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[OT] My first Halloween
Halloween wasn't celebrated here when I was a kid - we knew it simply as an
American holiday. But, seeing a marketting oppourtunity, the shops (and therefore people) in the last 5 years ago have started making a 'fuss' about Halloween, and we've had the occasional trick-or-treater knock on our door for the last few years that we've been totally unprepared for. But this year, Cary has watched enough American cartoons to realise that Halloween about dress-ups and getting free candy, and hasn't shut up abou tit. And since its throughout the shops its been hard to avoid, even if we tried (first time I've ever seen a proper orange 'carving' pumpkin ina supermarket was this year!). Unfortunately, though, Halloween celebrtions are not yet so imbedded in our culture yet that knocking on virtual or total stranger's doors (ie, the neighbours) would work, particularly since he's only 5 and goes to bed before it gets properly dark these days. So I organised for a friend to host a Halloween Party for the kids (I don't have a back yard, so a kid's party wouldn't work here). I made 'witches fingers' - short bread shaped into fingers, with a bit of red-coloured shortbread tuck on the end like a nail, 'chocolate spiders' - which are friend chow mein noodles covered in chocolate (the adult ones also having rum in them) and 'rats lungs' - raspberry jello and evaporated milk whisked into a froth and then set. Yum Yum. The Yowlet begged for - and got- a commercially made costume, "Snake Eyes" from Gi Joe. I had wanted him to go as a Mummy, because the Chapman clan *prides* itself on dress-ups. We win costume parties all the time, and I wasn't to be outdone. If he wasn't going to play *real* dress-ups then it had to be me. I made myself into 'road kill' by ripping up my clothes ont he left side, applying liberal amounts of black, green, purple & brown eyeshadow for bruising (I knew purple & green eyeshadow was good for *something*), with eyeliner, lip liner, bright red lipstick for various wounds and bruises, talcum powderto make my face pale, blue eyeshadow on the lips (and blue eyeshadow is useful too!) and the black & brown stuff in the eye sockets to look kinda dead. But the peice de resistance was the goop & glop. I made a good paste cooking cornflour & water, with a generous splash of red food colouring, the lump staying white. Once it had cooled, I smeared it generously all down my left side, with extra gloop in my hair and ear. It was itchly as hell, but it had the disturbingly real tendency to fall off in small, red ,cold, squishy peices. It looked *fantastic*. I walked into a fast food joint to order lunch with it on and had to repeat the order several times because the staff were too distracted by the glop falling off me to remember my order. The Yowlet thought it was great, and very scary. I think I was the cause of several near-crashes as the traffic noticed my get-up on the way to the party. But when I got there, I was the only grown up in costume. And within half an hour, the kids had shed their hot costumes to romp around in the pool. So I had to stay the whole party dressed up as 'road kill' where everyone else was normal. But I don't care because *by definition* I won the costume competition! (and the scary food competition, because no-one else bothered). I had *ball* doing Halloween, I can see why you Merkins love it so - what a great excuse for dressups and being scary and gross. Wish the rest of my friends could bring themselves to being a bit silly just for fun, but no mind. The Chapmans had fun, and we're gonna do it bigger & better next year! Photos of me as road kill (bad camera, and taken after the party when the makeup had faded, but still): http://www.flickr.com/photos/yowie96...7622707912752/ Happy Halloween! Yowie -- If you're paddling upstream in a canoe and a wheel falls off, how many pancakes can you fit in a doghouse? None, icecream doesn't have bones. |
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