And if it's Neverland you need, its light will lead you there

Written at 2am 11/8/09

Bed! Bed! I couldn’t go to bed!
My head’s too light to try to set it down.

No, I haven’t been dancing.

Today has been THE most magical day ever. I’m on holiday in my homeland, so everything feels a little more magical anyway, but today, tonight especially, was brilliant.

And all because I’ve seen FIVE shooting stars. Five! I can’t BELIEVE my luck. First was on the prom, over the bay, just the usual FWOOOSH across a small portion of sky. Then when my crazy family decided to have a wander down the beach in the pitch black (with a torch – it’s stony and we didn’t want to fall), we all lay down and watched. We saw two more little fwoooshy ones above the moon, then someone saw a big green one and then a purple one. Then when we got too cold and gave up we saw a little gold – seriously, gold – one cross the sky really slowly with a trail behind it. It was truly and honestly just magical. And at 10 to 2 I wandered out with a wool blanket wrapped round me and saw a MASSIVE flare arc slowly between two stars and I think my jaw hit the floor. Now at 2am I’m still in awe. I’ve never seen so many, especially on such a moonlit night.
It was a good laugh too cos we taught the boys the unofficial national anthem (and hearing three warbling bass voices copying our silly soprano was hilarious), sang the rude verses of “She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain”, and discovered that quartz rocks, when thrown on other rocks, causes sparks.
I was a little unnerved because I saw a green flash on the hillside out of the corner of my eye, and a white one later. And the other night me AND Alex had both seen something small and black fwooosh over us and up the hill, and it didn’t look birdlike. Perhaps the little people are about.
The whole holiday has had some really memorable moments. We were discussing “Favourite moments so far” in the restaurant tonight, and I couldn’t choose. There was the second night when the full moon was gleaming on the water, so we walked down on the beach. Then Alex’s last night :( when there was an AWESOME sunset – which you rarely get on the East coast. There was when mum and her crazy friends went in the sea and leapt over seven and eight foot waves in the freezing rain, and then the next day when it was sunny and I joined them, only to have to jump massive waves myself (much as I like being short it’s not easy to jump seven foot waves). And of course last night definitely deserves a mention. Or better yet a paragraph.
We were out late for dinner in a pub, it was dark outside, and once the kids had finished we left the adults to drink and chat (or just chat for the driving ones), and went for a walk down to the castle and the breakwater. My friend Sarah was telling all these spooky stories about the castle – there’s a pathway right round it. She said the other night she’d sat up there with a friend, and it wasn’t really that spooky, they were having a good time, laughing about something. Anyway a minute or so later she saw someone looking over the castle wall – just a head and neck – and it scared the hell out of her. At the time though, they recalled later, there were performances going on in the castle, so, hopefully, it could just have been a stray spectator. At the wrong side of the castle...Hopefully.
Anyhow, I announced it was FAR too dark up on the castle path and anyone stupid enough to walk round was just ASKING to be spooked. It looked like something out of a horror movie for God’s sake. So Sarah stayed with me and we sent the three strapping lads round. Whilst they ambled round, acting tough, we snuck to the other side where they would come out and waited. As soon as my brother stuck his head through the archway we leaped out from either side going “RRAAAAWWRR!!!” His face was an absolute picture. He had to restart his heart I think. Tom nonchalantly claimed he’d known that would happen, hence he didn’t go first (yeah right). After that we walked along the breakwater and there were literally hundreds of seagulls in the water and on the boats, making a racket. It stank of fish and boat fuel (petrol? Diesel? Can’t remember). And I was bringing up the rear. All I could think was “I wish Alex was here…” and “If someone comes up behind me now…I will scream this freaking place down.” It was fun though and it’ll stay in my memory for a long while I hope.
I’ve said so much already and the holiday isn’t even over until Saturday! So much more to do! If I do anything more exciting I’ll write another blog about it.
And now to sleep. Hopefully I’ll have good dreams because I just bought a dream catcher :)
Goodnight everyone!