Halloween... and all the craziness that transpired

I love halloween (or Samhain for the wiccan/neo-pagans). I always tell people that... its the one time in the year where you can go out dressed up as anyone and anything you want and people will brush it off as just a bit of festive craziness.

Personally its a pretty spiritual time for me because its not only about doing rituals and talking with the dead, its also about personal expression and desire. And for me these past few halloweens, its been all about walking around as myself... who I am... at least for one day in the calendar.

Okay... okay... I know what you are thinking.... no, I don't think I'm Ezio or some 15th century assassin. I just like the Ezio outfit and it is representative of one of the many sides of my personality... a side that I don't often display because of social appropriateness..... Haiz, now to think about it, I'm quite literally walking around with a mask on 24/7 for 364 days of the year :P

See, most people... colleagues, family and even the people at my swordfighting class see me as a big ol' softie.... slightly conservative... not outstanding.... blends into the crowd.... low on confidence and assertiveness.... and as my mom would say... a "girly gurl".... I guess they would never think that I'm the sort who would dress up in black robes, wear a mask and do the whole magic circle and candles thing...

Yet that's exactly what I did for the last few halloweens. Well, this halloween I decided to express the side of me that really likes fighting and for lack of better analogy... really really wants to "beat people up". 

Is it childish? Yep.... Infantile? Definitely.... Certainly more bravado than actual skill was involved.:P However, it is my one chance to express how I feel about myself. I mean, I am growing a wee bit tired of assuming the role I'm assuming in my work.....:( I'm competent in my job but it doesn't really make me happy. Of course, I say to everyone at work that I find it "fulfilling" because, dammit, that's what they expect you to say... 

So I find myself now at this junction sighing very very sadly that despite the "many strides forward" I have made for myself over the years (that's how F sees it)... I'm still, for the most part, pretending to be someone I'm not to about 99% of the people that I know....my family included :(


Anyways... I guess I can be emo in another post.... the following are pictures that I took with Wolfy on our halloween outing to the Asian Civilisations Museum... and yes, the museum really came through with its promise of free movie, ice cream, candy and beer....mmmmmmm.....

Also I'm so glad that our friend B joined us this year .... haha... he was our group "otaku" :D But as he said himself, his picture taking skills sux.

So enjoy the pix... oh and for the sake of remaining anonymous I have pixelated the faces of both myself and wolfy.... :D

Crystal dancer-juggler from a sideshow at the museum.

I thought this lady's costume idea was fantastic :)

Unknowingly, B took a picture of a giant orb and some smaller orbs while lining up for the free movie

Normally Wolfy doesn't wear a mask with his costumes... (unless it is part of the outfit)
his skin I suspect is thicker than mine. I wonder why he is covered this year?





Admittedly the "chao ah beng" pose looks best in photo for him.

It was a beautiful night and my skin is definitely thin.
Some photos of me are pixelated on purpose.
I'll probably not do the second stubby pose again...



The security guard really thought we were fighting here. :D

 We decided to do some test fights because we are going to do a mock fight at the AFA.

Whoa, that's too close.... and I look like a bloody amateur....
Wolfy's response to that is "It dun matter how you fight... no one can tell!"

Anyway... we decided to fight again... heh...
its a rehearsed routine but its guaranteed to be faster
than whatever has been done at cosplay events previously.

Well, despite sweltering under layers of fabric, I thought Halloween was fun. Unfortunately, after drinking beer and not resting enough the next two days, I caught the "flu" again... haiz... such is life. :(

Fright Night At the ACM.... Seriously people, wanna go?

Hi everyone, its gonna be Halloween in like 1 1/2 weeks. Wolfy and I will definitely be going to the Asian Civ Museum because we had a great Halloween there last year. 

The program this year I think is pretty good. You get free beer, ice-cream and some limited-ed ez-link card holder. Also there is a free movie and a best costume competition amongst other things....
 
