JUST WHERE DID MY SUMMER WEATHER GO?!?! When I arrived back here at the beginning of October, there was this perfect series of weather that was sooo easy to get used to and now it has disappeared and we are freezing our arses off once more! That's alright, it made Halloween a little more like home for me.
Halloween Aussie style, well let's just get one thing straight. We are NOT in Kansas anymore folks. You'll see why as you read on. First of all, hardly anyone 'celebrates' Halloween here. I distinctly picture entire streets lined with Jack-O-Lanterns and hundreds of ghosts and goblins and witches and princesses parading up and down the street with monster sized bags getting filled up by not handfuls but HUNDREDS of pieces of candy.
Here in Melbourne very small pockets of neighborhoods have Trick or Treating and hardly any houses in the neighborhoods seem to participate. One thing people at the bakery didn't understand was what if you didn't want to participate? Well, I explained, "You leave your porch light off and if you want to participate you usually have a jack-o-lantern or two on your front step lite up to indicate you are a Halloween friendly household.' "AHHHHH" most of my Aussie friends replied, "that makes sense." So luckily for the traditional American in me, the street my little bakery is on participates in a Trick or Treating gig for the local kids. Most of the shops along the street put up a sign in their window to indicate they will be participating and a few even decorate their front window. Sharon, knowing how homesick I can be, invited me to help her decorate the windows of our shop. So on Halloween Eve, out came the witches hats, spiderwebs and ghosts and up went all the decorations in the shop. She also kindly took me with her to pick out a costume to rent. She perfectly fit into the Queen of Hearts costume while I managed to squeeze into a Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz costume. I even had a basket with a stuffed dog for Toto. So like I said... We're not in Kansas anymore!!
The next day I got to hand out Lollies to all the kids as they crowded in to the shop and we had 300 bags prepared. Last year they had around 200 kids or so. My guess-timate is that there was actually over 500 kids this year because we blew through the 300 in less than an hour and hoards of kids were coming in when we didn't have anything left. So off we sent someone to the IGA to buy more and we did that trick two other times. I had skinned some small roma tomatoes and boiled some spaghetti noodles. They were in black cauldrons and the witches were using the eyeballs and brains for their magic spells. :) Some of the kids even recognized me the next day when they came in and I was back to work in my normal uniform. Sharon was running through the street screaming "Off with their heads!" dressed as the Queen of Hearts and chasing her kids around. All in all it was incredibly fun and luckily the nice weather came back shortly afterwards so I have been desperately trying to soak in some sunshine and take advantage of the warmer weather before I head home for the cold winter that lies ahead in Spokane. I'll be home for Thanksgiving just in time for more winter!
After Halloween was over, my friend Robyn threw a birthday party for John (the friend I went to high school/college with). I offered to prepare the food for her and on a frenzy I went starting on Thursday... I made spanish chicken kababs with peppers and zucchini, guacamole, pork picadillo empanadas, fresh salsa and a huge batch of taco meat. I met Robyn (and eventually John) at Flinders Street train station when they got off work and they helped me carry the goods back to their place. We had some nachos with the taco meat for dinner while we waited for the first of the guests to arrive. Matt met up with us later and had the blender with him in the car. Soon after, there was margaritas all around and before I knew it, it was 2 in the morning and we were heading home. It was really great. I got to meet some more Aussies and have some girl talk with Robyn and Kaila. Poor Matt was out playing video games in the living room with John while the three of us gossiped away. But, man... that was fun!
I paid for it on Saturday though... I ended up sleeping away most of the day and then we had dinner at Peter's house (Matt's Dad) that night. Then the next week was Melbourne Cup Day.
This is a public holiday in the State of Victoria. And it sure was fun. The day is full of glitz and glam with most everyone dressing up for the occasion. We had so much fun that we came back to the races on Saturday for the Emirates Stakes Day event. Much more low-key but still many people were dressed to the nine. At least I could walk around a bit more and see some of the horses up close and personal. 
They are just 
GORGEOUS! Not only that... but you can't beat the view of the city from our reserved seats in the grandstand. We were almost dead onto the finish line so we could see just who won in the final seconds.I can't believe that it is time to head back so soon. Just when the weather got nice again... I get to head back State-side for winter number 3. Yahoo!
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