DIARY OF A GHOST HUNTER

 I'm writing this still 'vibing' off the experience that we have just had this evening. Now, you may thing we did something extraordinary, and for us it was, but maybe for you not so much. Simply put we got into a car, with a complete stranger, to check out his home for ghosts. But let's rewind a little so that you can understand how all of this happened - and yes we are safe and sound. Today we left Madam Isobelle's for our next overnight stay which was the Andrew Jackson Hotel. We were greeted by the delightful and helpful Chris at Reception who asked us all about why we were visiting New Orleans. Of course we told him about our businesses and our tour group arriving and that we were keen to see if any of the spirits of the hotel were going to come forward during our stay. He then proceeded to tell us about the fact that he lives in a haunted and vert historic house - once the residence of a plantation owner. The 'master' had this home in the city to do bu...

 Considering we travelled all day yesterday we woke up pretty well after a good night's sleep. I woke at 6am and Anne just a little later after me. We were not waiting around for the breakfast that was included in the B and B accommodation as we were not expecting a huge choice so we got dressed and headed out to find a local place closeby. Only a few blocks away was WAKIN' BAKIN! This turned out to be a great little spot for breakfast and we chose the pancakes and bacon and eggs (all combined into one meal) and I got a cappuccino and Anne got filtered coffee. We had heard that American's don't do coffee well and yes..the cappuccino was awful.  We shared the pancakes, eggs and bacon and that was an assault on the taste buds! Sweet and savoury all at once - delicious but overwhelming.  After that it was a search for a SIM CARD - and I can tell you that there are none to be found in the French Quarter of town.  The closest was another 30 minute walk from where we were ...

 And just like that we found ourselves in New Orleans - well, not just like that really. It took almost 26 hours of travel to get there. Out first leg was the longest but the nicest with a wonderful upgrade to Business class and it was the first time I could experience laying down in one of those fancy capsules reserved for the well to do. The food was wonderful too with proper linen napkins and silver ware. We landed in LAX late and so when it came to the transfer everyone was panicked to get to their next plane on time and there was chaos. We boarded American Airways to Dallas just in time and then sat there waiting for the last passengers to board! It was three hours from LAX to Dallas and then we had much more time as our next plane was and hour late. We didn't arrive in New Orleans until after 9.30pm and by that stage everything in the airport was closed. The airport is huge too and so modern - I will love to go through it on the way back, although by that stage I will be penn...

 I am not sure just how much sleep I am going to get tonight. We have set the alarm for 6.30am  and it's now 9.15pm and we sit in bed in our jammies ( we are SOOOO exciting) and just relaxing. I have a really bad back ache which came on around 2pm today so I'll be taking some pain meds and riding it out. We got to our hotel without too much trouble and Anne left the hire car at the drop off point and walked to the Hotel. We decided to celebrate with a glass of Moscato for me and a Cocktail for Anne and we shared a plate of pickles and salami. That will do us until the morning. We are going to pace ourselves with food until we get onto the plane. Why? Cause something super awesome happened today. Anne informed me that she had bid on an upgrade and got it!! Yes...we are flying in business class to LAX. How did she manage that? I don't know - pure unadulterated luck. But I will make sure that I tell you all about it as I have never experienced this luxury. You should have seen...

  I am writing this just before midnight. It's been a long day. I have been at work and then Anne and I spent three hours recording the last portions of our SPOOKY SUNDAYS podcast so that we can still deliver the show while we are away. That done I drove home and looked at my empty suitcase thinking that it is all too hard and I am too tired to make decisions right now. But, I persevered and threw some clothes in. Then it was some last minute washing and sorting out a few more things before I give up for today and just go to bed. I think I will be going over things in my head tonight to make sure that I have everything that I need and worrying about the three flights on Saturday to get us from Sydney to LAX to TEXAS to New Orleans. Why must Australia be so far away? There are a lot of cool places I want to go when we get to NOLA. Our job will be to make sure everyone is looked after though so I am really glad that we are going there two days earlier. Tomorrow - I am going to collec...

