Gavin: Charlie says.

We had no idea we'd be celebrating Firework night with Sonny as we were more concerned about what to tell him if he'd be in hospital for his birthday, so this weekend was a real treat. The school and local authority have done a fantastic job of scaring the wits out of the children when it comes to fireworks. Although this is obviously a good thing and mean they won't grow up strapping them to cats or anything, it meant our friend Andy had to show Ruby his 'Rocket Licence' to prove he was actually allowed to buy them.

Obviously the standard of Public Information is much better than in our day when we were shown old 8mm films of terrifying ghosts warning us not to play around water and the extremely graphic production where 6 friends are slowly picked off in a variety of ways (crashing a tractor, crushed beneath an iron gate, drowning in slurry...) while they mess around on a farm. Warnings well worth heeding when growing up in Grays.

Anyway, despite the cries of 'leave it daddy!' and 'don't go back!', we managed to have a great night. Sonny was up and about using his splints well and eating sausages with the rest of us. He really does improve every day and, within a fortnight, I reckon will be out of all the contraptions. It's so good to see.

Here's me demonstrating how the sparks from the sparklers won't actually hurt you...