1990

It was in June that it happened, of all months. The lights all went out and the heating blew off. We put on extra clothes and fired up the generator to give enough power to turn the DVD player and a couple of lights, but we went back to the candles anyway. Our mum had a gas ring from some camping trip she had been on and started it up to heat beans and sausages for our supper and then we played DVDs and games.

We counted the gaps between the bombs going off and wanted to hear them grow louder and bigger, giving them numbers according to their various strengths and proximity. Sometimes five or six would go off in a row – we called these ‘chains’ - and would either grow fainter (meaning that they were landing progressively further away), louder (which meant that they were coming towards us) or about the same (meaning that they were being laid down in a row about the same distance away). Then we played another game based on something my mum called ‘Mornington Crescent’ where we all held off saying ‘now’ until a bang went off somewhere. The last person to say ‘now’ before the bang won. We had to change the rules eventually so that you had to say ‘now’ within ten seconds of the bomb going off. Then we built up a system of forfeits for those who got it wrong so there was some incentive.

The six of us watched the DVDs we had in that room for ages. Fawlty Towers, Red Dwarf. Monty Python. League of Gentlemen. The Mighty Boosh. Some films like Brazil and Withnail and I. We all laughed. The Coke ran out during the drinking game on the last film.

The banging stopped for a long time. Or maybe we just couldn’t hear it because we were all laughing so much. Mum broke out some chocolate she was saving for sometime and we all played an enormous game of Monopoly which was weird as half the places on the board didn’t exist any longer.

The banging came back. We did countdowns and chorused ‘NOW!’ a lot when they went off away from us. They got louder. Some of them got a lot louder. Finally, there was one chain that went off that shook us in our seats like it was some sort of fairground ride. We were all shouting and laughing as the last chain went off directly above us.

Here comes the last one! And about time too!