Now there was a time when me and hubby would sleep like babies in this position
now its more like this ............................................
in fact other than the "Donkey Kong" position little man has us in all the other positions on a regular basis and throughout the night we get woken up as we're asleep on our bedside tables after being pushed so far out of the bed.
but after 16 months of sleepless nights and yes I have heard all the wonderful stories praising there little ones who have slept through the night after just a few weeks (muttering slightly under breath) but we are thankful that even when tiny he never woke screaming just wants his bottle and then he's back asleep. so mustn't grumble (much!!).Now the sunny weather has brought out loads and loads of dog walkers to the school (and actually theres quite a lot anyway) but on walking into school today I have to say all that talk about dog owners looking like their pets or vice versa is most definitely true.
Now I have to be careful here for fear of a person recognising themselves but there is a lady with a huge poodle like pooch with huge poodle like hair (herself) sorry :( and then there's a big black shaggy dog and its owner (no isn't black) but has black hair and its rather shaggy. Lets not go onto my pooch, and me and little man not to mention middle man with all the HAIR (lol) So its official pet owners look like their pets.
I am soooooooooooooooooooooo looking forward to the weekend. I have a great friends 40th birthday party tomorrow evening and she has requested that we wear fancy dress beginning with "P" obviously the start of her name. So P fancy dress.................................. now I have to say that before we head to this party we are going to an old friends wedding reception (in fact I think we've been living parallel lives for a while lol) so what to wear to the wedding reception first that I can then change into a P.
I haven't been very creative I've got cat ears, a long cat tail and black make up for my nose and whiskers
During the day hubby needs to go to the Apple shop to try and get his secondhand iphone (we're broke remember) to work as its stuck on emergency calls and won't connect to itunes :(. And I shall be winging my way to pick up my first jubilee purchase the 9m x 3m party marquee (ooops) and I have two vintage jugs on their way to me for 99p (sorry but its a crime that you can get things for so cheap but I guess good for me).
And the cupboards are completely bare ...............................................................................COMPLETELY
Not sure if you can check this out
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?um=1&hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1304&bih=664&ie=UTF-8&q=takeaway+stokenchurch&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=takeaway&hnear=0x48768a721110c1df:0x28923e4a46748503,Stokenchurch,+Buckinghamshire&ei=GbZsT-XfKsfO0QWxlfm0Bg&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=image&ved=0CDEQtgM&iwl\zoc=cids:16071627891530943026
then wine, smooching and movies or should we start watching season 8 of 24 after being absolutely shattered of watching Lost
On Sunday we are off to West Wycombe Hell Fire caves now myths believes there are ghosts in them caves!!
http://www.hellfirecaves.co.uk/
History of the Caves
[edit]Alteration and extension of the Caves
A chalk mine of supposedly ancient origin is believed to have existed above West Wycombe for centuries.
During the late 1740s, to try to combat local poverty, Sir Francis Dashwood commissioned an ambitious project to supply chalk for a straight three mile (5 km) road between West Wycombe and High Wycombe (then on the busy London-Oxford road, now the A40). Local farm workers, impoverished by a succession of droughts and failed harvests, were employed at one shillingper day (enough to sustain a family in the Georgian era) to tunnel beneath ground and mine chalk and flint. The chalk was used to build the West Wycombe-High Wycombe road and also houses in the village and the church and Mausoleum. Considering they were all dug by hand, the caves are often regarded as an incredible feat of engineering.
[edit]The Hellfire Club
The caves were used as a meeting place for Sir Francis Dashwood's notorious Hellfire Club, whose members included various politically and socially important 18th century figures such as William Hogarth, John Wilkes, Thomas Potter and John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. Though not believed to have been a member, Benjamin Franklin was a close friend of Dashwood who visited the caves on more than one occasion. The Hellfire Club had previously used Medmenham Abbey, 8 miles (13 km) away from West Wycombe on the River Thames, as a meeting place, but the caves at West Wycombe were used for meetings in the 1750s and early 1760s.
At the time, Sir Francis' club was not known as the Hellfire Club - this name was given much later. His club used other names, such as The Brotherhood of St. Francis of Wycombe, Order of Knights of West Wycombe, and The Order of the Friars of St. Francis of West Wycombe.
According to Horace Walpole, the members' "practice was rigorously pagan: Bacchus and Venus were the deities to whom they almost publicly sacrificed; and the nymphs and the hogsheads that were laid in against the festivals of this new church, sufficiently informed the neighbourhood of the complexion of those hermits." Dashwood's garden at West Wycombe contained numerous statues and shrines to different gods; Daphne andFlora, Priapus and the previously mentioned Venus and Dionysus.
