Last Day of 2010

As I'm starting this parts of the earth are entering 2011 while some are just starting the last day of 2010.  Here in Edinburgh we are half way through the last day of 2010.

I find New Year's Eve or Hogmanay as it is in Scotland a strange celebration, we welcome the new year with a big party to say hello.  Not to say I don't enjoy it, any excuse for a party and all that I just find the celebration and superstitions a bit odd. 

A lot of people pay to get into there local pubs or travel to cities and stand in the cold to countdown to the New Year.  The pubs are full of people who have never been there during the previous year and probably won't be there in the new one.  A lot of people end up in places they wouldn't go with people they rarely see to welcome the new year.   We join hands and sing and kiss strangers.  It's fun and nice but to me a bit weird.

My gran used to say that you shouldn't be in debt on New Year's Day or you will be in debt for the whole year.  It was very important for her to pay all her bills before the end of the year.  She also used to say to my brother and I "don't fight on New Year's Day or you'll be fighting all year".  I've heard this idea expanded to include thing like having to have a clean house, an empty washing basket, a full fridge and even a great haircut.

So you leave your house spotlessly clean with your washing all done and you head out to stand in the cold with a sparkly drink.  You count down the final seconds of the old year and sing Auld Lang Syne.  You welcome the new year with hugs, kisses and best wishes to all.  Then you head home and off to bed.  New Years day you sleep in late and wake with a hangover, you spend the day on the sofa watching TV and eating junk food. 

So how does this fit with the superstition, if you spend New Year's Day lying on the sofa with a hangover does this mean you will spend the rest of the year like this?  Actually that explains quite a few people I have met. 

Anyway for me New Year is generally spent having some found with best friend boy and girl and then watching TV with a glass or two of wine.  It's very nice and you don't lose New Year's Day in a hungover haze. 

It's now New Year everywhere in the world so here's to 2011, Health Wealth and Happiness, here's wishing you all you wish yourself.  Happy New Year.

Fires and fireworks

In an nontraditional way my block of flats celebrated bonfire night a day early.  We have a bin cupboard on the outside of the block, last night some of the local kids decided it would be fun to set fire to our bin.  I was in my front room at the other side of the building, when I went to take the dogs out the rest of my flat smelled of smoke.  Leaving my flat and heading down the stairs it was definitely smokey.  Once outside the cause was obvious as the bin had been half pulled out of the cupboard and was full of flames.

In normal emergency mode I stood like a muppet (probably Ralph the dog) and stared at it for a while before I knocked on my neighbours door and they put it out.  No real damage other than to the rubbish.  Oh and the fact that the dogs now have a smoked smell.

So tonight is bonfire night for real, no pretend bin fires, real inferno type fires are alight all over the country.  To remember what it's all about here is the poem:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence [or By God's mercy] he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Hulloa boys, Hulloa boys, let the bells ring.
Hulloa boys, hulloa boys, God save the King!

If you don't know or remember the Guy Fawkes story I think it's the Die Hard movie where Bruce Willis travels back to the year 1605 and stops a terrorist from blowing up a government building.  What you missed that one?
 
The girls and I are cuddled up on the sofa watching fireworks out of the window.  They are totally undisturbed by the fact that outside sounds like a war zone.  I was remembering November the fifth when I was young.  We used to get dressed up in our wellington boots, coats, scarves, hats and gloves.  So wrapped up you could barely move your arms.  We'd get taken to a local bonfire and fireworks display.  I mostly remember that your front would be roasting hot from the fire but your back would be freezing.  You had to pick your spot so that you didn't get a face full of smoke.  There would be hot potatoes and soup to help keep warm and then the high point of the fireworks.  All the oohs and aahs.  You'd go home freezing cold and have to get warmed by the fire or radiator.
 
I was wondering how many other countries celebrate a 400 year old attempt at terrorism?

Ghostly Goings On V

Haunted Houses

I've stayed in a few places that are supposed to be haunted so I thought I'd tell you the tales. 

First there was Beamish Hall:

It is now a hotel, looks nice if you are ever in the North East of England it is worth checking out there and Beamish museum - Link

I stayed there twice while I was at college.  It was an optional part of our English course and was great fun, groups of 16 to 18 year olds away from home in a haunted house!  The house at that time wasn't a hotel but hosted residential courses, it was quite basic with a lot of the house unmodernised.  At might it was very spooky and there were a lot of unexplained noises but nothing to prove haunting.

