Last Friday my other half Paul took me on a Ghost Tour at Hampton Court Palace. As some of you may know I reached a milestone in January and I’m now the ripe old age of ….! anyway, he knew I’d always wanted to do something like this and bought the tickets as a surprise pressie for me. Well, we arrived slightly early for the 7.30 appointment looking around the room watching the other people, a motley crew of individuals varying in age from young to old. On the dot of 7.25 a tour guide / custodian entered the room in all his finery (top hat, sparkling uniform, what looked like army regulation boots) and asked us to convene outside the main entrance. There were 40 of us in total, all a bit wary of what, if anything was to happen. We stood outside the main door to the Court of the Palace and the guide told a few stories of ghostly sightings and experiences over the past 200 years or so. After we’d heard about 5 sightings of what seemed to be the same vision we moved on inside the Court, the huge doors seemingly opening on their own - on closer inspection they were opened by two young ladies on the inside! We were standing grouped together inside the palace doors in front of a huge, and I mean a huge picture of Henry VIII wearing a very impressive codpiece which was covering scaffolding as there is restoration work being carried out. The dude in the hat was telling of more sightings, a woman who heard various noises in her grace and favour apartments, visions coming from one doorway and disappearing into another, pictures being removed from walls, each time he told a story it was followed by ‘believe or disbelieve, carry on’ and behind him we followed. We were taken to all different parts of the palace, inside and outside, even in a lady’s chamber! Different stories each time, we were aware of every sound, every creek, the nerves were on edge - well mine were. He took us to the haunted gallery where we were made to walk alone or in pairs down the haunted gallery, lit by candlelight only. Of course me being brave wouldn’t walk down there alone, not on your nelly! We were taken to a staircase where it is said Jane Seymour has been seen on what is called the ’silver stairs’ as she appears in a white gown/nightgown holding a candle in a silver candlestick. He takes us around the corner where they show CCTV footage of ’something’ bursting through some double doors which look like a fire exit, he walks us there through this lane and that alley, cut through this building and that hall, down this lane and here we are he says in his slightly spooky voice he stands next to the offending doors ‘believe or disbelieve’ and at the moment the doors come crashing open - I let out an ear piercing scream turn around and try to leg it but bump straight into Paul who’s almost doubled over in laughter, I turn back and there standing in the doorway is one of the other tour guides laughing. I have to say I wasn’t the only one to scream like a girl, I’m sure some of the men did too as well as most of the women!
All in all I have to say it was a great night, well worth the trauma of not being able to sleep that night for fear of things that go bump in the night. Remember ‘believe or disbelieve ….
As for the other excitement I’m off to the Brits tomorrow night, courtesy of Affiliate Window, and I have to say I’m so excited my kids have threatened to leave home if I carry on. Will update later in the week.
Oops, found this saved and I thought I’d already posted it!
Ok, so last week is now a dim, distant but very happy memory. Yep, you’re right they’re all back! First one home was Tallulah who walked in, sat down and promptly fell asleep,so far so good thought I, until that is she started to unpack and there was an explosion like the Persil advert, clothes and girls stuff everywhere. It was tidied, sorted and laundered, no problem. Sunday, the boys came back - so now I have Paul’s suitcase (still not unpacked) in the hallway where I’m sure it will stay until either I move it or he goes away again. I think it’s funny how he is always half packed as if he’s not sure how long he’s staying before he’s off again on his travels. I know some women have a problem when their husbands / partners / whatevers go away on business / holiday / whatevers, I however relish it when Paul goes away. We are together 24-7 and we can and do grate on each other.
The big bombshell however is the fact that he’s come back from a week away and has turned …. VEGAN! I think it’s a ploy to piss me off quite frankly,as if it’s not bad enough having to cook for all different tastes everyday he now throws this into the mix. I’ll keep you all updated as to how it goes!
Ok, here goes.
I was bored on Thursday night and I decided to set up a blog (which I’ve been meaning to do for a long time) so, I set up an account on blogger and wrote a small about me thing. I sent the link to my other half Paul, who is currently away on holiday and, typical of him I might add, he wanted me to have a ‘proper’ one. The Life & Times of an Affiliate Widow was the name I always said I’d use if I had a blog so the ‘baby was born’ the domain name was bought, Eric (wonderfully clever and technical Eric) was contacted by MSN at about 3pm (GMT) on Friday afternoon and told what roughly I wanted. By 8pm the whole bloody thing was live! Obviously there are still things to be tweaked, or so Eric tells me - I’m slightly tech-phobic - but here we are! Don’t worry the flower at the top of the page will be going although I’m not sure at the moment what will replace it.
This blog is not going to be just about work and the affiliate industry but also about life in general, the weird things I do (believe me I have so many quirks) and the madness that exists in my household.
For those that don’t know me I’m Welsh and moved to Surrey 13 or so years ago, I have no Welsh accent unless I’m drunk when bits of Welshness slip out. I’m a mother of 3, but I always says I have 4 kids - it’s just that the eldest one happens to be 41! I work full time in the Affiliate Marketing industry and I’m very passionate about what I do. I’m very straight talking so please don’t try to blind me with science there is black and white, very seldom anything in between, even though we are ruled by ‘grey areas’. I make mistakes, everybody does, apologise and move on. I try not to hold grudges but sometimes somebody will do something which I will see as so bad I can’t forgive or forget it - you know who you are! I’d rather sit alone in packed place than sit with people I cannot trust. On the other side of the coin I make a very good and loyal friend, just ask my friends and they’ll tell you that.
My kids - I have Keri who is 22 (I was 12 when I had her), Toby who is 11 and Tallulah 10. Of course Tallulah is not her real name, it’s the name I wanted to call her and actually the name she prefers, Tamarah is her ‘official’ name, but she is so much more a Tallulah!
I think everybody is suitably bored now, so I’ll try to post again soon. My mind is buzzing with stuff and I did promise Paul to spill on how I always walk to the left and not in a straight line, how I walk into things which I know are there and I can’t avoid them and my inability to deal with odd numbers! I know I’m a freak but so what - live and let live!
Hello and welcome to my blog. If you don’t know what a blog is you must be older than me or blonde (I’m allowed to say that as I’m blonde). Almost everybody I know now has a blog, my other half, my friends, my work collegues, even my kids want one.
I have decided to start mine to tell people what it’s like to live in my mad world. It’s very quiet this week because everybody is away and I’m home alone - for the first time in my entire life - I cannot believe the other people who share my life are so messy, I haven’t done housework this week because there isn’t any housework to do. I’ve decided, not that it’ll last for long though, that I’d like to become a man - not any kind of man mind you - I’d actually like to become my old man. I’ve been living his life this week, getting out of bed when I want, eating when I want, going out when I want. A major difference however is that I don’t have a me to bring me coffee, cook my food or pick up my dirty laundry off the floor and turn the leg of my sweatpants the right way around before they put it in the laundry and then hand it back all clean and smelling nice and the best part is men can pee standing up! Anywhere!
I work full time and have 3 kids, the eldest is at uni but spends as much time as she can at home eating her way through the food. I have a son aged 11 and a daughter aged almost 11 (no typo, really). I’m lucky that I work from home at our own business so I’m always around for the school run, trips and the phone calls to say ‘you’re son/daughter has had an accident and we’ve called the ambulance’. True, it’s happened more than once.
Anyway, I don’t want to bore anyone on my first post, I’ll try to post on a regular basis, unlike my friend Jude who hasn’t updated her blog since May.
If you’re still reading this far down God bless you. Catch you soon.
