The Horror at Hinchingbrooke House: The Beginning

Heyy, 

Schpoopy season is nearly upon us! And whilst I cannot wait to put up the Halloween decorations and plan that party I have always been dreaming of, I cannot help but cast my mind back to somewhat this time last year! I was in a dark place mentally and felt very alone and lost, with little or no help from professionals to try and lift my mood or extract me from my cloud. It was this time of year I started to get the help I needed and coupled with becoming engaged, a birthday and buying our first home, I was finally able to make a break for it, cracking through the surface and gasping the freshness of happiness for the first time in months. Saying that it will soon be time for our snagging visit after being in our new home for nearly a year and even before that my 1-year anniversary of being engaged to my Mr Warehouse, all those many months ago in that gravelly car park!

And soon enough, as I had said at the beginning it will be All Hallows Eve! As with last year (I feel this is developing into somewhat of a tradition) Mr Warehouse, Miss Tweedle-Dee and I will be joining forces with Miss JoHo (an old work colleague of Miss Tweddle-Dee and Miss TweedleDumb's) and heading to the horror that is Hinchingbrooke House! With a website that is literally entitled "enterifyoudare.co.uk" you have to be at least a little nervy about booking tickets and signing up to what is literally your worst nightmares coming true. The Sun Newspaper calls it an "absolutely terrifying experience" and I am in no doubt after the videos on YouTube that this is most certainly the case. 

Logging onto the foreboding website you will discover that "The Horror at Hinchingbrooke House" is not just a silly old Halloween maze for kids, but an award-winning interactive and realistic horror experience located in the famous haunted grounds and house in Huntingdon. Nestled in the Cambridgeshire countryside, the most famous characters from both mine and probably your most feared horror films and TV shows come to life within the confines of the house to produce a unique, terrifying venture where you don't just become some thrill-seeking freak on your sofa with a box of popcorn and a pillow, but a trapped victim, forced to become immersed in the terror. 

The website goes on to explain that victims, I mean, participants can "experience pure adrenaline and terror whilst journeying through dark rooms, forests and mazes being hunted by axe-wielding freaks, chainsaw maniacs, killer clowns, demonic creatures and more!" And as if that doesn't get your heart racing with absolute panic "the theatrical atmosphere arranged into 13 sets and with around 80 actors lurking in the darkness" will be sure to freak you out. Meet your maker with the likes of Jigsaw from the SAW franchise movies, Ignite your fears with Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street films or maybe try and drown it all out with a visit from Jason Voorhees. Purge yourself with your very own experience of Purge night or visit the inspired tales of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Even the solace of a friendly face like a clown won't allay your fears as Pennywise is always lurking around drains and IT is just waiting to float too!

Diving deeper into the darkness of the pages the I take a sneak peek into the FAQ section doesn't help soften even my fears (and I love horror) as it clearly states that "Once you're in the nightmare of The Horror at Hinchingbrooke house, there is absolutely no escape" - No Guide. No Map. No Surrender. "Combined with a wide selection of sound and lighting FX help to create an absolutely terrifying experience." 

But don't just assume it is all actors and cool effects. Whilst "The Horror at Hinchingbrooke" is an extremely scary experience and was voted one of the scariest events in the UK, it has a seemingly endless list of resident spooks hiding out in the main house. As the story goes "A nun, who haunts the Nun’s Bridge over Alconbury Brook, once the site of an old convent. Legend has it that the nun was involved in a love affair with a monk, but when the affair was uncovered the pair were executed sadly separated by death and only to be found at the house in 1834 when two skeletons were discovered of a man and a woman believed to be from 994-1050AD. Their spectra can be seen around the grounds and in 1965, a couple reported seeing ghosts on the bridge with several more reports emerging of similar sightings in Hinchingbrooke House since then." Other spooky sightings include a cavalier who haunts a room in which he was murdered and a phantom woman who floats above the staircase, presumably where she fell to her grisly end ... or was she pushed?

