Be Excellent To Each Other

Merry 2017

Glad 2016 has finally fucked the fuck off

WHOO ONCE MORE AROUND THE SUN!

Who's coming with me?

Ooooooooh, go on then.

In.

I'm right behind you.

Go on then.

Who sets a load of REALLY NOISY FIREWORKS off at midnight in the middle of a residential area just because it's changed from one day to the next?

Witless baboons.

Everyone in bromsgrove, based on last nights evidence.

Scream if you wanna go faster!

Your neighbours probably wonder why you've got an expensive and noisy car when a Micra will do.

The trick is to set them off at half nine tonight.

They were coming from a nearby estate, not my immediate neighbours. There was the initial fusillade at bang-on midnight which I was expecting as it happens every fucking year, but then some rancid cockbag set off another batch at about quarter past, including about a minute's worth of some sort of 'squealy' things.

It didn't bother me particularly, but fuck everyone who was actually wanting or needing to get to sleep at that point, eh? A few of the local dogs seemed to lose their shit a bit as well.

I was hoping that the fact it was pissing down would keep the local imbeciles indoors, or at least render their noisy explosives inoperable, but apparently not.

Same happened around my gaff. Every time the fireworks went off my dog went fucking ballistic and hid in the pantry shaking uncontrollably. Thanks kind residents, you cunts.

You can get a jacket thing for dogs which is meant to help their anxiety or something. I will try to remember what it is called.

Edit: Thundershirt

Yes sod em for enjoying themselves at new year. The swines.

Well, count me in as one of the local imbeciles (as if you didn't already eh )
I set off something resembling a small washing machine with fuses, and the ensuing conflagration was really quite something to behold and quite possibly audible from the IoM (Still, fair do's to me finding the fuse in that state)

Happy New Year

I would worry about having it sideways and launching rockets at the fence or something.

Happy new year everyone! I went to a party at the neighbors house which basically involved me hanging around with a bunch of 18/19 year old women feeling old... Very old.

Still, it was good fun with some lovely people.

I'm not much of a worrier, Mali...

I imagine a world where people can enjoy themselves without feeling the need to engage in massively anti-social behaviour in the process.

Gah. Seriously? Bah humbug etc.
You honestly expect people to have a quiet night in and not disturb your sleep on *New Years Eve*?

That's crazy, man. You gotta enjoy yourself in this life and having a good party once a year with some fireworks is hardly excessive. (You must've had a few parties in your youth, surely, and don't give me that 'yeah but we never pissed off anyone, not even some grumpy old sod EVER')

Work hard, play hard, I say.

What the hell is this madness? Looks to be available on Amazon.

I wonder how that's supposed to work.

They are bloody fireworks. Not really antisocial.
Fireworks are allowed. Chinese New Year, bonfire night and new year. Any other time. No.

Your new year challenge should be to be less grumpy.

Hearthly acceptable firework
(Before 8pm obv.)

What an absurd thing to say. I'll come and set them off outside your house at 4am each morning and see if you change your mind.


Aren't they thinking about banning them for members of the public?

[edit] No, they are not.

Fuck you, Hindus!

Everyone in Nicaragua, it would seem. And before midnight, and through the night. And at 5.30 in the morning on NYE, though possibly the kids got told off for that one, because then it went quiet, no loud bangs for several hours.

It's a place to grab sleep when you can. And try to warn your heart it's going to be awakened with a BOOM.

Happy New Year everyone!

Like people only set off fireworks on bonfire night. More like bonfire month.

You're thinking of Divali.

It's a mix of both. People definitely set off fireworks for Diwali but they also set off fireworks because the shops are selling fireworks because of Bonfire night.

Well you live out in the sticks a bit don't you? This would put a different slant on things.

I live in a built-up residential area, as such, whichever fine reveller decided to set off his personal wank-factory of high explosives over the neighbourhood at 12:15am was, with pretty much 100% certainty, going to wake people up, cause distress to animals, disturb children, and so on.

I'm not even raising an objection on behalf of myself, I was awake anyway and the rest of my family slept through them, I just think launching a barrage of really noisy fireworks into the air at well past midnight is a lousy thing to do and shows a complete disregard for other people in the area.

