Hallowe'en

Hallowe'en has never been a really major part of my life: when I was small, I don't remember Trick or Treating being something which was done, much, and then when I was 10 we moved to Somerset and our house was on a dangerous road, (and very few children lived at that end of the village) so we never had anyone come to the door.

Now, however, I live on  a large housing estate and there are a lot of families with young children, so I get lots of children coming.

I did not dress up myself, but I admit that I did quite enjoy proffering my skull, and politely asking "Would you like an eyeball?"

The answer, mostly, was yes. The eyeballs went much faster than the skeletons or ghosts...

I do find it slightly odd, however, that so many people are apparently quite happy to let their children go out, after dark, to knock on strangers' doors, unsupervised. Of the 6 or 7 lots of children who knocked on my door, only 2 had an adult with them (One father was dressed up in full Count Dracula gear, which definitely gets him extra points!) I'm all for kids learning to be independent, but some of the unaccompanied children were very young - under 7, and I can't help but feel that at that age, even if they are not at any risk from the knocking on doors part of the evening, that when they are over excited and on a sugar high they are probably not stipping to think before (say) running across the road . . .

Oh well.

I also released several bookcrossing books over the weekend in celebrations of Neil Gaiman's proposed new tradition, All Hallow's Read.

In Which There Are Skulls, and a Lion Hunt

As I was in London anyway, for the purpose of seeing the talented Mr Webley, I decided to take the opportunity before heading home, of visiting the Moctezuma exhibition at the British Museum. After all, it is all about Mexica, with skulls, human sacrifice and and bloodshed - what's not to like?

Of course, in an ideal world, I would have thought to check before I left the hotel, what time the museum opened, but as it turned out I was able to find a convenient coffee-shop to sit in, watching the rain fall and reading about Shakepeare's London for 45 minutes until the museum opened.

They have a temporary garden in the courtyard outside the museum just know - it is part of a collaboration with Kew Gardens, to accompany the 'Gardens of Jodhpur' exhibition, so I did wander past the Baobab and Mango trees briefly, before heading indoors into the dry.

The exhibition was fascinating. I knew, of course that the Aztec* civilisation remained until the conquistadors arrived with their guns and small pox, but I hadn't quite put the dates together in my mind to realise that in the 16th Century there were people carrying out human sacrifices, hunting using obsidian axes and so on. There were a number of skulls, including a genuine human skull which had been beautifully covered with turquoise and jet mosaic, and fitted with straps to allow it to be used as a mask. Delightful. There were also a number of manuscripts, written by the conquistadors but illustrated by Aztecs. Beautiful but sad - a record of the end of a civilization.

After seeing the exhibition I spent some time in other parts of the museum - the Assyrian rooms, featuring many beautifully carved reliefs, including a whole set featuring a lion hunt. (I felt sorry for the lions. They started out in cages, and never seemed to be allowed to win, or escape.) There were also many chariots, and some not-altogether-seaworthy boats, although I am not convinced that they were an integral part of the lion hunt! I find it incredible that they are so clear and relatively undamaged after almost 3000 years.

I also took the opportunity to visit the Elgin Marbles (after all, who knows how much longer they will be in London) Whtever the rights or wrongs of their ownership, they are beautiful.

(*Apparently 'Aztec' is an inaccurate, if well known description)

What I Did on My Holidays - The Fiends arrive en masse, and there is Rock!

The Fiends began to arrive in force.

After breakfasting with Siri, Jess & Paul I met OSS and Phiala at the airport. They bravely took on the roles of being my first passengers as I also collected my hire car, and made my first tentative efforts at driving on the wrong side of the road.


I think it was OK. We didn’t hit anything, and neither appeared to be shaking when we arrived at the Water Street Inn!




More Fiends - Fluffy, Revelle (Fluffy Junior) and Emily. So naturally, we went hunting for lunch. After all, a hungry Fiend is a Cranky Fiend, and who wants that?

We also looked at the exciting Lift Bridge, which goes to Wisconsin.

There is a drive-in church just the other side, but we didn't go. there is a guy in a Gondola, too. we considered going for a ride, but we didn't think we'd all fit at the same time.



The afternoon was taken up with checking in and talking.

It turns out that where fiends are gathered together, much conversation will ensue Who knew?




We invaded the Inn’s patio and rearranged the furniture to create one giant fiend table, and were all sitting there when Ms Fabulous herself arrived, with Nathalie.

Quiche, wise woman, lurked in her car observing us for a little while (and quite possibly scoping out potential escape routes) before coming over to introduce herself. We did all have Skull bedecked name tags, courtesy of Phiala, to assist in identifying the guilty…


Itroductions over, the partying began. Paul & Lorraine totally Rocked! Dr Wicked live broadcast the whole thing, and we had the pleasure of extra guitar from Adam and drumming from Dylan.


The hat Adam is wearing to indicate his position as band-leader is Revelle’s, and although it looks pretty damn good on Adam, it looks even better on Revelle!




These ‘Paul & Lorraine’ guys are pretty good, y’know. You should go and see them if you get the chance…


Did I mention there were also bagpies?