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

Halloween pranks

I saw this in Friday's edition of the London Metro newspaper. I'm sure it's done the rounds in other papers too. Anyway it made me chuckle.

Sunday 9th October 2011

Clive Barker's Abarat - Absolute Midnight

Seven years after volume two, the next volume, Absolute Midnight, has been finally released in the UK after being delayed a couple of weeks from the end of September the release date was set for October 6th and I eagerly went into a branch of England biggest book retailer expecting to see a huge display of this highly successful series by one of the major horror authors still alive today... and found nothing. I tried independant book stores, the oldest bookshop in London, Foyles,... and still nothing.

What is going on...

I've heard that his publisher, Harper Collins, has fallen out with him, but this seems silly not to promote a major series that they still have rights for and that Disney were at one stage optioning the rights to make animated films from!

I went back to a Waterstones branch who informed me that in all their stores in London they had just 2 copies of the book in stock. Well now they have just 1 as my copy from their Trafalgar Square branch is scanned in below.

What a shame that at this Halloween with a novel from such an important horror writer being released that the publisher and bookshops can't get their acts together, please us expectant punters and make some extra money for themselves.

Saturday 8th October 2011

Stephen King's Misery

Another trawl through an old scrap book saw me find this flyer when I went to a performance of the play version of Stephen King's novel in 1994. The play had previously premiered in London with Cagney & Lacey star Sharon Gless playing the Annie Wilkes role and Bill Paterson playing the Paul Sheldon role. After the play hit the London stage in 1993 it then toured in local theatres but with a different cast. When I went to see it Rula Lenska was in the lead female role and the play was more in keeping to the book than the 1990 film was. In particular the hobbling scene in the film was changed back to the foot amputation that appears in the book. The play was later revived in 2005 to critical acclaim in London and has also done stints the USA and other countries.

Friday 7th October 2011

My first Halloween card of 2011

Hand delivered today! Sadly a decline reponse to one of my Halloween party invites, but it was so nice for one of my friends to go to the trouble of finding a Halloween card to RSVP my party invite.

Thursday 6th October2011

Halloween Beer (Part 5 - French Supermarkets)

Last week in France I did stock up a few beers that I've put by to drink closer to Halloween as a bit of a treat.

Demon (nice name, shame about the picture) and Jenlain (the green can with the cool demon design) are new on me. Belzebuth I've had before, although I've never seen it in a can (at the weaker strength of 11.8% whereas the bottled variety is 13%).

Wednesday 5th October 2011

Supermarkets continued...

Just a quick entry today. Yesterday I also visited Waitrose in Hythe. They too had more decorations than normal and instead of just the end of one aisle, they shared the length of an aisle with the Christmas decorations. I didn't take a picture as they had basically the same as John Lewis department store (being part of the same group) - so overpriced party decorations mainly and sweets.

But I did get my usual supply of Pumpkin & Pine Nut Raviolli (mentioned on an earlier blog entry)... and also found reduced... Red Berry & Pumpkin Seed Muffins - which I would recommend to anyone without a nut or seed allergy! (And probably would recommend to a few nut allergy sufferes too if they pissed me off enough!)

Tuesday 4th October 2011

The supermarkets are stocked...

Well, I happened to need to do some food shopping in Tesco today so I thought I'd check out their seasonal aisle while I was in and they get a thumbs up from me. A lot better than their miserable effort last year. Admittedly there's lots of make up, costumes, masks, sweets and party stuff for kids. But beacuse of the 'Scared Shrekless' DVD this year the've made more of an effort and have in-store marketing based around this theme.

On the cake aisles various brands have decide to market their existing cakes or biscuits with Halloween packaging (a couple of examples are seen below).

However Tesco may have nailed it this year with a selection of £5 CDs. Now if you collect Halloween music you will know what to expect from most cheap CDs i.e all your favourite Halloween tunes played and sung badly by someone who doesn't get a credit on the sleeve! However on these CDs are many rare tracks from the 50s (obviously the copyright's expired on them). And even the Scary Movie Theme CD mostly recorded by the City of Prague Orchestra has some interesting choices. Just be careful that two of the CDs are practically the same. The Halloween Hits CD is the same as The Ultimate Halloween CD with the exception that you get a second disc of sound effects with the second disc... so get that one if you are interested.

Monday 3rd October 2011

Nightmare Before Christmas European Premiere?

Back in the day, plans were afoot to create a Folkestone - Boulogne International Film Festival between these two twinned seaside resorts linked by car and passenger ferry. So the first film festival was drawn up with plenty of interesting films showing in cinemas on both sides of the Channel and with a certain Tim Burton film being portrayed as a main event and as a European premiere. Whether or not this statement was in fact true or not I haven't checked, but it made us local Tim Burton fanatics feel rather special in this little backwater of England.

Needless to say subsequent film festivals bit the dust when the Channel Tunnel put the local ferry to France out of business. But the one and only Folkestone - Boulogne Film Festival did take place, without major fuss or red carpet treatment and such as it was it was fairly poorly attended, another contributory factor to its lack of successors. But afterwards I did manage to blag from the cinema manager the giant Nightmare Before Christmas standee which is packed safely in my loft. And leafing through some old scrapbooks recently I found the page from the festival brochure.

Sunday 2nd October 2011

Pumpkin Spiced Shower Gel

Another lucky find! Yesterday I went into a branch of Body Shop in London to check whether they were selling pumpkin fragrant oils for either potpourri or oil burners. A few years ago they put out a fantastic 'pumpkin nectarine' oil but they have not continued to do so for subsequent Autumns. Anyway, the girl behind the counter surprised me with her answer of 'Yes, this year we are. I've seen the box downstairs in the store, but we're not putting them out just yet.' So I agreed to come back in a couple of weeks.

In Folkestone today I passed by a different Body Shop store and thought I'd chance my luck and see if they'd put any out in this store. The shop assistant had no idea about any pumpkin fragrance oil, but the shop had just put out some limited edition pumpkin spiced shower gel.

So did the girl in London get her facts wrong and got confused with the boxes she'd seen... I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks. But for now... I'm off to shower in some pumpkin spiced shower gel! £4 a bottle - well worth a try.

Saturday 1st October 2011

Dr Syn rides again...

I missed popping an entry on here yesterday, so here's the first of two today. And although not directly Halloween related the Nightriders (Dr Syn's smuggling gang) did use Jack 'O' Lanterns to scare the locals in the novels by Russell Thorndike set in the 18th century, and the stories are set quite close to where I live. This postcard that I found on ebay is from a theatre production starring the author in the leading role. I haven't a year for it yet, but will research one. I assume the production was post WW1, possibly early 1920s since the first Dr Syn book was published in 1915.

Saturday 1st October 2011