LisaThePirate

Little Things #2

Fitness 30 November 2015

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Five things that have changed while Busted have been apart.

Busted 12 November 2015

It was a Friday night, we sat in Pizza Hut after only ordering chocolate fudge cake trying you work it out.
What could out happened to make something that was so great go so so wrong?

What was going to happen next?

Would we ever see them again?

Why would Charlie leave Busted?

That was 10 years ago, when a lot of my friends weren't old enough to drink and when Pizza Hut was considered a nice place to eat out, and how things have changed. Since then we have finished college, got jobs, seen the world, moved out, and some of us have got degrees and babies of our own while some have moved back home and had three lots of heart surgery.

With the announcement of their comeback earlier this week I got thinking to what else has changed in the time Busted went away and came back...

1) We can tweet, Instagram and Facebook our 'feels'.
Yup, when Busted broke up we couldn't read about it all on Facebook, and let everyone know we were devastated with a status. There was no live tweeting our reactions or instagraming our tear stained faces in front of our poster covered walls.
Twitter didn't launch until July 2006, by which time we had mostly recovered, Facebook also launched later that year (it had been around before but only to those at select universities, colleges and companies) and we did Instagram anything until 2010.

2) We can't shop in Woolworths, Borders or Virgin Megastore :(
Need new music, films, baby clothes, school stationery, sweets or random home accessories with a bit of pick'n'mix on the side? Head to Woolworths! It was pretty much Santa's workshop, where you could get a gift for anyone. Including Busted albums, but we could also pick them up at Virgin Megastores (later known as Zavvi) and when we were a bit older, we could go to Borders for our music, books and coffee needs. Sadly Woolworths, Zavvi and Borders all closed in 2009.

3) Doctor Who is back!
Doctor Who made its comeback in 2005, with Christopher Eccleston playing the 9th Doctor and Billie Piper as his assistant. Since then The Doctor has regenerated 3 times, had 6 main companions and swapped his sonic screwdriver for sunglasses.

4) We got pretty cool mobile phones now.
Back when Busted were breaking up most of us had pay as you go phones, costing 12p per text and each text being only 160 characters. How on earth did we manage!? Now we are all attached to the internet, its generally cheaper to have a contract and we are always having the Android vs iOS argument. Yes the phone you can't live without wasn't a thing until 2007, when the first iPhone was launched with the app store coming a year later along with the first release of Android software (with a snazzy HTC dream).

5) SMASH HITS MAGAZINE!!!!
Smash Hits stopped being published in 2006. No more fortnightly 'juicy secrets' from our favourite bands DEVASTATING!

So is the new world ready for the return of Busted? Can they still do the Busted jump? Can I still do the Busted jump? Well we shall all find out when they tour the UK next May.

What do you think about Busted's reunion? Let's discuss it in the comments...

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Spooky Brighton Stories

Adventure 31 October 2015

If this post seems a bit inconsistent, with the theme of my blog, then yes it is, but I do love a good ghost story and Luckily I live in one if the most haunted city's in the UK!

So if you're out and about in Brighton this Halloween, make sure you keep your eyes open for some of the city's resident spooks.

If you're in The Lanes;

Look out for one if the many ghosts that are seen walking around the Meeting House Lane area.

Numerous people have seen ghostly Nuns and Monks wandering the lanes before vanishing into walls.

Nile Street is the former site of St Bartholomew Chapel and is now supposedly haunted a hooded figure, thought to be that of a monk from the chapel. Another mediaeval ghostly monk, who had an affair with a local girl and paid the ultimate price for it is also said to walk around the area.

The most famous ghost of The Lanes is The Blue Nun, regularly seen in the area between Middle Street and Black Lion Street, when seen she has been described as looking distressed. She gets her name due to her asphyxiated look, some people have also reported her to have a blue glow around her. This poor soul is thought to be that of a young Nun who was bricked up alive into one if the walls in Meeting House Lane as punishment for a love affair with a local fisherman.

And when you go into the shops;

Plenty of shops in the Lanes have similar tales of ghostly Nuns and Monks but more mysterious are the reports of phantom children in the basements of some shops in North Street.

However it is Angry Mick also known as Black Belly, who is said to haunt Churchill Square and the surrounding area. Rarely reported and never reportedly seen in the by the shoppers or in public areas of the shopping centre. Thought to originate from one of the old Georgian houses that used to stand in the area, he is described as being bald and has a shirt that is open at the bottom showing a bruised and bloated stomach.

Many sightings are just a side view of him, if you see him face on he it is said he begins to wail before running forwards and vanishing. As I said not many people have reported seeing him but one credible and most recent sighting was that by a telecom engineers who was so terrified he called the police, who watched CCTV footage all that could be seen was the terrified witness and his reaction to something invisible to the cameras.

St Nicholas Church yard;

If you find yourself walking on Dyke Road, past this great old church keep your eyes peeled for the spirit of Earle De Warrene.

The most famous story from St Nicholas is that of Earle De Warrene, his son and his future daughter and father in law.

His son, Manfred was returning from a pilgrimage on the ship 'The Saint Nicholas Galley'. The Earl, Eldona his sons betrothed and her father gathered in the church yard to watch the ships return to Shoreham, but just outside the port the ship suddenly sunk taking all the men down. Eldona who was watching from the town fell to the ground and died. (The other version of this says that the church was built on the hill after Eldona's death, paid for by her father and the Earl and there is the remains of a cross on the floor marks the spot where she fell).

It is said that you can still see the Earl in his armour, lurking near the door of the church on moonlit nights, and some say that he is the knight that rides across the church yard and out down the road on his horse, and that some times you can still see the ship out at sea re-enacting

its last fateful journey and it can been seen from the beach on May 17th, the anniversary of its sinking.

The Old Steine;

Walking across the Old Steine do your best to avoid the entity that made a police officer sick!

John Robinson was an adventure who had his eyes burnt out after a disastrous trip to Persia. He was helped back to his home town of Brighton by a merchant where he died on the Old Steine. His phantom corpse has been seen in the road by a police officer who stopped to investigate the body in the road and was sick at the sight of John's burnt out eyes while another witness had to spend the night in hospital suffering shock after an encounter with the horrifying entity.

And if you do find yourself face to face with one of Brighton's ghostly residents maybe don't run into the nearest pub for a drink to calm your nerves as there are so many haunted pubs across the city,

including The Mash Tun, reportedly haunted by a former landlady from the First World War, The Pump house where a woman in black has been seen at the bar before she fades away, unexplained footsteps and voices heard in the cellar, and the Druids Head where you may see the ghost of a smuggler, who died on the staircase to the basement, out of the corner of your eye.

So which ever part of the city you find yourself in this Halloween keep your eyes peeled for one of Brighton's many ghostly goings on and let share your Brighton ghost stories in the comments below.