The weekend has been fun! I spent all of Saturday ridiculiously busy preparing for a Halloween party; I got up at 7.30am, having woken up and decided I might as well make myself useful, rather than just lay awake in bed not being useful. I cleaned and tidied and washed up and put away and etc etc. I didn't think I had that much to do, but at 4.00pm when the guests started arriving I was still wearing my apron baking pumpkin pie! The party was good fun; we played Rock Band, then Beatles Rock Band (the whole game was completed in one night!), and watched Rocky Horror and I squeed at the hoardes of adorable small children.

We got a very good flock of Trick or Treaters, which I was expecting since we now live on a nice quiet residential crescent where a lot of the neighbours know each other and there are many families with young children. There were only two kids who were bordering on too old to get away with it, and one of them was I think the older sister of a small boy, so she was allowed a cake. I baked 22 spooky cupcakes and they were all taken by by about half of the patroling kids! More needed next year, methinks! My favourite was a small girl, about 5 I think, who told me very loudly "I'm a cat! Meow!". I told her what a fantastic cat she was, and she beamed. She reminded me of me when I was 5. :)

This morning was my race for Salisbury Stars. I had set the alarm in good time, but managed to oversleep because I had set it for 8.30pm not 8.30am! I woke at 9.30, which is when I had intended to leave the house! I got up and dressed in 10 minutes, and was at the race venue by 9.45. Unfortunately I had to wait for a bus to shuttle me to the track, and collect my T-shirt, and change into my costume; so I missed the start of the race by about 10 minutes! Keith was my handler for the race, and though I hadn't really had a chance to explain the 'rules' of handling to him he did a good job! He led me to the start and convinced an official to let me run (the danger was I would still be on the track when the main 10k race was about to start), and then ran most of the race with me to help guide me round! I did pass a few stragglers so wasn't the last runner, but I did miss the fun of being in with the pack and getting all the attention of running in costume in a crowd. Still, I made it round in 17 minutes - not bad!

The weather was horrendous. Not only was it raining buckets, but the wind was fierce and cold (not that I noticed!). The ground was muddy and slippery, and my head didn't have nearly enough ventilation. I was okay when I ran into the wind, as it blew air in through my eyes and out through the chin of my badger head, but with the wind behind me I rapidly ran out of air and had to walk and hilt my head back in order to recover. :( The costume is fine for walking round in, and with some modification would probably be better, but as it was it was not really suitable for running in. Oh well. I barely noticed the rain as well, but my suit was pretty soaked when I got it off and I was STINKY! Shilpa helped me out of the badger in the changing rooms and she said when she unzipped me a large cloud of sweaty steam rose out! Eww! I climbed into dry clothes which quickly got soaked on heading outside, and we all drove home for a shower and a fry-up. I am incredibly grateful to all my friends for turning up, standing round in the freezing wind and driving rain for half an hour, just to see a wet, muddy badger cross a finishing line!

Sadly because the rain was so heavy we didn't get any photos, but there was an official race photographer so I'm hoping he will have got some snaps of me! Badger has now been washed, and apart from the nose needing some new paint I think no damage has been done. I'm going to get kitted up in it again and take some photos in my back garden once the suit is dry. :) I have also decided that I do too many of these events where I suit manically for a short time then have to unsuit shortly after - I need to find some event where I can properly enjoy being in suit, and give attention to all the small children that look adoringly at you and all the adults that grin at you. Maybe come Christmas... ^_^

Oh, and one guy wanted to know where I bought my suit, because his rudgy team's mascot is a badger! Annoyingly this was just before the race so I was too manically trying to find the start line and didn't get the name of his club, so I've been trying to find out in case he wants me to badger for him on home matches! That would be awesome. :D

( Photos! )