It's Halloween - But Last Night ‘Twas The Night Before Halloween!!!!

Last night,  the night before Halloween, to thoughtfully accommodate our guests busy schedules  Darrell and I decided to host a bit of a Halloween “do”!

We invited a few carefully selected list of guests, known for their considered bon viveur-acity  for a “sophisticated” Come Dine With Me meets Hello Magazine type evening ….. but we didn’t tell Nigel what was occurring until he got home …..

…… so when he saw the door mat ….. his little face was a picture!Everything looked soooooo seasonally festive and romantic …… Darrell had done us proud raiding the Poundshops of Wolverhampton, Kristy Allsop or Martha Stewart could not have done a better job!

As Nigel looked round his eyes just got bigger and bigger ….

…… and before we had even started ……

……he declared that it “Twas the bestest Night Before Halloween Night ever, ever, ever!”
…… I will admit it all got a touch emotional ……
….. which also felt a little strange when dressed as two pumpkins and a skeleton, but then …….. we had honoured guests to welcome ……

…… while Nigel bagsed his seat at the table!
The food was truly phenomenal, kindly cooked by one of our guests, Mr C with an Asian twist …..

…… which was well off the scale on our spicy Halloween Richter Scale of noms!

And then, after afters pudding desert dessert ……. someone got out the glow sticks …….

Oh Mon Dieu ….. Nigel who was already beside himself with joyous excitement, was catapulted to another level of “beside himself”, saying that they were the most wondrously spooky things he had ever seen in his life ……

……. and while the adults sat round the table enjoying amusing Halloween banter and gossip of the day  ….. Nigel went off in the dark to glow ……

It was a very, very happy night for everyone,  but especially Nigel …..

…. who insisted on going to bed ….. though robustly fatigued ….. surrounded not only by his own glow sticks but also by the ones our guests had left behind …..

…… sweet dreams Nigel!

A Halloween Surprise For All Of Us From Our Friend Dianne in Florida

Oh my gosh, we got home from work yesterday, slipped into our Halloween outfits and then found an unexpected and most mahoooosive envelope that Lucy must have left on the kitchen table for us to find ….. it had a romantic American postmark on it, and we immediately guessed that it was something very special from our lovely friends in sunny Florida, Dianne and Doug.

Inside it was packed with the most wonderful Halloween objets d’arts….

……. and a special Halloween card and wish for each of us. Needless to say we were all overwhelmed and several manly tears were discretely wiped away.  We are so very lucky to have such lovely friends from all over the world, especially Dianne and Doug.

I duly put our cards on the shelf so that we could admire them as we are having our breakfast and evening repasts, they looked most splendid.

Then we looked at all the other wondrous themed things Dianne and Doug had sent ….. oh my …..  there was a table centre piece that will definitely be in at the centre of our seasonal table every day until Halloween is nigh, and Nigel will be in big trouble if he dares get tomato sauce anywhere near it!

There were also some lovely stickers ….. much to aforementionably lovely to stick on things …..

….. except perhaps this one which Darrell decided to stick on Nigel’s face!

Darrell then, with the skills not akin to a  Selfridges window dresser, arranged all the bits around our cards to create a most wonderful celebratory Halloween display …..

…… with Nigel declaring that he had a feeling in his water that this was going to be his favouritist Halloween ever, ever, ever!

xxxx Thank you Dianne and Doug for thinking about us all those millions of miles away in Florida  we love you! xxxx

Nigel Ponders

Why do trees grow in random places, like roofs……….
……. where there’s no dirt or pots or anything …….???

It’s a worry ….. and a salient reminder NOT to swallow any pips when eating fruit ……  apples, pears or oranges ….. peaches, plums  or anything that might sprout ….. just in case ……..!!! 

In fact, perhaps it might be safer just to stick to bananas!!!

Nigel’s Considered Halloween Purchase of Choice.

Oh dear …… the shops of Wolverhampton are positively burgeoning with Halloween novelties …

…. and Nigel has taken to popping into one or two of his favourites after work ….

….. the mahoooosive range of aforementioned novelties has reduced him to such a robust state of flux that he has now developed a look not dissimilar to a rabbit caught in the glare of a car’s headlights, bless him ….

