Let There Be Light!

The seasonably bad weather took a day off the last weekend.

Yes!, for the big switch on of the illuminations at 9:30pm, I kid you not, the wind dropped, the rain ceased and the temperature was so tropical that the twenty or so thousand people that turned out on this night, did so without umbrellas, kagools, pac-a-macs, raincoats, woolly hats and snow shoes.

I had taken my jacket with me of course, - there may be a couple of weeks a year over here whereby you don't need to take one out with you, but on a night time - never!. However after about five minutes I had to concede that I had no need for such a garment and many of my fellow revellers were stripped down to vests and shorts as they packed the streets and the arena behind the promenade. It was impossible to get anywhere near the arena, - I don't know if it was the balmy weather or the lure of having Jeremy Clarkson and Co, pulling the big lever, but the place was absolutely throbbing in a way that I'd only seen previously in those old photos from 1920. I got as near as was humanly possible and although I could hear the strains of "Boyzone" who were performing live on stage a couple of hundred yards away, all I could actually see was a toilet block directly in front of me and not a lot else. Then I heard the theme tune from "Top Gear" and a countdown from the crowd in the immediate vicinity, behind us Blackpool Tower lit up and there followed a somewhat muted firework display, - the 2008 illuminations are now officially up and running - but I saw bugger all.