Today is the 5th of November, which is Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Bonfire Night). I do enjoy Bonfire Night. It's a bit like living in Canberra on the Queens Birthday weekend (just on a bigger scale), with people setting of fireworks all over the place. In addition, there are heaps of professional displays. Most of the councils put on displays in their parks.

Just in case you don't know, Guy Fawkes Nights is a celebration of the foiled Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in Westminster on the evening of 5 November 1605. Thirteen men attempted to blow the bejesus out of the building when the majority of the English Parliament were within its walls. Among the group of thirteen Catholic conspirators was Guy Fawkes, Britain’s most notorious traitor.

In certain areas of London it appears that it's a competition between the different flats. A lot of the flat complexes have communal gardens and they throw their own bonfire night. On Saturday I went to one of these and they had a huge bonfire and the local deli providing jacket potatoes, sausages and lamb pita's. In that area there were three different groups competing. One lot set of their fire works, followed by the second and finished by the third and then the first responded to the third with a second round.

The one I went to last year was in Victoria Park in Hackney and put on by the council. They did a play type thing telling a story and combined this with fireworks. I had more fun on Saturday night than I did last year.