I haven’t really helped matters much as I have limited Nigel to just one aforementioned, aforementioned  Halloween novelty, telling his that although it would be indeed very lovely to festoon Castle Greysquirrel in Halloween abundance, there has to be a limit and as such, this year he could only choose one thing towards our celebrations and I also set a time limit of 1hr and 30mins in order to reach that decision, any longer and I fear he might have risked being “done” for loitering in his shop of choice!!!!

Poor Nigel, the matter in hand weighed heavily upon his small shoulders ….. severed arms and feet were discarded quite quickly as a little tasteless, thank goodness  …… the masks were tempting but really too large for Nigel’s head and suffocation was not a road I wanted to go down! In the end Nigel managed to whittle the choice down to an inflatable spider or skeleton or a flickering ghost candle……

The flickering ghost candle won in the end, with Nigel reasoning that he could have it beside his bed after the festivities were over and it would also be suitable as a Christmas decoration, as there were also ghosts in “A Christmas Carol”, his very favourite festive Muppet film!  What is he like????

And how long did it take Nigel to make his mind up?  After much ummming and erring …… 1 hrs., 25 mins and 45 seconds!!!

A Halloween Confectionary Review–Rowntree Randoms – Phantom Mix

Halloween wouldn’t be Halloween without one of our legendary confectionary reviews ….

…. however, with so much Halloween confectionary in our local Tesco Express, making a considered purchase amongst all this seasonal abundance wasn’t an easy task, resulting in much robust debate at Castle Greysquirell, which at times became quite heated …. and went on well into the night.

But in the end we settled for a bag of Rowntree’s Randoms – Special Scary Edition Phantom Mix …..

They did not disappoint!  We all agreed that 9 noms would be a most acceptable score  on our limited edition Halloween Richter scale of noms …..

Darrell and Nigel were both particularly partial to the white milk flavoured white ghosts, so much so, that in the end I had to separate them from the rest and divide them equally between the two of them, thus alleviating any unseemly seasonal squabbling!

After that, we took it in turns to work our way through the dish, exchanging manly Halloween banter, wondering what affect, if any,  consuming “phantom” bats, webs, spiders and pumpkins would do to our insides ….. would there be spooky rumblings?

We let Nigel have the very last spider ……. which he said had “wriggled and jiggled and tickled” inside of him as it went down ……

….. for Nigel,  a poignant and spookily apt quote for such an occasion, what is he like?  Happy Halloween Days!

Ooooooops

A rare continuity faux pas occurred this morning ………….

…. with posts of Nigel’s Halloween outfit “going live” totally out of sync, all has been rectified now and we hope it hasn’t in any way spoiled your enjoyment of “the plot”.

I Can Only Blame Myself ……

I can only blame myself, I suppose.  I got in from shopping yesterday and lay Nigel’s pumpkin outfit out on the bed to admire and then ….  the phone went …. it was Hugh,  our friend who lives the showbiz life in Notting Hill and when he calls he is on the phone for hours …. Hugh, believe me can talk for England (and Wales and Scotland!!)

But, while I was on the phone, Nigel popped into my room for a clean hankie ….

….. and had inadvertently noticed the said pumpkin outfit ….. I know he wouldn’t have done it on purpose because Nigel is not a poker of presents or things of a personal type nature.

So when he realised that he may have stumbled upon something that perhaps he shouldn’t have, poor Nigel worked himself up to an absolute state of flux ….

However, he decided that honesty was the best policy and that he should fezz up to his aforementioned inadvertent discovery.

The poor little fella was shaking as he told me ….. but it was my fault (and Hugh’s)…. I should have put it away …… and so, as far as I was concerned, there was nothing for Nigel to confess.

On discovering that the outfit was for him ….. Nigel, now trying his luck, asked if he could “just” try it on “for size”, how could I refuse such a plaintive and innocent face …..

….. and I have to admit, that he did look very, very cute …….

So when he further suggested that perhaps a pumpkin outfit should not just be for Halloween night …… and that perhaps he could just wear it for a few days before ….. perhaps to advertise the Trick or Treat goodies in the kitchen with The Cook Lady’s permission ……… what could I say??   Stitched up again!!!  What is he like???????