One of the things I have noticed in the past few weeks over
here – mainly in America, but also in the last few days in Canada, is how big
Halloween is.
In America there were huge market stalls next to the
roadside in every state I visited – full of hundreds of pumpkins. Now, I know
that Americans love to make Pumpkin pie and other such delights, but there were
also scary scarecrows, ghosts and other such creepy characters sitting on
doorsteps and in gardens – remember though I have been back here since October
16th and Halloween is today, so these were sitting around and ready to go at
least two full weeks before the Halloween celebration.
Canada is no also getting into the full swing of it – In Walmart
the other day noticed aisle after aisle of kids costumes, with Irate mothers
shouting at each other that ‘Sharon wants to go as a witch and there aren’t any
witch costumes left!’ . Poor little Sharon will have to make do with a choice
of the other 300 or so expensive bits of tat that have been left behind by more
organized irate mothers!!
On the streets themselves there have been pumpkins sitting
around for most of the last week and now there are fake gravestones, ghosts,
scarecrows hanging by necks from trees and spider webs everywhere. Luckily, or
unluckily - whichever way you look at it – we live in an apartment with no
outdoor space and so didn’t have the chance to decorate our garden with such
stuff. We also miss out on the joy (yes, the utter joy – honest) of screaming little
shits delightfully dressed children begging trick or treating on our
doorstep as we hand them out of date
sweets in reward for their efforts in creating such wonderful costumes
mothers rushing around Walmart to find the least tacky costumes.
We have already had a Halloween celebration or two of our own
though. At the weekend one of Buffy’s work mates had a Halloween party at his
house. Weirdly in my mind though, on the one day of the year when there is a
theme of ‘Halloween’, over here they forget all about ghouls and ghosts and
decided to have a costume party (Fancy dress for all us Brits) with a theme of ‘Under
the sea’. I won’t go on about it, but surely a Halloween theme would have been
more in keeping with the time of year? No? Just me then!
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| Crap octopus |
We did actually get dressed up for it though. I bought a
handful of cheap shitty jumpers (sweaters for all the North Americans) from the
local charity shop and spent a couple of hours cutting off the arms and
reattaching them all to one jumper – until I could pass for an Octopus
impressionist – complete with bubble wrap taped to each arm to mimic the
Octopus suckers! I even had a mermaid doll stuck to one of them to complete it!
Buffy had a little more trouble deciding what to wear. At first she planned on
going as the ‘Necklace from Titanic’, which had ended up at the bottom of the
ocean. She ordered the necklace itself - or at least a cheap look-a-like’, from
E-bay but it still hasn’t arrived, so she had to make another choice. Her
second idea was to be ‘A Tectonic plate’, so after visiting the same charity shop
as myself, she stood in the lounge, with a 49cents dinner plate around her
neck, complete with stones taped to it. In a word, it was CRAP! She decided that
it was just too crap to wear and so moved onto her third choice.
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| Under the sea |
Third choice was to be ‘Under the sea’, itself. So she
donned a blue top, printed out a whole load of fish, starfish and other
creatures and added then to some of the remaining bubble wrap bubbles to create
an under the sea scene on her jumper. Then on her head she had a headband with
some waves atop and a small boat. I do believe she put in more effort than any
of the kids will do as she coloured in all the creatures, the waves and the
boat all by herself! I should give her some sweets for her effort!
The party itself was actually really good. A house full of
about 50 or 60 people, some with great costumes such as the two halves of the
Titanic, various fish and scuba divers and even Poseidon – the god of the sea.
I got a bit hot in my 8 armed jumpers and so left it (them) in the cellar
whilst enjoying a quick dance and it was never seen again! A good night out
though with a little too much drinking.
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| Sierra and Andy as the Titanic |
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| With the Iceberg!! |
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| Diver |
On the Sunday we were supposed to enjoy another treat. The
Rocky Horror Picture show was on at a local theatre. It is one of those shows
where people get dressed up to go and shout out at the screen during the movie.
For example when Janet or Brad are mentioned you are supposed to shout ‘Slut’
or ‘Asshole’. All a bit of fun! Unfortunately, we found out in the afternoon
that the showing was sold out and so after a bit of phoning around we watched
it on DVD t at Evan, Barry and Walkers place on their huge plasma TV. It turned
out to be a really good fun night. Buffy was able to get into her Columbia
costume, resplendent with red hair, no eye brows and Mickey Mouse ears – all worn
with pyjamas like in the film. There were about 10 of us in all and we had a
really fun night watching and shouting at the film.
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| Buffy... |
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| ..as Columbia |
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| Eeer..yes. |
Our last bit of Halloween fun happens tonight. The cinema
which shows classic movies every couple of weeks is showing a double header of ‘Frankenstein’
and ‘Dracula’. The original movies from the 1920’s or thereabouts which have
been digitalised for the big screen. It should be a fun night out and I’m sure
there will be a few people there in costumes too, although we won’t be wearing
any ourselves tonight.
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