We Knew Not Many Friends Would Arrive Today As It Was Halloween,

but first things first, in the morning Jay and Precil, Mick and Mass called in so that we could talk about where we were all going to meet up,

meanwhile the girls were having a chat,

then Joe called in, he had not been around for a few weeks but had just returned from Phuket, he tried looking for Jeff and Da's shop but could not find it, then it was time for Diana to start cooking, today it was going to be chili con carne, she tried cooking it for me last week as a trial run, it was delicious, so today it was a super sized helping for all of us,

eventually there were just 4 of us, Mike, Tom, Big Jim and myself, Mike had brought some sausages along so we all had a good tuck in,

all to soon it was down to town, every year I get my face made up for Halloween, I like to enter into the spirit of things, so we went to the beauty salons behind Champions,

general warning, a few of the following pictures might scare children and upset the horses! first the foundation,

then the eyes and road rash, as Diana said 'scary dairy!'

Tom also decided to get the look, no this is him before!

meanwhile Diana was going for the Egyptian look,

Mike on the other hand had steadfastly refused to have his good looks altered, but he gave in eventually,

Tom is now getting the treatment,

the beautician, hard at work on Diana,

Mike nearly finished,

Tom still waiting for the finishing touches,

Mike all dressed up and ready to go,

a beautiful 'Egyptian' look Diana,

Tom is almost finished,

and Diana is ready to go,

I had brought the pictures I took of this lady doing our make up last year, I think she is the owner, but I am not sure about that,

Tom made up and ready to go,

I said the pictures would frighten the horses!

first it was over to Sisterz, the nameless one was already there, Big Jim joined us then later John Boy, Jay and Precil arrived, Gig also was already there,

Gig, Tom and I think one of the mamasans,

myself, Diana, Riza, Mike, Gig, Tom, Jay and Precil, I do not know why but lots of people in the street kept taking our pictures!

Riza and Mike,

Jay and Precil, we then all went over to see Grieg in Sweethearts, after a couple there it was in to see Juu, to say we had a great time was an understatement it was a total laugh!

then it was time to head home, but before that Diana and Riza did a bit shopping for a pair of shorts for Mike,

when we got home it was time to clean up Diana peeled the road rash from my face and tried it on, another great Halloween, thank goodness for the the Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, and decided to celebrated their new year, a time of year that was often associated with human death, Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth, to commemorate the event Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities, remember Edward Woodwood in The Wickerman?

as European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them, in the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants, these new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally, taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition, and the rest as they say is history.