Alas I have no choice now. The tickets are booked and the date is looming. Not for the faint-hearted, I shall hopefully prepare my vocal cords for near explosion as I scream and (attempt to) run from the scaries and the baddies and the meanies on what will certainly be the most scared I think I ever will be. 

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx

Glitter Makes Everything Better (Unless Its Gary)

Heyy everyone, 

Donning some glitter and denim shorts I was looking forward to the hotly anticipated Bedford River Festival this weekend and with the music drumming, food smelling incredible and host of friendly and familiar faces along the way, this weekends antics have certainly put a smile on my face. Following what has been a very difficult and stressful few months for me, I honestly feel the best that I think I have felt in a very long time. Now whether this is because my work life is a lot better or maybe it's the medication for my depression that has kicked in, I am just glad to say that life seems to be getting brighter again. I suppose when I really try and put my finger on it, my improvement in mood comes down to the fact that nothing major has really happened to improved it apart from my medication. 

Whilst the medicine I am on has finally stopped making me feel queasy and nauseous (something that only ever seem to happen in the morning before lunch which made me paranoid that I may be pregnant) I know it would be silly for me to simply stop taking them all together as I know that this is something I need to continue in order to build up it's effect, coupled with counselling and therapy of course. I just needed something - anything- to take the edge off and make it all seem a little less sharper. I have sometimes questioned as to whether I am suffering a placebo effect from just simply popping some pills every morning along with a Hayfever tablet, but as some of you may know I had tried to muddle through the cloudiness and not succumb to the need for medication for some time. I know that therapy and counselling is helping make a difference and battling my demons, but I also need to look forward and celebrate my future. 

This is a time where I should be happy and excited about finally getting the home I have always dreamt of, well at least in part. With the house seemingly moving along nicely and with the solicitors now instructed and doing their thing with searches and the likes, I am feeling more positive than ever. There is no move date as yet so don't grab your red cups and vodka for the house party just yet. I am almost certain after talking to different people at work and through other groups of friends that the process will quicken pace and before I know it the contract will be with us ready to sign on the dotted line. 

Does it makes me nervous about getting a house? Yes, of course it does! However I have to put everything into perspective and when the Devil on my shoulder tells me that it is going to be very expensive and makes me question as to whether Mr Warehouse and I can afford it, I must remember all of the other times that I thought or wondered how I would ever afford what I wanted in life. I look back even now over the last couple of years before I had Vivienne (my car) and I question as to what exactly I spent my money on as I didn't have much to show for it. Before I moved into my bachelor pad upstairs in the block that I currently reside, I lived in a studio type room within a house of multiple occupancy and even back then when I was on pretty much minimum wage, jumping from job to job, I question what I spent my cash on. 

It terrifies me to think that I will yet again have to depend on someone else and with that statement I mean that I will not be able to afford the house by myself should anything go wrong and therefore will rely on Mr Warehouse and his input both financially and in running the place. Now I know that for many of you who are already married or cohabiting that this may not seem like such a big deal, but I don't know, maybe this is a problem for me because I have been let down many times by other people, both in past romantic relationships as well as within my close family network. My therapist has said that abandonment is a major part of my life and that many things can trigger this rejection so making sure that someone doesn't get too close or that I don't depend on anyone apart from me is simply my way of coping and dealing with never feeling cast aside, unwanted or unloved ever again. I think my one biggest fears going into the whole experience of buying a home with someone I am not married to is that I know there is no legal standing when it comes to our separation, regardless when or even if it happens. Mind you, I suppose that being married doesn't necessarily mean that someone will not get up and just leave you either. 

I have to remember that this is a happy time in my life and that one day I will explain to my own children about how I bought my first home at the ripe old age of twenty-six. I suppose there isn't many of my friend circle, if any at all, that have been able to get onto the property ladder without any financial help from someone, family or otherwise. I am seriously glad to be feeling even a little bit more back to normal and I am ever so grateful for the amount of support and love I have had over the last few months, fingers crossed it won't be long before I can once again walk in the sunshine and Sparkle as I did before. 

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx