Halloween this year seemed to change. I’d never seen so many people get into the Halloween spirit. Shops, supermarkets, restaurants all had decorations, deals and Halloween themed products coming out of their ears! Oh hang on, no, I had seen this Halloween spirit. In America. In America they had shop dedicated to this spooky festival and due to the Mexican festival – The Day of the Dead – it would continue till November 2^nd. England, I believed, liked Halloween but it was never that big of a deal. Americans celebrated and worshipped Halloween the same way the England worships Christmas (Side note - I didn’t feel Americans really felt Christmas was that important). However, this year, England showed me that they have grasped the Halloween spirit full on.

I applaud England. Well done for giving it a go. Well done for dressing up so well – even if there were far too many people going as Miley Cyrus and thinking their costume was sooooo original, sorry to disappoint but it seems 1 in 3 people did that.

Most of my friends went out drinking. They celebrated till dusk and then collapsed into their beds with white face paint still smeared across their faces and their costumes covered in fake blood in a pile at the side of the bed.  I spent Halloween, babysitting my dogs, in my house, alone. Sigh. Now I have an over active imagination. I have a really over active imagination. The entire house was shrouded in darkness and I was scared. Andy was on the other end of Skype, which calmed be down a bit but I was still scared. I remember my American friends dragging me to see Paranormal Activity last year (think it was like the 3^rd or 4^th one) and one boy being on Skype. A lady suddenly appears in the screen behind him and he stares at the camera before his neck gets broken. That image get flashing into my bed especially when I turned off the lights to go up upstairs. I really began to believe that this was my last day alive.

I had my dogs. How could I be scared with them by my side? Well, because if a murderer tried to get into the house he would soon realise the scary barking was actually to toy poodles, excited to see him and lick his shoes. Yeah. My friend Rachel said she is always scared when she is left alone but she has Kia. Kia is taller than me when I’m sitting down and is a mix between a Rottweiler and an Akita (I think). She is so lovely but yeah, she would scare off a murder. My white fluffy knee high dogs…..nope. My dogs had a habit on Halloween of barking in the conservatory. This meant they were barking out into the dark garden at something they could see or hear….but I couldn’t. It was petrifying. Thinking they could see someone out there that I couldn’t. I literally begged them to stop barking as I was going to go into a nervous breakdown.

Bonnie also spent the night under my bed. Barking at something that wasn’t there and fixated with staring at one point, wagging her tail. This is quite Bonnish behaviour but on Halloween, when you’re by yourself, you begin to think…..Ghost? Is there something under my bed? Some spirit that is going to reach up and kill me? It’s terrifying.

We had no trick or treaters (luckily). I was having my hair done till 6.30 and when I came back I saw some walking away from my house so I hoped that was the last. I just didn’t like the idea of opening my door when I’m in the house alone to people in masks. Little children in Harry Potter costumes? That is fine! Here have all my candy. Fourteen or fifteen year old lads in masks? No. No thanks. I don’t live in a rough area or anything but still, go away. Also teenagers who don’t bother to dress up? Really? Are you begging then? Begging for sweets? I’ll pop by your house tomorrow in my gym gear and say  “Trick or treat?” shall I? No? Didn’t think so.

I managed to escape to my friend Rachel’s house for a little bit of the night so that was nice J Had a good catch up. And then Andy stayed on Skype all night so I felt much better after a while.

When I got back to Bristol on Saturday Andy had decorated the whole apartment as a surprise for me. There was cobwebs everywhere with spiders, orange and black balloons and toy rats on the floor. It looked incredible. Andy barely gets any nights off from working (neither do I) but it was nice that we both had worked hard during the week so we could spend some time together. We sat up, had pizza and played scary games. It was a perfect evening J.