Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Traitor Doge,The Blind Doge,The Prophetic Doge.


I own a lovely book called "Venetian Legends And Ghost Stories" by Alberto Toso Fei. One of my favorite tales in it is The Traitor Doge,The Blind Doge,The Prophetic Doge.
Essentially, Its a scary story about 3 ghosts who share the same patch of Venetian Canal Bank for eternity.......But it's a funny story because although all ghosts ,they are eternally unaware of each others existence ! So every time they bump into each they scare themselves! [Imagine the irony, being a ghost who is scared of other ghosts!]
I am thinking a lot about ghosts myself this week.My old,loyal longtime readers will be aware that I am a regular user of The Rochdale hamam.I have been going to it since 1984.The old place is falling to bits.Things dont work too good these days.It's due to be knocked down early next year.A wee bit of my history will disappear.......
Someone visiting it for the first time today will only see a sparsely populated tatty building.To Modern eyes it looks,I'm sure, unimpressive.But to my eyes, it is rich in memories & ghosts.
I invited  Ken there yesterday for the first time.In his innocence, Ken said .."A Lot Of Bloody Doors In Here......."
Now ,although Ken is not a Ghost, he represents another strand of my life over 40 years around Halifax.I am one of those people who tend to compartmentalize my friends+situations.Things seem to be seeping through more now.
Anyway.Yesterday.I thought it would be fun to mix two distinct parts of my history together.
It was.


..a few photos from my week..i look a bit ropey & trippy because I have had a bad back & am on (for the first time ever!) painkillers [Naproxen]......

Last night, having a Whitworth Curry,Cappo Martin showed us his Photos from his recent Charity visit to Nepal on behalf of Comic Relief .Also, thanks for the online album [one photo above].I have to say that your own photos are as good (better, infact) than the "official" ones!Martin,you are far too modest!

While making this post I got The Above facebook message from Veronica in Buenos Aires. The beautiful South American branch of my family will be the subject of my next post.

9 comments:

Kurt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kurt said...

My college town looks the same as it did way back when I was there (whenever that was), which makes it difficult for me to realize how old I am.

Roy said...

Ah! Love the PG video. He and the band always look like they're having far too much fun up on the stage.

Brian Miller said...

glad you are off the painkillers man...i have places like that...where people usually dare not go but carry so many a memory and a few ghosts...

Anonymous said...

The book and the ghost story sounds interesting. It's a good time of year for ghosts,with Halloween just around the corner.

21 Wits said...

great video for sure...and your ghost story sounds so interesting...I mean really imagine that ghosts going bump in the night...who ever would have thought it was possible! Too funny! A must to read!

Martin said...

'Baby you're a rich man'. It's been a few years.

Little Nell said...

On the subject of funny ghosts, do you remember Rentaghost Tony? Of course you do. It hasn’t been on for 25 years, but apparently it’s going to be returning to TV soon! My kids loved it; so funny, so camp, so silly...

Akelamalu said...

Old haunts that bring back good memories are priceless. :)

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