It's finally stopped snowing - for now

This is a good thing because last night, as any true brit will know was Bonfire Night - Guy Fawkes night call it what you will. The thing is that the local ex-pats decided to have a bonfire party!! The four of us me and C and T and H drove out to West Valley City (or bandit country as the locals affectionately know it) Knowing all the previous bonfire parties I've been to in UK I dressed in layers - get too close to the bonfire and you suddenly know what a baked potatoe feels like and the tin foil comes off pretty quick. Once I was down to jeans and a T-shirt and it was below freezing. There were no lit torch processions and we had an interesting conversation with one of H's friends in the band about Lewes and the way they burn effegies of unpopular people (Tony B and Shrub appear to be the favourites for this year and he figured that out)

Suitably fed on steaming baked potatoes C and I headed for the fire. Now you have to remember that I'm from UK and although we are now suing the council for falling over our own feet I come from the generation where you could still have fun - and fun sometimes leads to accidents in otherwords fun can be dangerous. So they had rigged up a yellow tape barrier which if you stood behind it meant you could see the fire - but that was about it. The other - slightly larger deterrent was 6 firemen and a cop standing next to us. Slightly miffed we went back up to the main building and watched some poor sods do Scottish country dancing, they must have been freezing.

We headed back down to the fire where the fire guys and law had gone so the brits in the crowd had climbed over the tape and where standing a couple of feet away from the blaze. Instant warmth - bliss! and if you have to dodge a couple of showers of sparks as the wind changes so be it. Then came the fireworks - about 10 minutes worth of display - not bad! Proper display fireworks - none of your cheap crap!

The policeman standing next to us, chipped in that they'd had several calls reporting gun fire from local residents and the station officer had been pleased to tell them it wasn't guns - just fireworks. I don't think I'll be moving out there anytime soon!

The event was fairly well attended considering it was the first time they'd tried it - even made it onto the local Faux News channel, so hopefully they'll have another one next year.