Beamish Hall allegedly has a few ghosts, the most famous is the Grey Lady:
"Legend has it that the grey lady was in love with Mr Shafto, but was promised to another by her father.  On the day of her wedding, she ran to Beamish Hall to escape from her appointed suitor and hid in a casket in the lowest cellars within the hall.  Unfortunately, the lady locked herself in and suffocated to death, being found some months later.  Her restless spirit wanders the hall today, her wedding dress-grey with age, rustling as she moves."

Others include a man in a tweed suit patrolling the corridors, this is thought to be Mr Shafto.  A lady in pink sitting in the Eden room with her companions including a cat and a parrot.   Amongst the others are children in the attic and a nasty spirit in the kitchen.   It would seem the kitchen spirit had an adverse effect on the food, it was pretty bad, we ordered pizza.

So we are there for a weekend do lots of interesting team building exercises and bits of drama.  One of the things our artistic English teacher decided we should do was scream.  As in arrrrrrgh.  Just as a release.  So there we are taking turns to scream when a blood curdling scream comes from elsewhere in the building.  The screaming increased from there and that was the end of that session.  No idea if it was an echo, the staff joining in or the sound of a tortured soul.

Years later I stayed in Chillingham Castle:

This is a lovely place to stay, check it out - Link the website includes details of the many ghosts, it is allegedly very very haunted and has been on many TV shows.  I went with a large group of friends for a weekend that included a murder mystery evening hosted in the coaching rooms. 

The group I was part of stayed in the landseer rooms,  I shared my time little room with a gay guy and we had a great laugh.  I woke up the first morning and was reading when he woke up and said "shit, this is like a prison cell."  That was before he knew we were locked in!

The downside of the weekend was that I had just split up with a guy I'd lived with for 7 years, he was there too.  I had a great time but there were some tense moments.  At one point I had to escape a, and crept into the next suite where I say on my own and had a good cry.  Other guest may have heard the wailing and thought it was a ghost, sorry guys just me.

The couple staying upstairs from us had a massive fight one night leading to a lot of bumps and bangs which again other guests could be forgiven for assuming it was the blue boy having a party. 

I had to go and collect my dog before we went home.  I was very naughty and let her have a sniff round.  Little Looby didn't notice anything strange so I'm not convinced by the Chillingham ghosts.  Lovely, interesting place though.

Finally at the suggestion of Dan I have added another haunted place that I have stayed.  Edinburgh is allegedly one of the most haunted cities in the world.  I've been here nearly 10 years so I've obviously visited less tourist attractions than the average American would do in a weekend but let me try to summarise out ghostly residents. 



Looking at my fantastic picture of Edinburgh you can see the castle on top of the volcano.  The streets running down from the castle are the old town and this is where most of our ghosties live.  From the Royal Mile you can take a few different ghost tours.  I've done most of them now, the most famous is Mary Kings Close.  When I first visited this tour was very rough and ready, done by student guides.  It was great.  This is a narrow street (or close) that used to run from the Royal Mile to the Nor Loch.  They built new buildings on the Royal mile but left this street underneath.  The story goes that during a plague they walled it up and left everyone there.  The horrible history aside it is really interesting to visit.  They have now done this up to make it a proper visitors attraction, it had taken away some of the character but is still worth a look.  They just did their first public over night stay for Halloween, wish I'd known I might have joined.

The one I like best is the Vaults, Edinburgh's underground city.  This is basically a bridge where they have built both sides and the arches have been filled with vaults.  A quick pic:

You enter the vaults through various buildings, some of the buildings are using parts of the vaults as store rooms.  Some of the pubs are actually in vaults.  I've been down here a few times and it is always different.  They definitely have a spooky feel, you are under the city so there are strange noises.  They have odd temperatures with hot and cold patches.  In addition there are dark doorways and random little storage areas.  There are definitely rats in the vaults so you do hear them.  It's history is nasty too (a pattern forming here), Edinburgh's poor and criminals used to live in the vaults.  I think the famous Burke and Hare stayed in the vaults at some stage (might be wrong).  I'm sure they were dark, smelly and unpleasant then, they still are.

