Halloween in Boo-castle

Happy Halloween!

Here in Boo-castle…Spook-astle…Ghoul-castle… Oh, forget it.

Here in Newcastle, Halloween is pretty much over. It’s 10 p.m., so kids are likely getting ready to go to bed, and a lot of the Halloween parties actually happened over the weekend.

The university put on a party on Friday at one of the aforementioned bars on campus. As usual, I didn’t actually know about it until just a couple days before. Also per usual, I didn’t want to spend much money on a costume that would probably not make the journey back to the USA with me.

So, one pair of ears and an eyeliner pencil later, and I had the most generic costume imaginable. But hey, at least it wasn’t a cat-astrophe! (I know you’re probably booing that pun, but at least that gets you into the Halloween spirit! Okay…I’m done now.)

That means that tonight has been pretty low-key for me. I spent the day at the beach, which in hindsight seems pretty odd to me. No hot chocolate and sweaters for me this October—just beaches and pelicans!

I actually woke up very early this morning (4:00 a.m.), so I decided it would be a good day to finally see a Newcastle sunrise! I'm not sure how many people would associate Halloween with sunrise, but have I ever done anything conventionally? I left my house at just before 5 o’clock and took the first bus into town, arriving at the beach right as the sun was coming over the horizon.

It was so quiet and peaceful for the first few minutes before I was joined by Jack and Jerry, my two new pelican friends.

They’re quite photogenic, wouldn’t you say?

After the sun had risen, I walked the length of Nobby’s Beach, which wraps around to the Breakwall I visited a couple months ago.

It was then I saw something floating along in the water. It had an odd shape, and at first, I thought it was a bit of driftwood. When I came closer, though, I saw that it had a fin. I was worried that it was a dead creature of some kind. But upon further observation, I saw it move.

This lazy seal was floating on the water, flopping over only to look for a fish once in a while. He was very cute doing it, too!

I guess this Halloween wasn’t really about the scary or undead. Come on, do I look like the kind of person who enjoys creepy things?

Anyway, I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! (Translation: Don’t go hunting creepy clowns. That’s just scary.)