I was not being absurd, it was New Year's Eve. It the night of the year that they are expected.

To be honest. I think they should only be done at displays.

Agreed.

Isn't it likely to be the one and only day they're least likely to wake people up?

And, in fact, provably didn't wake people open.

Is provably a word? It doesn't seem like it is.

It is, but I'm less convinced about waking people open.

You've obviously not watched my sex tape.

I have. Was surprised to see JC there.

It did seem like it was heading that way, but over the last few years it's going back to just the bonfire night and weekend, then NYE. We get far less random explosions now.

Yes, we (essentially) don't have any neighbours at all, now, so I can cheerfully create merry hell here and disturb no-one. (This is no accident, btw. I'd had enough run-ins with miserable twattish neighbours to last a lifetime upon purchasing this place)

Clearly we are not going to agree, but to my mind, if you live in a built up area where young people live, then you have to expect them to party on New Years Eve with all the attendant noise/revelry, and if that's not acceptable then fuck off to sheltered housing or the deepest rural countryside. Don't impose clearly unreasonable expectations and demands on others.

Look, everyone has something they don't like about living in close proximity to others (for some miserable, unempathetic toads, it's *lots* of things they don't like, and make no secret of the fact), but you know, if you take all the benefits of living in such an urban setting, you have to take the downsides. Me? I have a low tolerance of kids screaming round day and night, but I've never so much as said one word to anyone, because it's part of the human condition; they'll be things their parents don't like about *me* (probably lots of things), so quid pro quo and all that, I'm a reasonable guy.

I'm not suggesting letting off fireworks to bring in the New Year is somehow unavoidable, but you gotta let off steam, have a blast once in a while, that *is* part of the human condition, especially when young. Your blanket statement '... I just think launching a barrage of really noisy fireworks into the air at well past midnight is a lousy thing to do and shows a complete disregard for other people in the area" is completely absurd (of course) because it completely ignores the critical context of the situation FFS: it's not just *any* night of the year but _New_Years_Eve_.

I suppose I should declare an interest here; fireworks have always held an absolute fascination for me, I've loved them for as long as I can remember. My father handing me a Size 20 box of Standard Fireworks during mid-October to keep safe until Bonfire Night was for me, pretty much the highlight of the year. It didn't matter that I knew *precisely* what the box contents was down to the smallest item, nor indeed that I equally well knew what each one did, down to the finest detail - the excitement leading up to that time was almost too much to bear. I was collecting firewood in August!

Funny, a few of those old British fireworks still survive intact in people's lofts or whatever; a part complete Size 12 box that cost £1.20 in 1978 is worth many hundreds of pounds to collectors now, I've even been tempted myself. I can safely say in all honesty that I've personally had the largest fireworks any private individual is ever likely to lay his hands on over the years, but for all their immense explosive power and impressive as they are, they can't touch the likes of a "Jack in the Box", "Screamer Repeater" or "Devil-Amongst-the-Tailors", and those old black powder rockets - especially the really big ones - are unsurpassed even now.

Happy New Year everyone.

We set off our fireworks on a beach at the Solway Firth around 19:00ish on New Year's Eve so a friend's toddler could see them. It was extremely wet and very windy. A friend had put the box of bangs right next to a ground-shooting one, so, fearing a spark, I grabbed the box and tried to get it out of the way but the wind caught it and blew everything out. Luckily nothing bad happened.

Yes it did, the fireworks got blown out.

Heh, yes. They still worked afterwards (although hunting stray fireworks on a beach on a dark windy night is not advisable)

Oh, and we wrapped up the New Year challenges. Seven were successfully completed, two more were attempted, and one is being carried over to this year. Oddly enough a friend didn't get close enough to a royal to shake hands with them.

People enjoyed the game so much we did it again with new challenges for 2017.

What's your challenge this year?

I got an easy one. Just volunteer for something. The point of the game is to make us better people, after all.

I'll post the full list when it gets sent over. I'm quite pleased that my evil challenge got drawn by the person it was intended for:

"Fine, I'll eat the last bit of pizza."