spoooooky spoooooooky

there's a full moon out tonight! i can see it from my window, all hazy and looming yellow over the otherwise gray sky. as the day deepens into twilight, my thoughts too take a shadowy and sinister turn...
HALLOWEEN is near, my friends. time to prepare for the gouls, the goblins, the plastic frankenstein masks, the overindulgence in candy, the ---

wait a minute. i'm in the U.K. Halloween doesn't really...well...happen here.
of course, you do see some more candy in the stores, and the Simpsons on the American channels turn to their spooky episodes, but....there's something very different about Halloween in London. like, it's a muted sort of version of what i'm used to in the States.
less spooky, more kid-oriented, fewer dress-up parties...like their heart's not into it or something.
i heard someone say that Guy Fawkes Night is like the equivalent of the U.K.'s fall celebration, rather than Halloween.
sure, fireworks are cool, and bonfires, and i liked the movie V for Vendetta (this covers my total knowlede of this subject) but....

give me full moons and black cats and cauldrons of dry ice! and chain saws and haunted houses and rubber monster masks and jack o lanterns!!!

woooooooooo!

graveyard in West Hampstead - full of curious occupants