Only the young and the foolish

I was very pleased with my new second hand camera and when I got home, so was Phil. It turns out that my cheapie has more memory than his very expensive camera and I can see that I’m going to have to keep a close eye on it! On Monday afternoon I went to the beauty trainee salon at Bletchley College. It has all changed since I was there last and the beauty treatments are now done in a brand new building. I was booked in for a manicure and a facial. The young trainees all seem to lack a personality and are a little slow but they do a fairly professional job at a fraction of the cost in a normal salon. My 2 treatments seemed to take forever and I was fairly surprised when I went to pay that the manager had told the receptionist that my treatments were complimentary. I asked why but she didn’t know why, and well, I was going to push it. I will be going back!

Yesterday was Harriet’s 21^st birthday and her treat from her dad was a Wing Walking experience at a flying club in Cirencester http://www.aerosuperbatics.com/

I thought it was horrendously expensive for what amounts to only about 10 minutes up the air but Harriet was adamant that she wanted to have an experience that she would remember forever. Perhaps a bit melodramatic but you get the gist of what she was trying to achieve. Anyway, her original flying time was scheduled in the afternoon but a late email on Monday came, saying that because of the weather her flying time had changed to the morning. This was no big deal but it did mean that we had to up early.

The land rover is still seriously ill in the garage, we’ve not heard anything, but on the proviso that no news is good news, we are assuming the worst. Luckily we still got the stinky doggy blue tiny Nissan Micro so shortly after 8 am we picked Harriet and Shane up from their flat. The drive to Cirencester wasn’t an easy one; traffic in Milton Keynes was heavy and driving through Bicester and the outskirts of Oxford was a complete nightmare, but with the help of Mr Tom Tom we arrived at the airfield shortly after 10 o’clock.

When we arrived one of the team was getting the aircraft out of the shed. We all had a good laugh (except Harriet that is) when we saw the plane and the place where she would be strapped too. Actually I don’t think Harriet was that nervous, her main concern was how she would climb up on to the platform. I don’t think Ugg boots were the best thing to wear and advised her to put on her trainers which she’d brought along just in case. We were given a cup of coffee and Harriet got changed into the red flying suit along with goggles and gloves. We all had a good laugh and made her pose for pictures. There was a lot of hanging around waiting on the pilot and during this time, the weather was deteriorating.

The pilot finally turned up having been back and forth to the main office to get various bits of his flying kit but the rain was coming down so he said his radar said it was going to blow over so it was best to wait for 5 minutes before going up. He said that for a charge of 5 quid we could a DVD recording on a cassette. Of course we said we wanted this even if there was a chance it wouldn’t record.

It was a bit of a performance getting Harriet up on the plane and strapped to the post. She was a little worried that there was only one strap holding her to the plane and I have to say, so was I. But finally the engine was warm and they were quickly up in the air.

We all had light coats on but with the wind and the rain and the long wait, we were all freezing but the time the plane went up. Phil swiped my camera, he’d brought his along but the batteries had run out. I didn’t really mind because I knew with all the practice on holiday, he’d get much better shots. Shane had Harriet’s camera phone and he also took some shots and video’s. Harriet was up in the air for around 10 minutes and was glad to get down. We all said that we wouldn’t be brave enough to do it but when she got down on the ground, Harriet said she’d do it again. She said that the wind was freezing and indeed, her ears and nose looked almost black with the cold. Just a shame she didn’t fly on one of the lovely sunny days that we had last week. Luckily the recording worked and at the end of play, Harriet came away cold but happy.

The trip back was boring and very hot. Phil, frozen to the bone on the airfield because he was only wearing a very thin jacket, had the heating on full blast and was reluctant to turn it down. When we got back to Milton Keynes, we stopped off at our house so Harriet could open cards and presents and then went down to The Giffard for a birthday celebration meal. Harriet was still recovering from getting hammered with Jade on Sunday night so wasn’t in the mood for a drink and also, she had to drive later on. We’d got a bottle of bubbly in the fridge so at least she could toast herself later on in the evening when she got back home.

Phil got loads of photo’s and videos but alas, my removable disk drive has decided to stop working so I can’t download. In fact my old laptop, which I admit is a bit of a dinosaur, has been so slow since we got back, that I fear it could die at any minute. Note to oneself: do a backup today! Anyway last night I had a go on Phil’s laptop but it took forever to download even one photograph. Phil had a go and it turns out that my camera has a far higher resolution than my old one. I wasn’t happy with this and got Phil to turn it down. I don’t want high spec, I just need photographs that are quick to download. Using Phil’s laptop means going into the cold conservatory in my dressing gown and as it’s only six thirty in the morning, I’m sure I can face that at the moment. So apologies. Photographs to follow, sometime later this afternoon. NB: Half seven now and a quick edit. Brafed the conservatory and managed to add photographs now and even a video. Check it out at the bottom of the page. Would you do this????