Canberra is known in Australia for the three p's - politics, porn and pyrotechnics.
While I (reluctantly) admit that a political career is somewhat unlikely at this point (you generally have to be able to pretend to like people who suck) and my porn career is limited to applying for a job copying videos for a distributor in Fyshwick (my uni hours didn't quite suit their needs), I have at least now managed to indulge a little in the third.
Fireworks are legal in Canberra over the Queen's Birthday long weekend and this year I decided to put aside my feelings that it was all a bit juvenile or bogany/chav/white-trash or something and embrace the whole thing.
I'm really not sure what my problem was, it was great. (Possibly still slightly juvenile but what the hey.)
Step 1 was buying them - it's an odd little cottage industry that seems to spring up around Canberra at this time of year - empty shops, scout halls, pretty much any space you can think of gets rented out and there are (generally) hand-made signs all over the place advertising FIREWORKS!!!
Fyshwick is one of Canberra's industrial areas (as well as the home of porn and brothels) and the place to go for pyrotechnics.
Pussycat (who was a little dubious about the whole excursion and was heard to mutter from time to time about people blowing their hands off) came along with me and before long we found out that the leading adult shops were doing half price fireworks.
Given that everyone seemed to have sourced their gear from the same location (the packs were exactly the same everywhere you went), this seemed the logical option. (They turned out to be cheaper but I wouldn't say 50% cheaper on the whole).
Unsurprisingly, these places were crammed to the rafters - and there did seem to be a lot of the "oh well, we're here now - strictly for fireworks mind you - so we might as well browse the strap-ons, blow-ups, extenders, expanders, vibrators, mags and other things that I couldn't actually figure out."
People were walking out with armfuls of packs that would have put them out hundreds of dollars (which of course would all be used this weekend and not at any other time) and they ranged in size from suitcase-ish to the somewhat more handbag sized pack that I picked up. (It was also coloured a particularly garish and girly pink, as if to say - "no real man would be seen dead with such a small (fireworks) package").
Thriftiness (and a slight apprehension at hand-blowing-up) won out though and we exited with our pack.
Step 2 was, well basically, blowing them up. After seeing how it was done at a friend's party (hey - they were basically just tubes from what I could see) and wanting the house to share the joy, we headed out to the local park.
Here are some of the results - being the cheap pack, there were a few big bang in the sky ones but photographing those didn't quite pan out. (Although there is a pretty cool shot of one sky firework launching)
There were a few slightly scary moments - such as when the rocket type fireworks fell over half way through their burst and started shooting them horizontally instead of up into the air - and we didn't work out until half way that the stick of incense that was included was actually meant to be used as a lighter but all in all it was a bunch of good blowing stuff up fun.
No major injuries I'm happy to say although (some might say slightly ironically) the Pussycat's hand was slightly scorched by a few sparks from one of the fuses. (She's ok.)
Click on the pics for the full sized view.
(Not entirely sure what this one is but it looks kind of cool anyway)
