I ain’t afraid of no ghost
I know what you’re thinking. ‘Oh no, not another post about ghosts. This blog is nonsense’. That is what I assume you’re thinking, anyway.
This isn’t so much a blog post about ghosts, as it is me deciding how I’m going to spend my afternoon tomorrow. I have some time to kill before going to see a show tomorrow night and decided to go ghost hunting. On a weekday. At 5pm. In the middle of the city.
This all came about, in part, because of the Dover Castle ‘episode’. Both I and my partner in crime were holding court at her parent’s place describing how we came face to face with death and narrowly missed being seized upon by a wraith of some description. That is, we showed them our blurry photo that could well be a smudge on the lens. They were suitably impressed, as one would be, and the next time we saw them they produced this book:
They, in short, wanted to subject us to more terror.
Now, a little bit of back story here that I didn’t add to the previous ghost related post…
I am a little courage challenged when it comes to this area. Sure, these days I put on the face of male bravado in the face of supernatural. However, as we speak I am currently sitting in an empty house and because it is night I am constantly checking over my shoulder, in mirrors and windows convinced I’m about to see something that will terrify the bejeesus out of me. When I was 10 I distinctly remember hiding under the covers because I could hear the theme song to the X Files. There are episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark that scared the hell out of me.
At 18.
I put this down to having an older sister who liked the scare the hell out of me by telling me stories about local ghosts, including that of one of her friends who tragically died when she was 16. What did my sister do a year later? Attempt contact using a ouiji board. Not cool, I tell you. Not cool.
I have been on one ghost tour, which was more of a history lesson about the Rocks in Sydney. The man who was leading us looked like Bill Bryson, but with a cape. In summary, it wasn’t very scary at all.
So to cure myself of boredom and scare myself a little, I am going to start doing my own self guided ghost tours around London. You can follow them on twitter if you want by following me, or searching for #ldnghoststories. Alternatively I shall be posting wrapups of each one on here.
To begin with, I am doing half a tour. I can’t fit in a full tour before I go to the theatre, so I shall be walking around bits of Clerkenwell visiting the local paranormal attractions. Yes, I shall be seeing them all! The Clerkenwell House of Detention, famous for being one of the most haunted places in London, Bleeding Heart Yard, where a socialite was found torn limb from limb with her heart still pumping blood on to the cobblestones, and my favourite, Scratching Fanny of Cock Lane.
Yes, you heard right.
If you’re interested in coming along with me then let me know via twitter. It should be most informative. I shall be reading aloud from my book whether people are there or not.
I shall report in full soon…
Hopefully…
