Top 10 HALLOWEEN TIPS

1 - Spookify your computer with a scary screen saver!

2 - Old tree trunks or cut sections of thick limbs make great stands for your Jack O' Lanterns, witches cauldrons and other props. You can sometimes find these at nursery's. You can also check with local firewood providers.

3 - Hollow out mini pumpkins and use as votive candle holders. They are inexpensive and look really great, you can even carve or paint faces in them!

4 - Ask your Halloween party guests to bring a carved pumpkin to the party. Set up a special table to display them all on (this will also enhance your party décor!)

5 - Serve fresh veggies using a hollowed out pumpkin as a bowl. Cut of the top and clean out, leaving the top in a jagged edge design! Use mini pumpkins to hold dips!

6 - Add the effect of lightning to your haunted house, yard haunt or Halloween party with the Lightning Machine from Haunted Creations. This unit realistically simulates the effects of both thunder and lightning! Read all about it in the lighting section at: The Yard Haunter

7 - Use clear food handlers plastic gloves to freeze ice hands to throw in the punch bowl. It will keep it cold and look great!

8 - For an eerie effect, hang glow-in-the-dark bats, skeletons and spiders from the ceilings and trees! Write scary Halloween messages or body outlines on your front walk using colored chalk or washable fluorescent paint. Use a black lights to enhance the effect. Check out the Black Light Magic section of this site.

9 - Treating your kids to a spooky Halloween dinner will make them less likely to eat the candy they collect before you have a chance to check it for them. Check here for some recipes for main dishes using pumpkins!

10 - Create creepy autumn centerpieces by filling vases with dried flowers, brown leaves, and empty branches. Tie a black ribbon bow around each centerpiece.

11 - Add some spider web to your party decorations and haunt, you can find it at most stores selling Halloween products. Just attach to something and pull it out all over!

12 - Use apples for taper candle holders. Choose small, round apples that will sit stable on a flat surface and remove the stems. Cut a small round hole in the top of each apple - deep and wide enough to securely hold a taper candle. Make sure the apples are shaped so that they have a flat bottom, so they won't tip over.

13 - Great party idea, start a circle ghost story! Sit in a circle and start a scary ghost story. Each guest adds on to the story until it reaches a scary ending!

14 - Videotape your Halloween memories! Interview some of your trick-or-treaters, your yard haunt, carved jack-o-lanterns. You'll be glad you did when you sit down to watch it later!

15 - You can find candy companies on line that will add a personalized wrapper to your candy bars! They are relatively inexpensive and make a great treat to hand out at your yard haunt!

Damascus

Damascus is the oldest city in the world. Today it acts as a cultural and religious centre of Levant. There are about 2 million people living in that city. Damascus is located to the southwest of Syria.

The other oldest cities in the world are:

• Byblos in Lebanon dated to 5000 BCE
• Varansi in India dated to 3000 BCE
• Medinat Al-Fayoum in Egypt dated at 4000 BCE
• Gaziantep in Turkey dated to 3650 BCE
• Hebron in Israel is dated at 3500 BCE
• Athens in Greece dates to about 3000 BCE
• Arbil and Kirkuk in Iraq have dates of 2300 and earlier than 3000 BCE
• Adana in Turkey and Jerusalem in Israel were established around 2000 BCE
• Hama in Syria was established before 2000 BCE
• Luxor/Thebes in Egypt also dates to 2000 BCE
• Jaffa, Israel, and Aleppo, Syria are both about 3800 years old.

Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology

The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology is located on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England. It is the world's first university museum. The first building of the museum has been built in 1678–1683.

Location:

The Museum is on the Beaumont Street and is opposite the Randolph Hotel.

Address:

Ashmolean Museum
Beaumont St
Oxford
OX1 2PH

Opening time

Tues - Sunday 10am - 6pm,
Bank Holiday Monday 10am – 6pm
Admission is Free

Highlights of the Ashmolean's collection include:

• The Alfred Jewel
• Drawings by Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo da Vinci
• Watercolours and paintings by Turner
• Paintings by Paolo Uccello, Piero di Cosimo, John Constable, Claude Lorraine, and Pablo Picasso
• Arab ceremonial dress owned by Lawrence of Arabia
• A death mask of Oliver Cromwell
• The collection of Posie rings
• The Parian Marble
• The ceremonial cloak of Chief Powhatan
• The lantern Gunpowder Plot conspiracist Guy Fawkes carried in 1605
• The Messiah Stradivarius, a violin made by Antonio Stradivari
• The Minoan collection of Arthur Evans