Fireworks

Remember remember the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. Yes that's right, it's Guy Fawkes day and that means fireworks and bonfires. We are all too lazy in our house to go out and buy fireworks and the landlord would probably kill us if they found out we had built a bonfire in the garden. Thankfully, the other house that we are close friends with are more bothered about the whole thing. They had a roaring bonfire (in a bin) and some wonderful fireworks that made the evening. We even ended up in a competition with the house behind who were also setting them off. They won in the end and probably spent a lot more on theirs that we did but it was nice to get a free viewing nonetheless. You can't have bonfires without marshmallows so that was my contribution to the evening. It's strange how something can change so drastically when cooked when you think about it, not just marshmallows of course but they do taste 100% nicer when they're nicely toasted on an open fire. The rain put a bit of a downer on the evening and we got a bit wet waiting for the very last "super" firework which turned out to be very noisy but not all that pretty.

There must be something about bonfire night that changes people. People who are ordinarily sensible and mature can suddenly turn into pyromaniacs and we certainly saw that tonight. Maybe it's the haunting glow of the flames licking away in the dark night sky or some genetic throwback from times long gone. Either way we all ended up poking the fire with sticks and one friend even went actively searching for things to burn in the house. Thankfully no one was injured but I can now see why they put those adverts on the TV around this time of year because even though most people ignore them I can see how so many accidents happen from the silly ones to the casual accidents. I don't understand for one minute why people go back to check on fireworks that don't explode or are just silly about the whole thing but if I hear that someone burned themselves poking the fire with a stick then I quite understand. I probably would have done the same thing and have most likely come very close to doing it myself. I remember melting my shoe on a fire once when I was camping and not noticing until I smelled burning plastic.

I had a small panic earlier in the day when I received an email from TicketMaster reminded me about the Muse concert on Tuesday and I remembered that I still hadn't had my tickets. I checked the website for the order status but that said they'd been despatched. It did also say if you haven't received them within 7-10 days then to get in touch and it was only just seven days so I've decided to give it a bit longer and if they aren't hear by Saturday then I'll ring them.

This morning started off with a meeting with my dissertation tutor. I had been dreading this because she was due to give me feedback on my draft literature review and I'm pretty awful at essay writing. English was never a strong point of mine and was one of the reasons why I started writing this blog. My English teacher always said I should read more newspapers and books but I struggle to find a really good book and it's only recently that I've managed to come across a couple of really good ones and got back into reading. I'm currently reading "The Atheists Guide to Christmas" which is a collection of short stories by famous atheists and some of them are quite funny. Others not so much and some seem to just be a way to show off. One of the chapters I read had the most bizarre use of language I've seen in a long time and almost every other word I'd have had to look up the meaning of in a dictionary. I'd heard most of them before and could hazard a rough guess at their meaning from the context but sometimes I think there is just no need for flamboyant language like that. I mean, it's alright now and again but it's almost as if he had used the thesaurus on every other word.

Anyway, I'm going off topic again as usual. It turned out that all that worrying was unnecessary because she actually thought I'd done a pretty good job. Apparently I have a knack for critical analysis which I suppose I should have known seeing as my Mum is tells me off for it a lot of the time and is annoys some of my housemates as well. It would appear that I've found a use for this undesirable personality trait. After the meeting I went to pick up my Spanish certificate and wasn't at all surprised to find the office deserted. The reception is supposed to be open all day and the office was due to open at 12:00pm (which it had just gone). I decided to give them a chance and waited patiently for about five minutes. Just as I was contemplating giving up and leaving, finally someone turned up and I got what I came for. It's only taken me about four months to get it!

I only had one lecture this afternoon because of reading week so I took the opportunity to catch up with the missed TV from the week. Before the last lecture I watched the first episode of the new series of Spooks. I was almost convinced by the first half that they were going to repeat what had happened at the beginning of last series and kill off one of the main characters in the first episode. Thankfully however, Harry survived and so did Ruth who made a nice comeback although I don't yet know whether she is here to stay or just part of a one off special. It would make sense if she did stay because she has lost any hope of the life she once had and I'm sure they could do with a hand on the grid. I was however very disappointed that they are getting rid of Malcolm because although he only plays a small part in the series, I can always empathise with the 'tech guy' who has to come to the rescue of everyone and produce some amazing gadget to save the day. It's also nice to see a major role for 'nerds' on the screen and shows that we are actually useful rather than people who just sit at a desk in front of a screen all day.

Another particularly heavy episode of Waterloo Road this week and as if murder wasn't a big enough topic to start off on, they had to go and introduce a rape story line. I can't imagine a school in real life that these things happen in. I know they have to exaggerate the story lines a bit for the TV but it's turning into more of a soap opera than a drama and if they have started with those two heavy subjects then goodness knows what's still to come. I'm also really starting to loathe the new Max character and cannot see why Kim has fallen for him. I really liked Rachel's character and she always seemed to be a kind mother sort of person, thinking of others before herself and making good all the wrongs that happened. She was always willing to give everyone a fair chance and she knew a lot of the students very well and was always willing to give them a fair trial. This new Max person is quite the opposite, he jumps to conclusions and undermines her at every step. It's almost as if he wants to be demoted from his new position and from what I've read, that is going to happen because Rachel is being written out of the series (as is Kim) and if I remember rightly, they don't make it to the end of the series - or if they do they won't be in the next one.

Last one now and it's the turn of Defying Gravity. I still have no idea who this Beta character is (if that's how its spelled). I haven't dared look on Wikipedia for fear of ruining the plot. I'm that far behind America that it will take a long time to catch up with what's going on. It was a big build up to revealing that this 'thing' had gone a bit loopy and was starting to play with the ships systems but was ruined with a Dallas-esque ending whereby it was all the fault of a bit of metal shorting the wires. For all I know it might go all Dallas on us and turn out to all be a big dream and if it does I will lose all faith in the American TV producers.