Air Rage

Read about yet another drunken Brit causing chaos in the sky yesterday by trying to open an emergency exit at 40,000 feet.

Then this morning at Paradise Driver's place read of another attempt to do the same thing in the US. At least this guy was not drunk but only suffering from mental health problems.

It reminded me of my flight back from Bali to Jakarta with lil' bro' earlier this year, we were sat by one of the emergency exits and before take off the stewardess came over and explained to us how to open the door in the event of an emergency.

Was aware that the EU had banned Garuda (Indonesian national carrier) from flying into Europe last year over a poor safety record but thought that getting these instructions was a wee bit worrying. On the occasions when I have flown in or just behind these seats I had never heard anyone being told how to open the door, so it came as a big surprise.

The flight passed without incident but those instructions will stay with me for some time.

Plus Ca Change

The British Museum is running an exhibition about the Roman emperor Hadrian later on this month and one of the talking heads that I saw on last night's news mentioned the conflicts that the empire had in the Middle East back around 117 AD.

The previous emperor had expanded the empire by invading the Parthian empire (Iraq, Iran and surrounding areas) but Hadrian did not believe that these gains were defensible and withdrew his forces. Probably a wise move as the legions were facing cavalry forces, heavy armour and light horse archers – the archers were renowned for firing backwards as they rode away and some sources claim that this is the origin of parting shot.

He needed the troops to put down a revolt in what is now Israel and that proved to be successful, although there was another revolt 15 years later that required him to move legions from all across the empire to put down.

Is any of this starting to remind you of anything? Nineteen centuries later and the “West” is still embroiled in the region, does nobody read history any more?

Came across this video today and it made me laugh, enjoy.

Nothing To See Here

So why not head on over and read this fine post.

If you want to read a rational critique of why our society is screwed up these days then you will not find one better than this.

Written by a front line police dog handler it contains more sense than you will find in anything written by politicians or journalists.

Red Arrows

Was sitting surfing the web in DBA cottages yesterday morning when I heard the roar of very low flying aircraft passing overhead but they had gone by the time I got outside. Living under a Heathrow flight path such events are pretty rare and my brain started working overtime about the possible causes of the event. When it slowed down a bit I remembered that this is the week of the Farnborough Air show – a friend who lives nearby was out in his garden at the time and he confirmed that what I had heard was the sound of the Red Arrows flying very low overhead.

They are the Royal Air Force aerobatic team and perform regularly at air shows around the world, found this clip of them on YouTube which shows the sort of stuff they do.

Extra Golden

Came across this lot last week, an interesting mix of Western Rock and Kenyan Benga musical styles which I really enjoyed. The title of this one “Obama” seemed to be way out of left field until I read that his office was instrumental in the two Kenyan musicians getting the visas that allowed them to enter the US and play live gigs and then record the album from which it is taken.



For more information check out their web site.

Mark Kermode – Mamma Mia

Watched this online yesterday and it is right up there with his finest reviews (warning contains some singing and sedentary dancing), I almost fell of my chair as I was laughing so much. Finally, a reason to be glad that I was back home, while I was able to download and listen to their podcasts I had forgotten how entertaining it was to watch him in full flight.



This review of Hancock is not nearly as memorable as the previous one but was recorded live in the BBC commentary box at Wimbledon and has been included for anyone who has entertained the idea of spending a night out watching the movie.

Nothing To Say

Received some very sad news from a blogging friend this morning, life can be very cruel.

Know that you are in my thoughts.

Back tomorrow.

Animal News

This chilling tale comes from the Ruhr valley in Germany, essentially some psycho(s) have killed and decapitated around 30 pet rabbits over the last year draining them of their blood. Frightened owners have taken to hiding their hutches under cover or keeping their rabbits indoors.

Police believe that those responsible may be using Google Earth to track down the locations of likely victims and are concerned that they might step up their activities from rabbits to humans.

On a lighter note comes this story of a teenager in the UK who dressed at 07:30 and went to work before “noticing” at lunch time that she had been transporting a small baby bat in her bra all morning.

Now I have no experience of wearing a bra but think that an experienced user might have noticed the presence of a warm furry critter down there a tad quicker than 5 hours later.

Old One Eye

Now, I have always had fish down there in the “none to bright” department of the animal kingdom but those living in the fish pond out the back at lil bro's place changed my mind. Any time the shadow of a biped crossed their domain the would swim around in a frenzy underneath it expecting food to fall down from the heights.

They would ignore the dog's shadow if he stopped on the small bridge over them, but any human would set them off. We noticed one day after I had been there a while that the large grey coloured one only had one eye – did not appear to hinder his ability to feed as he was one of the largest in the pond.

Getting a decent snap of him proved to be a challenge, did not help that they would circle at a fast pace, eventually managed to get this one which is not brilliant but does show it's lack of a second eye.

Back In The yUcK

Landed early on the morning of the 21st, could not see anything on the external camera view from the plane as we descended until we were in the last seconds of the final approach. There was a lot of low cloud and an unpleasant cold drizzle falling out of the sky, temperature was an icy 13°C and as I finally escaped outside for a smoke I started to regret having left my fleece on one of the couches in the guest wing where it had lain for the last four months.

The weather picked up after a day or so and my brain finally arrived as well, spent 5 days trying to get my laptop talking to the internet without any luck. Every fix that was tried generated no progress and I finally decided to archive my data and reset it back to factory settings. An hour later and suddenly I was able to connect – and in my absence something had been done at my local exchange as my 2Mbps connection had been transformed into a 6Mbps one.

While aware that petrol had risen 16p a litre while I had been away the rises in the price of food came as a bit of a shock; bread, eggs, milk and pasta seem to be much more expensive than when I left – at least beer and wine prices remain close to what I remember them being.

Have been asked many times if I am glad to be back and that question has made me pause before answering every time “yes and no”. It has been good to catch up with family and friends, satisfy my addiction for a high speed internet connection and to drink some ale that is not a plain old lager.

On the downside, I miss the good weather, the coffee and the people that I left behind – so the jury remains out.

More regular posting should ensue from this point on – unless the sky falls on my head!