However I think the saddest thing that happened was having to put our 1st cat Esme to sleep. The emergency vet thought it was a Thrombosis - a condition from which recovery is very slim, without having a 16-18 year old cat who suffers from hyperthyroidism and has a dodgy heart anyway. It was for the best, but that doesn’t make it easier especially as she was my first pet ever. Alice has written more here.

Goodbye Esme - we’ll miss you.

UPDATE: They were really taken from one of the high altitude (FL600) NASA “chase planes” - see Snopes for more info.

So, why did I use a blog system for a “normal” website? Firstly, you have to understand what the old website was like. Designed completely in static HTML, edited using MS Frontpage - a design straight out of the 90s. From looking at archive.org it looks like the site was updated once in 2003, once in 2004 and once in 2005. In 2006 I took over running the website and only managed to make one change before deciding it was too much work it its current form! (more…)

As you’d expect, it was a typically rambling performance touching on a wide variety of subjects such as:

• How children prevent you from having more children by sleeping in your bed.
• Living in the country.
• How your mother lures you with nice things…AND THEN THE CAGE COMES DOWN!
• Dealing with kids’ questions - e.g. the name of the space between the teeth of combs, or the space under the kettle…

Fairly random if you see what I mean. The living in the country one was great:

Country Person: Well, you know old Mrs who works down at the post office.
You: No.
Country Person: Oh you must know them, their kid is friends with , etc etc.
You: No, I don’t.

Continues in this fashion for a while.

Country Person: Oh you must know them.
You: No, I really don’t!
Country Person: Well she’s dead.

Classic.

Rehearsals for the latest show we’re putting on continue unabated. This is a production of Francis Durbridge’s “Suddenly At Home”, a bit of a murder thriller set in the early 70s. I seem to be able to remember most of my lines - this can only be a good thing!

Alice had another craft fair last week in Richmond - one that promised to be very err…promising but ultimately was a bit of a damp squib due to crappy organisation etc etc. Fortunately the next show is about 5 minutes walk from home, which’ll make life nice and easy!

Those who read Alice’s blog will know we’ve been trying for a baby for some time now. We’ve now been referred to Bourn Hall and a one hour meeting there yielded more information and sympathy than we’ve had from over a year with our NHS consultant. Good riddance to him - Bourn Hall can have my money for that kind of service!

Not had any flying lessons since the last entry. Starting to get withdrawl symptoms…especially as a friend of mine is meant to be flying in a Tiger Moth this weekend… damn you Richard, damn you to hell!

So, at the very last minute decided to book a lesson of circuits for this weekend, and sure enough, it’s “Can you be here in half an hour?”. Sure I can!

After a quick run-through with an instructor I’d had one lesson with before (my original instructor appears to have vanished without a trace - presumably for the airlines), it was out and up for what ended up as 6 circuits.

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A fairly nondescript catch-up lesson really. Covered steep turns which seemed to go OK - I need to concentrate on holding my altitude when turning - in medium or steep turns! Did a few practice circuits at a higher altitude too. Looking forward to the next lesson when I get into the circuit properly!

A fun lesson today. Another different instructor, and something totally different to do - like stalls.

While I knew roughly what to expect, it was still surprising. In a stall there is basically insufficient airspeed to keep the plane flying - and when a plane stops flying, it starts falling! The basic effect is for the aircraft to dramatically lose height, and on certain aircraft there is substantial wing drop.

The Piper Tomahawk (PA38), which is what I’m flying, exhibits this wing drop!

For the aircraft to suddenly pitch over and roll suddenly to one side leads to a real lurch in the stomach and it was quite unsettling the first few times. After a few though you get used to it and get to try the different kinds of stall - recovery without power, recovery with power, recovery with power with flaps down, recovery of a stall on turn from base to final etc etc.

All good fun and we were so busy we didn’t notice the time - I managed 1.5 hours chock-chock… which was great flying-wise, but not so good on the wallet! Will have to wait a few weeks before the next one I think.

We performed the same show that we performed last time and got some good, valid criticism.  The show itself went fairly OK, although we did get lost somewhere in the middle.  We managed to get back on track though and got some laughs out of it.
Not sure if we’ll win anything but the main point is that we entered and have managed to show off our wares to a different audience from our usual crowd. We’ll definitely be back there next year!

I flew again after a month away on Sunday and despite only 4 hours of training I was able to pick up fairly easily - this was quite gratifying at this stage, although I guess

Had a different instructor as my usual one was away for a month, which made for some differences, as well as the fact this was really a revision lesson rather than specifically covering anything new. Was quite pleased to find that the new instructor’s teaching style fitted in with my way of doing things - having said that she had a no-name brand headset that was *extremely* uncomfortable on my head and suffered from a bizarre compatability issue - I was unreadable on the radio but the intercom was working just fine.

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