Halloween is fast approaching and I couldn’t be less excited.

I live in Australia and grew up with the knowledge that Halloween was a holiday celebrated elsewhere, experienced by Australians only through (generally American) movies, TV shows and cartoons. We didn’t have trick-or-treaters, we didn’t have Halloween parties, we didn’t dress up – frankly nobody really cared that much. But somehow, this has changed over the last few years – in 2006 there was a rise in Halloween costumes sales and suddenly we were getting five or six trick-or-treaters knocking at the door in half-hearted costumes and caring huge lolly-bags. Shops started breaking out the spooky decorations as early as September to try to make the most of this “new” holiday. I think Australian children have finally figured out the fact that Halloween equals free lollies and of course, shopping centres love any excuse to latch onto a new fad to increase sales. This is the first year I’ve seen whole pumpkins for carving for $25 each(!!).

If I’d been born and raised in a country that celebrated Halloween, I’d probably love it, but I wasn’t – I was born and raised in Australia, and until a few years ago, Australia didn’t do Halloween. I can’t just flick a switch and suddenly love Halloween like we’re being expected to do and yes, we are being expected to at least participate every time someone knocks on our door by handing out lollies. Turning off the light at the front door often helps, but it’s not foolproof, since last year we had some eager kids banging out there until I had to get up from dinner and tell them to go away. Ironically, they said most people had been telling them they don’t celebrate Halloween and that it was okay, they understood. Then why did they bang out there for ten minutes?! Trick-or-treaters are just as annoying and persistant as telemarketers!

Phill and I don’t give out lollies and we don’t dress up, but this year two of our friends are holding a joint birthday party on Halloween and, of course, it’s a Halloween-themed costume party. We’re torn. We don’t want to turn up in plain clothes but for the life of me I don’t want to go out and hire a costume, so we’re going to be those annoying attendees who turn up in half-hearted costumes, like a pirate (stripy shirt, skull-and-crossbones chain, big hoop earring, eyepatch and bandana) or a tourist (Hawaiian T-shirt, khaki pants, joggers, sunnies and a camera around the neck). I can guarantee we won’t be the only ones.

So… what are you going to be doing this Saturday night?

Excuse me for a moment while I bounce in excitement!

Long-time readers might remember back in December 2008 I got a car stereo from Phill for my birthday. He sneakily boxed me in on the morning of my birthday which meant I had to take his car to work, enabling him and his friends to install the stereo while I was gone. I was thrilled to finally have music in my car, especially since the previous owner of my car had sold it with very awesome speakers included which he had obviously spent a lot of time and money on.

The only problem was the stereo didn’t get hooked up properly by the boys. At the first bump or shake, the music would crackle or skip and after a while, I couldn’t take it anymore and I unhooked it. I figured I’d get Phill to do it again, or I’d take it in to a professional since I wouldn’t know where to start, but this never happened. I became used to not having music and the thought of getting my stereo fixed slipped my mind, which is why I was very surprised yesterday when Phill suddenly said, “I’m going to go fix your stereo,” and went into the garage.

Fifteen minutes later, he was done and my stereo worked again! This time around he soldered the wires which means no crackling and no skipping – and I realised I had tunes again! We tested it out using the CD I had put in it last December and let me tell you something – my taste in music has definitely changed since then! I found myself skipping most of the songs, trying to find one that didn’t make me want to snap the CD in half.

So today, I’ve spent quite some time compiling a new CD (since the stereo is an mp3 player and Phill hasn’t hooked up the radio aerial yet) and I am very excited about driving to work in an hour and a half because I WILL BE ABLE TO LISTEN TO MUSIC! Even after only one day of having a working stereo again, I can’t believe how I lasted nearly a year without music in my car. Squee!

I find that Puddy isn’t very easy to photograph because, well, she’s just all the one colour. There’s not much depth to her fur and she’s not very floofy, if you know what I mean. But there are times when she’s completely relaxed and lounging around that her fur looks almost chocolate and very very fluffy and I just love to capture that in photos. Her favourite place to lounge is the back of my reclining chair but her second favourite is on Phill’s reclining chair. She’ll often dash in to steal it when he vacates it and he’ll usually end up having to push her off in order to sit back down.

