Halloween Pumpkins

My hosts for this year's Halloween festivities were Tammy and Adam, in their fantastically decorated house for the evening. Everyone got into the costume spirit with a full on spider, skeleton complete with beating heart, a cat and a selection of scary/Halloween coloured or inspired outfits. We all brought carved pumpkins that looked great lit up and all lined up outside the house. I'm not a big fan of the scary side of Halloween, I'm just a big woose when it comes to anything a little freaky, I still like to get involved.

Entries into the pumpkin carving contest.

The winner is..... the witch, carved by Penny.

The UK's Halloween celebrations aren't quite as extravagant as in the USA, according to an article from the BBC, the USA is expected to spend nearly four billion pounds on Halloween festivities, while the UK is expected to spend just a sixteenth of what the USA might spend. Although this is a lot less than the USA, within the UK it is a twenty three fold increase on the amount spent on Halloween in 2001. Just going into food shops, it's obvious that retailers are putting more Halloween stock on the shelves for what is traditionally part of the Celtic festival, Samhain.

ASDA had to have had the cheapest carving pumpkins for sale at only a pound each, how the farmers or anyone in the supply chain make any money from that pound is beyond me. As my pumpkin was advertised as a 'carving pumpkin' I can only assume it was bred to be bigger, soft to cut and not really to be eaten. Saying that, it was a good size, relatively easy to cut and all the insides are now sitting on the compost heap.

Little photo shoot with my pumpkin at my house. 

The background looks like a haunted house.

Dressing up as a 'Spider Princess', it does exist - Google it.

Bon Voyage!

One very good friend is going traveling to far off fun places, before he went, his family threw him a farewell party for his nearest and dearest at the Hazeley School. I was asked to take photos, which I love to do, I fashioned a make shift studio in the back kitchen, not perfect, but you don't even notice it as everyone looks so happy. I put together a slide show of the photos I took at the event. I didn't manage to get everyone who was there, my bottle of rose kept me a little distracted. Matt is very lucky to have so many people waiting for him at home, he will defiantly be missed.

Matt with nieces and nephews

Me and the boys

Got to have the cupcake shot!

Drink, Shop, Do

Drinks in London, this time for lovely Annette who chose a corker of a place to celebrate her birthday, Drink, Shop, Do, right round the corner from Kings Cross Station. You enter the place though a lovely little shop of cute, vintage stuff, that leads into an equally cute tea room. Afternoon tea at 9PM mixed with dance music is a little strange, but weirdly not that strange as it seemed to fit the whole place.

For something extra, down by the toilets is the entrance to  an adult entertainment shop. Cocktails weren't cheap at £7.50 a pop, oh well, that's London for you. Everything in the place is for sale, from the prints on the wall to the tea cups on the table, if you want it, you can buy it.

Afternoon tea at 9pm

Do - pumpkin carving.

Drink - yes, please.

Big Rock Climbing

A taster session at the Big Rock Climbing centre in Milton Keynes, an hour and a half with an instructor going though the basics of indoor wall climbing. Even though I wanted to do this, I was a little freaked out by the height and that when you get to the top to have to sit back and come down abseil stylie. Was totally not an issue, our instructor, Mel, was great. I didn't even notice the height going up as I was facing the wall the whole time. As for coming down, also not an issue after we had practiced low down the wall.

Overhang section

First impression of the place wasn't so good, service was slack and they didn't let us know what would happen, who our instructor was, where to get our rental equipment - things you would need to know as beginners on a taster session. We figured it out, got our hire equipment, met Mel the instructor who turned around the whole experience into a good one.

Going up a grade 5 wall

With the Big Rock instructor

My climbing buddies

Best tip when you're using the rental climbing shoes, take a pair of pop socks - normal socks will take up too much space in the rental shoes. The taster session is pretty good value for money, twenty pounds gets you an hour and half with an instructor, time on the wall, equipment hire. 

