Remember Remember the Fifth of November - 5/11/2006

I had made arrangements to drag a very random assortment of people to the top of Arthur's Seat for fireworks and other entertainment. The plan for Stanley was hatched with the caveat that I absolutely had to be home by 6 for the first arrivals at my flat. On the drive home from Stanley, I had to resort to outright bribery to make that happen -- If you take me home early enough, I will make you dinner. We stopped at Amy's for Bram and Amy to get showers, Morrisons for wine and fireworks, and finally mine at 5:45. My first arrival was due at 6:15, which is when we sat for dinner. We fed him wine while we scarfed food, then coordinated the drive to Holyrood Park and rendezvous with half of Amy's house along with finding Neil and the mystery second guest who turned out to be Fraser.

The plan was to meet at the Commonwealth Pool. A first for the day, we arrived two minutes early. Neil was late so we made plans to meet him on the street. Eventually we found him and Fraser standing on a street corner. We chucked them into the boot, where they made like luggage and Amy drove us around to the swan side of Holyrood Park. The park officials semi-wisely blocked off traffic access to the upper car park, which changed our plan. Amy parked on the verge, beginning a new trend. Sarah and kids arrived. Sarah gave Amy her car to park as well, taking advantage of Amy's shamelessness. After hers was parked, we stood around for a little while before giving up on the rest of the house and beginning the trek up the Crags. I brought the skinned Muppet for extra warmth, but mostly entertainment.

Neil led the way. Fireworks were going off all around us but the official Meadowbank fireworks weren't due for another fifteen minutes. Amy carried Alana. Sarah carried Naia. We found a nice spot on the crags and soon the other group of adults and children found us. We watched fireworks and soon discovered Tim from the kayak club was with the group beside us. Then, Amy got out the sparklers. Her planned subdivision of little sparklers for the little people and big sparklers for the big people didn't quite work out as planned but we enjoyed much sparkage nonetheless. In the distance, we watched a small patch of gorse on Arthur's Seat catch fire and grow with the wind. Neil took a lot of pictures.

Neil and Fraser got out their stove and made dinner. Soup. Excellent choice for cold and windy atop the Crags. They were kind to share. While they were cooking, the first of our group, mostly parents with kids, decided to call it a night. We watched the fire grow bigger. We wondered if the fire brigade would bother to show up. Eventually they did.

After much soup was shared, fireworks watched and fire discussed, we decided to call it a night. Juan caught a ride with Bram, Amy and Tracy. I walked back with Neil and Fraser. Neil took every opportunity to play war photographer, taking all sorts of crazy angled photos of fire, fireworks and people. In the midst of our trek to the Commonwealth Pool entrance to the park, the fire brigade and police decided their job was to shout at everyone to get off the hill. They did their job well, shouting as people didn't listen very well. We got to the road heading down the hill and they stopped shouting so we stopped going. Neil disappeared into the crowd for more photos. At one point, he was tackled by a group of yas who thought he might be a reporter and wanted their photo to be the one that made news.

Not satisfied with merely shouting at people, the fire brigade brought out one of their toys, a really odd, big wheeled trike forklifty thing, to get closer to the fire. Their guy managed to stall it half a dozen times, tear up the grass getting started and eventually get most of the way to the top of the tiny entrance hill before stopping again and sitting there. Well done!

Eventually, the circus got boring and we decided to call it a night. Following the road down, someone with a reflecty vest and camera ran past us in the other direction. We wondered if the yas would tackle him, too. Fireworks still surrounded us on the walk home, but the Sarajevo-like enthusiasm was dying out for sure. I was home before 11 and the mortar fire seemed to stop well before midnight.

Neil's photos are here and his blog entry about the evening can be found here