Have finally recovered from my cousins wedding. No it wasn't a hangover, I'm not silly enough to get drunk in front of my family, mostly because I'm still young enough to get told off if I did. So I got my cousin's fifteen year old daughter drunk instead.

What I've recovered from is the nasty cold one of the brats gave me (ok, they're not really brats - I find kids I'm related to pretty easy to get on with. And cute)

I wasn't expecting to enjoy myself at all. Kevin & his brother Jon are notoriously boring. They're also the only members of my family in this country, so we had to go.

Fortunately, their younger brother & sister, Deccie & Donna came from Ireland, & Donna brought her three eldest children. I love Donna's kids. Kate is my mini me. She looks just like me, minus fourteen years. She also acts just like me, minus fourteen years, & so spent the entire days beating up my dad. It helps that I'm Donna's mini me, & look just like her minus eleven years. Her two eldest kids are a lot of fun too.

Deccie & I spent the entire ceremony sticking our tongues out at each other across the church. Deccie (short for Declan) is twenty six. And will be getting married next year, to his curiously princess-like girlfriend. Considering Deccie is a big neanderthal who, if he was a child today, would be dosed up to the eyeballs on ritalin, I consider this an odd match. At least they will be having chocolate cake.

Kate spent the entire ceremony in a stage whisper "but they're doing that bit WRONG". We really don't get to see many protestant services.

I got sat next to Jon for the meal. Boy has that guy changed. It's probably just that he thinks I'm more interesting to talk to as a grown up, or something. On the other side of me were Kate (oh, joy - she was in a temper) & Kevin's insanely cute four year old, Callum, possibly the most bribed child to keep quiet I've ever seen. I had to watch him show me his Spider-man stuff, & all his Simpsons stuff, & his lion...

He's a bit confused though. Last week he got picked up from playschool & was found to be wearing a pink dress, & likes to play with dolls. Jon - "I've really got to have a talk with that boy"

There was a debate at our table as to who my mum was godmother to. Everyone though it was Donna, since she is mums favourite, but it turned out to be Deccie. Mum - "I really should have killed him when I had the chance, shouldn't I? There was that big font full of water..." I wouldn't mind, but she said it while sitting next to him!

Last year I was out in a village pub having dinner, it was a very old pub & had the kind of atmosphere you tend to watch out for after a few encounters (& believe me I've had more than a few). There was this old bloke sitting at the corner table reading his paper. I didn't really pay much attention to him, except that I noticed no one was serving him - but hey! the service in that place really sucked anyway. Didn't really think about it again until yesterday.

Last night there was a program on TV about a local village & its haunted pub. Apparently Tom, the resident ghost, sits in the corner & quitely reads the paper.

I hate being me. Ghosts always go "ooh she looks fun, lets go mess with her head".

The first time this happened, I was fourteen, my granny had died a few days earlier, & it was halloween (so no one believes me). I was outside my aunt's house, looking through the hedge to the next field & saw a human shaped figure made of bright light. I looked back & it was gone. About five years later I learned that spot was the demolished fort (Celtic burial mound), the Irish equivalent of a bulldozed Indian burial ground, & that nothing would grow near it. I went back this year & discovered my cousin Niamh has built her house smack bang on top of it. My aunt & her family have all had bad luck since moving to that house.

This, however, is nothing to College Hall. The year before I arrived, some bright spark on my corridor decided to raise demons for fun & profit. As the man who lives at the end of Taz' bed will confirm, this was probably a bad idea. Of course at the time I couldn't tell Taz there was a man living at the end of her bed. I just used to tell her it was the pipes, & wait for her to scream in the middle of the night "Tracey the pipes are talking again!" while watching the eyes & eyebrows in the corner, which were all I ever saw of him. Our lights would switch on & off, as would our radio. Things were never where we'd put them. It was exhausting, especially when you'd wake up at night to find something trying to pull you out of bed. Makes me glad we're all out of there now.