Here comes Halloween....Halloween....Halloween....

Whenever I watch Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - and I LOVE that movie - I always feel a sense of disappointment as the movie ends when Jack Skellington - The Pumpkin King - restores order and Christmas to the world. But then, I am among the minority who loves Halloween so much more than that other, bile-inducing festival of indulgence that happens later in the year. Halloween is a reminder that we all have a skeleton underneath our skins. Its occurrence at the end of October, when the year is growing old, is no accident. We need this annual convulse in the same way that the Mardi Gras occurs just before those weeks of po-faced penitence they call Lent. We all come from darkness and one day, we will return to it, too. Kitting out in a scary costume is a harmless masquerade, one that puts us in touch with this inevitability and our other, darker fears. Dressing up as a werewolf or in a skeleton suit allows us to externalise and release our fears in a benign and collective way. We need our intervals of darkness as much as day needs night, and summer needs winter; places of eternal summer do exist - I think they call them deserts? So, next weekend, as you enjoy the candied eyeballs and the witches’ fingers, let the darkness enfold you as relentlessly as you enjoy the blossoms in spring and the beach in summer. Have a wonderful and frightening time!

Super Sizzling Syzygy.....

Certainly, I am rather backward but when I first stumbled over this word, it sounded like a newly-branded energy drink. Or the name of a Czechoslovakian perfume. Or a strange skin disorder. Or yet another cute cartoon character launching a range of themed merchandise. Or one of those obscure political slogans that you see emblazoned across t-shirts, which keep everyone guessing without reaching any conclusions.
Wrong again. But now that I know what it means, I just can’t stop composing….night and day…..sun and moon...little and large...joy and sorrow….light and dark….boy and girl…..Tom and Jerry…..by the way, does anyone know how to pronounce the word?

The Bake-Off is Back

What with scientific Jurgen and engineering Giuseppe contending for the Bake Off prize, we have so much to look forward to. In the forthcoming weeks, I anticipate an Eiffel Tower of trifle, a research project of fruit tarts and plum puddings, and on savoury week, a probe into the bacteria that grows on varieties of cheese. In the meantime, we have so much to look forward to, landscapes of lemon meringue, castles of cake and chocolate, and seas of sponge topped with shortbread sail boats and waffle whales. All this amid the tears of joy and sorrow, cries of triumph and wails of despair at confections collapsing – or simply failing to impress the duo of judges. But what I love most are the antics of Noel and of the inimitable Matt – I just love that man - aah! My mouth is watering already.