Scottish Halloween

Note: some London/Halloween photos have been added to my Photobucket album, see link to your right.

People in Britain love to dress up. Costume parties are probably more frequent than normal ones, and guests are told to come in "fancy dress". So as you can well imagine, Halloween is a spectacle. A week ago, Cory and I saw a lot of people dressed up at night, and it continued here in Edinburgh, well, up to even today. Maybe even to Guy Fawkes' Day, not sure.

A lot of people wore kilts and blue face paint to do the William Wallace/Braveheart/uncivilised Highland thing.

Also along the Royal Mile was a Samhain (the Pagan festival that always occurs on the same day as Halloween) parade. I didn't actually go see it, but I heard there were a lot of people with body paint, carrying fire, and dancing. I can't report many details on it, unfortunately.

The night before Halloween, the Physics Society went on a Ghost Tour that included a graphic description of witch hunts in the 17th century, a trip to the torture room (I will spare you the details), and a tour through vaults uncovered in the 1970's. The vaults are purportedly extremely haunted, but we didn't see or hear anything. Still creepy, and a lot of fun... Ghost Tours are one of those things that must be done in Edinburgh.

Today at the Shop, I was taught how to work the till. I haven't actually worked a register since the movie theatre, and that was computerized and rounded to the nearest quarter. This was an old till, with lots of buttons, and "analog", with currency that is becoming increasing familiar but still a lot more than just one type of coin. I really liked standing at the till all morning.

I realised while pricing some items that it is obvious I'm not used to writing pound signs.