Hallowe'en

Tuesday 31st October.

Hallowe’en will always remind me of my dad, because it was his birthday and Mum always made a “clootie” dumpling with silver threepenny bits in it. She also made a huge scone, which was hung from the pulley in the kitchen and smothered in treacle, while we tried to take a bite from it with our hands behind our backs! My brothers used to push the treacly scone into my hair. All part of the fun! All that and dropping a fork into a basin to catch one of the bobbing apples is one of my most vivid childhood memories.

I didn’t know then of course (and I don’t think my parents knew either) that the bobbing apples were supposed to represent the poor souls being ducked to make them confess to being witches. It was a catch 22 situation for if they survived that was proof that they were witches, so they were burned anyway. I suppose many of our traditions are derived from other barbaric practices in our history

Didn’t get any guisers except Karen next door with Yvonne, dressed as a mummy! She had made the outfit out of an old downie and it was very effective. I screamed convincingly when she came to the door!

Still sorting things out in John’s room, deciding what to keep etc. Some old videos which I must get copied to dvds. Couple of John playing and me singing about 15 years ago, but I couldn’t watch them at the moment.

After all that bending etc. my back was pretty weak and sore. I think too it was because I was trailing a bit yesterday having to go to the ENT at Lauriston . What a waste of time too, as I thoughtt it was to get my new hearing aid, but it was just to clean and repair my current one. I won’t get the new one till after Christmas. Wish I had got the same op on my left ear that I got on my right thirty six years ago. It was a great success.

Yesterday too I was so pleased when Kay came in to tell me how she got on working as a volunteer tutor at the Adult Basic Learning course at the Pennypit. She enjoyed it very much and met some interesting people. I'm glad she's getting into the swing of things again. Brought me some shopping and lifted the boxes out of the cupboard to make it easier for me to go through them.