VANESSA Hudgens has a gift. Until now we’d all thought it was her ability to sing, dance, act and make millions in Hollywood. It’s a gift most people would embrace and one which would facilitate a very early retirement at, say, age 30.
But no, that’s not the gift Vanessa has been telling people about. Vanessa’s gift is that she sees and hears “things”. The paranormal, she’s talking about the paranormal.
At the ripe old age of 32 - two years after she could have retired - Vanessa is “leaning in” to this “gift”.
Sleb Safari would lean as far as it could in the other direction, to the point where gravity would be calling the shots, but hey-ho, each to their own.
Vanessa decided to tell Kelly Clarkson all about it on her TV show.
“I’ve accepted the fact that I see things and I hear things,” she informed an enthusiastic Kelly.
“The unknown is scary. But I recently was like, ‘No, this is a gift and something that I have the ability to do, so I’m going to lean into it.'”
And by leaning into it Vanessa, star of High School Musical one, two and three, means she went on/carried out her “first real paranormal investigation… like with equipment and everything”.
And, to be clear, her favourite piece of equipment was a “spirit box”. How does it work? Lean in and Sleb Safari will tell you. It “scans radio frequencies really quickly… something about the electricity that it creates allows spirits to speak through it”. So, ghost walkie talkies?
Vanessa was contacted via spirit box by a ghost called Sam and she introduced herself and her friend to him, by name. And then, get this, her friend asked Sam if he knew their names and he replied “Vanessa”. Incredible, huh?
Vanessa first noticed she was to ghosts what catnip is to cats - let’s call her ghostnip - when she was eight years of age and getting ready for school one morning.
“There was, like, you know those ducks that you pull? It’s a toy. There was one of those on the dining room table, and I started walking and it just started going alongside me. And I was, like…‘Interesting’.”
As ‘gifts’ go it’s not the same as an eight-year-old discovering they can pole vault or play Chopin’s Étude Op 10 No 4, is it?
Vanessa, do keep us abreast of any future paranormal investigations and let us know if you hear from Sam the lonely trucker again.
Goodbye to Derry Girls
The final episode of the inimitable Derry Girls is on Channel 4 tomorrow night, with a bonus, one-hour special the following evening.
Lisa McGee has played a blinder with this final series and the past three episodes have been perfect. The Derry Mammies at their school reunion, the girls in a haunted house, the trip to Barry’s… all joyous.
The Channel 4 show has been a breath of fresh air and its cultural significance can’t be underestimated. Sleb Safari will miss Derry Girls. A huge thank you to Lisa, the incredible cast and everyone involved in the show. You have done us proud.
Be more Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
Sleb Safari has long enjoyed Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and his telly antics. There’s a lot to like about someone who enjoys a three piece velvet suit the colour of a Quality Street Big Purple with a large, lace cuff.
LLB is both practitioner and judge on TV shows and sometimes he’s all about naughtiness and full-fat decorating, once describing understatement as “the hallmark of poverty, both intellectual and financial” while other times he’s a wise old owl - ‘Two sofas facing each other with a coffee table between them might look nice but what family wants to sit looking at each other? They want to see the telly.’
Laurence and his daughter, Hermione, (well, you didn’t think she was going to be called Natalie did you?) have been chatting to The Times about this and that and LLB shared that they “both have a real ‘grabbing life by the love handles’ attitude”.
From this moment on that is the motto by which Sleb Safari shall live. What is life for if not that?
