Yesterday was Halloween-tastic. In the morning we all headed down to Vikki’s and 3/4 of us had baths (me, Ady, Davies). Vikki is away and had facebook messsaged me to say ‘please go and have baths, stroke my cat and if you need to move in cos the weather is dreadful then do so, spare sheets are on x shelf’) I like being in the houses on Rum when their tenants are not around and pretending I live there and trying on what it would be like to live in a house again. It’s nearly 3 years since I lived properly in a furnished actual house, next week will be the 2 year anniversary of our first ever visit to Rum.
Anyway, the bath was lovely and I sat in the mini conservatory and read afterwards while Ady had a bath and then he and I went to meet the boat while the kids stayed behind and Davies had a bath. Gav arrived back on the boat so handshakes, cuddles and congratulations were in order. We had three sacks of flour delivered so grabbed them, picked the kids up from Vikki’s and then headed home for lunch.
After lunch Ady and the kids carved pumpkins while I made some cheesey fingers and some gingerbread biscuits which I iced to look like pumpkins. I painted Davies’ face to look vampire-esque, started doing Scarlett’s but then she took over (and did an awesome job it has to be said), Ady had no planned costume and said he would ‘see where the facepaints took him’ – he wore a boiler suit, a beanie hat and did a sort of Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas type of job on himself. He looked properly scary – on the way down to the village he double backed to come and help me carry stuff and it was dusk – I saw him coming towards me and thought ‘oh it’s Ady’, then looked at his scary face and thought ‘no it’s not!’ and actually screamed! I just wore black clothes, put on lots of glam make up, curled my hair and made some tiny spiders to dangle from my hair and was a pretty witch!
We stopped at the shop first as we were early, having decided that walking down to the car in more or less daylight and no rain and being early was better than being on time walking in the dark and rain. At 6 we headed off to the school, giving Mike (dressed as leopard man) and Casey (dressed as a fox) a lift so it was a cosy car full! The school party was actually very good despite our reservations. It was strange to be in the building again and I have to admit it has an alive and happy feeling to the building now, far different to the ‘time I did’ working there. Certainly no regrets about leaving though. It was a decent turn out with Ali (pirate witch), Sean (hag of Hallival) and Eve (witch), Fliss (witch) and Joss (Bat), Mike & Casey, Coryla (Scarecrow), Lesley (half witch – cool wig, even cooler red contact lenses), Stuart & Julie (Scary headmaster and witch), us, Manager Mike (sofa throw and sythe), Debs (artfully draped curtain and tealight lantern), their daughter Sophie (clown face paint and braces made of shoelaces) and her boyfriend Norman (bin liner top and loo roll face & hands to make a mummy) all having come with no costumes at all from their barely furnished house.
Various games including apple bobbing, duck hooking, skeleton drive (like a beetle drive but for skeleton parts), ghost skittles, musical statues etc. Team A (my team!) won :), lots of refreshments and then all in the cars to head to the hall for Halloween Party mark 2. Abby had done loads more games and there were more people there (although only Abby was in fancy dress). We played pass the parcel with spooky dares, a relay of jaffa cake eating, apple bobbing and sweets in bowls of flour and other such similar silliness. We danced and generally had a fun and silly time.
We left and got home just after 11 I think. A late night all round. Lots of wind and rain made it another noisy night so not a lot of sleep again.
Today has been a quiet day. I spent the morning and evening in the kitchen – I made yoghurt, soup, bread rolls, bread dough, pizza dough, rolls to take to the MoDo cafe tomorrow (bread and soda bread rolls), two bottles of home made amaretto which is my nightcap of choice, peeled and chopped the last of the bargain ginger which is now in soak to make preserved ginger with.
Ady and I went down to the freezer in the afternoon to collect some cheese and milk and water the polytunnel on the way home again. We watched some Peter Kay stand up at dinner time which I thought the kids would find funny but pretty much none of the things he talks about mean anything – taxis (aside from black London cabs they’ve never been in one), big family Christmas dinners where people – sit on a random selection of chairs (nope!), wet play at school and the school dinner ladies (erm no) – I’m almost feeling guilty for depriving them of such a range of cultural reference points!
Both Davies and Scarlett are tired, grumpy and sugar infested today which has meant lots of squibbling (sibling squabbling) for which my own tired and slightly hungover and hormonal tolerance levels have not been very high for. Tomorrow is Rum Bonfire Night and I am working, so I am hoping to get a decent 8 hours of sleep between now and then.