Planes and automobiles

Posted on June 1, 2018 by jo

This is a bit of a practice post to see if I can blog from my phone while I’m jetlagged.

We had a good flight through to the UK. We flew premium economy with the hope of getting our recognition upgrade to business class.

The flight however was chockers and we missed out. I’m blaming the white caps (nz female cricket team) for taking all the business class seats.

Our stopover in Los Angeles was a shocker. We stood in a queue for 1.5 hours waiting to clear immigration. At Heathrow there were no queues and we cleared the smartgates in 10 seconds.

So, after a 24 hour flight, we picked up our rental car and drove to Bournemouth where I now sit writing this boring post.

Bournemouth Airshow 2015

Posted on August 22, 2015 by jo

Saw these cool dudes today:

Vulcan

The Vulcan comes soaring in like a giant eagle. It glides by, gracefully, without a sound.

Everyone is mesmorised as this majestic bird comes in for the kill, silent, yet capable of mass slaughter.

We forget this plane is designed to destroy, until it arcs up into the sky with an ungodly roar, loud enough to burst the eardrums of newborn babies, and scare the shit out of unsuspecting spectators.

The demon wail subsides and is silent again, on it’s serene approach, sending shivers down my spine and a bit of wee down my leg.

Vulcan

Typhoon

Ah, the Eurofighter Typhoon, star of the show, solo artist, show off, wannabe nobody, cos he is the shit!

Nobody is gonna steal his thunder.

We watch as he flashes by, faster than the speed of sound. We hear him, but we don’t see him for a second or two after.

He shoots up into the air, afterburners glowing like he doesn’t already have enough to boast about.

He zigs, he zags, he loops the loops, man he is on the ultimate high.

He is Eurofighter Typhoon, star of the show!

Eurofighter Typhoon

Bournemouth Airshow

Posted on August 26, 2009 by jo

Here’s a little blog about some of my favourite aircraft at the Bournemouth airshow last weekend. Most photos are by Mike.

Vulcan

The Vulcan comes soaring in like a giant eagle. It glides by, gracefully, without a sound.

Everyone is mesmorised as this majestic bird comes in for the kill, silent, yet capable of mass slaughter. We forget this plane is designed to destroy, until it arcs up into the sky with an ungodly roar, loud enough to burst the eardrums of newborn babies, and scare the shit out of unsuspecting spectators. The demon wail subsides and is silent again, on it’s serene approach, sending shivers down my spine and a bit of wee down my leg.

Eurofighter Typhoon

Ah, the Eurofighter, star of the show, solo artist, show off, wannabe nobody, cos he is the shit! Nobody is gonna steal his thunder. We watch as he flashes by, faster than the speed of sound. We hear him, but we don’t see him for a second or two after.

He shoots up into the air, afterburners glowing like he doesn’t already have enough to boast about. He zigs, he zags, he loops the loops, man he is on the ultimate high. He is Eurofighter Typhoon, star of the show!

Wing Walkers

Two red and white planes putter in with what looks like a giant dildo strapped on top.

Is it a dildo, is it a fella?
no it’s Danielle and Stella
Doing acrobats on top of the plane
They really are completely insane
I watch them against a clear blue sky
Don’t they realise they could die?

Lancaster Bomber

This old fart flew in propped up by a Spitfire and a hurricane, obviously needing a little help in his old age. He’s not doing too bad for an old guy, 65 years old, semi-retired, occasionally doing some freelance work for airshows.

Some old time war music played as he droned around the skies. If you imagined everything in black and white, you could just feel you were in the war with this lofty beast coming across the channel for the kill.

Apparently the Lancaster bomber had a lot to do with winning the war, although I don’t see that killing a load of Germans is really something to boast about.

Photo Competition

Posted on August 10, 2009 by jo

We have a photo in the Larmer Tree photo competiton and are currently in 3rd place, but it is close.

If you haven’t already done so can you please vote for the “red boots” at the following link:

http://www.larmertreefestival.co.uk/photo_comp.html?cid=4

Thanks!

