Hallowe'en at the Garden Gate

For Hallowe’en, Sonia invited friends Claire and Dave, a recently married couple (in Las Vegas nonetheless), to come over in the afternoon for some pumpkin carving followed by dinner and then out to the Garden Gate pub for some drinks. Surprisingly Sonia had never carved a pumpkin before so she was quite excited to give it a go. We all spent some time trying to figure out what to carve and in the end Claire created a witch on a broomstick, Dave a howling wolf and Sonia a ghost. Sid initially attempted Darth Vader but even with his artistic talent he decided he bit off more than he could chew so he opted for the autobots logo from the Transformers. I definitely have little to no artistic abilities so I carved the classic pumpkin face although I used thin slices of cucumbers for his eyes and did not completely carve through the teeth so that a thin layer of pumpkin remained to shine the light through. I was quite impressed with Sonia’s first go at carving a jack o’lantern and the creations by the other three were fantastic.

Our pumpkins:

As often happens in the flat in Russell Court, Sid led the charge with dinner and concocted a scrumptious black bean stir fry. After a few drinks we called for a taxi to ferry us the short distance to the pub which we justified due to the fact we had pumpkins in tow.

Sid preparing the stir fry:

While down in Weymouth I had contemplated what to dress up as and Charles had lent me a hideous purple suit that I thought could turn into a vampire’s outfit with a bit of effort. In the end however, Sonia had a better idea for both Sid and me. At a boot fair in the last year or so, they had purchased a couple of sumo wrestler suits. Powered by four double AA batteries, these suits inflated quite quickly to suddenly transform us from regular dudes to massive wrestlers...sweet!

We waited until we arrived at the pub and quickly donned our suits outside, waited a couple of minutes for the suits to inflate and then waddled through the front door. I was sure that we were going to be the cause of a couple of spilled drinks before the night was through as neither one of us was used to our newly acquired girth.

The Sumo Wrestlers: Sido and Daveyjima:

The pub was well decorated with a camouflage net covering the entire ceiling which darkened the place and facilitated the placement of many spooky decorations. Most people were dressed up, or as they say in England: “in fancy dress” and the place was packed. Having spent a number of weeks in Aldershot, I have come to know many of Sid and Sonia’s friends so I definitely felt at home in the pub...even knowing the names of all of the staff.

A motley crew:

The devil Steve:

A four eyed Sumo wrestler:

Sonia and Claire:

Dancing Sido:

Cally, the pub manager, had the idea of creating a Hallowe’en film and Thom, one of the bartenders, picked up the ball and really ran with it. He directed, filmed and edited it; spending many, many hours over the previous few weeks creating a masterpiece. The story involved an evil vacuum cleaner, yes vacuum cleaner, called Henry (it’s a standard little hoover you can buy in the UK that has a cute little face on it). Well Henry attacks Cally and turns her, and a few others, into possessed killer zombies who slaughter a number of pub regulars including Sonia. The film was about 20 minutes long and was well received by the crowd...hats off to you Thom.

Filmmaker Thom with vicious vacuum cleaner Henry in the background:

Puss 'n Boots Gemma:

Getting our groove on:

There was a costume, sorry, “fancy dress” contest and amazingly Sid and I won fourth prize! I kind of felt a bit chintzy as our costumes were just purchased ones and I really believe that homemade creations should always beat out retail ones but I guess we were pretty entertaining for many people so we gladly accepted our prize: a box of rat shaped gooey candies.

Our booty for 4th place:

The night coincided with Daylight’s Savings which technically meant there could be an extra hour of partying but by 2am we were pretty much done so we turned the fall back hour into an extra of sleep....which was much needed. A very Happy Hallowe’en indeed!