Bonfire night

Janet and I went to watch the fireworks on Blackheath Common on Saturday and they were awesome. We did have to wait for about 90 minutes for the show to kick off, but we did get a prime front row standing place for our troubles. I was pleased that we'd been drinking wine all afternoon and were just wearing fleeces though. The show lasted nearly 30 minutes and had some of the best bangs I've seen in ages. Took the camera. And ended up taking about 80 pictures which was a bit mental. I'm going to download them tonight and see if they're any good. By the law of averages a couple have to be ok, right?! It was my first attempts in the night, while bollock-numbingly cold and in the rain. Next time I'm in Munich and can upload some photos, I'll put some of the best ones online.

The whole firework party thing set me thinking - I had a few minutes waiting for things to kick off (or should that be fire off?). For those of you who don't know about this 'celebration', a bloke called Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the parliament a few centuries ago, on November 5. He failed and was burnt at the stake or something. So each November we make a huge bonfire with a model of a person (called a guy!) and then let off loads of fireworks. It's usually loud, scares the shit out of most of the wildlife in this country, a few people get maimed each year (not funny, but it's usually kids who are throwing them at each other) and it normally rains.

I got to thinking about the whole point of the day. We are celebrating a person who failed to do what he set out to and then got burnt alive. I love how we support the underdog all the time.