Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Today I’m trying something new, in fact I’m doing it right now. What could it be? Well what I’m going to do is write this and then post it straight away. The time now is 21:47 so let’s see how long it takes to do this. Ready? Go.
This is going to be a kind of what-I-did-today type thing. I know I’ve said before that I don’t like doing these things but this one is special. The day started with me waking up1 and doing all the usual things. My plan was to be ready to leave the house by about 11:00 and go around the local area taking photos and generally playing with my new Sony a3302. So 11:00 came and went. By 12:00 I was still in bed with my laptop talking to my sister on skype about what we’re getting our parents for Christmas. At 12:07 (yes, 12:07) my housemate came into my room to tell me that it was “bow-time”. The reason for him doing this was partly hair of the dog and partly that he wants to fill his window with strongbow cans as soon as possible3.
Eventually I got a shower and dressed and was out the door by about 2:00pm looking for a pub for the rugby. The first one we tried was poor, the second wasn’t open and the third, and the pub of our choice, was, strangely, a Spanish tapas bar4. We lost the rugby (18-9) and if you would let me I’ll give you my post match analysis. Course you’ll let me you can’t go back in time and stop me…hey what are you doing here?….no…..get out now…….hey stop that…..no…..what do you mean the rest of the post sucks……go away. Damn time rangers. So anyway I thought that too often we peaked from brilliant to poor. A bit more consistency and we would have won.
So 2 pints of Guinness, 2 bottles of Bud and a foot-long chicken sub later I’m getting ready for the main event. FIREWORKS!! We all love fireworks. Maybe the little girl stood in front of us who started crying when they started doesn’t, but everybody else does. Was it the best firework show I’d ever seen? Was it the best bonfire I’d ever seen? Was there a slight fear of third degree burns? Was it as legendary as Tom’s brilliant bonfire nights? No. But it was worth the 45 minute walk. It was worth the £5 admission. It was worth the 6oC temperature (3oC with wind-chill). It was worth craning your neck so now it aches. Why? Because fireworks are awesome.
You have a number of types of fireworks you get in a display. You get the little one that just pop up a little light. You get the ones that fire and then shimmer and sizzle out bright lights. You have the slightly bigger ones that will fire up and explode. You have lots of combinations between them all. They can whistle up and go out with a bang, they can go up silently and bang, they can whistle and just pop. However you do get the piece de resistance. If it had a name (or if it does and I knew it) I’d say it, but I can’t so I’ll describe it.
You hear a faint pop as it fires up high into the sky. A single white dot shoots up and lingers ever so slightly. Just when you think that it’s a dud, BOOM! The firework explodes and shoots lights out in all directions followed by a stream of glitter. This is usually the final firework5 and there are usually several at any one time. I don’t know what it is about fireworks that turns us all (or me at least) into a giddy little child, clinging onto my tonka truck wearing enough layers to rival the Michelin man, but I don’t really care. If you wanted an answer from me I’d tell you this. Fireworks are awesome!
Stop the clock 22:18
Nick
- as most days do [↩]
- oh yeah [↩]
- it looks real classy from the outside [↩]
- nice [↩]
- if it isn’t then your show sucks [↩]