I love this pose – the upside-down-head-wide-eyes pose, especially with the paw up on her head. You can see what I mean by floofy – her fur is so soft and messy and her black fur almost looks chocolate or red! Ahh, it’s moments like this when I like having a cat because she seems, well, normal.

The one-eye-closed pose, especially cute with the little ear tucked under her head. She’s watching me and wondering why I am being so annoying but is too lazy to actually reach out and swipe at me.

She’s all arms and legs and tail and to be honest, as I sit here on our broken couch, I’m quite jealous that she looks so comfortable. I feel like I should poke her and make her get up and do some laps of the house or something, but then I remember that if she wakes up she might want to use her litter box and I haven’t changed it yet, so maybe I should let her stay put.

You know what’s funny? Puddy is only about 4 years old but she’s already got one stray gray hair! Can you see it? It’s taken me a while to be able to capture it and the photo simply does not do it justice – in real life, it’s very obvious, especially in contrast to her black fur! Here’s a hint: Look above one of her eyes…

My little cat is getting old! Teehee…

The wedding I played the piano for was on Saturday. We arrived about 45 minutes before the ceremony began and I immediately went inside to suss out the piano situation and I was, err, thrilled to see that the piano was right up the front of the room, next to the table where the bride and groom would sit to sign the register. My first thought? “I guess that rules out taking my shoes off to play, since I might end up in photos.”

I went to the piano and attempted to lift the lid, but it was locked.

Hmm. I asked the woman who worked at the building for the key and she came back a few seconds later and put a key in the lock … but it didn’t open. She left and returned again with another set of keys and tried each one … still nothing. It was now about 30 minutes before the ceremony was due to start. I was supposed to be playing some quiet welcome music as the guests were arriving, but it was starting to look more and more likely that I would need to drum something out on the closed piano lid.

I suggested to the woman that she look for an old-style key, since the piano was visibly very old and she went off again, apologising and obviously a little embarrassed. I was a bit frustrated because the bride and groom had paid to have the piano tuned the previous day. Wouldn’t that make it obvious that we were going to use the piano today for the ceremony and hence it should be left unlocked, or the key left for us to use?

At fifteen minutes until the wedding, I suggested to Phill that he should download Pachelbel’s Canon in case we might need to hold his iPhone up to the microphone. I was seriously starting to panic. Guests were arriving and I was concerned the groom might arrive before we got the piano open and, even though it wasn’t my fault, I still felt guilty.

The woman finally returned with an old-style key and thankfully it opened the piano. I started to play some jazzy songs and realised very quickly that the piano was very loud and very old which meant the notes tended to blend into each other so I had to be careful with my pedalling. I kept my left foot on the soft pedal and the piano lid closed which brought the volume down to a more appropriate level, since the room was rather small and had great acoustics.

The groom arrived on time, but the bride was about 20 minutes late. I kept playing and glancing at the door, ready for my queue to begin playing Pachelbel’s Canon, which is traditionally played by a string quartet but I had found a really pretty arrangement for piano. Finally they closed the doors and I began … and within a minute all five bridesmaids had arrived at the front of the room and I realised the bride wasn’t far behind. The good thing about Pachelbel’s Canon is that you can finish it pretty much anywhere, which is perhaps why it is such a popular wedding piece.

The ceremony was very quick and there was a speech about the reception during the signing of the register which confused me a little, especially since I had already started playing when the MC started talking into the microphone, but I played it by ear and managed to stop subtly and then start again once the MC had finished talking. We had Moondance ready to go for the bride and groom’s exit but it turns out it wasn’t needed, since the bride and groom were lead out by a few representatives of the bride’s clan from New Guinea who were singing and dancing a traditional wedding ritual. It was quite nice, having that cultural feel at the end of the wedding.

While I enjoyed playing, I must admit I was relieved it was over and that it had gone well. It’s different playing for friends because, well, if I stuff up, they know where to find me! Haha. Joking aside, it was a really lovely day and I was really happy to be a part of it. After the initial “locked-piano” situation which had me a little worried, everything just fell into place and just worked.

I love weddings.