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There’s a monster in the garden

Thursday, November 17th, 2005

There is something very strange going on in Acton. Several nights now I’ve heard strange noises outside my window very late at night. One night recently I was woken up by someone making a noise as if they were calling a cat (there is a cat that hangs around nextdoor). I lay in bed, ready to fall back to sleep, when I heard one of the strangest noises I’ve ever heard in my life. I wouldn’t even know how to begin describing it. I wish I did. It was sort of like someone trying violently to get something out of the back of their throat, and also had a bit of zombie-speak thrown in for good measure. However you may imagine it, just know that it was utterly and completely disturbing. I wrote it off as someone coming home drunk from the pub, but then it happened again. And it happened again after that. It’s happened about three times now and I fully expect to hear it again some night soon. I was woken up by the cat call at about 2:45 this morning and I waited to see if the monster sound would follow. Nothing. Then I heard the cat call again. I wanted to see who/what was making the noise, so I sat up and peeked through the blinds; there was moisture on my window and I couldn’t see a thing. It was too cold out to open the window and investigate further, so I went back to sleep. The monster mystery will have to be solved another night.

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‘Tis the season for fireworks!

Monday, November 7th, 2005

While Halloween is tied as my second favorite holiday ever normally, I have to say, it pretty much just sucks here in the UK. Back home we do it right with decorations, costumes, candy, spooky music, and haunted houses. Here, I saw all of four kids trick-or-treating and not a single jack-o-lantern anywhere. It was rather disappointing, I must say. I was glad that we had gone to the effort to decorate our house for our Halloween/Becky’s birthday party, complete with carved pumpkins and cobwebs. Our night of fancy dress went a long way to get me in the Halloween spirit, even if it wasn’t on the actual night. I just can’t conceive why people don’t make more of an effort here over the holiday, even if it is mostly an American thing – it’s just plain fun.

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