The bonfire

It's an annual attraction. The bonfire on Fireman's Park. The firemen start collecting combustibles in early September. You can phone them and say "I've got a pile of old decking here" or "I've had quite enough of this book" and they'll come by and pick up anything suitable for burning. It all gets chucked on a pile in the middle of the park behind the station. The pile keeps getting bigger and bigger til it's really rather large. Then come Halloween night they chuck a match on it and it bursts into a massive flame! Honestly, its footprint was the size of a house tonight!

Here's the clincher ... they control the fire from three points with real (like, actual and really real) fire hoses ... that they let the kids spray!! Marvelous! The kids line up over and over to have a go at the hose with the firemen. Their faces are to die for when the nozzle is released. And, well, then there's the kids faces ... they look as if they're having fun, too!

I can't help thinking it's some sort of early recruitment scheme.

Good fun though, and they brew up vats of hot chocolate that you can top up with a splash of something from your hip flask, cos it's dark, and no one will notice.