Contrary to popular belief, I am not in fact a Ghostbuster.

I had high hopes for today, high hopes indeed. I was going to do laundry, work on a paper, clean-- in short, actually be productive on a Sunday for once. Instead, I talked to my mom on the phone, talked to Jim online, and watched Ghostbusters. Oops. (Well, theoretically, I could still work on the paper. But it's too late now for the laundry at least.)


Last night, there was a small Hallowe'en parade down Shop Street, the pedestrianized shopping area in the city centre. The parade wasn't very long, or very good-- a stiltwalker, some weird giant puppet things, and a band in costumes-- but after the parade there was a very cool fire show! The show was put on in the churchyard at the medieval church, which was incredibly cool in itself... the place has a spooky atmosphere even in bright sunlight. To watch the show, spectators had to stand around on the other side of a tall spiky wrought iron fence, which just added to the effect. Also the fact that it was hosted by a church made me happy-- there are lots of church groups in the U.S. that condemn Hallowe'en for being evil, instead of embracing it for being cool!

So what do I mean by "fire show"? First, there were pyrotechnics-- lots of flares and roman candles going off in choreographed sequences. There was a large metal tree, with curling branches, that stood mysteriously off to the side. There were fire belly dancers-- three ladies with metal fans that had flames along the edge. There were a couple guys who juggled flaming torches. There were four people spinning poi with flames. They each put on an individual show, then all came out at the same time. At one point, roman candles went off from the church roof. As the finale started, the metal tree suddenly erupted into flames, looking like a huge burning tree in the churchyard, as the performers danced and juggled and tossed fire around. At the very end, there were fireworks. It was cool.

Afterward, I went back to Jenn's apartment, where we were joined by our friend Jason, to watch The Exorcist, drink wine, and eat chocolate. Overall, a good way to spend Hallowe'en!