Start again

I need to get writing again. My husband tells me that in his Creative Writing course, he is encouraged to write about anything for 10 minutes, each day. This apparently helps get the juices going!! Well, I will have to try it.

Today is a cloudy day in Chesham, although it is dry. I am looking out of my window onto green fields. The wonderful thing about my view is that I can see so many trees. I forget that Great Britain is very green, and not as built up as people would have us think. However, that doesn't mean that we can continue to build over our green spaces. There is a dog running across the fields, and behind it, at a much gentler pace, the it's walker enters the field. Thank goodness I don't have a dog. I would hate to have to walk it every day, in any weather. My husband would think this a strange comment: I go down the allotment every day, in any weather, so what's the difference? To me, the allotment is more satisfying. This week alone, I have made over 10lbs of blackberry jam from berries that I picked myself from the fruit trees. I have blanched and frozen pounds of runner and french beans, and there are more to pick. I must have dug up over 100lbs of potatoes and now I am having trouble finding places to store them. Surely, this is so much better than walking a dog?!! Dog Lovers, please do not be offended. What would the world be like if we all liked the same thing?

I have been looking around the blogs to find all those people who have expressed that they work in communications or media. There are over 97,000 of us. I started to search through the list of us all but gave up after having worked through about 100 names. What amazed me, but shouldn't have, was where everybody lived. I wondered at how small the world now seemed. We can now contact anyone around the world within seconds, read about their lives and strike up relationships if we want to. Gone are the days when the Internet was just a place to find out information. Now it is the biggest "news" medium ever and it can make or break reputations, whether they be people, product or company. What an area to monitor for those in the evaluation business of media services.

Audacious

Dubai is audacious. It assaults your senses. It changes your perception of "normal". It is confusing, exciting, preposterous, over the top, incredible, obscene...... but I loved my time there.

I read that Dubai is borrowing $10bn to continue it's massive construction plan. It doesn't have enough oil to finance where it wants to go. And I glean from the conversations that I had that Abu Dhabi (the next emirate) is just watching what is happening and learning from Dubai's mistakes. Abu Dhabi is building but at an extremely slower rate and, it won't have to borrow money because it has more than enough oil of it's own to finance whatever it decides to do.

I think that the Middle East is happy to let Dubai get on with it. Dubai is the Middle East's playground. In places, the emirate is a bit like Disneyland and Las Vegas. The tourist areas are false, but the finance areas that are being built are so different. They are built to impress, show off wealth, money and investment. After all, that's what Dubai is about.

I admire the modern architecture that you find there. The new hotels, office blocks, residential areas are pushing the boundaries with architecture. They are building the world's largest tower , which will over take the Taipei 101 building. It is already over 100 stories tall and it's final height is still a secret although locals reckon on it being around 190 stories high. You don't appreciate the height of the building because there aren't any other towers close by with which to compare.

Want to see how it currently compares to existing tall buildings? Click here.

Today, it is one of the hottest places to holiday...... and if you go between May and October it is literally one of the hottest places to go - 40 degrees with 90% humidity. It is better to stay indoors in summer. But is Dubai cheapening itself? The reason why I ask the question is because holidays to Dubai are now being given away as prizes to TV quiz shows etc. What a shame.

Training .... in Dubai

Things are looking up for me at work. I have the opportunity to train clients in Dubai in the next few weeks. My ticket is booked and I am flying Emirates. So, anyone tell me what I can expect?
What will I fly in? Airbus 330 or 340 or Boeing 777? It all looks incredible on the Emirates website. Does it match up to the expectations? I've heard only good about Emirates so if anyone wants to comment on how they have found things then that would be much appreciated.

It is only a 3 day, 2 night trip. I probably won't have time to view much if I am training all day. Still, I will have the evenings. Anyone got any ideas on what to do in the short time that I am there?

New.........

2007. The opportunity to start again. So what will be new for me in 2007. Only God really knows that but here is what I am aware of.

A new era - without my mother. Christmas and New Year was good but different. Christmas Day would have been the day when Mum would have been doing the dinner, organising the presents etc, but that fell to me instead. It was good to toast the day, and remember. My mum loved jigsaws, and she nearly always received one at Christmas from some family member. It was my turn this year - with a jigsaw birthday pressie from my brother!!! Traditions sometimes take a long time to die.

A new energy - I love my job. This year, it could expand, with more visits overseas. Great, 'cos as you already are aware, I love flying!!! I love the team that I work with. We are a bunch of ladies who enjoy each others company. We have a wonderful boss who is a great people person. He is the only male in the team, so I suppose you could consider us his little harem!!

A new objective - my allotment. Having taken on another half a plot, the objective for me to be more organised. Point to self: Must label all seedlings. Last year, my friend and I sowed courgettes, squashes, pumpkins and cucumbers. When they are small they all look the same. When we planted them out and they started growing, we suddenly realised that we had a space problem. Pumkins just take over and spread for miles!!!

A new challenge - I haven't got one yet. I haven't made any new year resolutions. I know better than that. It only sets me up for failure.

So, what is new for you?

45 years of marriage.......not quite

Yesterday, 2nd December, would have been my parents 45th wedding anniversary, a sapphire anniversary. Sadly, mum didn't make it. I was worried for my dad. He got through her birthday OK, just treating the day as another normal day, but this one was a little different. He came over for evening meal and spent a couple of hours with us. We didn't do much, but I didn't want him to be on his own all day.

