31 Days of Halloween: Day 9

My month of Halloween continues! I've done a few seasonally spooky things today, so it's a little bit of a longer post this time.

Haunted Whisky Tasting

Tonight I did a haunted distilleries whisky tasting with my husband and my brother. I found five ghost stories about distilleries, and chose a whisky from each of those distilleries (from Master of Malt) that Rob and James tasted blind (I also tried the whiskies, though I had the background info of course). All they had to do was match up the whiskies with the ghosts. Unfortunately, they didn't do too well at identifying either the distilleries or the ghosts, but we still really enjoyed drinking five excellent drams! Oh, and we also had some Halloween crackers to set the mood for the night!

Abominable Books

Cheating a bit with this one, as I do it every month... I have a subscription to the Abominable Book Club, a monthly horror book subscription box. October's box arrived today, so I got to do my regular unboxing (and I like to take my time over this). And woohoo! lots of goodies this month! I've got My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones and Six Rooms by Gemma Amor, plus some chocolate ginger biscuits and a Pinhead pin! And my mystery book this month was... The Uninvited! It's apparently the novelization of ITV's chilling new (1997) series starring Douglas Hodge & Leslie Grantham, from the producers of Hamish Macbeth!

Snail

Not the most Halloween-y thing, but I think it still counts. I spotted this snail on a litter-pick in Boggart Hole Clough this morning. I don't know if I'm including it for the snail or the fact that Boggart Hole Clough is an inherently Halloween-themed place!

Today's Story

Today's story was 'The Bird' by Thomas Burke. Did not expect the direction this dark little tale took at all.

Today's Tea

Today's tea was Enchanted Narnia from Bird and Blend Tea Co., which promised to be a Turkish Delight-inspired brew. It's certainly packed with rosebuds! But I've got to admit, the cocoa and lemongrass came through much stronger than the rose flavour. It was very light as well. I might brew the next cup a bit stronger to see if it's rosier!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 8

Carrying on today with my story-a-day and my Halloween tea-a-day. I've got something a bit livelier lined up for tomorrow though...

Today's Story

Today's story was 'The Idiots' by Joseph Conrad. This one is far from my favourite so far, and I'm not even sure it counts as a horror story. Ah well, there's always tomorrow's story!

Today's Tea

Today's tea was Blue Moon from The Tea Crew, another very fruity fruit tea. (And if you don't think Blue Moon has any Halloween/horror associations, then you're watching the wrong films.) Although it's meant to be a blueberry cream flavour, Blue Moon tea is quite red, and it tastes of very strongly of purple Skittles (but definitely not in a bad way).

Stories to be Read with the Lights On 9: Goodbye, Pops by Joe Gores

The next story in my Hitchcock reread is 'Goodbye, Pops' by Joe Gores. This was a weird one for me, as it sort of felt familiar but not as much as some of the other stories. I couldn't say I remembered it in any detail, but it didn't feel totally unfamiliar either.

I liked this one because it was a bit of a change from the others in the book so far. Although it's a 'tale of the unexpected', the twist is the opposite way round to usual. Normally in this type of story, you think things are working out okay and then something bad happens to pull the rug from under your feet. In Gores's story, you constantly feel something bad is going on, before being surprised by something... good, I guess? The story is about a criminal who breaks out of jail and returns to his family home. His father is dying, and he has a bad relationship with his brother and sister-in-law. What happens is certainly unexpected.

This is actually the first story that I'm glad I can't remember clearly, as I enjoyed hitting the big moment without any prior knowledge of what was coming. It's a bit more emotional than the previous ones, so it was nice to be surprised. Hooray for my fuzzy memories of the book!

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