Jennifer Love Hewitt... where are you when I need you?

Looks like it's time to call the ghost whisperer again. 6 years ago, Fr Vincent Chee blessed the house after a spate of disturbances. Since then, all was calm and peaceful on the Riang front.

Now it looks like another unwanted guest is disturbing the peace again.

Odd little incidents have been happening over the past few months.

The television switching off itself in broad daylight as Owain watched Sesame Street. The television switching on by itself in front of me and Isaac as we sat there in the living room talking. Each thought it was the other who pressed the start button on the remote - until we realised that the remote was on the sofa behind us and with no one else in the immediate vicinity. Those were one-off incidents that never happened again. Then there were Trinity's unexplainable hysterical crying bouts. Happened once or twice when she was really little - 2 to 3 months old? And again, yesterday. Then there were the times when I'd get the flesh-creeping feeling as if someone was watching me - usually at night when I was the last one up to bed.

They say babies can see things. You'd know if a house was 'clean' or 'dirty' if you brought a baby in to it and she reacted. I know this is true. At various times, Trinity has screamed for no reason and each time, I could guess what it was. Even Owain has, when he was a baby, but not as often as Trinity.

Yesterday's crying bout was bad. Lolita said that for no reason, Trinity started screaming at 11+ in the morning. Nothing would calm her. A bottle of ebm was finished and she still sobbed. At the time, only Lolita, Trinity and Owain were at home and they were in the living room. Lolita said, and I knew exactly what she meant, that Trinity "cried differently". Normally, she would be sleepy and grumpy and given the ebm, would settle down and sleep. That day, she howled non-stop until exhausted, she slept. In the afternoon, around 3+ the same thing happened. Gillian, carrying her, said Trinity kept looking at the side garden. Nothing would pacify her. Lolita called me at work and I heard the screams. Was on the verge of packing it in and cabbing home but had to see my boss, so I couldn't. Asked Lolita to take Trin out for a walk - out of the house. Lolita said she did. And the minute they left, Trin was alright. They went for a walk round the neighbourhood. But the minute she stepped back in the house, Trin screamed again. So off they went. The second time they returned, it was better - Trin was calm.

And yesterday, Lolita commented that our house was full of ghosts. She knew because her hair kept standing on end at certain times, particularly in certain places. So where were the hotspots? She identified the backyard, her bedroom and the dining room.

I knew she was not lying because I knew these to be the troubled spots too. Years ago at a barbecue held in the garden, my sister had taken me aside whispered that she had seen a faceless shadowed form in a blurred white gown/robe hovering (she used the word because whatever she saw had no feet) near the water pot. The side garden where the waterpot was was also responsible for crying jags by the babies (Owain and Trinity) - the babies would cry/literally scream non-stop and inconsolably when they were out there once in a while - usually at twilight/dusk. So eventually I made it a rule that the babies were not to be carried out there after 7+ at night.

The previous maid who also slept in the back room had reported instances where she too felt spooked for no reason, and on one memorable stormy rainy night, had glimpsed a long-haired form peering in from the outside.

Lolita also told me that when she sometimes ate outside near the backyard, food would inexplicably slip from her grasp. I challenged her and said her hands must have been oily. She said no, no matter how tightly she grasped the spoon or the piece of meat, it would go. Then she would know and she would take a bit of food/rice and throw it on the ground. She said it was Filipine custom to do so - the ghosts wanted to eat.

The girl was unfazed by all this though. She said that this was very common in the Philippines. Practically every house had a resident spook or two. No matter how many times the priest was called in, these things stayed. She had never seen one but had felt the presence of many - so much so that while she was discomfited by it, she was not afraid - this being an almost familiar feeling. She was surprised that Singapore had ghosts though and had asked her recruiter about it. Her recruiter confirmed it of course. Singapore, while looking like a glossy metropolitan, is still full of spooks.

So what to do?

Last night after dinner, in the waning light, I went out back and stood there in the semi-darkness. I didn't speak out loud, but I think the ghosts do hear what I am saying in my mind. I asked them to leave us alone. To not disturb us, particularly Trinity. But if it or they, frightened Trinity again, I would come after them. Ghost or no ghost.

Am I scared? Yep. But I am also quite fed up. Its one thing playing with the TV remote and giving us the heeby-jeebies but to scare my babes? That's really outside of enough!

My mom offered us her place as a refuge since KH was still out of town. But I'm not going to be driven out from MY home. If anyone should go, it's not going to be me.

So I guess it's time to call in the reinforcements. I need a sensitive priest. Fr Chee, at 70+ is getting on in age. Moreover, he's moved to Woodlands and no longer at IHM which is down the road.

I know these things will escalate. It starts off with the creepy feelings and slowly get worse. Yesterday was the first time that Trinity was affected in broad daylight, not once, but twice. So better start getting help before the infestation gets worse.