Tutelars of the Concealed Agnostics,

Scotland has 5 "new towns"; Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, Irvine, Glenrothes and Livingston. None of them have an outstanding national reputation; Cumbernauld is often criticised for having the most hideous and depressing architecture in the country, Irvine features in that song, Livingston's local economy has suffered in recent times with relocation of electronics firms to other countries, but as with all towns, they each have positive and negative aspects. Glenrothes is only a short journey from where I live, I had to visit this morning to complete a few chores. In the "new town" layout, the shopping mall is in the town centre with local government headquarters and other office blocks, this is enclosed by a ring-road. Outside the centre, the town is divided into small communities each with their own amenities. Beyond the residential areas, there is another ring-road before a series of industrial estates. The planning seems to make sense, but in practice it makes for 3 roundabouts per person. I think the council takes this new town tag too seriously and likes to think of Glenrothes as revolutionary centre of culture, thus there are all sorts of weird statues and sculptures around the town. There are massive tulips on one of these roundabouts. There is an ugly sculpture of two old people on a bench in the shopping centre, fortunately there is room on this bench for one other person to sit - it's an excellent photo opportunity, with Farmfoods in the background. There are also silly totem poles, there's a huge jagged monstrosity that looks like a flock of terns. There are statues or sculptures everywhere and I haven't seen them all, I probably never will. If I'm going to Glenrothes, I'm usually going to the shopping centre but today, I had to go to a small business park that I rarely have to go near and I passed one of these landmarks which was a group of schoolgirls dancing, it is called "The Dream".

This statue reminded me of ghosts. Many years ago, I was staying at an outdoor activity centre for the weekend, and we were told the old derelict house on the same estate was haunted by the ghosts of children. During my stay, I awoke during the night and I thought I heard noises of a school playground and being gullable I imagined children outside dancing as in the statue, although I don't think I was too bothered about it, I was two storeys higher than the "ghosts" in their playground. I have quite an interest in the paranormal but whilst I retain an open mind, of all the strange phenomena reported over the years; the one I'm most doubtful of is the existence of ghosts. I can believe in monsters, but that term perhaps is a quite vague, it's impossible to define what is normal within evolution and I can believe Earth has been visited by beings from other planets because both these phenomena must consist of physical matter for people to have reported them. Of course, I can still be scared of ghosts, even if I'm not sure I can believe in them, similar to my fear of causing a car accident by sneezing is my fear of moving into a house that has a ghost, this is quite irrational.

The other inhabitants of this house think it is haunted, I have my doubts, I need evidence of the involvement of physical matter or scientific ideas that can explain the forces that have caused the weird events that they have reported. Apparently, items have been going missing only to reappear in places where people have definitely already searched, I think this can probably be explained rationally, however, I am missing my hat. I don't wear hats normally but I did want to wear it yesterday and it was not to be found on the shelf with the rest of my winter insulation.

The one incident that leads me to believe they are right about the existence of a ghost happened in the early hours of the 17th of December 2004. I should have been sleeping but I was reading, I had heard my brother switch off his television and lights about 10 minutes earlier, then he screamed, darted noisily for the lights and ran to wake mother and father. They calmed him down but the rest of the night he kept his lights and television on. I think he must have stayed awake too because he slept during most of the following daytime. I have never asked him directly what happened that night, I didn't really want to know, it would have just been something else to fear, but through time I've unfortunately learned from the people who were told what happened. By all accounts, he switched off the lights and saw something, he got into bed but began to feel a cold sensation, of course, he decided to text someone from under the covers to tell them what was happening, as everyone but the most resolute Luddite would, and while he did this, the covers were pulled from him and this was when he screamed. I would be more sceptical of the ghost encounter had it happened to me, but brother is the one who is less interested in the paranormal and his encounter seems more credible to me than the same incident would if it happened to me, this doesn't make a great deal of sense, but in essence, I find it harder to doubt him than I would myself. The other piece of evidence which might lend verisimiltude to the event was the strange behaviour I witnessed in our pet dog that evening, however, he may have been startled by my brother's reaction.

In summary, I have an open mind towards ghosts, there must have been a reason to invent a term to describe them, but I'd like to hear some plausible science - I can invent my own to explain the visitation of aliens (imagine an incredibly advanced society nurturing a self-sufficient crew aboard a supercraft that could travel through space for many years on a sight-seeing trip) and I'm sure zoologists could explain monsters somehow. Whatever happened in the aforementioned incident, I don't want it to happen again and I want my hat back.

Today's photograph features an electricity pylon.