 As I write this I am so much closer to our trip to New Orleans. I still have not packed a bag, but I have changed my money over. Mind you, I don't have a lot but after exchange (and our dollar with disgusting at the moment)  I really understood that there will be savage budgeting happening to last me three weeks. Still, there are plenty of options in America so I won't feel badly done by. I am still rather stressed about everyone's safety and I just feel responsible for everyone having a good time. It's a different ball game being free to just head off and look after yourself on a tour (we did that in Germany) but this time we are part of the deal. I know we both want to give our group a good time. This is why we chose to arrive two days earlier so we have a chance to suss out the city, do some videoing, get over jet lag and be in best shape for when we are together. I've been looking at all of the sites on our itinerary and the list is hefty. I'm tired just lo...

 Our countdown to New Orleans is starting today.  Twelve more sleeps until we board a plane for my very first visit to the United States. I am excited but a little tentative. I don't know how I will react to some of the new experiences awaiting me. One of the quirky things I want to do is taste the delights of drive thru's - I've heard of many of them but I can only image what they are like until I try them for myself. I have heard on In-N-Out and Popeyes - what is Biscuitville? If there is one you think we should sample, let me know in the comments. Other than the food, I have never experienced the tipping culture that is in the US so that will be quite different and also currently our AUS$ is absolute shit so I will still have to count my pennies. New Orleans is a bucket list destination for me as I have done a number of podcast episodes on   True Hauntings Podcast  and we have talked about some of the more haunted sites in the area. But, actually visiting and...

Most of our best stories are the misadventures in places where we have never been to and of things we were not prepared for or  just complete stuff ups that no one could see coming. The most memorable one of this trip was our stay at Risley Hall in Derby. I wish I didn't have to say that, as I do have a soft spot for this place, but as with all mis-adventures, they make for the best stories.  In the photo above, Risley Hall looks like an iconic historic building that would welcome you in to explore its stately rooms and manicured gardens. But don't let that picture deceive you! We chose this place as, let's face it, it was in our budget and it had a ghost story. Perfect for us and close to Derby Gaol, we didn't want to be travelling far after a long investigation. We arrived and were shown the stair case to our room and we politely asked in the Reception person could help us with our bags to our room, which was the very most far away room from the entry to the building...

 Derby Gaol is one of those places that makes you want to go and investigate it. There have been so many paranormal groups through that I would be hard to top any of them unless we spotted a full bodied apparition, sat down to have an interview and then it vanished during our recording. So we knew that we were going to just have to enjoy it for ourselves as trying to impress was jut not going to happen. Also, our track run on ghostly phenomena at haunted locations was not up to scratch, we were just not getting the demons nor possessions than all the other groups were becoming You Tube famous for. God, how do they do it? Or do they??????? The photo above shows you the gate to the back entrance of the Gaol which no longer is accessible as we found out on our arrival! It now is barred up as the council is building a three story high apartment block in front of it. Now, even though we had the address for the front entrance, from our view point we did not see a thing telling us that th...

  This investigation happened with the help of one of our top fans, Joanne who told us about this 6 hour investigation and who also suggested accommodation and even invited us to dinner before the tour. Joining us was also Callum, Joanne's son and his girlfriend Danielle and the five of us made our way to the Castle which was about 45 minutes away from Cannock Chase where we were staying. When we reached the Castle it was still light and we all met out the front, shown where to park and then taken into the break out room which was situated in a small Cafe in what used to be the old stables. There were about 30 of us and we were broken up into two groups which would rotate between 4 different experiments. Our first task took us into a room that had walls which contained a time line of events in the castle and we conducted a vigil to see if we could make a connection with a spirit named Alice. She was allegedly an old hag she had a bit of a temper. Callum was pointed out, as the only...

 We have chosen to take it easy this trip. Previously it was a case of trying to fit in as much as possible at break neck speed making ourselves exhausted and not really allowing ourselves to be in the moment because we were too busy filming. Although part of the project of coming to Ireland has been to film it was plainly obvious to us that we wanted to connect more with places, people and experiences rather than flying through them for the sake of more content creation. This morning we took time to enjoy our breakfast at our accommodation and to then make our way to the Hill of Tara to delve into the history of the Irish Kings and just 'take it in'. After hitting the shops and looking for a few trinkets to bring home we walked the site and sat down on the grass on one of the mounds to just consider the history of the place that we were at. The Hill had been used for over 5000 years as a place of gathering and burial, inauguration and exchange of prisoners. Sitting on the site...

