Merry Yule

I nipped into Folkestone today and thought I'd see the art exhibition at the top of the Old High Street and then wander down to the new shop called The Cauldron Of Inspiration that has recently opened at No.42. It has the usual 'new-age' sort of stuff in there including oils, candles and gifts of with the usual psuedo-wiccan, egyptian, buddhist and gothic themes. I hope the shop does well as it's a welcome change from all the homogenised high street shops one finds these days. And whereas I am sceptical about these so called followers of the 'old' religion whose rites are relatively modern since the actual Old Religions died out without any real surviving practises, I did find a somewhat charming festive greetings card.

Friday 23rd December 2011

The Krampus in the news...

In today's edition of the London newspaper 'The Metro' there was an article about the Krampus which I've scanned in. The is currently a link on their website taking you to more pictures, but I can't guarantee how long the link will be live for. (www.metro.co.uk/devil)

Tuesday 6th December 2011

Asda Halloween magazine

Strange that in the lead up to Halloween I didn't see this in any Asda supermarket, but now after Halloween has been and gone it appears! (Albeit dated as a November magazine.)

Mind you we are talking about a supermarket that caters mainly for the lower classes and puts anything healthy, such as fruit & veg, or vital ingredients such as sugar, flour, eggs in obscure hidden locations in the store in case the obese customers have palpatations when they can't see their processed prepacked jumbo sized junk food when they come in!

So, not a bad cover, lots of adverts for Halloween products no longer on sale but a couple of good recipes inside (Halloween lasagne & mini cheese pumpkins made primarily from cheese scones being of note).

If you're in an Asda try to pick up a copy... it's just a shame you'll have to embrace the Wallmart generation of shoppers that frequent the place! So don't forget to wear your HazMat suits!

Wednesday 16th November 2011

Thanksgiving Snoopy

Saw this on a website as a header... I'm sure it's not official but it looks good anyway doesn't it!

Wednesday 18th November 2011

Halloween Food & Drink

Here's just a collection of mainly pumpkin flavoured foodstuffs that I was given or that I bought over the festive season.

The packaging on the Halloween fudge box was probably the best thing about the box of fudge - but then I don't have a very sweet tooth!

It was great to get some more pumpkin seed butter in a Whitstable health food shop - similar to peanut butter but a lot richer in taste so you use far less on your bread.

The pumkpin spiced tea that I was given has the usual spices you'd expect for a wintery brew but does have some actual pumpkin flakes in there although you'd be hard pressed to distinguish their taste. But overall a nice 'cuppa' and I would buy the teabags again.

But the gem is to be able to find pumpkin seed oil. I haven't seen this for sale for about 4 years now. The brand that Waitrose and Tesco used to sell was very rich, perhaps a bit too rich. Then I found another brand that was rather tasteless and bland. This is variety I picked up is about right in terms of not being too overpowering... although it is a little pricey!

Finally the pumpkin speltotto (like a risotto but with spelt) tastes quite sweet due to the shallots and is very filling, but just needs that extra punch... so don't forget to add chopped parsley and shavings of a hard cheese at the end as the packet states or you may be a bit underwhelmed. This pumpkin product was found in the UK supermarket Waitrose; so should be readily available.

Tuesday 8th November 2011

Whitstable Witch

Must admit I forgot to add this photo in with yesterday's entry. Bridge House Art Supplies in Whitstable High Street had this little witch sitting in their shop window so I thought I'd take a picture of it and give their shop a small plug as they made an effort for Halloween. (The witch apparently came from the store TK Maxx.)

Sunday 6th November 2011

Peter Cushing

It's been a busy week and I have a backlog of pictures to put up on here of different pumpkin related food and drink, but I thought I'd start with a post about my activities on Halloween itself.

(And if you feel the need to sing along to The Jellybottys' song 'Peter Cushing Lives In Whitstable', please do... and if you have no idea what I'm talking about... google it!)

So, anyway, I went with a couple of frined to the quaint and quiet Kentish town of Whitstable that still retains it's sleepy local charm and hasn't succumbed like many other towns to being a high street full of the same large corporate chains of shops. And being Halloween we thought it appropriate for a pilgrimage to the town that Peter Cushing called home in his latter years.

Usually our trips start with a brief look around the Whitstable Town Museum which has a small display cabinet of Peter Cushing memorablia. (They had a lot more, but it was auctioned off a few years back!) The museum was always worth a visit and had always been free in the past, but upon our arrival we were told there was now an entry fee and as we were only intending on looking at one display which we had seen before anyway, we passed on the museum.

(We had also previously done the Peter Cushing guided walk for which there is a booklet and I would recommend that any fan does this on their visit.)

