favourite weekend...

It may be getting dark earlier, it may be colder and wetter, but the first weekend in November is my favourite of the year. Why?
Fireworks.
Pure and simple, I love them! The sounds, the colours, the physical thump as the blast hits you... it all excites the primitive caveman in me. Uggg!
Perhaps surprisingly then I have only been to two 'events' this year. The first was on Saturday at Ravenscourt Park, near Hammersmith. There was actually two displays - the kiddies one at 1900hrs which was a pretty impressive 10min display in it's own right followed by the lighting of the bonfire (an enormous affair with 100m high flames!) and then the main display of the evening at 2000hrs (well actually 2020hrs as they had to wait for the fire to burn down to a safe level!). This was set to a selection of tv and movie theme tunes which nearly worked.
Hunting for food afterwards I found myself in Mahdi - a Persian restaurant. It was very good food and excellent portions! The Iranian tea they serve is absolutely gorgeous.
The second fireworks party was organised by a friend's (Laurie) mum in Hackney, sorry, 'ackney. A great evening of food, wine and fireworks... although I would have to say that perhaps the fireworks should have happened before the food as I'm sure a level of inebriation may have been a contributing factor to a firework being buried upside down! Fortunately the soil it was buried in was soft and stone free, and the firework was a one-shot, not multiple, so the very small garden wasn't filled with exploding bomblets. I would just like to say now that I had nothing to do with the fireworks other than watching!

Happily everyone left with all their fingers and most of their eyebrows...