Welcome to my Friday night.

Now I thought of the subject of this blog back on Wednesday as I drove to work. Unfortunately age being the thief of good ideas, I had completely forgotten what it was I was goingto blog about.

Ignoring the fact that a bunch of scientists near the Great Hadron Collidor are actually contemplating that effect may not actually follow cause, tomorrow WILL be the 5th of November. As it is the day after the 4th - obviously!

I do sometimes wonder if scientists aren't actually too clever for their own good. The extrapolations that have been made as a result of "discovering" that the speed of light may not be the ultimate have, quite frankly, left me chuckling to myself at the sheer absurdity. Do you think they actualy listen to themselves as they say these things?

Enough already

Here in the UK november the 5th is a notable day. I wouldn't go overboard about it but it is significant.

For those reading this with no prior of the British at play I will explain.

In a nutshell a group of men plotted the kill the king - with an almighty bang. Too simple?

OK I'll try again.

Ever since the reign of Henry VIII England (not Scotland) had been in the grip of a feud between followers of the Roman Catholic church and the increasingly protestant Church of England. Henry needed a divorce but the Pope told him to get lost so he made up his own religion.

And there followed many years of persecution with catholics being burned at the stake followed by Protestants and so on until a more moderate James VI of Scotland ascended to the throne of Engalnd as James I.

Fed up of waiting for the next catholic monarch a group of men including a certain Guy Fawkes decided to speed things up by destroying parliament and all who were there in.

The plan would have worked but for one thing. One of the plotters sent an anonymous letter to his friend telling him to make himself scarce on November 5th (state openig of Parliament).

Smelling a rat the Parliament building was searched and guess what? Guy Fawkes was sat on top of a ton (literally) of gunpowder right underneath the house of Lords where the King was due to open parliament.

This has led to the long runing joke that Guy fawkes was the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions.

Ever since then England has celebrated the failed plot by lighting bonfires and firing off fireworks on a night often described as bonfire night.

If you want to see what a ton of gunpowder looks like going bang take a look at this video

So tomorrow night there will be much merriment as people let of fireworks ad nauseum.

To be fair up here in the north east the local fire brigades put on a number of large events in the hope that it will deter people from having their own "do's" and setting fire to themselves, their houses or their neighbours houses