Callie's World (3 page)

Talking about the text term “lol”. I only
found out yesterday that Ella didn't know what it meant. She used
to date a guy a while back called Lawrence and he shortened his
name to Lol. Anyway, she got a text from her sister yesterday and
she asked me why people kept going on about Lawrence. I didn't know
what she meant until she explained it. I had to tell her that it
was pronounced L.O.L as in laugh out loud, not Lol as in the name.
How annoying is that, eh? Now you can see what I have to put up
with. I've only got two more days with her, thank goodness.
Tomorrow we are going to Edinburgh Zoo (my choice for once) and so
I'm hoping I won't be as stressed. Tonight we are going to have a
quiet night in at the hotel and I'm hoping to have an early night
as my feet are killing me from all the walking and my ears from all
her talking.

My mum called today too; Lila got the job! I
don't know how she did it but maybe the people in the opticians
couldn't see what we see (get it?)

I hope you guys are all ok and I will update
you more on Friday.

Until then,

Callie signing off xxx

Yay! I am all alone in my bedroom in my own
apartment. I am enjoying the sound of silence as I type. I was so
glad to say goodbye to Ella this evening. I swear I'd lost hearing
in my right ear (the side she liked to gab into for some reason)
and it is only just starting to get back to normal (although I'm
not totally sure because I'm enjoying the peace and quiet.)

We did have a good time at Edinburgh Zoo.
though. I love animals. Ella doesn't agree that they should be kept
in captivity and although I think in theory, that it sounds cruel,
when you see the zoo and how well the animals are cared for and how
much room they have to run around I think it is a good thing. Some
of the animals would be extinct if the zoo hadn't brought in
breeding programs and so I am all for it. We had a row about it
though. She is so opinionated. She spent most of the afternoon in
the cafe while I had a peaceful walk around all by myself. My
favourites are the monkeys - they are so funny! I think they love
showing off in front of people and trying to make them laugh. When
I'd finished looking at everything I wanted to see, I met Ella and
we had a cup of hot chocolate, which was gorgeous and then we went
back to the hotel and got ready for our last night out. I was
adamant that I wouldn't flirt with anyone because I don't do long
distance romances and Edinburgh is miles away - it's a different
country for a start. Well, what do they say about good intentions?
I've only met the most perfect specimin of manhood that ever lived!
He is so totally and utterly gorg (swoon swoon). I love his accent
and his dark, piercing eyes and his spiky black hair and....ooohhh
I just can't go on - I miss him so much. His name's Lee and he's an
airline pilot (well he said he was but I suspect he was trying to
impress me) and he is just perfect. I know I keep saying it but he
is. While I was gazing into his eyes and swooning Ella spent time
chatting to his mate, Mark. He was ok I guess but Ella obviously
wasn't that impressed as I heard her moaning at him about animal
cruelty in zoos and I saw his eyes slowly glazing over.

Anyway, I am so lovesick now! We've agreed to
meet up again next month because he said he will be flying to
Manchester airport and he will have a stay over. Whether that is
true or not I don't know but I am going to be counting down the
days until I see him again. This doesn't usually happen to me - but
I guess you can't fight fate. Anyway I've had a long week and I'm
back in work on Monday so I'm going to slip into a nice, hot bath
with a glass of wine and then get off to bed.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend. I'll catch
up with you on Monday.

Until then,

Callie signing off

xxx

I am totally fed up. It seems that while I
was away in Edinburgh last week, my boss decided to hire a temp to
do my column. It turns out that he was some sort of God of
journalism and now my boss wants him to work with me. When I argued
about it, my boss said that if I continued to question his judgment
then Nick (the temp) will be permanently replacing me! How dare he
say that! There are laws against this sort of thing. So now I have
to sit next to Lord Nick and put up with his "suggestions". Just
because he used to work for some sort of UFO rag mag in America he
thinks he can lord it over me and tell me what to do! I hate work
now. Callie's world was mine and now I have to share it. At least
my boss is not making me change the column name and Nick is so laid
back he doesn't care what it's called as long as he gets to check
out weird stuff. He is so annoying. He keeps sniffing all the time
and when I pass him the tissues he just shakes his head and gives
me strange looks. I wouldn't mind if he was good looking. Our
office could do with some eye-candy; but no, I'm obviously not
allowed eye-candy in case it distracts me or something. I suppose
my mum would like him. He reminds me of the old actors she used to
like: Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood and Kurt Russell. You know,
they're not traditionally good-looking but they are rugged and some
women like that. Well, I don't. To me he just looks old and he
could do with a shave.

