After all the excitement of last night, the festivities surrounding the fact some guys once tried to blow up Parliament dulls in comparison.  Last year, we watched a public fireworks display in Battersea Park from across the river in Chelsea.

This year, I’m content with taking blurry photos through our kitchen window of a display that’s going on somewhere nearby.  Fireworks are a rather unsettling prospect in the London suburbs.  It’s hard to know where they originate from, and the explosions echo between the houses, along the narrow streets.

Still, the fact that I can see them at all, is an improvement from the New Year’s effort.  We made sure we were at Embankment.  We made sure that we had a good position – one with a great view of the London Eye.  We stood there, in the cold.  The fireworks started.  The smoke started.  The smoke mixed with the cold, and became like fog, and after a couple of minutes, our view of the fireworks had become completely obscured.

There were thousands of people there, walking along the strand.  There were streamers and the tubes home were free.

I can’t believe that the end of 2008 is almost here.

Tash