If Carlsberg ran a breakdown service...

08 Nov 08, 11.01am
As the rain beats down on another soggy Saturday it's difficult to comprehend why we should all enjoy the fireworks game so much. You get rained on, your fingers and toes are frozen and one of your firing team has just cried off sick. To make matters worse an important part of your kit is missing and to cap it all, your van breaks down on the way home. Yes, all these things happen, not always altogether, but enough to trigger that oft-repeated thought 'Why am I doing this?' The answer is that fireworks is part of showbiz and we're the performers. The show must go on. When it's all over and the cheers go up for another dazzling display, we're on a high. All the stresses and strains are quickly forgotten and we can't wait for the next one. It reminds me of a motivational video about the Pike Place fish market in Seattle where the fishmongers have turned the messy business of selling fish into a performing art. They developed four key tenets for making their job enjoyable: Have Fun, Be There, Make Their Day & Choose Your Attitude. For all the trials and tribulations we experience at Fantastic Fireworks, we have fun, we're there for our audience, we make their day, and if our van breaks down on the way home, we calmly call our helpline. Within minutes a beautiful girl arrives with mugs of hot chocolate, marshmallows, and a breakdown vehicle complete with a reclining bed and a hot water bottle. She is of course from the Carlsberg RAC, probably the best breakdown service in the world.