Challenge 11 - VISIT A CLAIRVOYANT

This was SCARY - well out of my comfort zone. Despite being a confirmed and resolute non-believer, I still would rather pull out my own teeth without anaesthetic than stay overnight in a haunted house. Irrational I know, but I am very suggestible and an over-sized woos. Felt frightened that the beliefs I have built my life on would be shaken or perhaps collapse in a pile of rubble, and I would have to start again. Luckily I had my lovely friend Ann with me to hold my trembling hand.

It was a strange experience. Tom was Irish and a little bonkers, so I instantly felt at ease, and the surroundings were reassuringly mundane and domestic. The reading alternated between spookily accurate and laughably inaccurate. I tried very hard to suppress my natural urge to blurt out my life story and reveal my soul, and I think in the most part I succeeded. Let me share with you some of the messages (though many inexplicably accurate ones I am keeping to myself to protect loved ones):

- Dad was a cantankerous old bugger, with a good heart and a big brain (TRUE)

- Mum had Alzheimers - "her brain went on holiday before her body" (TRUE)

- Granny (Margaret - yes he got her name) used to read tea-leaves with me (TRUE)

- Robert/Bob committed suicide by hanging himself - with some connection to education (FALSE - UNLESS ANYONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE)

- A border collie cross dog goes everywhere with me (SO THAT'S THE BAD SMELL THAT FOLLOWS ME AROUND - I THOUGHT IT WAS IAIN)

- My husband is a good man with a high pressured job who travels a lot (2 OUT OF 3 TRUE!!!)

- Someone in my family with a hooked nose wore a dog collar (A VICAR IN THE FAMILY - I DON'T THINK SO!)

- Lauren studied Psychology (TRUE) and has a close gay friend (TIME TO COME OUT WHOEVER YOU ARE)

- Ben will find his direction, make lots of money and look after me in my old age (BUILD THAT ANNEX BEN!!!!)

- Patrick talks in his sleep (TRUE) but it often doesn't make sense - that is because it is in Arabic!!!!! (I SO WANT THAT TO BE TRUE)

- Iain and I will both live well into our 80s and will die within 18 months of each other (SO MUCH FOR MY LONG AND MERRY WIDOWHOOD)

- I will have 7 grandchildren (HAPPY DAYS)

- The room was full of 'visitors' - friends and family who had turned up because they loved me and because I am very wonderful (TRUE! TRUE! TRUE!). There was also wine being passed around (MY KIND OF PARTY!)

That's a brief snippet. The new experience has expanded my mind, without either comforting it or distressing it. I am still a non-believer, and I am still scared of haunted houses. So job done.