Destination unknown

This morning Mrs Bugle’s train to Charing Cross mysteriously became a train to Victoria.  The driver apologised for the  “total mess causes by this, on behalf of the company”.

I’m starting to think that the fireworks conspirators may have a point…

Blackheath Fireworks in 3D

All the Blackheath fireworks videos I’ve been able to find are wobbly. I spend quite a lot of time each year looking through them, because I’ve never managed to go to the event itself! I couldn’t find any professionally shot clips on YouTube. Even Lewisham council’s preview trailer is wobbly.

So, if you’ve got to have wobbly, at least you can have wobbly in 3D. Hit play, then click on the 3D button to change the viewing method. If you haven’t got any red-cyan glasses, then your best bet is to set it to “side by side”, don’t watch in full screen mode, and cross your eyes a bit. Avatar it ain’t, but it’s still quite neat. See also: the classic Blackheath footage of Ollie the Dog in 3D (fewer explosions, more woofing).

Blackheath Fireworks 2011

Lewisham council have added a page detailing which roads will be closed this year during the fireworks (which I have never seem – thanks Dad!)

Greenwich council are still being mean and refusing to fund the fireworks, as mentioned on 853blog a while back.

The fireworks display is on November 5th at 8pm, and admission is free.

Oh, and for some reason there’s a Blackheath Fireworks twitter account. It doesn’t do much except go “Whoosh” every so often (nothing wrong with that though). I’m guessing it’s not official, judging by the profile page…

New Year’s Eve 2010- pub opening times in Blackheath

UPDATE: New Year’s Eve 2011 Pub opening times are here.

Whether you’re looking forward to, or dreading the pubs being open for New Year’s Eve, here’s a list of the various opening times in Blackheath. No tickets for any of them, except for Cave Austin. If you’re going to try and watch fireworks over London (like last year), try the junction of Cade Road and General Wolfe Road, shown below

View Larger Map

Hare & Billet
Close at 1am
No tickets, but cash only – no credit cards (probably because their card machines are so slooow)

Cave Austin weird Las Vegas thing…
Tickets are £15 in advance, more on the door
Open from 8pm-4am

The Crown
No ticket required
Open until 1am

The Railway
No ticket required
Open until 2am

O’Neill’s
No tickets, small donation on the door goes to charity
Open until 2.30am

Prince of Wales
No ticket required
Open until 2am

Zero Degrees
Can’t get hold of them, but will update the blog when I do…

Blackheath Fireworks 2010 Roundup

So yet again, Bugle-Dad-birthday (and a wedding to attend) meant that Mr & Mrs Bugle could not, and possibly will never manage to attend the biggest and best fireworks display held in their back garden (almost). So instead, to compensate I have re-lived the event by tragically staring into my laptop screen, whilst waving a sparkler. More below:

Lovely high definition video of the fireworks, from a Nokia phone (youtube user macintoshmorrisson)

An historical perspective on bonfire night in Blackheath from Andreas Moser, with links to more youtube videos.

“As far as I am aware, this is the only country that annually celebrates the failure of an assassination attempt on its head of state.”

When you put it like that, it does sound a bit odd…

Another HD video of the fireworks (no point in watching them at a lower rate!)

Great photo by Liam Hayter. Makes me wish I’d been there.

dclovell on twitter:

Blackheath fireworks were great. Lewisham Council showed Greenwich how to do it: big, not too long, no awful music. http://yfrog.com/eqt1hfj

Perry Luke on twitter:

All of Blackheath is engulfed in a thick low-lying smoke. Quite amazing, feels like a film set.

AnnaBucks on Twitter:

Blackheath fireworks. The best thing Lewisham Council does. http://twitpic.com/34joan

Apart from, you know, the schools, hospitals, GPs, libraries, etc etc :)

Blackheath Fireworks VIP ticket goes for £1k on eBay

So now we know. The final bid for the Blackheath Fireworks VIP ticket was £1000. Placed by the mysterious “0***o” (an anonymous name given by eBay) on October 28th at 7:21am, the user has 0% positive feedback, so let’s just hope it’s not a spoof account. In the meantime, I’m personally looking forward to the bidding for the “pay to get your wheelie-bins left back where you put them” auction. Should be a corker.

Item number: 330487371384
Item title: START BLACKHEATH FIREWORKS + VIP EXPERIENCE FOR TEN
Winning bid: £1,000.00
Reserve met
Bidders: 13
Bids: 64
Time Ended: 31-Oct-10 17:36:43 GMT
Duration: 10 days
Info This item has ended.
Only actual bids (not automatic bids generated up to a bidder’s maximum) are shown.
Automatic bids may be placed days or hours before a listing ends.
Bidder Member Id: 0***o ( 1 )
Bid Amount £1,000.00
Bid Time 28-Oct-10 07:21:03 BST

Bidding Details

Bidder Information
Bidder: 0***o ( 1 )
Feedback: 0% Positive
Item description: Item Title: START BLACKHEATH FIREWORKS + VIP EXPERIENCE FOR TEN
Bids on this item: 1

30-Day Summary
Total bids: 1
Items bid on: 1
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 100% Help
Bid retractions: 0
Bid retractions (6 months): 0

Blackheath Fireworks eBay bids ending in an hour…

So the great Lewisham Council eBay experiment ends in just under an hour. It’s currently up at £1000. What do you think the end price will be? Correct answer gets a damp squib… Graph above by me, based on my dodgy data munging here.

Blackheath Fireworks on eBay, the bids so far

Above is a hastily knocked up chart showing the bidding so far on Lewisham Council’s Blackheath Fireworks eBay page.
The x-axis isn’t correct, as it doesn’t show the dates & times properly. If anyone wants to make a better one, the data so far is here as a google doc. I won’t be updating it this week, as I’m on holiday, but will try and make a better one on my return. Apparently the mayor of Lewisham was on LBC Radio yesterday, complaining to Shouty Nick Ferrari about Greenwich council failing to stump up any cash… I looked for a podcast or recording of it, but couldn’t find it on LBC’s website. See you in a week.

Lewisham Council puts VIP fireworks tickets on eBay

Classy. From their website:

Lewisham Council is aiming to boost its public appeal for donations towards this year’s Blackheath fireworks on 6 November by offering the chance to bid on eBay for a VIP night out at South London’s largest firework display. The VIP package includes the privilege of starting the firework display itself.

The successful bidder will not only win the chance to launch the firework display but a VIP package that includes:

* access for up to ten people to an exclusive VIP viewing area for the duration of the display
* a private tour of the firing zone by experts from Pains Fireworks where all the fireworks will be laid out ready to fire (the tour will take place at 6pm, two hours before the display itself)
* VIP parking for three cars in the very heart of the event
* 10 meal vouchers from the Fine Food Company
* 10 drink vouchers to be used at any of the mobile bar units supplied by Creative Bars
* 10 hot chocolate vouchers supplied by Jaz and Jules
* Glo sticks for the whole party provided by Limelight Entertainment Ltd.

The eBay auction will start at 7pm on Thursday 21 October with a starting price of just 99p. Bidding will continue until 7pm on Sunday 31 October.

This is not the first time that land on the common has been auctioned on eBay. Although the last one was a lot funnier.

Greenwich refuses to fund Blackheath Fireworks

As mentioned on greenwich.co.uk, Greenwich Council has decided that it cannot afford to co-fund the Blackheath Fireworks with Lewisham Council. I guess this is just the beginning of the cuts to come…

Last year’s fireworks being prepared on Blackheath by twitter user niponravel