If someone went to a proper Hallowe'en party like we had when I was little dressed like that I wouldn't like it, because "old lady" isn't a costume that fits with vampies, zombies, wicked witches, etc. But this looks very like like a non-Hallowe'en fancy dress party, so I suppose there's no judgement being passed on…

YES. Fancy dress parties are for any old costume. Hallowe'en is for scary costumes.

YES. I do not close my eyes. I sort of do each bit of my face separately so they eyes never need to be closed.

My bathroom-related terror is that when I flush the loo the sound of the water will muffle the sound of my screaming when whatever is waiting to grab me finally grabs me. I still open the bathroom door pre-flush in case I need to run. I'm 32.

I think that from now on the lovely name "Sorcia" will always be terrifying to me (which is better than what it was before, which was "really annoying girlfriend of my friend).

I know I've heard of it in the Civil War context (rebel yell battle cries, etc) but yeah, that's probably about the 101st thing I'd think of (and I doubt I'd bother getting beyond the first five things I'd think of, so I wouldn't be worried).

PS — You just reminded me that some of my young cousins-in-law apparently really like me because I "talk just like Adele". Hurrah? Hurrah!

SAVING FOR FUTURE JUSTIFICATION OF MY NAME CHOICES.

She danced AMAZINGLY because she studied dance for most of her life and all the "ooh, I'm having trouble with my dance this week" scenes are even less believable with her than all the others! Her Russian dancer's unimpressed face when they make him do these stupid things is really great, though.

Yep; I lived in California for most of my grown-up life and my husband is an all-American-by-birth but all-Mexican-by-blood boy, and it's so weird that now I'm back in England people think my new Spanish name is "so beautiful and exotic and sexy" and back in California concerned friends would say "but if you take his…

You're exactly right. This is not particularly an aristocratic thing at all, more a new-money thing.

I would definitely shoot that — if you're there to shoot behind the scenes, that includes the seams! Very, very bad decision on the girl to wear open-toed shoes with tights.

This is EXACTLY like that.

Yes, absolutely — but absolutely not with open-toed shoes!

I don't know which gelato adverts you mean… but actually I can't say I've seen any gelato adverts at all, so probably not!

I called my American bloke a daft apeth and he had never heard it before and thought I was calling him "Don Draper". !!!

UGH WEDDING SHOES NO NO NO!

Random surreal memory: the other day, on Strictly Come Dancing, they had a "comedy" VT in which the English girl wasn't really getting the spirit of the samba she was learning… so they dressed up her Russian dance partner in a sombrero and a Spanish flag. (The resulting…

The "Mexican moustache" is a stereotype here in England, too, and my parents told me I was taking things too seriously when I tried to say that some advert with fake Mexicans dancing around could possibly maybe just a tiny bit slightly be racist. Here the concept of "Mexicans" is "fun party people who talk funny and…

I don't understand much Italian at all, but one of my favourite things about being alone in Italy was having my windows open and listening to arguments — it's a glorious language to listen to being shouted (preferably when it's not about terrible accidents, of course).