However amidst our meandering around the town we did stop off in the recently opened Wetherspoons pub in the town. This impressive building was a formed art deco theatre and later a bingo hall and Wetherspoons have done a great job in renovating it and naming it after Whitstable's most famous resident. We also stopped off in the Tudor Tea Rooms where the late great horror actor used to dine every day in his retirement,and saw the memorial over the table where he would always sit.

So in all a great day out and a wonderful way to remember one of England's finest actors and a true gentleman.

So below are just a few photos of the aforementioned memorials to one of Horror's greats.

Saturday 5th November 2011

Pumpkin carving 2011

Well I had a few friends round the other night and a couple or the guests had carved their pumpkins ready for halloween. I say 'carved'... perhaps made is more appropriate!

For the zombie pumpkin, the brains are made from expanding foam and was rock hard but I wouldn't risked getting a candle near it!

The pinhead pumpkin used up over a £5 bag of nails and I didn't have the heart to tell its creator that the nails were hammered in to the skull of the cenobite... she had carved the pumpkin out and then hammered all the nailed from the inside through to the outside!

And being a Doctor Who fan and having done Daleks last year, I thought I'd go for a Cyberman this year.

Sunday 30th October 2011

Folkestone Zombie Walk

2.30pm BST

...an outbreak of zombies was reported staggering through Folkestone's pedestian precinct... reports of bodies going missing from funeral homes and morgues have yet to be confirmed... the walking undead were last seen descending on Googies Cafe...

All in all for Folkestone's first zombie walk it went well both perplexing and amusing the locals. (And hopefully there weren't too many young kids that were too frightened.)

Due to commitments with my Halloween party and a Pumpkin Fayre on the same day I didn't get made up and joing the throng. My task was to provide the halloween music for the meeting point and take some pictures. So here's a taster of what I thought were the best dressed of the undead.

And it was great to see that the make up artist there on the day was donating proceeds to the charity Demelza House helping those children with life limiting illnesses.

Roll on Zombie Walk 2!

Saturday 29th October 2011

Cheriton Fancy Dress Shop

Well this is going to be of absolutely no interest unless you live in Cheriton in the UK, but as I was doing some shopping yesterday I noticed that the latest shop in our small town had some postcard sized flyers advertising their new business that had opened about a month ago. So as they had made the effort for Halloween it only seems right that they get some free publicity...

Also this buys me another day before I star posting photos from this year's Halloween party which was last night... with a sequal tonight for those that couldn't make yesterday. And the good news is I haven't heard of the local fundamentalist Christians in Folkestone organising a prayer meeting to combat the evils spawned at my parties! (As in past years.)

Well must dash and enter my carved pumpkin into the local village Pumpkin Fayre (It's the first time they've done this sort of thing in the church hall so I do feel I should support them. This year they'll probably be just a few pumpkins carved and pumpkin soup for sale amongst a plethora of brick-a-brac stalls... but who knows hopefully it'll be something that could grow.)

Saturday 29th October 2011

Trick Or Treat Bag

Well, I've missed a couple of days blogging due to being back at work and coming home knackered, but I thought I'd better get a quick picture in of this year's treat to myself!

Like last year I treated myself to a Halloween bag of sweets from CyberCandy in London - a shop that specialises in sweets from around the world that you can't normally get in the UK. The shop is near Covent Garden, although I have also visited another of their stores in the Lanes in Brighton.

Popping in yesterday I was somewhat disappointed to see a lack of Trick Or Treat bags and two rather gormless staff who hadn't a clue and couldn't make a decision if their life depended upon it! They did have a Trick Or Treat bag but the candy corn bag inside had split. I wasn't worried about this and would still have bought it but the prospect of doing something out of the ordinary obviously confused the two staff who showed minimal skills either in customer service, communication or even basic language skills. And as their boss was at a rather late lunch (c4pm)  they looked as scared as a rabbit in a car's headlights would when I dared ask my question of whether I could actually buy the bag. Panic and indecision ensued among the staff and I left with nothing. With that experience in mind I found myself frustrated at not being able to buy sweets that I could actually see on the shelf behind the counter and I would not recommend anyone gives their custom to this shop now or ever...

Perhaps in my hatred I was also influenced by the half-term customers, especially some spoilt young teenage girls with their incessant badgering of their henpecked mother to buy them Twinkies and all sorts or candied crap at the extortionate prices charged by CyberCandy.

Anyway out of necessity, I decided to go back today just to buy the Reece's Pieces Pumpkin sweets that they still had for sale, having been told yesterday that there would be no candy corn for a couple of days. So imagine my surprise when I found they did have tons of the stuff today. Annoying kids were still clogged up the store; but the vacuous staff from yesterday were not working when I went in today, so I succumbed and bought the Trick or Treat bag, the contents of which I've shown below. So a happy ending after all!

