Happy Halloween! - 31/10/2006

On Halloween night, before the weekly EKC pool session, I went to Amy's for her hippie housemates' Halloween party. The theme of their costumes was Autumn/Winter, for a pagan ritual they were planning for the back garden. The weather for the evening definitely favoured the Winters. It was damn cold! I showed up with an alligator piñata attached to my neck. Sarah had fake blood that gave it that extra special look. Tuni was fascinated by my alligator, and he was my best friend ever that night. One of the younger girls was a little bit skeptical and didn't want to be anywhere near me. Naia, Sarah and Craig's baby, didn't care either way, so long as I kept walking her around the garden.

For the ritual itself, the Winters hid behind the wish tree while the Autumns danced. My costume didn't quite fit with either group, so I chose to run with the Autumns. Then the Winters popped out and chased down all of the Autumns. I was the last to be caught. Feel free to imagine me with alligator piñata attached to my neck being chased around somebody's backyard screaming, "Last holdout for summer!" while being chased by a bunch of people painted ghost white. After they caught me, we danced around the wish tree and then set it on fire. Foof!

Bram arrived just after the wish tree was tossed on the fire. He tied his ribbon and made his wish just in time for the wish tree to really catch fire. Foof became big foof.

After the tree extinguished itself, Amy and I dragged Bram to the pool. He ate his dinner and drank his wine in the car with me partly sitting on his lap because Alana and her car seat got the only back seat.

Alana seemed to enjoy her time in the pool itself a bit more than her time in the kayak, but she was reasonably happy for much of the evening, until evil Derek splashed her and made her cranky. Early on, a few people saw the fake blood on my neck and no alligator, and figured I did something stupid to hurt myself. After one older guy freaked out and started telling me stories of other older people falling and hurting themselves, I decided to wash away the blood. My skin remained a slightly stained pink, but not nearly so conspicuous afterwards.

I was about 50/50 on my roll, not bad considering I forgot some essential foam. Especially not bad considering I rolled when I needed it -- when the same muppet who kept screaming "I'm scared!" on Stanley tried to teach me to do a new kind of rescue. Rolling meant I didn't have to rely on him to rescue me.

I shot some video at the pool before being politely told off for having a camera there. Something about pools, changing areas and cameras all in the same proximity at a council pool gets them a bit riled up. Nevermind that most mobiles are camera phones these days. Oy. Anyway, videos can be found here.