Remember Remember...

[SoxFan]

To Duck and Cover!

Yep, that time of year's coming round again for us Brits when teenagers across the country get easy access to the next best thing to firearms. I'm siting on the 7th floor of my Uni building looking out at Newcastle in all it's majesty (I can see the Main street, Gateshead and St. James's along with two of the Cathedrals from up here ) And even now I can see the odd misaimed firework going of in the sky (Idiots, dont they know that you can't hit anyone that way!).

last night my juant to the pub with a friend took us through what was essentially a prettier version of the storming of Baghdad with screechers, airbombs and rockets lighting up the sky. And trees. And buildings. And the odd kid who stuck their head up for too long.

So my question, is it just Newcastle or does everyone living in a major city at this time of year have to take care to wrap up nice and warm in there best fire retardent clothing and walk with a mind to where the nearest bit of cover is?

 

[moderdome]

Man, over here it's not only in the cities but in the countryside as well...

 

[webkinzgirl]

I'm going to be adding to it this year, I'm afraid! I'm combining a firework night party with a house-warming. Me & a pyromaniac friend are planning to send about £150 of fireworks skyward on Saturday night.

Have a safe one everybody.

 

[SiMpSoN1408]

What holiday is this for? We do this on the 4th of july.

 

[Rayizcool]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night

Guy Fawkes Night (otherwise known as "Fireworks Night"). An excuse for grown men and women to stand around a roaring hot bonfire on a cold night eating hotdogs, and to shoot 2 days worth of pay into the air in 30 minutes.

Damn good fun.

 

[lord]

LOL. nice post.

 

[ichilnilsan]

"Remember remember the 5th of November, gunpowder treason and plot,
We see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot"

I wont be adding to the pyromania, but I have a feeling a mate of my dads will. Instead of getting the piddly fireworks from here, he gets his from the mainland (Europe) where they are more powerfull. One of them a few years ago dropped from its target and fired through a window. Instead of smashing the window, it left a perfect circular hole and exploded inside the house

 

[s1ngularity]

Does that come from Belgium ??? Because all the people here that live near the Belgian border get their fireworks there. Most of the stuff they sell there is banned here because it's very potent stuff. The police always conduct raids near the borders around X-mas and newyear.

 

[friendlygal]

I dont know where he gets them, but I know you dont go fishing around this time unless you want to hear "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!" coming towards you at high speed along the sea-front

 

[pumpkin1720]

The ones I mean are like firecrackers, only you use a matchbox to ignite them.

They go:

BANG !!!

 

[SuchiT]

Bonfire Night is bloody annoying. People think that you are supposed to celebrate it right through from October 1st to November 30th

I still can't believe what we're celebrating.....a failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. At least the Americans have a genuine reason on 4th July (or maybe I could pull the old favourite that US Independence is a fallacy since it was a unilateral declaration).

 

[my_belovd]

it isn't just annoying...its dangerous as hell...i cringe when i think back to what we got up to as kids with fireworks and other home-made incendiary devices...i won't post them here 'cos i'm not proud of it and don't want to encourage people to put themselves at risk...

i was stupid enough to burn half my face with one...i'll share this as a warning...

we used to go back to fireworks that hadn't gone off, break them open and get the powder out of them and then light it to make a flash...one afternoon, i did just that with a crappy 3-2-1 banger...i poured the powder out on a damp park bench and couldn't get it to light...i was smoking a cig at the time...my lighter wasn't igniting it, so i held my nearly burnt out cig to the powder and it still wouldn't go...

then i remembered than i cig gets considerably hotter when you take a drag...yes i was that stupid...i lent over it and took a drag of a cig that had about three drags left on it, with the lit end on the powder...it went up, burned half of my face and singed my eyelashes together...i jumped back, saying 'i'm blind, i'm blind'...my mate pointed out my eyes were still closed and i peeled them open...fortunately, the burns were superficial and didn't scar...what on earth stopped me realising just how the physics of that situation was going to work is something i've never understood...i guess all my focus was on the buzz of playing with fire...and thats the point...when you are caught up in the moment you forget just what you are playing around with...

i love firework displays and we always get some for the garden...but i wouldn't complain if they were banned from general sale and only proper organised events were permitted to get hold of them...

with all the tightening of our civil liberties in the UK (the majority of which I oppose) it seems insanity to me to still allow 16 year old kids to buy small explosives...no offence intended to 16 year old kids...indeed, there are many adults who are just as clueless as i was back then (actually, i was 15, and that is another good point in all this...if 16 year olds can buy them...younger kids can get to play with them)

look after yourselves...

 

[AlexisInfectious®]

I'm pretty sure you have to be 18 to buy fireworks now.

 

[Psycho78]

I just don't see the point of buying fireworks. You can spend several hundred quid and that gets you about ten minutes of rather second-rate fireworks.

Or you can spend about a fiver to watch a really good firework display in your local park. In fact a lot of them are free.

Every year you get kids suffereing terrible injuries because either they were silly - or worse still, someone else was silly with fireworks.

I think you should have to have a licence to buy fireworks. Restrict it to the organisers of proper events.

Another advantage would be that we wouldn't have to put up with bangers going off all night long for about two months solid around bonfire night.

 

[TassosS]

Each to their own.


In principle I agree. When me or my mates buy them we're always responsible. I'd be happy to give up my ability to buy them if it made things safer around that time of year.


Yeah, that's just a waste. Think how much better it'd be if they were all just saved up and let off on the same night.

 

[sazm82]

I think that it's time for a new twist on November 5th. There should be a Saturday night reality TV show running over the preceding months where a bunch of politicians or 'celebrities' we can't stand get voted off one by one and the last one left gets attached to a huge rocket and fired into the air on bonfire night.

 

[Jimmylj]

Believe me, I'm not saying that everyone who buys fireworks is irresponsible. But it's quite clear from the number of injuries happening that too many people are.

So it's like a lot of things - the foolish actions of some spoil things for the rest I'm afraid.

But at least you can still go to the park...

 

[ItalianMike]

Too true. And if you're in the park around 7:00 on Saturday night - cast your eye towards the west of London and you might see some of mine going up.

 

[VegasMatt]

Might find it a little bit difficult to tell yours from everyone else's!

And with it being Diwali this week, it'll be absolutely mental on Saturday night, fireworkwise.

Hope you have a good one!

Have you noticed how much people have firework parties nowadays in the summer too? Certainly in West London it happens a lot these days. Too many people with money to burn... (wanders off muttering to himself in an aged manner...)