ready, aim...

Last year we stayed amateur with our fireworks appreciation, but on Friday we went professional. You could argue the bonfire alone may have been worth the £6 entry free to the Wimbledon Park fireworks, with the 10-12 foot high pile of pallets producing flames we thought were about 5 stories high. Behind the fence some 100ft away we could still well and truly feel the heat. We were there not just to watch the sky light up but also to celebrate the launch of another kind—Sonja and Colin's engagement recently, at Victoria Falls in South Africa. Great to see Colin again, recently arrived back from SA for a short visit. A hard time to have a long-distance relationship. Their wedding plans sound amazing, with talk of a three day event at a private game reserve in Africa. The stuff of fairytales... but fitting for an adventurous and international couple. Nice too to see my past Palmy colleague “Sexy Sue” and her fiancé there, who hauled the huge distance all the way down from northeast London for what ended up being a short visit with Sonja and Colin in the southwest. London is a big town.

Not content with just the Friday explosions, our church homegroup had a bonfire night at Chris and Carolyn's new home. This wonder in Merton Park is atypical for London real estate... with an unassuming frontage, this lovely house has a back yard that would make a lifestyler on the outskirts of Ashhurst happy... it's truly enormous. I baked up a storm and took along this creation I unassumingly dubbed “Choc-henge”. With the bonfire down in one corner, Chris and pastor Richard let off an array of fireworks—some of which would surely have required a commercial license in New Zealand. A couple were particularly spectacular by failing to take off and exploding at ground level, or falling over sideways and firing projectiles at the assembled children. They loved it. At the end the largest firework of all, a box about 20cm x 20cm x 30cm, failed to properly light, thanks no doubt to the light rain we'd been having. So it's drying out, and I understand the explosions are scheduled to continue at homegroup this coming Tuesday!

Finally, munitions and relationships aren't the only thing being launched around here this weekend. I'm pleased to welcome to the blogosphere the journal of my sister-in-law and my brother: timandmegan.babbage.tv. Ironically, it's almost exactly a year since a first attempt to get them online. This time, with a driving force being news regarding my baby nephew Fin, I think there will be more impetus to keep it going... And it's habit-forming, blogging, once you get properly started.