Steamboat Bordello

I am off to Cardiff for the weekend for a Hen do... but I am making sure that I am back in time for this on sunday!... described on their website as....

'1840 - 1930 - the heyday of the Mississippi paddle steamer. These floating palaces of sin plied their trade up and down the mighty Mississippi from New Orleans to St Louis.

Specialising in unlicensed gambling, prohibited liquor and transactions of a carnal nature, the pleasure boats were the last bastion of Southern lawlessness. Now, step aboard the majestic Dixie Queen as The Last Days of Decadence brings a little of this lost age to the River Thames. A floating fantasmagoria of rogues, riverboat gamblers, good time girls, snake oil salesmen, fallen southern belles, confederate rifles, yankee doodle dandies, bootleggers, carnies, gypsies, tramps and thieves.

The Steamboat Bordello sets sail with 600 passengers from Tower Pier at 5pm sharp on Sunday 31st October, passing through Tower Bridge (opened especially for the occasion) and sailing onwards towards the Thames Barrier before returning to disembark St Katharine Docks at 10pm.'

Hot club of Cowtown, The correspondents, El Nino,Gaz Mayall , John Drain and Ruby Blues are all playing.. now to pick a costume!

Halloween dinner

Even though we're not American when I was a child my mother always went all out on Halloween.

One year our entire house was transformed into a cave, cobwebs everywhere and with our playroom dark and all the walls lined with bits hanging off to scare us, another year we had apple bobbing, sweets hanging on string from the ceiling and boxes full of different objects to represent worms or brains. We had so many masks and costumes hidden away that my brothers continued to drag out all year round - a favourite was the all over rubber warewolf mask and a wall mounted skull that used to yell 'I can see you' as you walked past.

My father favoured more the trick aspect of trick and treating and used to give us little boxes of raisins filled with salt!.. Either way Halloween was always celebrated.

Now as it has bcome so much more commercialised and Americanised here it is hard not to celebrate Halloween, lined up next to the christmas items are hundreds of products repackaged to feature a ghost or witch on them. I was shocked when in Marks and Spencer the other day how every item is renamed to flog it for Halloween... cheetoes are witches toes and candy floss becomes cobwebs...

well in the interests of saving money, and of keeping with tradition.. here are some meals that we used to eat at Halloween...

- Spaghetti - in many forms!.. extra garlicy to ward off vampires, with meatballs that you can pretend are eyeballs

-chicken (bat) wings

- food colouring in anything (even mashed potato)

- jelly with worm sweets set in.

- carrot sticks (fingers)

- mini cocktail sausages (also fingers i think!.. or toes!)

_ fish fingers (can you guess what it is yet!)

- any green soup - broccoli, pea - pond algae

- ketchup or any tomato (blood) based sauce

- blue cheese (mould)

- toffee apples

and anything else that you can rename or style to be ghoulish!... all served by candlelight with goblets of blood. x

A Vintage Halloween

I love Halloween, the dressing up, pumpkins, parties... but this year i'm not going to be in London as it's a friends Hen do ( a Halloween hen do!!) .. i think we may just have to dress up for that! x

Before the catholic church adopted it for Hallows eve, Halloween was a celtic celebration of Samhain which occured on october 31. It goes back more than 2000 years... and marked the beginning of the cold and barren part of the year and was associated with spirits and death. The dead were believed to walk the earth on this night so bonfires were lit and animal skins worn for protection..... now its more an excuse for Trick and Treating and parties but a good excuse!

Traditional Halloween costumes included

* Demon

* Devil

* Ghost

* Ghoul

* Grim Reaper

* Monster

* Mummy

* Skeleton

* Vampire

* Warlock

* Werewolf

* Witch

Ghosts, witches and Masks were especially common...

I think the papier mache rough masks are especially creepy!

Here are a few more glamourous outfits!...

If you are in London on the Saturday then the lovely Fleur from Diary of a Vintage Girl is hosting a fabulous night, 'Dont Dali with the Devil' is sponsored by Absinthe (oh yes!.. free Absinthe!) and has the 'Albert Ball's flying aces' playing.. definately worth going to if you are in town

there is also a twin peaks themed party at the old blue last!.. a perfect excuse to dress up as Audrey!

Or if you fancy staying in these are some great Halloween films ...

* Dracula (1931)

* The Mummy (1932)

* The Nightmare Before Christmas

* The Wolf Man (1941)

This website has Amazing free Halloween cards! to download - they are really cute.

Happy Halloween! xx