The gift of one hour

They say most people use the extra hour from Daylight Savings Time on sleep.

Tonight, I shall use my extra hour to watch terrible movies, any Simpsons' Treehouse Of Horror episodes I can find, and the new Nightmare Before Christmas video game (Oogie's Revenge). Also to eat chocolate -- Cote D'Or Intense chocolate bars. Refrigerated.

Because certain chocolate bars just seem to go taste better when they're cold and brittle.

Halloween is coming. I can feel it.
Perhaps that sounds odd, but there's just something about October 31 that always seems somewhat tangible to me. The potential of mischief. The expectation. The eerie few hours after the children have ended their bouts of candy-grubbing and gone to bed, while a few jack o'lanterns still flicker faintly and the streets are silent and somewhat sinister.

One of the few days of the year where I'd happily exchange my ambition to be an old-fashioned pirate for the ability to be a witch. Good or bad, there's something to be said for a bit of the old magicks on Samhain.