Halloween Over,

it is now time for Christmas,

 so out with the tree,

 it is a DIY one,

 so untie the branches,

 by pulling the red ribbon,

 ta-da!

 the top bit comes in three pieces, 

 bottom third,

middle third, 

 untie the next ribbon,

 top third in place,

 now where is the wire for the lights?

 found it,

 another ta-da!

 next the bubbles, 

 we have a number of boxes that date from the 1950s/60s,

 also some Scandinavian wooden Christmas toys,

 tree skirt in place, 

 the tree is missing something,

 presents!

 over the past few weeks I have been buying a few bits and pieces for Diana,

 and wrapping them upstairs so Diana did not see them, of course it has started already, 'can I open one now? it is a long time to Christmas', you get the idea,

  in the evening we meet up with Steve and Kai, at Crystal Palace for the fireworks,

 and of course the fair,

 this ride looked, and judging by the screams, was terrifying,

 dodgems or bumper cars as we used to call them,

 the House of Fun, 

 every go wins a prize,

 another ride I will leave well alone,

 the girls both as always in happy mode,

time to eat,

 booth Diana and myself had not eaten an evening meal,

 so a half ponder sans cheese it was then,

 rounded of with a glass of wine or two, 

 then the fun begin, firstly with Kai and then Diana driving the dodgems, 

 in the distance the Crystal Palace radio/TV transmission tower,

 we started to make our way to the display area, 

 which was on a lower level,

 to keep the crowd amused until the fireworks began, 

 there were a number of shows like this one, 

 someone was dressed in what appeared to be a chainmail suit, 

 and in time with the music produced these mini lightning bolts, electrifying! 

 looking back towards what was once part of the Great Exhibition,  

and this is what it looked like, before it burned down, 

 next a laser show,

 with multi colored lasers flashing across the sky,

 next the fireworks stated,

 a few large fireworks,

 every now and then,

 put on a good show, 

 but many were low, meaning the girls had a very poor view,

 all in all not a great show, but then for the past few fireworks shows we had been to were International affairs with many countries competing in Thailand,

time to go, and what a crush, this was the stairs at almost a standstill, the event was advertised as a no car event, and for the public to use public transport, pity no one thought to ask for extra buses to be put on, the mob to get to the bus stops was worse than this, so we gave up and started walking, we stopped at a bus stop after a good walk, and watched as a full bus thunder past that did not stop, it was now over an hour since we had left the park, we carried on walking as another bus went past, finally we stopped at the next stop and managed to squeeze on board, we said farewell to Steve and Kai and went home for a nightcap, a couple from Poirot and we were then off to bed.