exhibit of some minister with a big hat on lol, I thought it was standing not sitting but there ya go.

As I left Cromwell’s house and made my way to the Market square I fired of some more shot’s of St Mary’s after hearing of the grave robbers, nothing came of it, and quickly made my way to the centre of the city, it was packed the video of the whole affair was quite poor, due to my size being a small 5ft’5 tall I was never going to see much but the next time I attend something like this I will get my self a mono pod so I can raise the video camera over the crowd, but it was fun the atmosphere was good.

The Lord Mayor came on stage and said a few words and the count down began 10-0-9-7 and the place light up felt nice to hear merriment and cheering, I navigated my way back to the station and ready myself in the first class carriages back home.

I have a few gripes over the day, partly due to my not taking my medication with me, and having to use inferior brands of painkiller, and the none believer taking a ghost tour of the delightful old house, I would fully recommend you at least once in your life if you find yourself in the Cambridge area, spend a extra 15 minutes on a train and visit this lovely place, there are decent pubs, attractions and lots of places to eat, and of course the ghosts, they are there, you just have to find them like me and maybe your luck will be in. xxxxx