The first visit I did was with work, it's hard to scare a group of 40+ people so it wasn't very creepy.  The second time I was with 2 friends and the total tour group was 6.  The thing I noticed was the temperature changes, very obvious when you take one step from warm to cold.  The best bit was one of the girls on the tour who claimed to be psychic.  She kept describing the spirits she was seeing.  Old women sitting knitting in one vault.  A man running down the centre corridor shouting at us to get out.  She seemed genuinely scared and wanted to leave.  We had been drinking so we were equally but very differently affected by spirits, I've not often laughed that much while trying hard not too.

One of the bars that backs on to the vaults is Whistle Binkies, very popular as it often has a late licence.  This bar has it's own spirit in the form of a long haired 17th century man who sits at the end of the bar, he's called The Watcher, because he watches (see what they did there).  Apparently he has been mistaken for a tour guide in the vaults, not sure how interesting he would have been as I don't believe he speaks?  A lot of people have seen him.  I'm not one of them, I don't drink much, I'm not sure if there is a connection between these things.  They have a second unseen ghost called The Imp which stops clocks and locks doors, more scary than the Watcher.

There are a huge number of ghosts around Edinburgh's old town.  A lot of the bars, hotels and theatres have ghosts, just have a flick through the list on this interesting paranormal site - Link.  I suppose since history says there has been settlements in Edinburgh since it was a hill fort in the 1st century.  Yep a lot of people must have died here so even if only a tiny, tiny percentage hang around we would have a lot of ghosts.  We've also had a lot of influential and famous residents who may have left a residual influence.  I'm particularly looking forward to the first sitings of Dolly the sheep's ghost, she now lives in the national museum.

I think my favourite ghostie is Deacon Brodie (also a great pub on the Royal Mile) he was the inspiration for the Jekyll and Hyde story, a respected business man by day but a criminal by night.  Apparently he was hung using the gallows he designed.  He is said to still walk around The Royal Miles carrying a lantern, with all the strange things on the Royal Mile I'm surprised anyone notices.  In August all the ghosts in Edinburgh could parade up and down the Royal Mile and no one would bat an eyelid, they'd be lucky to sell any tickets for their show.

Ghostly Goings On Part II

A spooky experience I had in the early 90s when I was about 16.  I had a good friend at the time called Jill, she was really into rock music and had embraced the whole Goth life style.   I liked some of the same music but not everything she liked, we both loved a good vampire story but she could get a bit macabre.

She wanted to go to a spiritualist church so asked me to go along with her. I hadn't been anywhere like that before and didn't really know what to expect but thought it might be a laugh.  So off we went on a Monday night.  The church was a corrugated iron hall at one side of a big field in the centre of town.  We got there to find that the majority of the congregation were pensioners.  There were 3 or 4 people sitting at the front and then a few rows of mismatched chairs in a semi circle.  We took some seats in the second row just off to one side.

The meeting / service whatever you would call it started with a prayer and then the people at the front started giving people messages "from the other side".  I wasn't really very comfortable in the meeting because I was freezing, I had goose-bumps and was close to shivering.  During the break I spoke to the ladies we were sitting next too and one of them said something strange. 
"If you feel you have something to say you should just speak out." 
I just said "OK, I will." 
Later in the break Jill said she heard the woman say, "she definitely has a message but doesn't want to share."

Jill asked me if I had a message.  No, I told her that I had a song stuck in my head, I thought I must have heard it before I left the house.  This was the song:



Towards the end an old man focused on me and said "you have a strong spirit guide with you, she is protecting you from harm."

I was a bit shocked to be picked out but probably just gave a nervous smile. He went on to say that The guide wasn't a relative but an oriental girl who had drowned.  He said that I had a experience where I could have drowned (which I did) and that this spirit had protected me.  He said that I should listen to my guide.

Not long after that a lady stood up and said she had a message but wasn't sure who it was for, she said she had a young woman from the spirit world who had taken her own life. She mentioned that there was a strong Scottish influence.  Someone said that might be for them.  She went on to say that the girl had a difficult life and couldn't see any way out but to take her own life.  She wanted to apologise for all the pain she had caused but that she needed to end the abuse.  The lady said that she thought this was her niece and that she had shot herself.  None of the family understood why she had done it, they knew she was unhappy but thought it was just teenage moods. 

