bang!
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 06 November 2006 22:47:46
Last night - firework fun.
I love it when it's cold and frosty on bonfire night, and even a bit of fog in the air adds to the excitement.
Wrapped up like the Michelin man in hundreds of layers of coats and socks and jumpers and hats, out in the dark way beyond bedtime, indulging on once-a-year things like toffee apples - or we would have been if the shop hadn't run out just before we got there.
We go to the display at Yarmouth. It's fantastic - what an atmosphere. It involves the whole town and people from far and wide flock there, making for a massive crowd. Everyone gathers in the village square for hot soup, chips, street entertainment, bands, and the judging of the Best Dressed Guy competition. Then - a time of high stress for the safety-conscious - the lighting of the torches. I was torn between being enraptured by the excitement of the event and terrified of the possible consequences. As I commented to M, it seemed ironic that the traditional bonfire had been replaced by a lighting of a beacon due to health and safety considerations, but that prior to that short children had been armed with lethal weapons in the form of a stick with a tin can on the end in which was frantically burning a firelighter and said small people were carrying these in the haphazard way that children do in the midst of a throng of thousands of people. But I have got to say, there was a frisson of excitement along with the disapproval as we all processed through the village to the rhythm of the fantastic samba band.
When we reached the beacon, this band actually surrounded the Smudgelets and M and me as they played for the lighting of the fire. It was incredible - very hard to stand still when this rhythmic drum and whistle music was played, and our hearts and stomachs beat in time with the deepest of the drums. The flames rose high in the metal basket and again at the foot where the guys met their fiery end.
And then the fireworks.
Each year they are more and more beautiful. I love fireworks. My favourites flew up like a rocket, exploded like a rocket, and then each of the showering sparks seemed to ignite of its own accord and fizzle into a million tiny stars. The sea reflected their beauty and Tiddles pointed out that the residual smoke traced a pattern like cobwebs across the sky, all radiating out from a central point - to him just as beautiful as the sparks themselves. Smudgelet, who is fairly sensitive to noise (strange, considering he creates so much of it himself and is currently learning the trumpet!), enjoyed the fact that he is finally getting able to tolerate the big bangs and I think that his hands-over-ears stance was as much in fun as necessity. No cowering this year. We were all enraptured by the display.
Did I mention how much I love fireworks?