And another year ends....

Well there goes 2007. Time certainly flies doesn't it ? I can't believe that I haven't posted for over a month so I thought it best to bring the posts up to date and look back on 2007 and look forward to 2008.

When I last posted I was about to go ghost hunting in Nottingham at the Galleries of Justice, my favourite haunted location. I've investigated the Galleries more than any other to such an extent that I've actually lost count as to the number of times. The Galleries is unique in the British legal system as it was the only criminal 'one stop shop' in the UK. It was possible to be arrested, charged, held, tried, convicted, sentenced, incarcerated and executed without ever leaving the building!


The Galleries Courtroom dates back to 1375 and the gaol dates back to 1449. The on site Police station was active until only 1985 and the courts finally closed in 1986. A little known fact is that the Galleries prison cells were used extensively for the holding of IRA Terrorists from the 1970s onwards. They were also used to hold flying pickets during the Miners strike in the early 80s. The property is now a museum and is the home of the HM Prison Service Collection. It is well worth a look on any given day. The galleries history is quite obviously extensive and as such it is regarded as one of the most haunted locations in the country. It really is a astonishing place and I can say from personal experience that there is some weird stuff that occurs within the building, whether all of it is paranormal is what makes ghost hunting so fascinating.

I met up with Shorty and Ritchie at the Galleries as they had come down earlier in the day and had toured the museum. I also met up with Michelle, a prison Officer from Cambridgeshire and now a regular attendee on our investigations.
The Galleries was quieter, activity wise than it has been on previous occasions but It still produced some interesting moments. I was disappointed to discover that some painting work had been done since my last visit which could well have negatively affected the activity levels. There is a proven theory which is often attributed to paranormal phenomena called "The Stone Tapes Theory". In layman's terms this relates to energy being absorbed by the infrastructure. Stone and wood are particularly good at absorbing energy and the theory believes that sound and light become trapped in these materials and then very slowly seeps out over many many years which leads to the sounds and sights that are often referred to as ghostly. If the stone at the Galleries has been painted then this reduces the likelihood of energy escaping which will bring about a reduction in activity.. at least that's the theory ! You may have heard of many cases where building works or demolitions and such like have caused an apparent increase in paranormal activity where none has occurred before. These works are often mistakenly believed to have 'upset' the spirits who are now presenting themselves to the public. The Stone Tapes theory would merely identify the building works as having enabled the trapped energy to escape. This theory also holds true at one of the UKs best Haunted locations, Woodchester Mansion, which had no paranormal activity on record until the Mansion Trust started restoration works on the property.

Anyway, back at the Galleries... We did seem, at one point, to get into a "conversation" with one spirit who was tapping out responses to our questions when we were in the chapel. The taps were coming from someway down the tunnel that leads into the bottom cave. I can faithfully assure all readers that there wasn't anybody down there to make those tapping noises, and there is only one way into the cave and I was sitting in the entrance to it! A fascinating aspect of the taps is that if it was paranormal; then it can only mean that there was a conscious intelligence to whatever it was that was making the noise. It knew we are there, it can understand us and made a concerted effort to respond in the appropriate manner. So if this "spirit" can throw stones, tap on walls and other such responses, what else can it do? Why is it there? Can it leave? Does it leave ? Does it even know it's dead ?

During the evening we heard shuffling feet, we had several people feeling unwell, several people including myself feeling like there was someone behind me when I knew there wasn't. We heard lots of tapping and had the odd stone thrown. As always with the Galleries an incredible night was had. We finally broke sometime after 5am and headed off to our respective hotels for a well earned sleep.

My employment continued to cause me some concern and I finally decided to look for something else after a particular patronising incident with Head Office in early December. I'm therefore going to get myself another job in early 2008 before my career goes downhill faster than a rabbit on a promise !

I spent Christmas in the South of France although my trip was shorter than I had hoped as work insisted that I turn in between Christmas and New year despite the company being closed and despite me being able to provide a remote / call out service during the period. As it was the weather in the South of France was very poor really, very British like, which rather limited what I did during my brief stay. Shame. I hired a car as Mark and the family were away in Florida so I was in France by myself, and what an experience that car hire became. I've never driven in France before but that itself didn't bother me. I've driven in various parts of the World and find driving on the right perfectly OK. However the tiny and winding lanes that lead to the house were always a concern. When the car hire lady at the airport handed me the keys she commented that the car was brand new, had only been delivered that week and had a mere 80 Kilometres on the clock. Oh dear, that means no scratches, scrapes or damage of any description on it then ? I would have been happier with a battered old car that looked like it had spent the past 6 months on the city streets of Baghdad being used as target practice. Unfortunately my car - a Citroen C1, pictured at the top of this post - was spotless and it therefore had to stay that way. This meant that I had to avoid all of the mad French drivers coming down the hill intent on knocking my wing mirrors off.


The 50 minute drive from the airport to the bottom of the hill was uneventful but the drive to the top of the hill can best be described as 'lively'. Driving past oncoming traffic that seemingly refuse to drive on their side of the road, preferring to remain in the middle. Driving on narrow roads with large ditches on either side, driving on single track lanes with oncoming traffic, driving on roads that turn through blind corners into other blind corners. Exciting stuff, but wasn't this was supposed to be a stress free break? I made it to the house with all wing mirrors still attached but I knew that it was only a matter of time before I had to make a similar trip but this time in the opposite direction ! Eeek.
I would have preferred to have done more whilst I was away but the weather was poor and the wind chill factor made the temperature freezing as the wind was blowing from the North and therefore across the snow covered Alps. It was nice however to make the wood fire each evening and then to sit next to it reading my book until bed time.
It was also nice to escape the UK Christmas festivities and just chill out watching the huge array of wildlife in the garden. There were a large variety of birds, woodpeckers, various tits, nuthatches, green finches, goldfinches to name only a handful. I like birds, they're delicious !

2007 was an interesting year but not what you would call 'vintage'. I worked for 3 companies and travelled quite a bit, both in the UK and in Europe. I changed my car, bought a second kayak and bought a couple of lovebirds. I haven't been at my best mentally and need to sort that matter out before too long. I've plenty of plans for 2008 and will no doubt add to the list as time progresses. As I said earlier I also intend to change jobs in the very near future. I'm back in France in a few weeks for a weekends skiing but I'm also looking forward to trips to Berlin, Majorca and Jersey as well as further trips to see little brother in Sussex and older brother in France. I quite fancy doing some more active daredevil pursuits if I can fit some in, as I haven't done anything like that for a while. Once the weather improves and I come out of my annual hibernation, I'll organise something and then post here in due course.

Things I've learnt this week:-

1. Work still think it's 1993 as far as providing Christmas cover is concerned.
2. French car drivers have a fearless attitude towards little Citroen hire cars.
3. French garden birds are much more colourful than the brown sparrows that inhabit my garden.

Things that have made me smile this week:-

1. I've had a flattering compliment today "fast & efficient payer" - Ebay
2. My gran was great. I remember her last words before she died “what are you doing with that hammer?”

Happy New Year !

John