If you know the Aerosmith song story (or just watched the video) you might see some similarities between that and what was said about this woman.  By this point I was shivering, it was absolutely freezing.  I had an urge to say something but I never did, I don't think it would have been right.

When we stood up to leave I noticed that there was a gas heater just behind where we were sitting, Jill had felt warm through the whole meeting.  This freaked me out so much that I never went back.  No amount of begging from Jill would make me, she persuaded some other friends to go instead.

Ghostly Goings On Part 1

As we are approaching Halloween I thought I'd run a special series of spooky posts.  Looking back I have had a few interesting, potentially supernatural experiences so I thought I'd share.

The School Ghost

When I was around 9 I think I saw a ghost, I was out riding my bike with a friend, Glen and we saw a man on a horse.  We both stopped and stared for a while because the man had no head. I started to say something about it but Glen interrupted and said "don't say anything."   It wasn't a frightening experience, maybe a bit creepy but the horse and rider passed us just as a normal man on horseback would. 

The Headless Horseman" by Veronica Smith

I know now that near to where I grew up there is a old house, Beamish Hall that supposedly has a number of ghostly residents.  I have stayed there twice and it is a pretty atmospheric place.  I have heard stories that there is a headless horseman as well as the most famous grey lady.

Although Glen didn't want to talk about it I couldn't resist telling my friends at school the following week.  Even at the age I was a story teller! This first story lead to a new game of telling scary stories during break time.  At that age you would be surprised how many horror stories you know, we had ghosts, possessed dolls and mysterious moving objects.  The whole school was sharing ghost stories after a few days.  Even one of the teachers joined in with her ghost story:

Two of the older teachers Miss Bell and Mrs Elwood had been away on a residential teachers training course.  During the night Mrs Elwood told us she woke to see a woman standing by her bed.  She was wearing a nuns habit and Mrs Elwood said she knew it was a ghost although the woman looked real.  She lay watching until the woman left.  The next day she mentioned it to Miss Bell and turned out she had seen it too.  Both were quite scared by the experience.

It seemed that there were ghosts everywhere, the temptation was too much for my young creative mind.

A small group of us decided that the school needed a ghost, so we made one up (I say we, it was my idea).  It wasn't an old school, built in the 70s but for reasons I don't remember we decided that our ghost was a student who killed herself in the toilets at one end of the school.  I'm sure the story wasn't very well thought out but as we were only trying to convince 7 to 10 year olds before the days of Google it didn't need to be.  The story was rolled out one lunchtime and by the following afternoon it had taken on a life of its own.  New details were added, names and reasons for the suicide.  A teacher bullying the student who wasn't very clever. 

The following week two of the girls from the lower class heard something in the toilets.  Another saw a strange girl in the corridor.  Soon the girls were to frightened to use the toilets and the boys from the top class were daring each other to go in alone.  One girl actually fainted in the toilets she was so scared after hearing a noise.

Eventually an assembly was called and the head teacher explained to us all that no one had died in the school and that there was no ghost.  Did anyone believe them, no chance.  This taught me the power of whispered rumours and the weakness of official statements.  The stories continued in to the next year when we were the top class. 

A few years after I'd left school, in my late teens I went to a reunion at my junior school.  I heard some children talking about the ghost, fortunately at some stage the story had evolved and apparently the ghost is just lonely and wants to be friends. 

I guess I should really apologise to the school and teachers for causing lots of problems with my story.  I never meant any harm and it taught me a lot but I suspect it was a bit of a nightmare for the school at the time.

Letter 3 - My Parents

Dear Mum and Dad

There is no way I can write a letter to you both together because you are so different and have been there at different times in my life so I can only do this by splitting you up as you have split up so many times before.

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Letter 2 - My crush

Seriously difficult because I don't really have a crush on anyone except Mr Midnite and he comes in under some of the other letters.  Is it normal to not have a crush on someone? I always used to when I was younger.  Anyway in the interests of doing the challenge I cast my mind back to the 17 year old me who went from crush to crush so that I can write to the guy I fancied for so so long and never did anything about.

Dear Crush Man

I see you every weekend but we never speak.  I wait all week to see you and always want to say something but I never do.  I dress for nights out to impress you but you don't seem to notice. You always look so good, I love the way you dress and the way you dance, even your gestures while you talk.  I watch you from afar and wonder what you are really like but I guess I'll never really know.

