the one ingredient missing from modern life Huh? I'm just some lady from a photo library. What am I even doing in this story? HALLOWEEN was great this year, and not just because of all the candy I pilfered from my kids" stashes to satisfy my own depraved chocolately urges. If I could spell the Homer Simpson drooling noise, then I would do so at this point. Anyway, the main reason Halloween was great this year was not all the chocolate, but the element of surprise. Here's what I mean by that. We thought of knocking on the Obamas" door, but it was kind of obvious they'd have heaps of lollies. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin Source: AP Kid A went to an established Halloween precinct near her school where heaps of houses are decked out in spider webs and pumpkins and the rest of it. You go to the door at those houses, you know that candy is coming. It's great, but it's also a bit boring and predictable. For one reason or another, *Kid B was stuck at home with me. We live in a neighbourhood that's a little old-school, with no Halloween decorations. Kid B didn't even want to trick or treat in our neighbourhood. But after a bit of a gee up, we hit the streets. You think skeleton decorations are spooky? I'll tell you what's three times as spooky. Going up to a house with no skeleton decorations and asking for lollies, that's what. But you know what happened? Almost every house we visited had heaps of lollies for us and we had the best Halloween ever. The element of surprise, of not knowing, made the whole experience vastly more enjoyable than the sure-fire candy hit of a house covered in ghouls and ghosts. We have no idea which witches are which either. Picture: Peter Clark Source: News Corp Australia There's not enough surprise in our lives anymore. So much of our lives is pre-planned and micro-managed. You text someone two minutes before a visit to tell them you're on the way. Wedding gifts come from registers. Everyone seems to know their baby's sex before it's born. There's basically nothing left in life except the Melbourne Cup winner that we don't know about before it happens. Want to know one of the biggies we've ruined in recent years? Travel. You go somewhere these days, you spend hours Googling it, Google street-viewing it, Wikipedia-ing it, expedia-ing it, TripAdvisor-ing it and I don't know what else-ing it. Then when you get to wherever you're going, it usually looks pretty much just like how you imagined it. Now that can be an OK thing, but it's not a thrilling thing. Surprise really is the ultimate rush. But it's a rush so few of us experience anymore. This polar bear was definitely surprised to get this treat for Halloween. Those are raisins on the pumpkin, by the way. AP Photo/Chicago Zoological Society, Jim Schulz Source: AP At this point, I am going to surprise you. Columns like this generally run for about 700 words, but it's Friday arvo as I write this, and I have to run and NOT surprise Kid A and Kid B by picking them up from school late, so I'll end it at 465 words. Keen to hear what you think about all this in the comments below, though. Surprise me! NOTE: Kids are not ranked according to usefulness or (lack of) whinginess or any other measure. As tempting as it is to do that, it kind of just wouldn't be right.