This is what happened on the evening of my birthday. My birthday panned out thusly:
1. Showed numerous people around house in order to try to get some of my already-paid rent back off evil landlords. Potential flatmates were very nice and very weird in equal measure, with one particular candidate looking quite likely to produce knife from behind back and begin stabbing for no reason at all.
2. Went for long walk around marshes, more of which tomorrow, or possibly Tuesday.
3. Watched fireworks in Victoria Park. I've never been to bonfire night in my life ever before, and also I got to hold sparklers which, for a lady of some considerable age (as I now am) I got a bit too excited about. The bonfire was astonishing - as it's the 400th anniversary of the Gun Powder Plot, they decided to show what should have happened in 1605 and proceeded to burn down a replica of the Houses of Parliament, complete with exploding Big Ben. Even those people around us who had started the evening given sarcastic and knowing "oooh"s and "aaaah"s at the start of the show ended up actually genuinely "oooh"ing and "aaaah"ing along with the rest of us at the splendour of it all. Very brilliant.
4. Walked slowly home, having inadvertently spent all day outside in cold and brisk weather.
5. Retired to pub (see above).
Perfect day, really. There was fire and there was beer, and what more does anyone need?