Ghost horrors - could it be squatters, squirrels or failing sight?

A UK hotelier told me he used to get complaints of chills from 'ghosts'. After he double-glazed the bedrooms the complaints stopped.
I just read a report about the Amityville horror ghosts in the USA. Here are my suggestions:
1 Unsettling smile: eyes don't smile: a) speaker is lying or b) writer/reporter is trying to imply it without being sued.
2 I often see 'ghosts'. I look slowly and see movement reflecting myself moving on the inside of spectacles, or in a window/ mirror. Car headlights shining through the window can flash/make shadows and wake you.
3 Noise: spider/ gecko tips objects. Subsidence.
4 Falling objects: stack cupboards/ shelves carefully.
5 Cold? Draught-proof.
6 Vibrations. You live above/ near railway lines/ earthquake fault lines. Pictures fall. (Crash and jolt like somebody shoving my bed happened to me in the UK - next morning newspapers reported an earthquake. Common in west coast USA.)
7 Footsteps: mice, squirrels, rats, pigeons. Call exterminators. Squatter/stalker/burglar.
8 Immigrant/ex in attic! Happened in UK. Illegal immigrants got into an empty end of terrace house. They  made holes through all the attic walls. Burgled at night. When a family reported a burglary with no sign of forced entry, an attic search was made. One person or trace of them was caught, plus holes in panels to other attics.
9 Beams have dry rot. Without carpets sounds are magnified, especially in the silent night.
10 Seeing any 'ghost' figure wearing hats, or monsters with 'large heads' is retained blurred negative image in out of focus eyes. Well-known to opticians. Recorded in optical journals. (I read an account in a journal saved by my father, an optician.) Get eyes tested. If problem's slight, it's deteriorating sight; you're not nuts.

Skios - humorous novel - warning ending revealed

Just finished reading Skios, a humorous novel by Michael Frayn, which I read through a chapter or so every night. Really cheers you up if you are tired or fed up. 

It's full of funny puns. Skios sounds like Skiathos, a Greek island, but also lends itself to puns and misundertandings about skiing.

It's full of incidents which are just like what happens to you when you are travelling - losing your passport, thinking somebody is the cleaning woman when they are not, two local people who look alike, taxi drivers who are brothers, problems getting a phone connection, people who think you are somebody else and you don't like to disappoint them by admitting you are not. Rich men married to call girls.

My favourite funny sentence was:

'Some of those remaining are weeping or whimpering as they wander about in a state of post-traumatic shock ... 

falling into each other's arms as they find their loved ones, or even their unloved ones, still alive.' 

The ending with the earthquake was totally unexpected. But entirely plausible to me because I had experienced just that - during a speech - with VIPs on a Greek island.

I was on a press trip organised by the Greek tourist board to promote Greece as a tourist destination, to the Ionian island of Kefalonia. An earthquake interrupted the welcome speech. 

Ironically, the minister welcoming us in the hotel bar before dinner was saying, 'This island is totally safe ...' (I think he was referring to the low level of theft and crime.) 

Then the earthquake shook all the glasses on the table. Everybody went silent. This was followed by a dreadful crash - I thought the lift had fallen down the lift shaft - I'd never experienced an earthquake and wasn't expecting one - everybody ran out - all the Greeks first - without shouting anything or telling us what to do. We journalists continued drinking, puzzled until somebody realised it was an earthquake and said, 'If they are going outside we should do so, too!'

We then stood around the doorway debating whether it was safer to move away from the building in the open, or stand under the doorframe which might protect us from falling debris.

Kefalionia, which had a major earthquake in 1953 and the local museum tells how the Israelis helped. 

Coming back to the book - I immediately thought, why didn't I think of writing a book which ends with an earthquake. And since I like comedy more than tragedy, this would have been the perfect plot. But Frayn got there first. Well done, Frayn.

I don't apologise for revealing the ending. Knowing the ending never stopped me watching three videos about the Titanic, nor any film on WWII.

