Thanks for the replies, guys! The orbs started to materialise around the flat, and they tended to hang around on (or behind) the curtains. I never got a photo of them. They came in groups of two or three at a time and definately exhibited, or reacted to consciousness. At first we'd excaim "OOH they're back!" at which they would fly away, but we gradually got used to their presence and learned to take a sly peek and act nonchalantly, then they'd hang around.
I get the feeling that the fling onto the hotplate of the iron was a manouvre to leave.
At around the same time, I had a hag experience, followed up the next morning by four apple stalks lined up in the bathroom and all the gas taps turned on in the kitchen (any ideas about that most welcome!)
Also, I woke from a dream just as my then wife went into labour, where a native american babe handed me a baby on a train and said "she's yours to look after for a while".
When our daughter was about two, she informed us, quite unprompted, that "Daddy and me were in the war. We used to fly planes together"!