Halloween has become huge in Britain. I'm not sure if it's this year in particular, or if it's grown in prominence in the years since we've been away, but Halloween costumes and paraphernalia have filled supermarket shelves for weeks. Tesco devoted two whole aisles to Halloween make up, outfits, treats, tricks and more. Maria and Lol have a tradition of throwing Halloween parties, and this year was bigger than ever. They converted their basement into a chilling dungeon disco complete with headless babies and skulls. Upstairs a mechnical witch burst into life at the front door to greet visitors, a bubbling broth of punch smoked in the kitchen and in the toilet a wall-mounted monster spoke to you when you went near the loo. About 50 people came and everyone made a massive effort with their costumes. Lol was a vampire, Maria was Poison Ivy and Jack and Rob were mummies. Rob's costume took a while to assemble and was made from several loo rolls, badages and masking tape. I spent the afternoon sewing long black socks stuffed with newspaper to a black top to become a spider before facepainting Rob and the girls, Scarlett as a devil and Flo, a witch. Dad had THE most frightening mask ever, while Alexandra made a very pretty devil queen. Others came as Carrie, extras from the Thriller video, a ghostly priest and Death ("there's a little man form the village. Something about the reaping"). After bowls of chilli, care of Dad, and fireworks in the garden, care of Lol, we retired to the dungeon to cut some serious Halloween rug.
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