THIS LINK has all the details..... We're going to be there about 5ish because of the huge crowd that goes to this event every year and we are going to try and snag a museum locker to keep all our stuff...

Soooooooo anyone wanna go???? If you want to go, sms me or leave a message in the chat box. I really hope to see ya all.....:D

Halloween At The Asian Civilisation Museum

Some people asked me this year if there will be a Samhain ritual like last year... well... the answer is "No" because of the lack of space and this year's infernal rain... which lasted from 6 to after 12 midnight on 31 Oct.

I'm feeling a little bit sad because just a few days before Halloween, I got an email via an email blast from the faeries. It was an announcement for an event and I was kinda glad that they had found a new place.

Initially I had thought that the new space would be near Novena MRT, opposite from the church, however, as it turned out... the new space is a 5 stop bus ride via 21 or 131 from the bus stop opposite of Novena church. The ride itself takes you to somewhere in Balestier, and you stop at Shaw Plaza. The place is opposite of that, in a single storey complex of buildings with an Indonesian name.

I don't think that I'll likely hold a ritual at the Faeries' anytime soon in the next year or so cos well... the space that was rented out was too small. In fact, it is a single room that's slightly smaller than my own bedroom even... haiz :(

I had spoken to one of the faeries about some pretty big shop space at the same building that Da Bear's is at currently, but I think even with the fact that that decrepit old building has pretty cheap rental for the central shopping district ... the rental price is still probably too high for them...

That is pretty sad... its a real waste I think... they did have a lot going for them.

Anyways, the Halloween event as organised by the Asian Civilisation Musem was actually a big success. There were tons of people at the event when I arrived at 6pm + and they actually did have the free drinks and ice-cream as promised in the promotional advertisment. I was really quite amazed because there are usually a lot of terms and conditions when free stuff is involved. Most of the time you don't end up getting what you came for. ... Well, I felt that the drinks COULD REALLY have been better with MORE BARCARDI in the drink....:P There wasn't enough of the alcohol to actually taste the thing.

Apart from the rather alcohol-less drinks, the museum staff really outdid themselves and decorated the entire place with black cobwebs, giant spiders (some people actually made off with them) and severed doll limbs covered in blood. There were also performances, including a rather interesting faery dance and some rather entertaining magic shows.

However, because of the rain, quite a lot of people were not able to make it. In the end, Wolfy and I ended up being the only ones who attended the event. :P 

It's quite a pity because many people were very sporting this year and came dressed up in rather nice halloween costumes. I think that tha local cosplay community also got wind of this event and not surprisingly many of them ended up in the best costume competition. I honestly don't think Wolfy and I have a good chance of winning the bottle of barcardi because there was some really really strong competition.

However, I was quite surprised by the amount of people who requested a photo with us... Apparently, when we went on the museum tour, we found out that the Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI) were wandering the galleries dressed up as ghouls to provide a little "colour" to the exhibition area. I think they were supposed to tell us a little bit about the museum exhibits, especially the ones with some kind of supernatural background, but they didn't do that... and I think the people were more interested in taking photos with the ghouls rather than listen to the occult history of some of the museum's objects.

Well, I guess the people thought that we were part of the SPI crew. And I must say we do give a much better background on the supernatural aspects of some of the artefacts than the SPI crew :D

Below are some of the pictures I took at the museum. Unfortunately all the great pictures which we took with the people who asked for our photos were on THEIR cameras and not mine...:P

Tribal book describing magical rituals

Closeup of book pages

Carved bone tribal artefacts used in rituals

Oddly enough they contain some pretty familar symbols.

The Philippine exhibit contained some
pretty awesome-looking religious art.

This is a processional piece
that is about 4 metres tall.
It won't surprise me one bit that the
fittings might be made of solid silver.

Some actual solid silver toothpick holders

Wolfy ninja-fied

Yes, I'm camera shy and I don't photograph well. :P