[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.