The first time I saw you we talked, it was at the bottom of the steps in Duffy's.  I loved your bright blue eyes, so clear they don't look quite real.  You talked to me about music and asked if I'd seen your friends.  After that I spent then night hoping to see you again.  Now week after week I see you but I'm too shy and embarrassed to speak.  I know so many of your friends but you aren't with them when I am.  I think every week that I will speak to you, I decide what to say.  Nothing special, just "hello, how you doing?"  But, every week I fail to find these simple words once you are there.

I know you have a girlfriend, she's a bitch.  I'm not saying this because I fancy you, she really is a bitch.  You deserve better.  I know your friends, they can be a bit out of control.  I don't think you're like that, I don't hear your name in the gossip.  The things they do, dodgy to say the least.  I know you have a job so maybe you're not like them. 

This week I will speak to you.  I'll say hello and maybe then we can be friends.
MM

The Lambton Worm

Something a bit different, this is an old song from the North East of England.  Trust me when I say they are singing in English.  The language is Geordie but the setting is around the River Wear which isn't really in Geordie Land, its more Sunderland.  Anyway hope you like a taste of the North East:

Mrs Midnite and the Boxer

When I was out for dinner last week I thought I saw an ex boyfriend.  I say thought because I just saw him from behind but something about the walk etc makes me pretty certain it was him. So I thought I'd tell you about him, well tell you more about me with reference to him.

When I was younger I didn't have much confidence and I never noticed if someone liked me.  Even when I was told I never believed my friends.  If someone asked me out I would go on a date with them if they were OK.  This is how I ended up in a rubbish relationship for 8 years.  He really liked me, I thought he was OK, 8 years passed!

So a few years after I became single I made some changes and started going out more often.  I think of this as my second chance at being a crazy student because I really wasn't crazy first time round, more old married couple.  For the authentic student effect I did an MBA at Edinburgh uni and started going drinking and clubbing regularly.  For a while I had a great time, me and my girls would go out dancing a couple of nights a week and just have a good time.  I sometimes would have a dance with someone, occasionally took a phone number and even what on dates with some guys.  I never really clicked with anyone and although some lasted a couple of months I wasn't really bothered, I'd rather be out with my friends.

Eventually I decided that I should start picking the guys I was interested in rather than waiting for the people to come to me.  This is sort of where Mr Midnite comes in but that's a different story entirely.  So I decided to try to talk to guys I liked the look of to see if I got any response. Bring in the boxer.

We had nothing in common really but he was (I think) good looking and had a great body. He's from Gambia and had only been in the UK a few months when I first met him.  He was a friend of some friends and in fact his brother had been chatting me up for months.  I used to see him most weekends but he was very quiet and although we talked I was new to the whole "girl power" thing and couldn't quite get the whole "do you want to go out sometime" thing going.  Eventually in best school yard style my friend told him I fancied him and he said he liked me.  And we all lived happily ever after ... not.

As I got to know the boxer I realised that he was very young, added to that he had moved from a largely Muslim country to Scotland.  When it was just us and we talked he was really nice, a sweet guy.  I spoke to his mum and sisters on the phone and found out all about his life in Gambia, learned a lot about Islam and discovered some things about myself.  He had a daughter back in Gambia which was as much a shock to me as it had been to his family when it happened. 

After about 3 months he ended up with nowhere to stay and was going to live on someones floor until he found somewhere.  I have a 2 bedroom flat to myself so it seemed right to ask him to stay.  Spot that stay, not move in, a subtle difference but I think important.  Watch while I demonstrate:

I love you so much I can't bear to live without you, please move in with me
vs
I have a spare room, why don't you stay with me until you get sorted out. 

So clearly this is where it all went wrong.  Well this is where it all went wrong sooner than it would have done if we had maintained an appropriate distance. 

See the boxer had friends and they told him that I must be crazy in love if I had let him move in.  On top of that the adventure of living in a new and much less restrictive country was just too much.  And the final thing, living with me meant that there was no food to buy, no bills to pay, he could just go out with his friends and do whatever he wanted.  So gradually he started to treat me like an unpaid landlady.  By the time we had been seeing each other a few months we never went out, he was out pretty much every night with his friends.  I wouldn't have minded if we had had some nights together but they got less and less. He would tell me he would be back at 8 and not turn up until 4am, I was actually worried about him sometimes.  I'm not the type to try and control anyone, I like people to choose to spend time with me not be with me because I nagged.  So I just quietly got pissed off, all the time his friends were saying "she won't mind, she loves you".

