Today has been a rubbish day. It started off well, if a little early - I woke up at 4:30, but when I got up, the sun was rising, everyone was asleep, I had coffee in peace.

Since then, the football has happened. That was noisy. I've slit my thumb on wire and my toe has a huge bleedy hole in it where I dropped a saucepan lid while doing the washing up. Who knew a blunt saucepan lid could do so much damage?

Because of all that, I missed the parachutists and the Patrouille de France flying in Nice. Which I'm pissed off about. On the plus side, though, I'm not on this train:

It's parked outside our window, as is the one heading in the other direction. Fire engines are sounding their sirens, but I've no idea how they plan to get to the train line. It's nowhere near a (real) road.

I had considered going to the fireworks this evening in Nice, I like fireworks. But given the way today has gone so far, I'm going to take this fire as a sign not to even leave the house today. I'm bound to get run over by a police car or something, if I do.

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Carnival!

Last night was the last night of carnival, here in Nice. They continue the charming French tradition of regicide, ending carnival by setting fire to the Carnival King, and then have a massive display of fireworks. Which was stunning.

Photos of the Carnival King and his fiery demise are below - I'm still trying to find a way to get the videos I took of the fireworks off my computer and onto the internet somewhere where I can show them off. They're blurry, some of them, but you can still see the awesomeness! Any ideas, anyone?

Photos, then.

Presumably, the Carnival Queen...

Various photos of the King and his little creepy egg babies:

The Burning of the King:

The fireworks came next, and this is where I would put the videos, for your entertainment and enlightenment. But I can't, since they are apparently too big...

The quiet after the storm - the only time I've ever seen Nice station completely empty...

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Shiny!

So very shiny! I've been playing with a new toy this weekend - Precious Metal Clay. Essentially, you take what looks like white blutac, for sticking posters to walls, shape it however you like, and set fire to it with a blow torch.

Then you scratch off the crap that accumulates from the setting-fire process, and polish it, and you get 99.5% pure silver.

Although a little terrified by the playing with blow torches (although not as terrified as Paul was - I did do it outside, to minimise the risk of burning our house down), it worked! I didn't break it, or melt it, or anything!

My new pendant, a shiny silver leaf with a green cubic zircona in it.

For a first try, I think it came out really well - I had to burnish it with a stainless steel jump ring (Not ideal, for future reference. I might buy a tool designed for the job for next time...) and there are some less-than-entirely neat bits where I didn't sand it enough before firing. But I'm ridiculously pleased with it!

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