Thursday 27th October 2011

Halloween Greetings Cards

Today has been a day of making chili chutney and squash chutney from the glut of crops from my garden this year, so this post is a little overdue. In fact I bought these two cards on Friday and they are the first Halloween cards I've seen for sale this season. Even Clintons Cards have not had their usual Halloween Snoopy cards this year.

So these two are from Paperchase. There were 4 for sale - the other two designs were of a witch and of a ghost.

Sunday 23rd October 2011

Local Gargoyles

Well technically the second image is a grotesque since it doesn't have a waterspout coming out of it!

The first picture I took whilst hanging upside down over the edge of the Cheriton Church tower. (A friend did have a grasp of my trouser belt to stop me from falling!)

The next picture I spotted today by chance in the neighbouring village of Newington on the top of the old School House opposite the church. (In fact there are two of them.)

Saturday 22nd October 2011

The Pit And The Pendulum

There's a small theatre production of the classic Edgar Allan Poe tale on tour for this Halloween season that's worth a look if it's coming to a town near you. Sparse with scenery and props this plays gets its ambience and mood from its text, sound and lighting (in fact the pendulum is achieved by light and sound alone).

I must admit I had the ticket booked without knowing anything about the production - I just viewed it as a Halloween treat. But I was pleasantly surprised with the cast of two. The main actor had found notoriety in the UK soap opera Eastenders - so I hadn't heard of him or seen him as I can't abide soaps. However his foil in the play was none other than Nicholas Briggs, and as a huge Dr Who fan he is known to many as the voice of the Daleks (& Cybermen, & Judoon...) With both putting on Cornish accents for the play there wasn't a hint of 'exterminate', however for 90 minutes I was pleasantly entertained by this play and amazed at both actors ability in remembering rather lengthy sections of prose as let's face it Mr Poe was rather wordy in his descriptions! Anyway, see it while you can...

Friday 21st October 2011

Dracula flyer

Its funny what things you find when having a clear out. This flyer was promoting the Gary Oldman Dracula film in the early 1990s that I went to with some friends from the now defunct Folkestone Rotaract Club and I think I must've kept it for the coupon on the back giving me a couple of quid discount on the soundtrack CD from HMV. Well I didn't end up buying the CD... it wasn't really worth it just for the Annie Lennox track. But the flyer obviously found its was to the bottom of a box.

Wednesday 19th October 2011

Halloween soup & gingerbread bats...

At the weekend I picked up another carton of pumpkin soup from a company I'd not seen before. Well I tried it yesterday and it gets the thumbs up. This one's a bit sweeter than the normal spicy pumpkin soups with more of a ginger taste than a cumin or paprika taste that the other soups have been employing. Also it remains thick although it is not a creamy soup. I still have issues with the Covent Garden soups in that they are big on taste but too watery. Anyway, try out the New York Soup Company instead.

And then returning from Cheriton today I passed by the local bakers and saw these in the window and felt obliged to buy them. I have a weakeness for gingerbread men (or gingerbread people in this politically correct world in which we now live!)... but gingerbread bats... a good choice.

Tuesday 18th October 2011

Pumpkin candles

Another one from the past. When mainland European shops do Halloween well they sure look good! Here's me in a candle shop in Bruges. This photo from 1999. I found when chucking out some old photo albums.

Monday 17th October 2011

Halloween Beer (Part 7 - Lidl)

Just when I think I'm not going to be surprised by any more Halloween themed beer, it appears Shepherd Neame brewery have an ale that I can only find in the chavvy supermarket chain Lidl. And it tastes good too - refreshing and not overly strong at just 4%.

The other two ales I picked up in London at an independant shop. Not specifically Halloween related but, by association, still good to put up on here.

Sunday 16th October 2011

Halloween Hearth

A short posting today. I've been out and found some more Halloween goodies, but i need to sample them before posting. So until then I'll just leave you with my Halloween fireplace! (The chillis are all from this year's crop in my garden.)

Saturday 15th October 2011

Suicidal Animals?

Well, I've had some time off work this week and had to rest, so it's enabled me to clear a backlog of unwatched DVDs and finish reading my copy of the John Waters book 'Shock Value'. And I must admit I'm finding myself drawn to his warped sense of humour... not in that I want to attend murder trials as a spectator, or that I keep cuttings of bad things that have happened from the newspapers... but I am interested in reading such weird and often unbelievable tales. One this week was - 'Boy's arm torn off by washing machine!' Undeniably awful though this must be for the boy and his family, who wouldn't want to read on and find out how it happened.

So here's a genuine sign I took a photo of back in 1983 with my first camera. It was on a driveway to a house that my parents had taken me to as they wanted to visit the gardens. I must admit I have no recollection of the house or gardens... but I've always remembered the sign and wondered what such an act of animal suicide would look like it. And let's face it, Pekinese, the most pointless breed of dog on the planet... perhaps they've realised this and are drawn like a magnet...

