I can hear random fireworks going off every now and again. Its open season with Halloween coming up. I rather like Halloween as a festival and am sad to see that some shops are already putting up Christmas displays before Halloween has even come and gone.

I went to a fantastic fancy dress Halloween party last night. I went as the 'Knitter of Hell' apparently a character in Heart of Darkness but I've not read the book so I'm taking that on trust! Someone else came as a professional Victorian mourner with stovepipe hat. She had a card - professionally printed and I was pleased to discover that not only would she do wailing and moaning at gravesides, she would also take on the mantle of guilt. Now I don't have guilt but I do have guilt that I don't have guilt... ie I've done somethings that previously would have me metaphorically writhing on the ground with guilt but actually I'm not... so she said that for a small fee she would be happy to take on the guilt about the lack of guilt! One of the hosts was dressed in twigs and ivy as a green man (he also had hampster grass attached to his person but that escaped the costume and was strewn around the flat). There were bats hanging everywhere and cobwebs. But the piece de resistance was a headless body lying in the bathroom which I had to veiw on arrival. The neck was a watermelon wedged into a shirt. It was amazingly realistic with blood oozing out all over the bath.

I discovered that the host was a primary school teacher by trade and I realised where this crafty excellence came from. I've seen this before offices of extreme dullitude where worksations are transfored into snow scenes with cotton wool or the three wise men trecking across the desert. All meticulously done in cardboard and paint. Somehow these festivals allow people to let out their creativity whether it be transforming a paper lampshade into an alien head making a working ghostbusters back pack for a fancy dress costume. It all shows how amazingly creative people can be with they just give themselves permission to be creative.