Meetings occurred twice a month, with an AGM lasting a week or more in June or September. The members addressed each other as "Brothers" and the leader, who changed regularly, as "Abbot". During meetings members supposedly wore ritual clothing: white trousers, jacket and cap; while the "Abbot" wore a red ensemble of the same style. Many rumours of black magic, satanic rituals and orgies were in circulation during the life of the club. Other clubs, especially in Ireland and Scotland, were rumoured to take part in far more dubious activities. Rumours saw female "guests" (a euphemism for prostitutes) referred to as "nuns". Dashwood's club meetings often included mock rituals, pornographic materials, much drinking, wenching and banqueting.
[edit]Downfall of the Hellfire Club
The early 1760s saw the downfall of Dashwood's exclusive club.
In 1762 the Earl of Bute appointed Dashwood his Chancellor of the Exchequer, despite Dashwood being widely thought to be incapable of understanding "a bar bill of five figures". Dashwood resigned the post the next year, having raised a tax on cider which caused near-riots. Dashwood now sat in the House of Lords after succeeding to the title of Baron Le Despencer.
In 1763 the authorities tried to arrest John Wilkes for seditious libel against the King in the notorious issue No. 45 of his The North Briton in 1763. During a search authorised by a General Warrant (possibly set up by Sandwich, who wanted to get rid of Wilkes), a version of The Essay on Woman was discovered set up on the press of a printer whom Wilkes had almost certainly used. The work was almost certainly principally written by Thomas Potter, and from internal evidence can be dated to around 1755. It was scurrilous, blasphemous, libellous, and pornographic, unquestionably illegal under the laws of the time, and the Government subsequently used it to drive Wilkes into exile.
Between 1760 and 1765 Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea by Charles Johnstone was published. It contained stories easily identified with the doings of the Hellfire Club, in one of which Lord Sandwich was ridiculed as having mistaken a monkey for the Devil. This book sparked the association between the Medmenham Monks and the Hellfire Club. By this time, many of the Friars were either dead or too far away for the Club to continue as it did before.
The Hellfire Club was finished by 1766.
[edit]Disuse and re-use as a tourist attraction
After the demise of the Hellfire Club and Sir Francis Dashwood's death in 1781, the caves were disused from 1780 to the late 1940s, and fell into disrepair.
During the Second World War plans were made to use the caves as a large air-raid shelter if nearby towns were bombed, but Buckinghamshire's rural position meant that High Wycombe and surrounding towns were not an enemy target, and so the plans were not carried out.
During the late 1940s and early 1950s the caves were renovated and turned into a local visitor attraction by the late Sir Francis Dashwood (11th Baronet), who used the profit earned to refurbish the dilapidated West Wycombe Park.
West Wycombe Caves have had over 2 million visitors since they reopened in 1951, and continue to be a popular attraction today.
[edit]Hauntings
There has been much paranormal interest and many ghost stories about the West Wycombe caves. The two most common of these are as follows:
[edit]Paul Whitehead
Paul Whitehead, a close friend of Sir Francis Dashwood, had been the Secretary and Steward to the Hellfire Club. When he died in 1774, as his will requested, his heart was placed in an elegant marble urn (costing £50) in the Mausoleum at West Wycombe by Sir Francis Dashwood. It was sometimes taken out to display to visitors, but was allegedly stolen in 1829 by an Australian soldier. Legend holds that the ghost of Whitehead haunts West Wycombe Caves and Hill, searching for his heart. Numerous visitors and staff have reported seeing a man in old-fashioned clothing wandering the passageways. When faced he is said to vanish into thin air.
[edit]The White Lady
Another well-attested local legend is the tale of Sukie, the White Lady: Sukie (short for Susan) was a 16 year old maid at the local George and Dragon Inn in the late 18th or early 19th century. She was apparently by far the most appealing of the serving staff, and many local men vied for the girl's affections. But Sukie had ambitions to marry into society, and rejected the advances of all her local admirers. She began dating a local aristocrat, and one day she got a message, apparently from her lover, asking her to meet him in the caves one night wearing her best white dress as a wedding gown. She arrived in candlelight and in her white dress, but it was a hoax by three village boys. She threw stones in fury at her laughing tormentors, but when one of the boys threw one back, she was knocked unconscious. Shocked at what they had done, the boys carried her back to her bed in the inn, but she died during the night. The caves and inn are reputed to be haunted by her ghost, and many staff and visitors have reported sighting a girl in a wedding dress wandering the passageways.
[edit]West Wycombe Caves on TV
In 2004 and 2007 West Wycombe Caves were visited by British and American paranormal reality TV shows Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters. The caves were also featured on Great British Ghosts in January 2012.
So what might we see????
Ok weirder than weird and might be talking myself out of going now but (and i've done this a few times now) tried to get the link from You Tube for Most Haunted's episode at Hell Fires caves.
You can find it on You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTDKxoEL0fM&feature=related
but i'll t
y (computer keyboard went mad then!!!)
Breath deeply Sandra!!!
NOPE can't link it, even weirder!!!
have tried several and very spooky videos now on You Tube but can't link any of them, will just have to see for myself.
The Entrance to the Caves
The Ghost of possibly Suki???
Faces imbeded in the rock!!
TTFN!!!!!! (hopefully)
