'Emails' from Mol's laptop - remote working
 
These Emails were written by Mol Smith to friends and associates during the week October 15th 1999 to October 22nd 1999.They form a 'field-record' of events which took place near Chelsham, on the Surrey, Kent, borders - England. Not all were received. I have indicated those emails written, and found on the recovered lap-top, which Mol was unable to send due to exhausted power supplies. Where he mentions digital 'stills' or 'video', I have linked to these from the email accounts! 
 
Wim
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Day 2
October 16th 1999
 
Day 2 - Saturday, Sunday morning - October 16th / and just into 17th 1999 
To friends.  

Hi, 

Only got 4 emails when I signed on this evening: one from Marls, one from Wim,  
Steve Durr, and one from my partner Mark - wondering why I suddenly shot off  
and left him to manage the business. If any more of you sent one - I didn't get it...  
or at least I've been unable to retrieve it here in the forest on my lap top. 

Another cold night. The day started well but we got lost looking for that church.  
It's quite odd - neither of the two compasses we bought along seem to work here.
Maybe something about the area geologically weakens the magnetic 
field locally. Larry says it often happens in isolated spots especially close to Ley Lines.
I don't know - I don't go camping much. 

I think we started off about mid-day. A bit late really but we drank too much of 
the beer last night and all had hangover's. Larry is one hell of a cook though 
and we had a great breakfast of baked beans, egg, and bacon. It took us some 
while to realize the compasses were giving us wrong bearings... but we 
eventually saw enough sun through the trees to get a line on where to head. 

Van had a great idea of leaving little white stones at strategic points on route 
so we could find our way back to the tent and camp later. We aren't on a  
camp-site or anything - just the three of us - probably illegally  pitched - in  
our 3 man tent. 

The church was really old - built around the turn of the century and called 
St. Mary's. We calculated it to be about 1.5  miles from where we're camped. 
It is completely on its own - no village nothing. There was a rough path running 
past it which we decided to take. Fortunately we found a few cottages  and a  
tiny pub about another 1/2 mile on.  As it was dusk and already getting  dark 
when we eventually found the church - I only got a couple of snaps with my 
night-vision camera. 

I suppose up to the time we got to the pub, our day was okay. The few locals 
coming into the pub early evening seemed very wary of us and were none too 
friendly. Nothing hostile or anything but we certainly got a feeling we 
weren't wanted. The only person willing to talk was this leering chap who 
kept eyeballing Van's legs (no it wasn't me)... and then he only wanted to 
talk with Van - William, I think his name was. I must say, Larry was his 
normal non-plussed self. 

It's funny you should mention witches, Steve, in your email. (Can't wait to 
see that film when I get back!)  It was Van's notion to come to this area as 
she had read it was one of the few areas in South England, outside of Essex, 
that had major convictions for witchcraft in 1645. There's actually two old 
oil-paintings hanging inside the pub (I can't believe it's that old so I guess  
its some local artist faking the style). One of them shows quite a terrible scene 
of a capital execution by burning. The other is quite erotic in a sense and looks   
out of place in the pub. It shows this quite attractive woman - a bit mean and hard 
looking around the eyes and mouth, and aged slightly in the face as though  
she was in her middle to late years  - but she has the body of a much younger  
woman. She's stark naked - so I guess the artist had a great time painting her.  
There is a similarity between her and the much smaller figure in the other  
painting - the one of the poor woman being burnt. Both have striking red hair 
and very brilliant  pendants around their necks. 

Vanessa was fascinated with the oil paintings and kept whispering to me and 
Larry about us coming to the right place. 

I'll be able to show you the painting when I get back... because - you guessed 
it: I took  shots of them with my digital camera. 

We left the pub later than we had planned. It was Van's fault. She wanted to 
know more about the woman in the paintings and spent nearly an hour chatting 
to 'leery' William about them. I had more to drink than I thought... and I reckon  
we were all a little tipsy before we left for the long walk back. 

When we came past the church, Larry needed a wee. I don't want to make a 
big thing of it or anything but it was kind of creepy around there. The church  
has a small cemetery to one side and the head stones look very old. Larry was 
respectful enough to walk around to a field on the opposite side of the church  
to relieve himself. We waited until he got back but it was all I could do to talk  
Vanessa out of going for a walk around the cemetery. 

Anyway, to cut a long story short and to save my batteries (I am a slow typist),  
when Larry got back and we started out through the woods. he told us he had  
discovered a grave outside of the Cemetery in the adjacent field. When Van  
asked how he found it - Larry sounded a bit embarrassed: apparently, it was - 
by misfortune - directly in his line of fire! 

It took us a long time to find our way back here  - hence the late email and 
probably loads of typos. I was hoping to send you the oil-painting images I 
took from the pub but when I checked them just now in the camera - I seemed 
to have cocked something up. I took another image coming back through  
the woods. It was one of Vanessa. She was a short way behind us and suddenly 
shouted out. When we looked back - she was trying to brush away what seemed 
like fire-flies from her. What with drinking and all - she was a bit over-reactive 
and panicky. I took a quick aim with the camera and fired off two clicks as 
we walked back.

She said she had felt a heavy pressure in her ears. Larry told her -  
"drink less Vodka!" She was still complaining of ear-ache and dizziness when 
she went to bed! 

Anyway, I just checked the camera now and both shots seem messed up.  
The first one has patterns swirling around Van's position in the image, and  
the second has come out really weird: it has like a super-imposed image of  
the woman in the oil-painting from the pub on it and Van's hardly recognizable at all. 

The two images of the oil-paintings are lost and no-longer stored on the chip. 
I must be more careful not to mess up the settings in the future or else I will  
spoil all my shots. Less beer might be a good rule for taking photos, I think. 

It's late. I had better turn in. I don't want to wake the other two as they got their 
heads down half-an-hour ago. Groan, two days in and I'm missing my bed already :( 

All for now, 

Mol 

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