Duck Soup

"Light up the sky with Standard fireworks." Remember that old advert. It was from the days when everyone bought fireworks and set about incinerating their back gardens and sometimes themselves on Guy Fawkes Night. Let's be honest the Standard or Pain's selections weren't much good - a handful of sparklers, Catherine wheels, Roman candles and a few rather apologetic rockets. There was as much fun to be had the next morning going in search of the burnt-out casings among the damp grass and flower beds. But that all became history, and fireworks went organizational and corporate - and high-tech, very expensive and the preserve of professionals. I once attended an extravagant birthday party in the garden of some stinking rich insurance chap in the depths of the Surrey stockbroker belt. What intrigued me more than the fireworks were the logistics of the display; it was though an Army explosives unit had been seconded for the evening.

I was thinking all this on Playa de Muro beach a couple of nights ago. No need to go to Can Picafort itself, just haul a comfortable garden chair down on to the sand, arm yourself with a chilled foamy and watch the fireworks let rip over the sea just down the coast. The fireworks finale to the marathon Can Pic fiesta season was its own mini-festival of flash and burn, lighting up the sky with more than a standard firework. The fiestas mostly all climax with these displays, and one has the impression that each year they want to go ever one better. Nothing wrong with that; nothing wrong with the booms, the bangs, the oohs, the ahs, the reds, whites, greens, golds and silvers cascading against the backdrop of darkness and then dropping into the reflections on the sea. But what do they all cost? Most of the town halls are strapped for cash; Santa Margalida more than most. Yet its display in Can Picafort is as extravagant as any others, and it has just staged two weeks of fiesta and has another one - Beata - to get through early next month. While the fiestas attract "collaborators", to translate literally the local usage, these sponsors are not necessarily funding stuff like the fireworks. The town halls often end up footing much or most of the bills. What do the whole fiesta seasons cost? It would be a damn shame were there to be cutbacks, but especially during these impecunious times one has to wonder at the priorities. In Santa Margalida, they can launch a solid half-an-hour's worth of going up in smoke but find it seemingly impossible to adequately provide the forgotten town of Son Serra with a police presence, and let's not forget that damning criticism of the beach area in Can Picafort which came from the German "Bild" newspaper. One does have to wonder.

Still, there were plenty of folk in attendance, notably for the duck event. Shows what a bit of notoriety can do; they flocked in, and not just the rubber ducks. Despite the watchful gaze of plod, some reprobate still managed to let a live duck or two go, which was the cue for some pressure group to go and file a "denuncia" with the Guardia - as if they haven't got better things to worry about. Sorry, I just don't get it. They're ducks for Daffy's sake. Only some normally hang around on sea water, but maybe they would all quite like a day out at the seaside and have a bit of a quack; they should take to it like ducks to water. Also, had the rains of early Friday continued through till midday, it would have been good weather for them - ducks that is. Though not an expert in matters of the Anatidae family, If some were "borrowed" from Albufera my guess is they would have sufficient wing-flapping capacity and homing instinct to be back at Albufera in time for tea. Sounds like water off a duck's back to me. Just so long as they're not still hanging about by the time they let off the ground-to-air missiles at midnight. Duck soup or crispy duck, anyone?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Texas. Today's title - very famous film; who were they?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)