firework show

Just got back from watching the fireworks at Dave's flat. Each year one of the best local shows is held at the Sussex County Cricket Ground, and for quite a few years now I've paid the fee and gone and stood in the cold watching the colours exploding above me. As of last Autumn, however, a cheaper and warmer option has presented itself in the form of Dave and Eleanor's flat, which is on the fifth floor of a building just adjacent to the cricket ground. A good placement on his balcony ensures a terrific view as well as easy access to the toasty radiator just inside the door and the deep sofa beyond.

Tonight's display was terrific. We stood in a line in the faint rain glugging mulled wine and watched a succession of parallel detonations in red, white, gold, blue and green. Cascading fountains, frenzied scribbles and thunderous explosions, culminating in a furious and intense volley of vivid red fireworks which burst low and exhaled long gulps of sulphurous smoke which seemed to sit on the horizon and hang ominously as if digging into and eroding the walls of an invisible lung. The final set of explosions occupied the whole sky, cracking and purring above us. The whole thing lasted thirty minutes and barely thirty seconds went by without eliciting a round of admiring murmurs. Amazing stuff.