Remember remember...

Oooh, I've been busy busy the last few days! Unfortunately little Vi's had a couple of late nights since yesterday we had a daytrip to Hastings and back to see the In Laws and tonight we went to the Tyler Hill Bonfire. Got back from Hastings at half 8 and, despite having slept in the car all the way she woke right up and didn't nod off again until 11. Tonight was fun. With hindsight she was probably a bit too young and it was a bit too late but she seemed to enjoy most of it and we certainly had a good time. you have to park at the Uni about a mile away and walk the rest of the distance down the closed-off streets in the dark, which is in itself brilliant. We got there just in time to see the bonfire being lit, which Violet loved, and enjoyed looking around at all the people. She wasn't so keen on the fireworks though, although she only cried at the first few before calming down and watching the people behind us with glow in the dark rings on for the rest of the display - wasn't interested in watching the pretty display! By then it was an hour past her bedtime though, and she fell asleep on Hubs as he carried her on the long walk back to the car, then stayed asleep as we queued for 15 mins (!) to get out of the car park. Was cross to be woken up as we stopped and I flung her in a new nappy, pyjamas and Grobag but she soon nodded off again and was in bed by half ten.

I do love bonfire night. I know the religious politics are very dodgy - oh hooray, let's celebrate the continued oppression of one sect of Christianity by another - and back when I was younger as a Catholic I tended to avoid it (our school was named after one of the martyrs of the reformation, so they were, while not Down on Bonfire Night, certainly liked to explore the Gunpowder Plotter's side of the events), but I feel that sometimes an event transcends its official 'meaning' after time and starts to become much more basic, much more human. There's something very British - more 'Cover me in woad and bring on the Romans' British than 'Cucumber sandwich, Vicar' British - about a massive group of people (a few thousand tonight) as a community standing in a big dark field watching a giant bonfire. You feel like part of a tribe or something. Well, I do, anyway. It's lovely and autumnal and crunchy-crackly and really exhillerating. Far prefer it to Halloween.

And we're off to the Captain Digby The Biggest Dog In The World with Flo & Ian tomorrow. Woo!