I went round to my mum's after work to tell
her all about it but now she just wants to come to my office to see
if he is as rugged as I said he was. Lila is still enjoying her
job, which I find totally weird. She doesn't enjoy any jobs. It's
like my life is part of some sort of X-files movie at the moment.
To quote the lyrics of Keane; "Everybody's changing and I don't
feel the same..." I don't bloody well feel the same. I feel
annoyed, angry and totally fed up! Sorry for moaning guys, but
doesn't it just make you angry when things change at work and
you're supposed to shut up and put up with it? If it wasn't such a
harsh world out there at the moment I would dramatically sweep into
his office (my boss) and tell him I don't need his job because I
will get snapped up at some bigger newspaper. Well, a girl can
dream.

The one thing I am looking forward to is
hooking up with Lee later on Skype. I love Skype. I use it to talk
to my friend, Nikki, from school who moved out to Australia for a
gap year and who's been there ever since (I keep hoping she'll come
back like Lila did, but no such luck.) but it is going to be even
better staring at the utter gorgeousness that is Lee, this evening.
It was funny the other day because Mum accidently switched on Skype
on her laptop and she started shouting to Dad; "Ken, there's
something horrible and weird on my laptop screen. Come here and get
it off, please!" and then Dad came over and saw it was her and he
said, "That's you, you stupid Mare!" and she was freaking out
saying; "That's not me - it's horrible!" and then he laughed and
said; "Well, you said it love." How funny! I can't believe she
didn't recognize herself. I think there are some people who
shouldn't be allowed to use technology. Anyway, I am going to
finish this blog post, go and have a glass of wine and start
counting down the minutes until I can chat with Lee.

Until then,

Callie signing off xxx

Hi

I am going to keep this short today because
I'm exhausted. I feel as though I am coming down with some sort of
horrible flu bug. It must be something I caught off Nick; he
certainly sniffs enough to be a germ bag.

So, anyway, I went on Skype to speak to Lee
and he didn't even bother to log on. I've been sending him texts
too and I haven't got any replies. I asked Erin to send me a text
just to make sure my moby was working and I got hers so I can only
assume he has dumped me. It's not like we were properly going out
or anything but I expected it to last a little bit longer, at
least.

I reckon it's because he isn't an airline
pilot after all and he realized he couldn't keep pretending he was
because I'd find out sooner or later. I'm not too bothered to be
honest; he was gorgeous, yes, but what future was there in our
long-distance relationship? I'm going to make sure my next fella
lives near enough for me to at least see him a few times a week.
Even if I had talked to Lee on Skype we couldn't have kissed or
anything so what was the point really?

I hope my germs are gone by tomorrow. Nick
and I have been sent on quite an exciting job. We are going to
visit a local old folks home where there are supposed to be ghosts.
It's a sort of Halloween special and I'm really looking forward to
it. It will be the first job I go to with Nick to so I guess I will
get to see him in action, so to speak. Anyway, I told you I would
keep it short. I will let you know what happens with the ghosts
next time but until then...

Callie signing off

xxx

Hi guys,

Well, we went to that old folks home; Nick
and I and it was totally freaky. The old folks walked around in a
daze half the time and I don't think it had anything to do with
their age - I think it was the weird atmosphere in the home. It is
an old listed building and apparently it used to be an old
infirmary in Victorian times and lots of people died of plague or
some similar horrible illness. The nurses reckon they see lots of
see-through figures walking down the hallways at night. They aren't
scared because the apparitions don't really do anything scary; but
for me they wouldn't have to - just them being there would be
enough to freak me out and have me running for the hills. So it was
a good job I had a nice hunky man like Nick to protect me - NOT! He
was worse than me - what a mummy's boy! He kept hiding behind me
and I could hear him breathing really quickly and going "Can you
see anything yet?” I forgot to mention - we were in the house
during the night when the ghosts were supposed to appear. It was
quite cold in the corridors but I bet it was just because of the
time of year. I did feel scared but I put that down to the fear of
what might appear. Nothing materialized though and I guess I was
kind of disappointed. Nick drove me home and I swear I could see
his legs shaking and the car was swerving a bit on the way home. As
we were driving I kept imagining what it would be like if he were
my boyfriend (strange I know) but I don't usually get in cars with
men at night unless they are relatives or boyfriends so this was
weird for me. He didn't speak much. I asked him what we were going
to write in our article about the ghosts and he said we could just
make something up. That just says it all about him, if you ask me.
All journalists would be able to write great stories if they just
made it up. Some would say that the UK tabloids make stuff up all
the time but that doesn't make it right. I don't think our boss
will agree with him (he likes proof, usually, like photos or
something). At least it is the weekend. I'm going out tomorrow with
Lila, Ella and Erin on a girls' night out hitting the local night
clubs. There's never a dull moment when we all get together and so
I will let you know about it on Monday.

