Nothing much happened October. One thing that did happen is that I accidentally sold the boat! Well, maybe not quite accidentally - I'll explain. A while back I had to have a hole in the boat repaired. I was told that it was not guaranteed that the fix would be 100% because to fix it properly, would have cost a substantial amount of money. Yes, apparently the boat had suffered some previous damage that I was not aware of and conveniently, was not told of. So after the fix, if I was to see any cracks forming (which would happen now or later), between the old and new parts of the boat that I would be in for some trouble (meaning big bucks to fix). Well, I took the boat out to Tiritiri Island, caught a few fish and after an exhillirating cruise back home, decided to put the boat on the internet to see what interest I might get, not really expecting to sell it because I still wanted it for summer. I hiked up the price to what I thought would be unreasonable? Ha ha ha! The very next day somebody came to look at it! They dumped a big wad of cash in my hands (the amount I asked for), and said "I want it now!" And that was that and the boat is gone!!?? It was great fun while it lasted and I am trying to decide what I will do next...
Photos Photos
New Zealand celebrates just about everything in a big way - perhaps because it’s yet another way of getting people to spend money? Actually, I'm surprised they don't celebrate Thanksgiving or Independence Day! So weeks before the 31st October, you can find all kinds of things related to Halloween, from sweets to music to costumes etc. We were warned that kids will probably come around saying "Trick or treat!?". The usual response is to give them a handful of sweets. Apparently if you don't have treats you get tricked, where they might throw eggs at your door something to this effect, so we made sure we went and bought a few bags just in case. Well, since we live a little way down from the main street, we only had 3 little boys that arrived at the same time. Ingrid gave them each a handful of sweets, and that was that. We were left with a load of sweets that we gave to friends who.... yes, had kids of their own. On the left you will see Ingrid’s garden mushrooms - her Halloween present :-)

For those that might be interested, below is an article that explains how Halloween originated. You can click on the link to go to the web site I found it on or just read below, its the same information:



Where did Halloween originate from?   (I found the following here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween)

Halloween is a tradition celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets. It is celebrated in parts of the Western world, though most commonly in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Puerto Rico, and with increasing popularity in Australia and New Zealand . Halloween originated among the Celts in Ireland, Britain and France [1] as the Pagan Celtic harvest festival, Samhain. Irish, Scots, Calan Gaeaf in Welsh and other immigrants brought versions of the traditions to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.
The term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening before "All Hallows' Day" [2] (also known as "All Saints' Day"). In Ireland, the name was All Hallows' Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve), and though seldom used today, it is still a well-accepted label. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Pope Gregory III moved the old Christian feast of All Saints Day to November 1 to give Halloween a Christian interpretation . Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the púca, a mischievous spirit.
 
Halloween is often associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when the spiritual world can make contact with the physical world and when magic is most potent (e.g. Catalan mythology about witches, Irish tales of the Sídhe).
 
Halloween is a tradition celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets. It is celebrated in parts of the Western world, though most commonly in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Puerto Rico, and with increasing popularity in Australia and New Zealand . Halloween originated among the Celts in Ireland, Britain and France [1] as the Pagan Celtic harvest festival, Samhain. Irish, Scots, Calan Gaeaf in Welsh and other immigrants brought versions of the traditions to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.
 
The term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening before "All Hallows' Day" [2] (also known as "All Saints' Day"). In Ireland, the name was All Hallows' Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve), and though seldom used today, it is still a well-accepted label. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Pope Gregory III moved the old Christian feast of All Saints Day to November 1 to give Halloween a Christian interpretation . Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the púca, a mischievous spirit.
 
Halloween is often associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when the spiritual world can make contact with the physical world and when magic is most potent (e.g. Catalan mythology about witches, Irish tales of the Sídhe).