I took this picture in Queens Wood, Highgate, last week:
Amazingly, just a few seconds later - I can't be sure of the exact timing, as I was so stunned - the patch of sunlight started shimmering and two alien beings materialised. It's difficult to describe them, but they were rather like the aliens in this extraordinary tale (scroll down). They started speaking to me in a strange high-pitched guttural tone, but I couldn't quite make out what they were saying. "I'm terribly sorry", I said, "but my hearing's not very good. Would you mind repeating that?" But they said no more.
At that point I realised that I was holding a camera in my hands. I raised it to take a picture, but...I couldn't press the button! It was as though my will power had been sapped. Clearly they didn't want me to photograph them. Then they started shimmering, and they disappeared: beamed up, I imagine, to their mothership.
I stood for a while, transfixed. What did they want? Why did they appear at this spot, to me? Sadly we may never know the answer to these questions. All I know is, I felt immeasurably enriched by the experience. I was overwhelmed by a feeling of peace and serenity. Then I went home and had a cheese and pickle sandwich. It was one of the best cheese and pickle sandwiches I've ever had.
But a couple of aliens in the middle of that image would have spoiled the composition.
Posted by: PooterGeek | October 19, 2008 at 11:54 PM
Aliens are able to manipulate photograph film and CCD sensors in digital cameras. Think yourself lucky not to have been taken to the mothership. Nice capture.
Posted by: Anthony | October 20, 2008 at 12:39 AM
Cheese and pickle sandwich? That explains why they examined you. You're pregnant.
Posted by: P. Froward | October 20, 2008 at 02:42 AM
P.S. Congratulations!
Posted by: P. Froward | October 20, 2008 at 02:42 AM
When an Englishman mentions a cheese and pickle sandwich, what kind of cheese does he mean? This is the sort of detail that intrigues me enormously. Please, Mick, share your secret for that wonderfully tasting sandwich.
Posted by: Noga | October 20, 2008 at 11:32 AM
The cheese will, of course, be cheddar: the more mature the better. With Branston Pickle.
If you don't know Branston Pickle, here's Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branston_Pickle.
Luckily I wasn't aware of the Pickle Crisis of 2004, referred to in the Wikpedia article. I might have panicked.
Posted by: Mick H | October 20, 2008 at 12:20 PM
We know someone who takes her own jar of Branston Pickle to every dinner party she's invited to. And she doesn't eat cheese!
Posted by: dearieme | October 20, 2008 at 03:33 PM
I saw them too, on that very day!
They appeared to me in Clissold Park and approached me, saying, ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.
They then had to hurry off as their spaceship got a ticket. On a Sunday!
Posted by: Oliver | October 22, 2008 at 11:06 AM
Laced weed?
Posted by: EscapeVelocity/nwo | October 22, 2008 at 05:35 PM