Until then,

Callie signing off

xxx

Hi guys

Hope you're having a spooky Halloween. I'm
going out with Nick again later. We are going back to the old
folks’ home and we're going to be staying in one of the rooms
overnight. I am going to have the bed and Nick is going to sleep on
the floor in a sleeping bag (what a gent).

We are taking our cameras and Nick is setting
up video equipment and we hope we are going to see something this
time. It will be one of the scariest Halloweens ever.

I went out with the girls on Saturday and it
was one of the best nights out ever. We danced so much I had huge
blisters on my feet yesterday morning. Erin and I got talking to a
couple of guys and we're going to see them again this weekend. I
will tell you more about it on Wednesday because I've got to go
now. Nick is beeping his horn to take me to the spooky house.

Enjoy whatever you are doing tonight and I
will catch up on Wednesday.

Until then,

Callie signing off

xxx

Hi guys,

I know spooktacular isn't a real word and it
doesn't being with W like my usual Wednesday posts, but I couldn't
think of anything which could sum up just how spooky my night with
Nick was on Monday. It would have been scary spending the night
with him under any circumstances, just because he makes me nervous
for some reason, but on Halloween it was really really scary. The
manageress showed us to our room and Nick put down his sleeping
bag, ready. He's so particular you see. He has to have everything
"just so" before he gets down to any work. Then he got his video
recording stuff and we both went into the corridor to set up. Lila
said it was quite mild outside when she took her friend's daughter
trick or treating but I couldn't stop shivering even though I was
wearing my fleece and a parka. I was so cold I even wore my fleece
in bed (that and the fact I didn't want Nick to see any part of my
body that was usually kept under wraps!) Anyway, we left the video
recorder set up in one part of the corridor and at the end there is
a bench where people can sit and look out of the window. We both
sat next to each other and it was about half-eleven when we first
heard shuffling sounds. At first we thought it was one of the
residents but most were in bed with their lights off by half-ten.
Then we both heard someone say "hello". At first I thought I'd
imagined it but when I noticed the horror on Nick's face I realized
it was someone speaking to us; a male voice, quite deep and not
malicious or anything but we both said, "did you hear that?" and
nodded and then we knew it was real. I wanted to go back to our
room because that was enough fear for me, but Nick wanted to stay -
probably because he was frozen to the spot. It was then that I wish
we had gone back to our room. We both saw it so we know we aren't
going crazy; it was a white mist that seemed to drift towards us.
There was no ghostly figure or anything - just mist. It was deathly
cold and it hovered just in front of us for a second and then
dissolved in front of us. We both looked at each other again and
went back to our room. We knew that something unexplained was
definitely happening. We both decided to try and get some sleep but
we heard weird howling noises. It was probably a cat outside but it
only added to our fear! The next morning in work, Nick started to
download the video and then we saw it - the mist that had hovered
to us was, in fact, an apparition of a slim, pale, dark-haired
young woman. We could see it clearer on the video. I'm so glad I
didn't get to see it face to face or I'd have totally freaked and
Nick wasn't man enough to calm me down - he'd have probably ran off
before I did. So, there you have it, my scariest Halloween ever. We
ran the story the next day but when we tried to print a still of
the image it wouldn't let us and when we tried to do it again we
found that the image had been wiped from the video. Strange, I
know. But then Callie's World is home to the weird and wonderful. I
have nothing exciting planned for the next few days and so when I
post on Friday I will tell you all about my girls' night out last
week.