Miss Biggles!

Well, a back seat Miss Biggles that is!

What a fabulous Saturday was had! Headed of to Denham Aeordrome (what a long history it has too!) to meet up with the wonderful pilot that is Mr K. Mr D, Mr S and I put ourselves into the capable flying hands of Mr K, stepped into a four seater plane and headed off to Bembridge airport on the Isle of Wight.

Travelling at 2,200 feet (about 800 feet under the fluffy clouds) was awesome. England from the air is just incredible! It's amazing to see how the land has been divided up, the number of swimming pools there actually are in here and seeing stately homes from the air - especially their fancy gardens (one even had a helter skelter).

As it's harvest time here, it was cool seeing those great big harvesters making hay and the tracks that were made. Reading festival is also on so we saw the big music tents, as well as all the thousands the people who were staying in little ones, and the huge car parks.. couldn't hear any music of course as had headphones on, not only to block out some of the engine noise but to hear each other, and the traffic controllers as well! It was interesting hearing the traffic controllers.. some sounded really bored whilst others had a sense of humour.. "can you hear me?".. "yes, unfortunately I can." was one piece of conversation, hehe!

Nearly at Bembridge, flying over Portsmouth with the world's oldest dry dock, 165 metre high Spinnaker Tower, then the sea forts we decided to circle round twice before landing a third time (well Mr K managed to be flying a little too high for a landing, though we're not going to mention that!). It was then into the great facilities there for one of the best cheese, ham and pineapple toasties I've had in a very long time!

After revitalising ourselves it was back into the plane and flying back to Denham. Once again it was over the great landscape of southern England (though at 2,400 feet this time), and with a tail wind we made it back in nearly half the time!

It was really interesting finding out about all the no-go fly zones, who can fly where and in what, as well as different types of planes and engines, and what it takes to be a pilot! And I can safely say that wont be me! HEck, I don't even know how to drive a car!

Awesome! And thanks again to Mr K!

http://www.egld.com/history.html
http://www.eghj.com/index.html

Mud, mud, glorious mud..

Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me follow, down to the hollow
And there let me wallow in glorious mud
The fair hippopotama he aimed to entice
From her seat on that hilltop above
As she hadn't got a ma to give her advice
Came tiptoeing down to her love
Like thunder the forest re-echoed the sound
Of the song that they sang when they met
His inamorata adjusted her garter
And lifted her voice in duet

(The Hippopotamus Song)

Well, I have got a ma, though no garter, and there was no enticing nor a duet (and those that have heard me sing are saying thank goodness for that!), just lots and lots of mud, mud, glorious mud!

It was of course a music festival, in England, in summer, so of course it rained! And I have to say that it didn't really put that much of a dampner on the festivities either!

We headed off on a cloudy Friday to join a wonderful group of people for the Beautiful Days festival in Escot Park, Devon. We set up camp.. tent to sleep in, tent to chill / cook in and a gazebo for sitting under in either sun or rain - it's one of those huge fancy ones with the able to zip in middle bits that keep the rain out or the zip out the middle bits to sun off! And how fabulous it was when it rained most the time - enabling us to chat in our camper chairs, rather than be stuck miserable in our individual tents!

As it's the Levellers festival they opened the Friday festivities, then it was a weekend of great bands (Xavier Rudd was wicked), comedians, DJs (loved Hybrid and Eat Static), random bits of walking art and the Levellers closing with a great set of the old and the new (must remember to buy their new album!).

It was my first time attending and I must say that I was well impressed at the set-up, the friendliness of everyone, the range of music styles and it seemed that no matter how hard it rained, everyone was smiling! Awesome!

Though I must say, what a great invention wellies are! Rock on wellies!!


http://www.beautifuldays.org/

Chocolate Polar Bears, Smoothed Fruit and Ponchos!

Well what a summer of events it's been, and I haven't been nearly to enough of them!
Did manage to make it to the annual Ben & Jerry's Sundae on the Common. Uber thanks to Miss S, Miss A and Mr M for joining me (it was either that or I go by myself and eat myself into an ice cream stupor - well not that we didn't do that anyway!). What a fabulous afternoon it was, and an especial thanks to Mr M for missing his Sunday skate! It was a lovely day with Pimms, one of nine ice creams, Pimms, one of nine ice creams, chilling on the picnic rug, one of nine ice creams, going on the helter skelter (with a couple of injuries to Miss A and Miss S!), one of nine ice creams, wondering around, one of nine ice creams... though occasionally we did queue up for one and then straight into another line for another!
That is until we cottoned on to the fact that there were four of us and if we queued two at a time we could get more ice cream! Oh yeah, we did manage to see & hear something of the bands playing!
My favourite is still Phish Food, though the Baked Alaska was pretty good.. though I did feel terrible munching on a white chocolate polar bear! Or ten!

Then another day out was to the Innocent Village Fete at Regent's Park with Mr S and Miss A. A lovely day of clear weather and pelting down rain showers! It was fun trying to dodge them under trees - some are definitely more rain proof than others!
What a day of happenings though... duck herding, tug o' war, women morris dancers, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (never have I heard such a rendition of Nirvana quite like it), many a smoothie tasting, free Yorkshire tea (with orange & chocolate cake and marmalade cake and some tea to take home), free herbs and some £1 off Bushmills whisky for the next time we visit O'Neills from the lovely Bushmills guys! Now that was fun.. relaxing on bean bags, with a neat Bushmills and being told a good ole Irish yarn! We had to visit that tepee twice!
Then it was a lovely meander through Regent's Park to Baker Street - Queen Mary's rose garden (with some lovely blooms still blooming), the black swans on the ponds and even spotting a heron!

Ahh, I do love London in the summertime - so much to do, even if it rains!

http://www.benjerry.co.uk/sundae/
http://www.innocentvillagefete.com
http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com/main/home.aspx
http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/regents_park/