THE HOLE IN THE ROOF

ARCHIVE for April 2002


UPDATE: Tuesday 30th April 2002

• After 6 weeks online, we're finally showing up in a major search engine, namely Google, which is perhaps the most important one. Search terms that make us come up as No.1 on the list include: Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital, Canadian Hospital Taplow, Hospital Taplow, derelict Taplow, haunted Taplow, and a whole lot more - even Maidenhead hospital (I wonder how the actual working hospitals in Maidenhead would feel about that? I thought our META tags were okay but that is ridiculous). Ironically, Maidenhead's very own search engine, Alta Vista, has been too slack to include us yet - but it's only a matter of time. Still, this should start to create a better awareness of the site.

UPDATE: Monday 29th April 2002

• Howdy folks, firstly just checking in to say - "yes, we're still alive here at The Shrine despite the lack of updates in the past week or two. This has purely been because we've been rushed off our feet gathering new booty for you (seriously, it's very time consuming) - so hold on a little while longer, because the enormous new photo section is very much "getting there" and should be up in the next week or so - so brace yourself for Conquest 2002.
  
• A new Maidenhead Advertiser article from Friday announces that 94% of respondents reject the idea of development on the CRCMH site - check out the story in the Latest Developments section.
• New photo of "incinerator with nude" added to the Esoteria Collection photo page.
• New links added for a site about weird nursing tales (which includes spooky stuff) along with a site about an American hospital that looks uncannily similar to the CRCMH (ta to Andrew for that). Oh, and after a couple of years of campaigning, the Dead End? website (original home of The Flincher tale) has been officially pronounced dead - i.e. removed by host Ozemail. Hurrah!

UPDATE: Thursday 18th April 2002

• Two somewhat erotic art shots by Owen added to the Esoteria Collection in the photographs section. These were taken at the CRCMH in 1995. I can't remember ever stumbling across any such wanton nymph on any of my travels inside the place - bah, some guys have all the luck...
• Damon defaces another of Owen's masterpieces - by adding Pwürg's "Quality" cassette single cover as an insert on the original photo used for the purpose (Isaac Mangang in his wheelchair) - also on the Esoteria Collection page. Click on the thumbnail to see the new addition.

UPDATE: Wednesday 17th April 2002

• The world's greatest Richard Dreyfuss inspired picture added to Damon's first impressions page. The first sign of madness?
• Added new link on elsewhere page for the all-new Cane Hill abandoned mental hospital website.

UPDATE: Tuesday 16th April 2002

• Yesterday, we celebrated our first month in cyberspace and are proud to announce that the CRCMH Shrine has had over 350 genuine hits in its first calendar month online (site maintenance always bypasses the hit counter by the way). This might sound rather paltry in comparison with, say, microsoft.com (or indeed those people who begin their counters on 10,000 hits to make themselves look better - aka. virtually everyone on the internet), but for a website as esoteric and obscure as this one, we're fairly chuffed. Actually, the original Flincher tale on the now defunct Dead End? website took well over a year to amass that amount of traffic. It is also worth noting that this site is not yet showing up in search engines. It has been submitted, but the way these things work nowadays (i.e. very badly), it's going to take a month or six. But once it starts turning up, we'll of course get the casual sufers on the hunt for all things CRCMH stopping by. But for the past month, it's just been word of mouth and a couple of generous links. So a big thank you is due for your interest so far, and also to those who have shared kind and/or constructive words with us. So, keep on popping by, and we'll keep on, er...chooglin' ...?
• A new page featuring a potential "ghost photograph" has been put up in the Flincher section. Is it The Flincher?...or just a bunch of shadows? You decide.
• Two Maidenhead Advertiser story scans have been added to the newspaper section of the latest developments section. Although neither of them feature any news we don't already know (they're from late Jan/early Feb 2002), one of them has a quite disgusting picture of what developer Countryside Properties intends to do to the site - so get that bucket ready.
• Don't panic! - the masses of new images are on their way, and boy will they be good. So remember: Be patient, not a patient...

UPDATE: Wednesday 10th April 2002

• Added three warm and atmospheric photos from the 1970s contributed by John Ewen to the miscellaneous photographs page. Old colour photos have a wonderful feel about them that's virtually impossible to reproduce today - it's almost like they transport you back in time. Presently, the resolution on these isn't the best, but hopefully the'll be upgraded in due course. Thanks to John for these.
• A new observation from "Flinch-Hunter Extraordinaire" Mr Lucas Bones has been added at the bottom of the Flincher page. It makes you wonder...

UPDATE: Monday 8th April 2002

• Altered the what's new page a bit - it's now called the hole in the roof - in other words, it's the little space in which we can sit and observe the changes as they happen.
• An all new image header (it beats the word "banner") added to every page linking to the hole in the roof. It also contains a link to the home page, or more intentionally, the site frameset for those who've somehow accessed this site by hopping over the back fence so to speak. Now visitors led astray by nasty search engines won't find themselves stuck within a very crap looking site - if they're clever enough to think of pressing the "head on home" button that is. Thanks to Paul at Maidenhead.net for bringing that one up.

UPDATE: Saturday 6th April 2002

• This what's new page and related banner.
  
• Added a couple of bizarre stories related to Beaconsfield and Maidenhead High Street that have nothing whatsoever to do with the CRCMH. I'm not going to even attempt to explain these anomalies. I'll just use the word Lilliput. Enough said.
• A few dead links fixed on the [history] page.
• Biography of South African Foreign Affairs Minister Dlamini Zuma, and CRCMH DJ John Savage in the celebrities section of [intrigue].
• Assorted new links added, including supernatural sites, a visual tour of Maidenhead, and an updated link to the Cliveden walking tour on [elsewhere]. The links have also been cleaned up a bit with more information about some sites - and we've got rid of a few links that, to be honest, were completely crap.
• New map showing the location of the CRCMH, and a few extra bits and pieces on the F.A.Q page.
• The R.S Collection has been up in the photographs section for a week or so now, but early explorers of this website may have missed it. And indeed, new images were also added to the miscellaneous photos at the same time.
• Discover how some joke graffiti led people to believe the CRCMH was being used by Satan worshippers in the [intrigue] section..
• A fourth Maidenhead Advertiser article (from March 2002) in the Latest Developments section. This has been up for a while, but wasn't on the original upload of that page.
• The large downloadable versions of the CRCMH appointment card and the Gratis Surprise Inc. form have been removed for the time being. Nice though it all was, they collectively took up a full megabyte of web space which didn't seem particularly justified. Expect them to return in the future however when we can think of a better way to present them. Contact us if you're desperate though, because they can always be e-mailed to individuals.
• This isn't an addition to the site, just a bit of pointless gossip (which is "good for morale"). Webmaster Damon was quite surprised when Christine the check-out chick from the supermarket down the road made her TV debut on Neighbours in Australia on Friday. Actually, that shouldn't be so surprising given that every other person in the country is in Neighbours. She won't be appearing on UK screens for a while though, but when she does you'll be able to say "ah - so that's the girl that slapped Damon in the face when he said "My, what a smashing blouse you have on."

• The Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital Shrine goes online for the first time - starring tales about The Flincher and a whole lot of other stuff that has never been seen before.