Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Over the last few days, investment and savings, and that sort of thing, have been the topic of choice. But now, after reading a few morbid articles in the news, it occurs to me that life insurance is the best kind of investment … I’ve just never really thought about it before, I suppose.

The other day I linked to a news story about a man who was killed by an altar falling on him at church, which proved that you can never be prepared for what can happen to you. And here is another story that could have ended tragically as well: a girl had to take the wheel of the car after her mother, on drugs, lost control. This case could have ended in something a lot worse than whiplash.

Thankfully it was all okay, but it could have been fatal – more than a niggling injury, more by far. And that’s the worrying thing.

When these things happen – and they happen a lot, really – and increasingly more often, it seems, it’s more than enough to get you thinking about term assurance and life cover. As if you needed a reason to do so.

Today has had an odd, grim, gloomy sort of feel, mostly due to the fact that death seems to be everywhere in the news, both locally and globally. It’s pretty chilling, especially when one of those deaths is a local kid, going to the same school that you went to in your youth. It’s surreal.

When it comes to ghosts, of course (which have been haunting a variety of news websites this week), it’s all a bit more light hearted. Well, they’re light-hearted when they’re the harmless sort of ghosts; the ghosts that are kindly, and don’t raise the hairs on the back of your neck. That is what these ghosts seem to be.

Indeed, this first one might not even be a ghost at all. To me, it seems to me to be a woman, sitting somewhat eerily behind the child. There is a video to accompany it, and they seem to think that it is unquestionably a ghost – they make a big fuss of it, in fact, and don’t seem to think anyone could consider it to be anything but a ghost. It looks very much like a woman to me, and a hoax. And this one, too is probably just smoke, or else there is someone in the photo, with a spooky air about them.

The ghost stories just served to remind me of the horrible deaths that seem to be happening all too frequently recently. Even my friend’s dog has died, making it quite a horrible week for him.