The Sampler

Right near Highbury and Islington tub station is The Sampler, a wine shop with a twist. You can sample a wide selection of the red, whites or rose's for a small sample fee.  I bought ten pounds worth of credit on a card, inserted the card every time I wanted to sample a wine. Sample fee's range from fifty pence up to minimum seven pounds for a sample of fine vintage wine. Easy to feel a little tipsy as you forget how much you are sampling - clever guys. I was there to celebrate a little surprise gathering for Seb's birthday who happens to live right around the corner. 

Seb masks for his birthday surprise

Samples of these started at £7 per shot

A wine selection

An Innocent Lunch

The company who make the smoothies made their very own pop-up restaurant in Old Street, London, for seven days at the beginning of October in a tramshed. At Innocent: 5 for 5 Cafe, for only a fiver you get your five veg and/or fruit for the day in a selection of yummy dishes. The chef who presents 'Cook Yourself Thin', Gizzi Erskine, designed the menu. What a neat idea.

Poached pear with quince ice-cream

The five is made of lettuce

Stuff like this makes me want to move to London. More photos from the day.

Toby's Christening

A morning at a church for little Tobias Charles McFadyen. Toby's mum, Becci, has been a friend of mine since secondary school days. It was lovely to be there, share and capture the day in photos as well as a little bounce on a castle.

Becci and Toby

A video of the best photos from the day.

Japanese Matsuri

Trying to get involved in the London JETAA chapter, I volunteered to join the JETAA stall at the second Japanese Festival held at the Old Spitalfields Markets near Liverpool Street. I was there to help promote the JET programme, chatting to ex-JET's who came up to the stall, it was a really fun morning.

The JETAA stall

It was a lot bigger than I thought the event would be, loads and loads of stalls, promoting Japan, displays, Japanese arts and crafts and my favourite - real Japanese festival food! Oshikatta!!

Okonomiyaki

More photos from the day.

Tourist Trapped

After the cruise I had a couple of days in Cairo, one whole day of which was taken up going to the pyramids of Giza and surrounding sights. In retrospect, I rather recklessly booked a 'tour' with the hostel, turned out to be a driver who spent most of the day on one of his two mobile phones. On the plus side, I got to visit everything I wanted to and ride a pony round the pyramids - the highlight of the day.

All the hassle I had been experiencing didn't stop in Cairo, I felt like a walking dollar sign and I didn't really want to stop anywhere. Everybody wants baksheesh - a tip, I have no problem giving a tip, but it got really annoying when everyone expected one and I was constantly reminding me that I should be giving one at the end of any tour. Was shooed out of a grocery shop when looking for hibiscus tea, grocery shops seem to be the place where you don't bargain. The weekend I was in Cairo was The Feast that happens at the end of Ramadan, from the early evening to the small hours of the morning the street was hustle and bustle, everyone seemed to be out and about on the streets. 

The driver from the airport pointed out a 'bad' Muslim women, she was covered up except for her eyes, with a man who she was pushing away when he tried to put his arm around her. The driver went on to describe some women use this type of headscarf to go out so no one recognises them so they can sneak off to see their boyfriends in secret. It is a whole world I just don't understand. The men and women would stare at me, I think, even if I wore any kind of headscarf, I would still be on my own and attract suspicion.

Another day was taken up at The National Museum where there are loads of exhibits with, I assume, their original type written descriptions, it needs a little refurb and an up grade. I quite liked the Egyptian jewelry room, beaded necklaces and pretty colours.

I really enjoyed visiting the ancient pyramids and temples, it's pretty amazing to think people build these monuments. If you're planning a trip to Egypt, you will be hassled, try to think of as many ways as possible to say 'no thank you.'

Rest of the photos from my day at the pyramids.

Afternoon Tea at the Four Seasons, Cairo

One afternoon we took advantage of the air con and the hassle free environment in the Four Seasons to enjoy an afternoon tea - Cairo style.

I was hoping for a more Arabic sweet twist on the cake plate of the stand, the cakes that came out were pretty tasty though including two really thick, luxury chocolate desserts.

The scones were a good size and accompanied by fruit cake, similar to what I was served as breakfast on the overnight train. For tea, I choose a special blend, that is served in a metal teapot with a cute little biscuit tajine.

The food was better quality than I expected, exceptional service. More photos from afternoon tea.