Another New Year’s Eve which, as is my wont in recent years, I’m not staying up for. It might not be that easy to drop off to sleep though as the fireworks began sometime ago and are likely to carry on well past midnight. For me, it is an annoyance but I know people with livestock, with pets or with PTSD for whom it is a more serious issue.

The main problem with fireworks is not their pretty lights but the loud bangs that go along with many of them. You can shut out the lights by pulling the curtains but sounds are harder to mask unless you are willing – and able – to put your own suitably loud sound on to drown them out.

Since fireworks are controlled explosions, completely silent ones are hard or perhaps impossible to produce but a lot of the ones that get let off seem to have been manufactured for maximum noise. Apparently two recent petitions around reducing the maximum allowed volume and limiting sales to private customers are due to be debated in January 2026. I’ll leave the blog post I found about them on my computer for when I restart it tomorrow. Particularly if I get a bad night’s sleep, I’ll be feeling extra motivated to do some writing and signing to follow it up.