NincompooperyUK

Yes that is me and Miranda - I am Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas before you ask.

Caroline/Miss Piggy once again won Best Female - I am a little worried that was her moms bridesmaid dress!

I think almost everyone is in the picture except me and Dan taking them!

Sarah/Wilma and Matt/Spongebob Square Pants - who won again for best male.

Halloween - Well it is once again upon us, that one time of year when you can make a complete arse of yourself and your friends willingly forgive you – hell most of them even join in. Of course I came home from Florida on Thursday so the preparation has been a little more haphazard than usual but hey everything got done in the end. Everyone seems to have really enjoyed the theme this year Cartoon Characters and it seems to have brought the inner creative child out – this was by far the best year for costumes and I have to admit to having near hysterics on several occasions. Highlights I hear you yell – Wolverine, Spongebob Square Pants, Miss Piggy and the thought that the Two Mr Men had taken two buses and a train from central London dressed like that and had not been attacked. There was of course a ton of food created by yours truly and the Chocolate Toblerone fondue seemed to go over especially well. Jane came from Leeds and my lot from London all came out to the sticks just to make fools of themselves. Christine and Jeanette from Kent, and of course the usual suspects but shut up I hear you say and show us some photos well here are a few from Laura we shall have to wait a few days for the rest to filter in. Please if they are good send them over and I shall try and put them up.

Mr Bump and Mr Tickle also known as Michelle and Hugh - they came on two buses and a train some people need a medal for the journey.

Oliver/ Lucky Loo, Toby/Wolverine - complete with his own carpet sideburns, Jake/Inspector Gadget or Cluso and Mat/Charlie Brown.

Oliver/Lucky Loo, Miranda/Lisa Simpson, Julian/Groucho, Jane/Minnie

Ann/Minnie, Ash/Mickey, Tasha/Cruella - a bit of a Disney thing going on!

Ben as He-man and Jeanette as She-Ra

USA - Well never let it be said that I do not pack as much as possible in to my lifeAs you all know I do love my life complicated so let’s start – I have been working for the Woking Mental Health Team for the last nine months and so decided it was time to try something different. So despite the fact that I loved the team I was working for I handed in my notice and said Adios Amigos three days before my holiday. (Yep it seemed like a good idea at the time.)

Off I happily trundled for three weeks in the US of A. Uneventful if long trip – Gatwick to Atlanta then change to Ft Myers which has a new lovely airport. Then I had one wonderful week in which all I did was sleep and stare vacantly into space I had forgotten what doing nothing was like. But as you know I never like things simple so on Friday mum and I got up at 3:45am (yes I did not know there was a 3:45 in the morning either and all I can tell you is it was dark and quiet!!) to fly from Ft Myers to Chicago FOR THE WEEKEND! Yes that is right we went to Chicago to catch up with Scot, Ed and the lovely Suzanne.(For those of you who care we met Suzanne for the first time when we all went to Spain a couple of years back, she lives about 4 hours from Chicago and works for Lands End but sorry girls no discount). It was really nice of Suzanne to come to Chicago for the weekend considering the horrible journey, but we have simply assumed it is because we are perfect company and it had nothing to do with seeing Scott and Ed or the city.

Chicago which we had been told would be very cold was in fact going through an unseasonable hot spell and was beautiful. For those who have not been it is a little like New York but everything is on a bigger scale – bigger city, bigger skyscrapers and more of them. However it was clean, felt safer, better layout and easy to walk round. The four of us stayed by the Navy Pier in a very trendy hotel called the W. I, of course, loved The Art Institute of Chicago. It had an amazing collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings including the famous Gustave Caillebotte painting ‘Paris Street, Rainy Day 1877’ which was a huge canvas with the most amazing sense of perspective from every angle the eye was drawn in and across the painting I thought it was fantastic. The American collection was also much better than anything I have seen in the US, Ivan Albright, Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, James Whistler and several fab John Singer Sargents’ including ‘The Fountain’. However, I then ditched the others who went off to see some football game (men in padding that is not a butch game at least in rugby there is some chance of blood) and I went to look at the Meso-American collection. Yep I thoroughly indulged my obsession – it was not a huge amount but enough Olmec, Mayan, Moche, Aztec, Inca and Nazca to please even me.

What else did I love about Chicago! Well of course the company was great, the food was good. I enjoyed the architecture boat tour we took and Millennium Park with the Silver Bean installation by Anish Kapor (I have no idea what its real name is). I like Michigan Avenue like New York with all the shops except less expensive labels – I got some great boots there. Mum and I also arranged before we went for matinee tickets to see Wicked the Musical which has done so well on Broadway and just happened to be touring in Chicago when we were there in this mad theatre called the Oriental (like something out of 1930’s Hollywood all ornate golden elephants and mad colours).I really enjoyed it, for the first twenty minutes I was not convinced but it grew on me and by the end of the first half I was completely immersed. The music grows on you – I have listened to it since. I am hoping it comes to the West End as I’d love to see it again.

We then all departed and went our separate ways. Our return to Florida unfortunately coincided with the upgrade of Tropical Storm – Wilma into Hurricane Wilma. Despite all predictions it took the dam thing over a week to hit us and caused no end of panic and chaos in Florida. We all sat appalled and watched it devastate the Yucatan Peninsular and wonder what she might have in store for us. We of course had a ton of phone calls from everyone concerned and some suggested we get out. However mum and I made the decision to follow local advice and they had no compulsory evacuation order in our area. She hit on Sunday/Monday actually starting at 3:00am and was eventually a category 3 with winds at 120mph. I will not lie to you it was quite scary the rain beat (literally) against the house and the wind was so loud when I put my I-pod on full I could not hear it. This went of until about 9:00am but the wind was still very strong for most of the day. We lost the net on our pool cage, some roof tiles and trees. However we only lost power a couple of times and for short periods; by the time we left on Wednesday hardly anywhere in Ft Myers had power and they thought it might be a couple of weeks before they got it all back on. Several places where we were had lost pool cages and lots of trees but compared to elsewhere (The Keys) we got away with it despite an almost direct hit. Not something I would recommend.

Despite this I had a wonderful holiday and have come back ready to find a new job and have a very busy couple of months running up to Christmas. Next Stop Halloween Party.