Halloween 2014

Hong Kong Halloween parties have become a bit of a tradition for us. Our first Halloween party was in the tiny apartment of one of Lily's friends. Ryan and I did not know most of the people there. There were so many people in that crowded apartment that even Lily and Kevin did not know most of the people there.

Ryan had a lazy zombie costume. Kevin was a pirate. Not quite as lazy as Ryan's costume, but not all that original either. The originality prize went to Lily, who dressed as Lady Gaga. She wore a garbage bag that she decorated and a bad wig. It was the kind of thing the real Lady Gaga might actually wear. I was a devil. Not as good as Lily's, but not nearly as bad as Ryan's. The most popular costume of the night was Harry Potter. This was a few months after the last movie came out, so Harry and Hermione were more popular than ever.

The highlight of the party for some of us was when Lily took off her garbage bag. It was already pretty hot with all of those people in that small apartment, and the garbage bag was steaming her to the point where she started dripping from the seams. She took it off and spent the rest of the party in that wig and her underwear. She still looked like Lady Gaga though.

Our second Hong Kong Halloween was at a larger apartment with fewer people. That and the fact that I knew more of the people there made it much better. Ryan was in Fuzhou by this point and said that no one there did anything for Halloween.

Kevin wore a zombie costume, but it was better than Ryan's zombie from the year before. The best costume, as usual, was Lily's. She wore a wedding dress with a pillow down the front. The look on Kevin's face when he saw her as a pregnant bride was priceless. My costume was pretty lazy. I just wore a traditional Chinese dress, which is nothing special around here. At least I was not one of the million Johnny Depp pirates.

Our third Hong Kong Halloween party was at the house of one of Lily's friends. This was a different friend from the first Halloween and a bigger house. It was still too small for the amount of people that showed up.

Lily & I dressed as Minnesota Twins. The last game of the World Series was on October 30th, so it seemed like a good costume idea. The Twins were not in the Series, but no one at the party noticed. Kevin had the worst costume of the night. He came straight from work, so he wore his business uniform. As always, there were more than a few pirates and zombies.

This year was the best Hong Kong Halloween ever. Lily, Kevin and I moved into our new apartment in April, so this was the first year that we could host a Halloween party. Our apartment is bigger than the places where all the previous parties were held, and we have an enormous balcony, which is ideal for parties on warm October nights.

Ryan came to Hong Kong for a few days, so he was there. It's always nice when he is around for Halloween, especially when his costume is not lazy. This year, he went as a doctor. He had the scrubs, surgical mask and stethoscope. Since it was Halloween, he also had a large splatter of fake blood on the front of his scrubs. His costume went with mine since I was an Ebola patient with some of his fake blood.

Someone told me that my costume was in poor taste, but that made me wonder when Halloween was supposed to be about good taste. I pointed out to her that there are always pirates at every Halloween party. When she asked how that was in poor taste, I reminded her that pirates were murderers, rapists and thieves. They did not sing songs and win over the girls. They butchered people and destroyed lives. They were terrorists without the religious fanaticism.

Kevin dressed as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. That was a pretty funny costume, even though most of the people at the party had no idea who he was supposed to be. He wore a lot of padding in his oversized suit and had a Rob Ford mask with white powder around the nostrils. Since no one knew who he was anyway, he took off the mask early into the party.

Lily was Wonder Woman, which was not such an original costume in and of itself, but she had a protest sign around her neck that read “where's my movie?” on one side and “4 Thors and no Wonder Woman?” on the other.