Monday, November 08, 2004

What a cracker!

Lastest London gripe is about fireworks. They're not banned over here, so anyone can go and purchase seriously powerful rockets etc, the kind that are only allowed in official licenced firework displays in Australia. For a couple of weeks on either side of Guy Fawkes, people are setting them off every evening and during the night. The last two nights we've been awakened at around 3.30am by stunningly noisy fireworks. There don't seem to be any local by-laws about disturbing neighbours here, either. As soon as anyone tries to legislate to protect the peace (or kids' eyes), this spectre of the "nanny state" comes up... it's a real paranoia. With safety laws that have come in, people are really cavalier, too... the English will tell you not to bother with a seatbelt, especially if you're only going a short distance!

1 Comments:

Blogger Chris Saliba says....... said...

I am finding the differences between England and Australia quite amazing. It makes us sound like an uber- progressive country. I'll stop whinging about Australia. Can't believe that you can still smoke at work!

Didn't we shake off the dreaded fire cracker menace some twenty years ago? Buying fire crackers from the local milk baris just a distant memory.

I mentioned to Chris if he remembered that time and his eyes lit up and said, 'Do you remember buying......'

November 13, 2004 at 3:28 PM  

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