Halloween ...

Chairman Mao demonstrates how to carve a pumpkin

My last night in Canada just happened to be Halloween and the running of the Melbourne Cup, so there was no time to dwell on how much I would miss C.  Instead, the bubbles and candy (oh how I hate that word) flowed and there were good times to be had with a couple of friends who joined us for the festivities.

A close-up shot of the pumpkin carving demonstration

Carving my first pumpkin

To begin the evening, C (aka Chairman Mao) taught me how to carve a pumpkin.  It was an interesting experience as it required a trait that is a weakness of mine (patience) and one that is a strength (perfectionism - which can also be a weakness!).  First, I drew an outline of my Jack O'Lantern face and then proceeded to carve it out (C had done all the hard work of getting the pumpkin innards out).  It was surprisingly fun and I carved two pumpkins with different faces.  We set the pumpkins (complete with tea lights inside them) outside the house to signal to 'trick-or-treaters' that we were open for business.

The look of concentration!

The finished product! (one of two)

It was a lot of fun to greet the 'trick-or-treaters', some who were as young as 2 and some as old as 13-14, although by the time kids are that old, the whole thing idea of dressing up and asking strangers for candy seems to be a little uncool.  There were some incredibly creative outfits including The Four Seasons, a Leafblower, a Homeless person, Ketchup and Mustard and a Half-Dead-Half-Alive person, as well the predictable flow of princesses, dragons, witches and cute, furry animals.  By the end of the evening (about 6-9pm), we had handed out nearly 100 small chocolate bars!

Our efforts (mine are the two on the ground on the left)

Chairman Mao greets (and scares?) the first 'trick-or-treaters'

The whole time this was going on, the four of us managed to polish off several bottles of bubbles and get stuck into a bottle of red.  Dinner was an odd mix of cheese, biscuits, veggies with hummus, ginger snaps and a red monster cake.

'Trick-or-treaters'

A very creative costume, The Four Seasons (poor 'Summer' was too cold to look too summery!)

As the evening was winding up (it was a school night for nearly everyone), we tuned into ABC 774 to listen to the running of the Melbourne Cup.  What a great race!  It was amazingly close and if you were the owners/trainers/jockey etc of Red Cadeaux, you'd be pretty disappointed, I would imagine.  None of the horses I had money on placed, so I'm really hoping that my bookie (my younger brother) couldn't make it to the TAB for some reason!  So, Halloween and Melbourne Cup celebrations provided a great way to finish another 7 month period in Canada and now it's time to head home to see family and friends and head back to work after nearly a month off!

Another creative costume, a Leafblower (C is fixing the poor leafblower's leaf)