I was out one night and got talking to a girl in the bar, she was asking if I was seeing anyone and I told her I was seeing the boxer.  She got quite embarrassed because he had been texting her friend.  Friend was brought over, very apologetic, so I borrowed her phone and called him.  He was gone by the next morning.

It's funny because I knew it would never last, he was too young and needed to have some fun and decide who he wanted to be, but I was still upset.  I didn't love him but I liked him.  I think it must be quite hard to be brought up in a strict country and then arrive somewhere so much less restrictive.  I get the feeling that he wanted to be a good Muslim but he also wanted to do what his friends were doing.  I thought it was sad because he came here with hopes and dream, big plans but with no structure to push him he just didn't do anything.  About 8 weeks after we split up I heard from my friends that he had got a girl pregnant.  She decided to keep it because "all my friends have babies and I want one too".  He told one of my friends that he wished it was me having the baby.  They split up not long after the baby was born, surprised?

The Worst Night

Before I was unofficially diagnosed as bipolar I didn't really understand what was going on in my head, during manic phases, I used to go crazy and do really stupid things.  At this time I was coming towards the end of a pretty long manic period.  I had been going out clubbing up to five nights a week and was experiencing some things that I now know are symptoms of mania.  I had been seeing Mr Midnite and another guy at the same time but I had just thrown my toys out of the pram and dumped them both. 

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Strange day / strange thoughts

Have you have a day when your mind just goes off for a wander on it's own and sends back weird little postcards?

I was in the North East of England, land of my childhood and teenage years.  Plus it was my cousin's 18th birthday and I remember seeing her in hospital at a day old.   While I was driving my ipod added the final ingredient by pulling out some old tunes that sent my mind off on a trip down memory lane.

As I drove along singing (some would say howling but I'm going with singing) little flashes of life jumped out a me:

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First Memories

My first memory is a strange one, for some reason it is the time we took a fridge to my Gran's house.  My parents had got a new fridge so my Gran was getting the old one.  I wanted to go with my Dad but because the fridge was in the back seat and the boot I had to sit in the front.  I was very young at the time and maybe remember it because it was such a big girl thing to do.

This is the first clear memory I have and it surprises me that it is a happy memory.  I'm not saying I had an unhappy childhood, I don't think I did, but most memories that involve my Dad include some dodgy moments.

One other very clear memory I have from when I was about 7 is of going on holiday, I think to somewhere called Primrose Valley although it could have been a Butlins place.  We arrived there and were unpacking the car, I was carrying my bag to the room that was mine and my brother's when my parents realised my brother was missing.  My Dad shouted at me because I hadn't been watching my brother.  I'm pretty sure no one had told me to watch him.  I think he was about 4 at the time.  I realise now that my Dad was stressed and worried and just blew up at me because I was there.  Even though I realise this I still think it was wrong, I was 7 and I remember crying and crying but just getting shouted at more.  The holiday place found my brother, he had seen a play park when we had first arrived and as soon as he was out of the car he had gone to find the park.  Even though I remember some other things from that holiday like the donkeys on the beach I mostly remember getting shouted at and feeling that it wasn't really fair.

Lots of my early memories are around playing outside, my bother and I were the youngest children in the street I lived in but the older ones would let us join in.  We would play football, cricket and rounders on the grass opposite our house.  There were other games that didn't favour the younger children like kiss, cuddle or torture and British bulldog.

One afternoon a girl moved in down the street and I had a friend my age from then on.  I remember that day very well.  From then I have great memories of the games we played, we built the shapes of cars (KITT from Knight Rider) and space ships in the garden from bricks.  We had light sabers and saved the universe from evil before dinner.  Sometimes we were squirrels or bears and very occasionally we were children. Summer days that lasted forever, no commitments and nothing to worry about expect bedtime.

Our imaginations had no limits and they are the best memories I have from my childhood. 

 

Picture - Lazy Bones by Jo Parry, I like her dog and cat prints best but this for me fits this post.