Friday 14th October 2011

Rocky Horrow Show 2000

Another flyer from the vaults. This one was for a performance at Canterbury's Marlowe Theatre that I went to on Tuesday 13th June 2000. As with many touring productions it always seems to me that the law of diminishing returns seems to apply. I first went to see the Rocky Horror Show upon its 1990 relaunch in London with stars such as Adrian Edmondson (The Young Ones / Bottom), Gina Bellman (Denis Potter's Blackeyes) & Tim McInnery (Lord Percy in Blackadder). It was excellent and I rather regret giving away my programmes to a friend when I was having a clear out a few years later.

Lord Percy then gave up the role of Frank'N'Furter to a pre-Buffy Anthony Head (I still have the CD single he did of 'Sweet Transvestite'). At the time Tony Head was really only famous for being the love interest in a series of Nescafe Gold Blend coffee adverts in the UK and so his appearance was at the time a bit of a watering down of the star studded London cast before the show went on tour.

Ten years later in 2000 the show is still touring. The production values are still good for a provincial theatre. The somewhat unknown cast still competent and professional. However the star performer has gone down to 'Z' list celebrity status with the Narrator being played by an actor more renowned for being an annoying shopkeeper in the UK soap opera 'Coronation Street.' One could hear the death knoll for this particular touring incarnation tolling. At least the flyer looked good though... although I wasn't going to part with my hard earned cash for a programme packed mainly full of irrelevant adverts and no real RHPS history!

Thursday 13th October 2011

Wetherspoons Beer Festival

Another find in an old scrapbook - the flyer and tasting notes from Wetherspoons 'Thriller' Beer Festival in 1996. Back in the day they weren't the giant pub chain they are today. My nearest Wetherspoons was Maidstone and I drove up there one weekday evening to see what all the fuss was about. I still have pint glasses, a cigarette lighter and even the decorations from the walls which I collected after they had finished with them. 'Monster' and 'Wicked' beer festivals followed in subsequent years but the release of the first Harry Potter films resulted in a wizard themed festival and the Halloween festivities ended. Either that or religious types persuaded them to stop!

Wetherspoons often took over rather grandiose buildings that have a lovely atmosphere, however their tendancy to offer very cheap food (often unhealthy options of variable quality) and discounted beer, put many local traditional pubs out of business. And now their tendency to open earlier in the mornings mean that a lot of alcoholics and tramps to choose the chain as a preferable location to drink than a park bench or graveyard. And then in the evenings at weekends you get the underage drinkers and young drinkers aiming to get sh*tfaced and laid on a budget which make these once trendy places to frequent something akin to having a ringside seat in both a bareknuckle fight and projectile vomiting competition. Classy!!!

Wednesday 12th October 2011

Halloween Food

Again, whilst shopping in various supermarkets last weekend I came across the following pumpkin and Halloween related food available in the UK.

Regarding pumpkin soups, the Covent Garden Soup Company has a butternut and bacon soup out which isn't specifically their Halloween soup, but they do have another seasonal pumpkin soup out, as seen below with Morrisons' own spicy pumpkin soup. I've tried the latter and I'd recommend it. The Covent Garden soups usually taste OK too and I'll get round to eating them later on in the week - although I know some people find them a bit to watery.

Morrisons also had their own pumpkin pasta that I tried at the weekend which is basically a filling of pumpkin and cheese but it seemed to lack something - seasoning or some other added flavouring. It lacks the subtlety of the Tesco Finest version or from having the pine nuts that the Waitrose version has. Anyway it's better than not having pumpkin food out for the season.

And finally whilst in Asda I picked up something a bit more American. I must admit I'm not a fan of Oreos, but as celebrating Halloween in the way we do is basically Americanised, what the hell...

Tuesday 11th October 2011

Halloween Beer (Part 6 - Morrisons)

Well this week I'm off work and in pain, so here's something pleasurable to counter it out! For the last few years Wychwood brewery have gone with rebranding their normal Hobgoblin beer rather than selling their excellent Pumpking Ale, and this year I didn't expect anything different. I went to each of the major chain supermarkets and at Tesco & Asda was met with just the Hobgoblin. Sainsburys at least tried a little harder and had a few bottles of Worcester Sorcerer. But Morrisons were the star supermarket for beer. Not only did they have Hobgoblin and the lesser spotted Wychcraft, they had the relaunched Pumpking Ale, and also another rather citrusy tasting Ghost Ship as well as a new Shepherd Neame ale called Spooky Ale. There was also a couple of other Wychwood beers I hadn't seen before - a strong ale over 6% called King Goblin and an alcoholic ginger beer called Ginger Beard.

Monday 10th October 2011