Bring back the good old days when Halloween meant staying home in an ill-fitting mask and playing snap apple with half-rotten fruit...
WHO is doing Sober October? Me neither. Dry January will be here before we know it and now that the novelty of being back to school has worn off, and the days are getting shorter, I feel life is tough enough … and we’ve still got Halloween to get through. Once a simple date in the calendar, a total non-event, it’s now turned into a full-scale production, that terrorises us for at least a week. Decorations (those velvet pumpkins and autumnal wreaths spark a kind of rage in me that I can’t describe), dress-up days and proper (and costly) costumes have all become the norm.
ADVERTISEMENT
Nothing home-made is allowed unless it looks like it’s not home-made, so if you’ve been saving those loo rolls and hoping to get away with it, I’m sorry for you. God be with the days when you’d be fighting with your siblings for the cereal box to make a basic mask! You’d glue on a bit of wool for the hair, sprinkle a bit of glitter if you were lucky and attach it with a piece of wool or twine and hope it stayed on. It never did. My crafting skills have always been a bit hit and miss so the eyes would never be in the right place in mine, not that it mattered as you weren’t going anywhere because there wasn’t any trick-or-treating either.
You just stayed home, wearing your ill-fitting mask, playing snap apple with an apple that was left hanging to rot from a string for a few days and chomping into ‘treats’ like unbelievably dry monkey nuts (I’m still haunted by them). There was always some unbelievably scary film on TV that under no circumstances were you to watch but that you’d somehow catch a glimpse of and you wouldn’t sleep for a solid six months. Happy days! Now, I’m tracking a costume that’s coming from god knows where (no judgement please), wondering if we should have a trial run with the face paint and considering making spooky spiders with puff pastry. Gah!
Anyway, in other news, my husband is away on an annual lads’ golf trip this week if you don’t mind. Nice for some and I at home keeping the show on the road. I’ve actually been encouraging them to make it at a twice-a-year trip. Don’t get me wrong I love my husband dearly (a good bit of the time) but it’s nice to have a bit of a break too. I know him being away is only enjoyable because it’s a novelty, be careful what you wish for and all the rest, but I’m thinking they might fancy a few days again in February? Let’s get that in the diary. So with sole control of the remote control I’ve been watching Sharon Horgan’s Youth where she depicts what life is like at 50. It’s a million miles away from my life is like at 50 but it is proper, laugh-out-loud funny. I recommend if you’re of my vintage.
I’m also watching War starring Sienna Miller and Dominic West. I’ve always had an unhealthy obsession with Sienna Miller. Someone once told me that I looked like her. He was very drunk at the time, because I’ve never looked like Sienna Miller, but I’ve clung to this for dear life. Anyway, it’s a very watchable divorce drama, Sienna still looks great, and her wardrobe is divine. But actually instead of TV, I’m more looking forward to entertainment of a different kind later this week. Butlerstown Dramatic Society are performing Rumours and I’m going along for the final night. I’ve tickets for Harry Styles next August (goes against every bit of me to book anything so far in advance but that’s what you have to do apparently) and I have to say I’m more excited for this. And it was nearly easier to get tickets for Harry, that’s how strong demand is. I think there’s something so exciting about seeing people you know on stage – I love all things local.
Meanwhile, the leaves have started falling by the lorry load and I’m getting my steps in loading the wheelbarrow with them. They are literally falling around me as I’m raking them which makes me feel more demented than usual but it’s good for the head and the heart. The weather is still insanely warm isn’t it? Can you get an Indian summer in October? At least it was dry for those on the picket this week – power to the people. I won’t lie, the day off school was nice.
Finally, it will be mid-term before we know it which means we have the dreaded time change (Sunday October 25). I would describe myself as being a pretty robust person, but I’m strangely sensitive to ‘the hour’ and my sleep is so hit and miss at the best of times that I dread it. The only positive is that our kitchen clock is a bit finnicky so we never changed it last time round in case it packed in entirely and it’s been most … discombobulating.
People have literally had near heart attacks at my kitchen counter when they’ve realised it’s an hour later than they thought, so the silver lining is that it will read correctly again for a few months at least. Let’s be grateful for small mercies, and send prayers that the Halloween costume arrives on time. I might chuck in an extra cereal in the weekly shop just in case.