 Another glorious day in Ireland and today the sun shone through the clouds to give us a perfect day for travel. We started off with a full Irish breakfast, but I stopped at the black pudding and had to hand that over to Anne. We posted some mail and had another coffee scones down in the town centre and at about midday we headed off for some more site seeing. The first stop was at Lackeen Tower House. There is a significant amount of folklore connected to the site. It is said that it is now the home to a pooka, a fairy shape-shifter from Irish mythology. The legend goes that some old hags were stealing from a dead body when an O’Kennedy came upon them.  They were defended by the pooka which was captured by O’Kennedy.  It was taken to Lackeen castle where O’Kennedy’s servants begged their master to let it go or else they would be cursed. After promising to never hurt any member of the O’Kennedy family, the pooka was released.  There is a local tradition which states t...

 How many experiences can we have in one day without our heads exploding! Today we tried to find out! We left our accommodation at Clara Lodge and made our way south. We decided that we did not want to travel hours to destinations this time around, we wanted to enjoy places at a more relaxed pace.  The first stop was a Kildare where we wanted to visit Brigid's Well and St Brigid's Church. St Brigid. We had been here before (for me third time) and I have a real connection to her energy. Brigid was not always a Saint, nor was she Catholic, but she was, let's say appropriated as the Irish would not stop celebrating her. The Church was beautiful but also a little sad that it seemed to be St Brigid in name but little on the inside celebrated her. I did not see an eternal flame, which is part of her legend and it seemed to be all about standard Catholic imagery. I was disappointed. At the Well, now that was a different story. This place is ALL ABOUT Brigid. It is just beautiful. ...

 Finally, yes, finally I put my butt on a plane and have headed off to Ireland with Anne for a much needed break away and to do more filming for YouTube. Do you enjoy flying? I enjoy flying at take off, meal times and when I've landed - the hours in between, not so much. We did our first leg from Sydney to Dubai which took 14 hours and it was gruelling. The plane was packed and the seats were very uncomfortable for an Emirates plane. Then a whirlwind run through Dubai airport to get the connecting flight to Dublin. This was another 7 hours and let's say you REALLY understand just how far Australia is away from everywhere else on those long haul flights. But we arrived safely, got our first coffee at the airport, got the hire car and a SIM card and we took off to our first stay 40 minutes out of Dublin as we just could not afford the prices of Dublin hotels. We stayed in Sallins which is a glorious spot with a canal and a few pubs, a huge Tesco and Lidl and a Polish supermark...

  In two days I am boarding a plane and heading from Sydney Australia to Ireland. That is one long trip! I have to constantly make sure that I do not focus on the fact that I am sitting in a big tin can high up in the sky so I do not get too claustrophobic. I try to watch a movie or sleep, and, as I have a very busy life I finally allow myself to sit in gratitude and be thankful that I am travelling, but also, that whilst I am on that plane, I really do not have to do anything. I can just sit back. So much pressure just disappears. I cannot lie, I sometimes will use tablets to help relieve stress and anxiety, especially if there is turbulence and that isn't very often. But, as I get vertigo, I cannot afford to lose my composure or it’s not going to be pretty. Do I carry some crystals with me? Yes I do! I use them as  touch stones  so that if I need to, I can roll them between my fingers to calm my nerves. I often also wear a crystal bracelet or two and I start keeping the...

  The Mermaid Inn in Rye, Sussex England is 600 years old and was a popular Ale House with sailors in the Middle Ages. The cellars date back to 1156 and the building was rebuilt in 1420 as the whole village was burnt to the ground by French Raiders on June 22nd 1377. The Inn has 31 rooms and each one is named after a person from the history of the Inn and Rye. It has been featured in the MOST HAUNTED TV series. and has had a long list of famous visitors including a few of the royal family. There is a lady in grey/or white who sits by the fireplace in Room 1, which is called the JAMES ROOM . Other apparitions are another white lady who walks across a room and stops at the foot of the bed, a man who walks through the bathroom wall and into the main room in another part of the Inn and a woman who is supposed to be the wife of one of the local smugglers back in the 16th Century when Rye was still a port village. Other reports include bottles smashing in the Elizabethan Chamber room a...