I should be in bed. I know it, you know it. But I thought I'd update quickly before crawling upstairs...
Today was amazing. We left just gone 5pm to head off to Ashton Court for the Balloon Fiesta Night Glow - only to find the traffic had ground to a standstill along Coronation Rd. Yes, I know, I should have foreseen it, but I haven't owned a car in ten years, I forget how truly awful Briz traffic can be... Anyway, we detoured and finally got there nearly one and a half hours after we'd left home (the trip should take 20-30 minutes) The bottom car park was full: Carol drove us to the top one (ack, a good 3-4 miles further on!)
But we got there. To find what was probably the biggest and definitely one of the best funfairs I've ever seen! A Samurai clone, the Wild Mouse rollercoaster, Typhoon, Twister (Carol went on that with Kai - same as the one at Clevedon), one of those upward-catapaulting thingies (y'know the sort, you're strapped into a ball-shaped metal frame and launched upwards on what looks like stretched elastic...), dodgems, Stargate (a new one on me!), Skyfire, loads of rides for kids...
It was an hour before we moved onto the main arena to watch the mass launch, Kai happily munching on bi-coloured candy-floss. We found a reasonable place (unfortunately on the side of the arena with all the food stalls [cue watering mouth]) and settled down: the launch was fun, although there weren't as many balloons as the last time we went - though that might have been because this was the last day. There was a pink gibbous moon that changed to gold as it rose...
The Night Glow was late starting (should have been 9.30 pm, ended up starting at 10), but oh, it was worth it! They played an assortment of music (It's Raining Men probably got the most enthusiastic reception!) with the 14 tethered ballons lighting up from within in time to the music. Quite quite beautiful. And the fireworks at the end...! [shakes head] Best I've ever seen.
Soft and fluffy gold and silver ones for Carol, green and purple cascades of stars for Kai, and vast fizzing starbursts for me, with explosions so deep and loud you could feel them. Fabulous!
Well, we traipsed back to the car, to see that the queues to get out of the estate were just ridiculous, so we sat in the car, windows open, high above Bristol with GWR playing quietly on the radio, to let things quieten a little before trying to drive home. And that was fun! HUGE queues... Luckily I know the area reasonably well, so we dived off the main road towards the Clifton Suspension Bridge (heh, to find that although they'd opened it specially for the festival, the toll is now 30p and they won't accept 5p pieces. Which was all we had... Sensibly, there was a man with a bag of change monitoring the gates...)
Driving through Briz on a Saturday night is a little hair-raising, though at just after midnight the mood was boisterous rather than worrying, and there were plenty of police around! Kai, bless him, fell asleep in the car (and will probably be horribly grumpy tomorrow!) But we finally parked up at about half past midnight...
Carol goes home tomorrow, alas. But it's been a fantastic week - even if we're all completely shattered and needing a holiday to recover! So thank you, GoodTwin! We've loved it! [GLOMPS]
I haven't managed to do any drawing at all - it's been too hot. But I have had several insights into some Haadri awkwardnesses that have been annoying me, beta-ed onna's Kokigami and six Purgatory chapters (rest to follow shortly, TR) as well as writing some more Devon with Reshenna. I still have to answer a few emails (Wendy, I'm sorry - will get back to you asap! You too, Talon) and sort out some niggling internet-related annoyances before I can get back to writing, but hopefully I can have everything cleared by Tuesday. Then I can tweak F04 a little more, carry on with F05, and make a start on Moonlight pt 2 and the next AC chapter. AND (grits teeth) one of the Professionals eps we watched has kick-started a plot-spider. (Please don't get your hopes up, Sue, it's an AU comedy in the vein of the MMCIfiles, and whether I can ever net enough haddock to get it written is a matter of considerable conjecture...)
Ah well. Better think about closing down, I suppose....
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Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 4:33 am
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