random ramblings...and a touch of halloween

Hi out there...

Just a quick post to say we haven't fallen off the face off the earth or anything.... just that we haven't been quite bothered enough to make a proper blog post in recent weeks.

We have gone through Halloween- with shops filling up with scary and sweet halloween 'stuff' a whole month before Halloween itself, and some quite scary looking shop windows... every shop in Dublin, including op shops and butchers had skeletons, zombies, cobwebs and bloodied bandages as decorations.. I might have a few snaps of some shop windows.... These are not so good, but i don't always have the camera on me...The best one i saw was the op shop just around the corner...very spooky, but, sadly, I missed my chance at the photo...

We learnt something too - that Halloween is a Celtic tradition, a celebration of the 'end of summer', when the dead revisit the mortal world, walking free amongst the living. The Celts hung up skeletons to represent loved ones who had passed away. It was also believed neccessary to dress up as underworld creatures before stepping out for the night, so as to blend in with the real spooks..... and the bonfires were to either keep the returned spirits warm or ward off evil spirits... or both.... (Reference: wikipedia) More fascinating info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#Ireland
It's always nice to learnt something new...

But.... Halloween night here with its random fireworks and bonfires does seem to get a little out of hand... The news report form the morning after gives some idea...
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1101/halloween.html

Despite all this, it does also seem like good fun, so next year we'll be more organised, get a costume and get to one of the pub parties.. This Halloween we had more mundane things to do like pick up Ivan from the airport after a short visit to London. But next year! oh next year!!

Now Halloween is over and Christmas is fast approaching......