Popular Paintings - Make Me Blue

The portrait of the lady with the blue face, said to be the most reproduced painting in the world, has been bought by a diamond millionaire for display in South Africa. the sitter is not smiling nor even looking at the painter/viewer. Would you want to have lunch with her?
I can understand that people posing for oil paintings can't keep up a fixed smile for hours. But nowadays we have photos. You can take a photo and draw a sketch from it. If that's what millionaires are prepared to pay for, I'm prepared to draw an unsmiling face and add a blue complexion - a lot easier than trying to match a real facial colour. I must get out my blue watercolour and draw myself.
Would you like a caricature by me? It might be wroth millions in years to come.

annalondon8@gmail.com

Speeches Worldwide Helped By Powerpoint Slides

People say the audience should be listening to you, not reading the slide.
1 But if you regularly speak outside toastmasters to groups of retirees, those at the back with poor hearing and poor concentration - are glad to have visual reminders.
2 Those walking in late are grateful to have some clue as to what is being said.

A slide is like a signpost. It tells you where you are going.And the distance.

3 In Singapore the presenter often speaks poor English.
4 Or somebody in the audience causes a distraction. It's very useful to have a slide which tells you what you've missed.
5 Once I arrived late because of traffic problems. I was asked my opinion - the presenter was going around the audience. I looked at the board to find out whether we were doing opening introduction to yourself, table topic, or what? The board gave me my answer which saved embarrassment to me, the presenter, and the rest of the audience.
6 In London we have lots of speakers, and audience members, whose first language is not English. The visuals prevent those situations where the evaluator has to admit, 'maybe it was just me, but - I could not follow the argument'! As an evaluator I love seeing slides. I can write my notes, then look up and catch up on anything I've missed from the bullet points on the slide.

Ebay, auction raptor comments

Auction raptor asked for comments.

I'd like a survey of my average spend, compared to the cost of the site, giving a price per transaction, and the average difference in price between what I was prepared to pay and what I paid at the auction.

I'd love a site which tells bidders who won that if they don't like the item I'm prepared to buy it from them. Sometimes you pay a lot for an object and don't like the colour or fabric or fit, but the seller won't accept returns. Meanwhile, you suspect that as often happens when you lose out, you decide you'd be prepared to pay extra for the postage on to you and a little more for the trouble the sender takes to pack and post. That would make two people happy.

I'd also like an item wanted page.

I have a house full of clutter.

Maybe somebody somewhere lives locally and would take away a big item.

Maybe they'd pay for it.

Maybe the dreadful cup/item makes up a set and I never realised somebody would actually want it.
I'd also like to bid on sites other than ebay.
And compare auction raptor with auction sniper.

Dating, Dumping, Rejection, Solution

After thinking about getting notes - how the recipient can be confused and upset, I had a revelation about what happened years ago when I was a student.

One thing useful I learned about rejection. 

Years ago I broke off with a boyfriend. 

When I moved out of home my mother did not want me to move in with him.

My mother insisted I break off and see if I met anybody else. 

She said if he cared, he'd still be there a year later.  

 A year later at last I was alone with him in a public room, after others left. We both sat reading.

But when I hoped to get back I sat around in the common room with him silently waiting for him to make the first move, because he was the man. 

He didn't. 

Eventually he got up and walked out. 

I could not understand why. 

Now I understand. 

He was insecure (divorced parents). 

He thought as I had broken off, I should make the first move to getting back together. He did not want to be rejected twice. 

The fact that we both sat until we were together meant we wanted to be back together. But both of us were afraid of being rejected and waited until the other made the first move. 

When nothing happened, he got up and left first, because I had already rejected him previously.

If he had waited, or looked at me and smiled, I'd have spoken.

I should have spoken sooner.

Toastmasters has a manual on the four levels of conversation. You start with general chit, chat, progressing through shared opinions until you reach more personal stuff. If you skip the first or intermediate steps the other person is overwhelmed. 

I think the same applies to physical approaches.

Drowning: Safety, swimming, lifesaving, weirs, warning signs

1) A boy died jumping into a weir. Others had encouraged him to jump in.

2) The friend who went to save him was nearly pulled under and had to let go.
That always happens. You need training in life saving. You have to get behind the person and tow them back to the side. Unless you are a six foot man rescuing a baby, if you are in front of them they hang their arms around your neck and their weight pulls you under. (If you are similar size.) I learned that when I tried to rescue my mother in a swimming pool.
3) To a teenager Mum and Dad warning you not to do something is just parents fussing about anything and everything. A notice saying Danger or listing fatalities on weirs would look more independent and be taken more seriously.
4) Is it a criminal offence to encourage somebody to try a dangerous activity?
If not, it should be.
5) If you had a sign warning danger, then people who are likely to be swayed by others might be influenced by the sign.
6) Do schools run any campaigns in their citizenship courses in health and safety and local areas? If not, they should.