Hello, my name is Celia and I learnt to use a pendulum before I started school.  It came as quite a shock to discover that what I now call “dowsing” does not go on in every family.  My new friends were extremely suspicious of me so I kept quiet about it for over 20 years.

I have since learned quite a lot about dowsing in various forms, though I do not consider myself proficient in any specialist way.  To begin with at home we used to dowse for homeopathic remedies, and just occasionally to see if tins of food were still good to eat (in those days we did not have sell-by dates), and that was about it.    So it continued for many years.

Now,  my style of cooking is more like assembly work.  However, a chance remark at a meeting of Waverley Dowsers based in Godalming, Surrey set me off discovering ways in which I could improve my cooking, starting with boiling an egg.  At least I could do that, but different eggs seem to need different cooking times, and in any case I often forget to set the timer.    Nowadays, I simply ask the pendulum whether the egg is ready.   To begin with the pendulum answers NO, but when the egg is nearly done it begins to go “neutral” and then answers YES at which point I get the egg to the table immediately.

I have since used this technique in all sorts of situations where I want to know exactly when something is ready, and can boast that my broccoli is always perfect.   Mind you, I have to be careful to ask whether it is done “just how I like it” otherwise it might be a bit too soft when I dish up.