Bonfire Night

On Saturday night we went to the annual bonfire in the paddock up the road, run by the South Hobart Progress Association. Formerly the South Hobart Bonfire Night, it has become so popular all over town that it is now the Hobart Bonfire Night, with more than 2000 happy fireworks fans attending this year. I helped out early in the evening on the P & F Association sausage and burger stall. When Elf and the kids arrived she took over from me, and spent the rest of the night shoveling sustenance for meat-mad punters. Even when the fireworks began, queues of people with their backs to the action demanded 3 sausages, one with onion! and 2 beefburgers 2 vegie burgers 2 sausages! Onion on all of them but not a lot just a bit, oh and one more beefburger with lots! Imp and Ed and the girls came too, and Imp did astint on the P&F coffee stall. It was a perfect still night for a bonfire, all the smoke and sparks went straight up. The fireworks were beautiful, and for the first time both boys enjoyed them, although with hands over ears. On the walk home Marcus said it was it had been the best night ever. We were staggered to find no mention of the event at all in the paper the next day.

South Hobart Bonfire Night

We dropped into the old stamping ground last night to attend the annual South Hobart bonfire night. We picked up Lana from next door, and walked up past the brewery to the paddock where they always have the bonfire. It's a nice thing to be a half an hour walk from the city, but only ten minutes walk from a very large paddock.

There was a slightly out-of-kilter irish band playing, hot dogs etc and a small range of glowsticks available. We bought some glowsticks and hotdogs and wandered around the paddock in the dark, eating and glowing, like everyone else.

The PA man tried desperately to give away door prizes. "Ticket number Green 124 - we are still waiting....Flair Boutique... full body massage... what's that Kevin?... don't miss out on a full range of hair... er... services..."

The bonfire was lit by the deputy lord mayor Eva Ruzicka, who is arguably the most powerful person in South Hobart. It was a pretty good one, and kept the crowd on its toes with the constantly changing wind direction sending embers scattering generally. The boys and Lana were having a good time, it was a mild night and very pleasant to just sit and look at a large fire.

A little later the fireworks began all of a sudden, away off up the hill. Elf got Marcus's earplugs in just in time but not Michael's. He was fascinated but also quite scared, wailing eloquently "I want to go away from this place". The display was very good, went on for a while, and afterwards Michael seemed to bear no ill effects. Marcus had enjoyed fireworks for the first time (he hated it a couple of years ago), and Lana enjoyed her first encounter with them.

We walked Lana home again and that was it for another year.