Burn baby burn...

It was “Bonfire Night” this week and London was on fire. The locals here were surprised to hear that we knew about Mr. Guy Fawkes and even more to hear we celebrated his efforts (or the foiling of his efforts?) in New Zealand. We were invited around to a person's house from church for fireworks on Tuesday (the night before the actual day), along with about 30 other people. We were quite surprised at the size of the munitions you can purchase here off the street. They're not cheap, but they're not small either. I lined this photo up to capture a couple of the kids silhouetted in front of one of the much tamer fireworks, a small Roman Candle about 6 foot high. Just as I opened the shutter however, it exploded in a sheet of flame that leapt up about 60 feet! You wouldn't have wanted to think it had gone out! The following night we were at home, Bronwyn needing to work, but went out for a walk to see what was happening locally. For a couple of hours the entire area rolled with the thunder of almost continuous explosions, high payloads combining with the population density to give the impression of being in a war zone.

Last night we went to see Matrix Revolutions, the final episode in the trilogy. I'd found the second movie quite disappointing, as I blogged in May. The final instalment was I guess an improvement on the second, though the mediocre reviews are justified. The original movie introduced mind-stretching concepts and special effects that revolutionised filmmaking. The latter movies have been impressive displays of more complex special effects, certainly, but failed in either way to live up to the first. Neither of the sequels in themselves would have generated the popular theological-philosophical debate that arose after the first movie. No doubt they will all be rolled out again anyway.

We tried not to stay up too late after the movie last night, knowing that this morning the All Blacks were playing South Africa in the Rugby World Cup. We headed down to the Walkabout, an Australian pub here in Wimbledon, for the 7:30am kickoff. The place supposedly has a capacity of 600. It seemed like twice that, and we were dismayed to find the place was 85% South Africans. 15 minutes into the first half we relocated to O'Neill's two doors down to join some friends, still pretty full but with a more comfortable spot and a better mix of Kiwis. The photo tells it all... Pictured here with fellow Kiwi Sonja, the South Africans also with us didn't feel like joining the after-match photo for some reason. They seemed a bit confused, as they seemed to be supporting South Africa yet had said, “May the best team win”. A fairly passion-less game that didn't look like a World Cup quarterfinal. We'd better get our game together before we play Australia next week.

One final note: I'm pleased to announce that unlike the New Zealand and Australian Rugby Unions, I am able to successfully negotiate a subhosting agreement. As a result, my older brother Tim and his wife Megan have joined the babbage.tv fold, with their site babbage.tv/timandmegan. More a photojournal than a blog, it's an opportunity for an occasional window into their lives... Go take a look.