Thursday, November 05, 2009

That muted feeling

Halloween last weekend, an event I have deplored in previous utterances on this site, but this year almost invisible. Ghastly rubbish in the supermarkets (what does happen to all those oversized pumpkins?) but nothing to be seen on the streets. Of course, being out that night helped. As it happens we were in Sevenoaks for a concert and wandering through the attractive but distinctly quiet town centre I noticed a jeweller had placed a few 'orrible 'airy spiders here and there amongst the rings and the watches. Can't say that this seemed much of an inducement to spend money there.

And tonight is bonfire night. There used to be plenty of fireworks going off for several nights before November 5 came around - again I am surprised by the paucity of it this year. Perhaps everyone is saving up for the weekend. Or maybe people are having second thoughts about celebrating the downfall of a man who tried to blow up Parliament. One more expenses scandal and it will be the Speaker being burned in effigy whilst the deluded (because the plot was doomed to fail even if the powder had gone off as planned, and the resulting war against the English Catholics would have caused the needless deaths of thousands of innocent people) Mr Fawkes becomes a sort of whistle-blowing martyr of the people.