The Sky is Falling

On the two minute drive home K reminds me, twice, to be careful. Normally I would take this as an afront to my driving, but not tonight. A thick layer of smoke hangs in the still night air and the sound of nearby detonations breaks the illusion of separation from the outside world that Ford has gone to such lengths to create. This night is different. This is cracker night.

Earlier in the evening, at a friends place, we stand out the front watching and participating in what's happening in the ten metres or so of dirt between us and a busy road (busy by our local standar anyway). Bang, fzzzz, BOOM!. Or just a long FZZZZZZZZZ. Or even Bang, fzzzzzzzzzzzz (land on the ground, "everyone run for your lives!") BOOM!!. Generally up in the air but occassionally falling over after the first couple of shots and firing wildly on to the road, into the crowd or off into the park on the other side of the road, meaning that J2 has to run over and huriedly stamp it out before we set half the town on fire. Approximately every five-to-ten minutes a fire vehicle of some sort flies past, sirens screaming, and it's not hard to see why. Look left up the road, fireworks exploding. Look right up the road, arial explosions a plenty. look back into the rest of the town and they spatter the sky in a seemingly endless bombardment of the heavens.

The first explosions started around 5:30pm (the first we saw anyway). Still daylight, but they didn't care. What's more, I could still hear them as I left the house at quarter past eight this morning. The smoke is still there too, that bleary haze of a town hung over on bright lights, loud noises and show rides (the show was yesterday, had I mentioned?).

In the words of the age old tune, "oh what a night".

J

P.S.

Almost a week later, as the severe respiratory effects of prolonged smoke inhalation fade and the explosions gradually reduce to about one-per-day (that I hear), my mind turns away from the bright sparkles of yesterday and onto the coming explosion of the future. How will we top this next year?

Hope to see you all there.