Poole Afloat

Posted on June 25, 2007 by jo

I bought my new sailboat but havent had a chance to use it yet. It hasn’t stopped raining. It was Poole Afloat weekend where they have all sorts of boats on display and free rides. We went for a free ride on a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) with a 200HP engine. It was so cool.

And here was a cute little doggie we saw with his cute little doggy life jacket on:

Other than that, I worked 25 hours on Saturday/Sunday with a 3 hour sleep in between. It was awful.

Lynda, Jenny, myself and possibly Susan are going to start training to do a triathlon next year. Not sure how thats gonna work but we’ll see.

Thats about it.

Summer Breeze

Posted on June 1, 2007 by jo

Last night was Summer Breeze on the Quay. This happens every Thursday night in summer where they have live bands and outdoor entertainment on the quay, and an awesome fireworks display at 10pm, which we just happen to get a brilliant view of from my study if we cant be bothered venturing out too late.

I have friends coming to visit from London this weekend, so I really should get cracking and tidy up. But as usual I leave things until the last minute. At least it looks like the weather is picking up.

Have a good weekend everyone

Famous Mike

Posted on May 11, 2007 by jo

Mike has made the bbc website with his story on Poole

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/articles/2007/05/02/mike_everard_feature.shtml

Lord Nelson Rocks

Posted on May 8, 2007 by jo

It was the first May bank holiday here on the weekend. Tracy and a friend of mine from London visited. It was good to catch up with Tracy and hear all about her Egypt trip. Me and Mike are planning on doing the same one in October.

As is standard with long weekends, the gorgeous weather we had been having turned to crap. So all the watersports I had planned for the weekend ended up in the pub.

This is a dangerous pub on the Quay called the Lord Nelson. It has rock bands on every Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sunday nights. It is dangerous as you decide to pop in and listen to the band for a bit and you end up drinking way too much, dancing way too badly and generally having the best night of your life. Until the next morning that is. Anyway we did this pub Friday night, Saturday night and again Sunday night. So I am no officially giving up drinking. In fact I am off to the gym in about 30 minutes to punish myself.

We are off to see the Australian Pink Floyd tribute band tonight over in Bournemouth. Hopefully it should be really good. Will post details tomorrow.

Windsurfing

Posted on May 2, 2007 by jo

Today I had a 2 hour windsurfing lesson. This is part of my new “I’m gonna keep fit doing watersports” fad.

My instructor was a young, pimply teenager (he cant have been more than 16), but a qualified instructor and actually very professional. We started off on a simulator on dry land, then went out and tried on the water. Its actually a lot harder than it looks. It was really windy and quite gusty and I came off a number of times, having my first swim of the year. It was actually quite warm in a full length wetsuit. The warm weather certainly helped too (about 25 degrees).

The windsurfing took place in the Poole Park Lake, which is an inland salt water lake adjacent to the harbour. In most places I could touch the ground through about 2 feet of sludge. Other places in the lake there were great craters, where I couldnt touch the ground, and consequently went completely under when I fell off. Lets hope there’s no blue green algae.

It was a great feeling when you get up and are sailing, and its quite easy to keep going in a straight line. Its when you have to turn around that is the hard bit. Turning around involved dropping the sail, jumping in the water, facing your board in the new direction, moving the sail to the other side of the board, and getting back up again. Obviously this was not how it was taught, but the way I ended up doing things 90% of the time.

I was just starting to get the hang of it when the lesson ended. This is their strategy to get you interest up just enough that you need another lesson.

Windsurfing is definitely a challenging sport and very physical, which is what I am after. I will wear my heart rate monitor next time to check out the number of calories burned, so I can incorporate it into my exercise routine. I dont wanna have to keep going to the smelly gym when they weather is so great.

Beating of the Bounds

Posted on April 30, 2007 by jo

On Saturday in Poole was the Beating of the Bounds Ceremony.

The purpose of the Beating of the Water Bounds of Poole is to check the various marks and bounds of the original Winchelsea Certificate, awarded to Poole in 1364, to see they still exist, that they are in the right position and there has been no encroachment upon waters belonging to the port of Poole.

This ceremony has been performed for at least the last 400 years, but really it is just a bunch of geriatric old farts in fancy dress.

Here’s some photos of the day

The marching band