I suspect that Christmas will be more difficult for us. Mum usually organised quite a bit of the celebrations but she won't be here. That will be something we will have to get used to. Dad can't think about Christmas. He doesn't know whether to get a tree or get himself organised to buy presents. I am not going to push him to do anything, but will have some standby pressies, just in case.

How do you start to live again after nearly 45 years of marriage?

A week off

I have been a bit of a workaholic this year. I have a holiday entitlement of up to 30 days and next year I can have the same, 'cos I am entitled to take up to 5 days over. But even with those 5 days taken next year, I still have not taken enough time off so this week I took the rest of my entitlement to ensure that I didn't lose any days.

I haven't done a lot.
Monday - Nicki's Birthday. Got up early to see her open her presents. Unfortunately, our present had not arrived. (See below) Then, Christmas Shopping. Got most of the presents and did it within my budget so far. I feel great about that but I still need to get Christmas Cards organised, wrapping presents, ensuring that I have the Christmas Dinner organised, and ordered!!!!
Tuesday - didn't do a lot at all. Rested for most of the morning to be honest.
Wednesday - Dug a bit on the allotment. Lunchtime - went to Costco with my father. Nice to do something together, just the two of us, even if it was forcing ourselves around a crowded store.
Thursday - Visited a friend from work who is on longterm sick. Came home and cleaned the kitchen and the oven. Hated doing it but pleased with the results.
Friday - today - going to see a friend who has just had a new baby.
OK - it sounds like I have been busy - but I have, intentionally, not rushed. This has been a good week for me. Still a little fragile around the edges though.

Tomorrow - back to the grind of a normal weekend. Nicki will need taking to her keyboard lessons early tomorrow. She is doing so well at it. Next year she will be taking her Grade 6 Keyboard. As a birthday present, we bought her an 88 key keyboard to enable her to play more piano pieces. Unfortunately, the warehouse didn't get it to us in time, hence my comments above. The company didn't immediately apologise for their mess up and it took about 3 emails before they even ventured to offer us an apology. Still waiting for the keyboard to arrive, but I am assured that it has been despatched from the warehouse. We wait, in anticipation.

The ship has sailed

My father counted up his sympathy cards today - over 250 of them. They are full of wonderful expressions of how much my mother touched lives. Memories of her as a child, as a nurse, as a confidant and friend.
One of the sympathy cards that was received contained the following:

I am standing at the seashore and watching a ship. It is large and bright and glinting in the sun. Myself, and many others, wish it's passenger good sailing, and to say "goodbye" - but going where?

Just out of sight - that is all.
I want that ship not to sail. I want it to stay, but it is sailing away with it's passenger - never to return.

I stand here, with others, waving, saying "farewell", "goodbye", "God Bless", and what I need to remember is that there are other voices, other hands excitedly waving on the other side of the horizon and joyfully singing out.....

"Here she comes!"

It's been a hard week

My mother died on 5th November and her funeral was yesterday. It's funny how you have to psych yourself up for these things. On Sunday, I was in such an emotional state that I could not think right. Friends at church gave comfort. One even said "Enjoy the day!"
I couldn't understand that comment. In fact, I really couldn't believe that she had actually said it. She explained that there would be people at the funeral who would provide me with more memories of my mother to treasure. I must confess, I still didn't really understand what she was saying...... until yesterday.

The day was hard. We decided on having the cremation service first, followed by a thanksgiving service at my mother's home church. It was incredible. We, the family, knew that my mother was well respected, but didn't realise how much until we arrived at the crematorium. People were queueing to get in!!! When we had taken our places, there were nearly 100 people still standing at the back!
The thanksgiving service was just the same. The church seated around 120. Nearly 30 people were standing in the main building, with another 50 seated in the overflow, and another 30 or so standing in the foyer! My mum touched so many lives while she was here. I just didn't realise.
Then, I began to understand what had been said to me. In the middle of the tears, I began to learn things about my mother that I didn't know before; her life as a surgical nurse, the number of couples that she touched at the Marriage Encounter weekends that she ran with my dad, acts of kindness that she did for the neighbours who she always looked out for, the church family that she belonged to, parties and fun that she had with cousins and other family members. I was enjoying it - learning about my mum, and adding to my memory bank.
It was hard work, talking to so many people, and I was incredibly tired at the end of the day. But we mourned and cried for my mum as we finally let her go, and we celebrated her life and thank God that she is now with her precious Lord, along with her mother and our little daughter, Jessamy.

A picture came to me soon after she died. Our daughter, Jess, was greeting my mother in heaven saying "Hi Grandma, you're here. Let me show you around".

It has been a while...

.....since my last post. A lot has happened to me, but not on the flying front. I think this blog needs to take a change in direction, so from now on it won't be limited to flying. Sorry about that.
Life has been a bit hard of late. My mum died of pancreatic cancer on 5th Nov. She had been unwell for a while but we didn't know what with until about 3 months ago. Since knowing, she went downhill quite fast - particularly the last week. For a cancer that can be incredibly painful, she was spared all of that and died peacefully at home with my dad by her side. The funeral is on Thursday.
OK, I still have my father with me, but someone described loosing a parent as like "loosing the lead in a convoy" - there was no-one at the front anymore. I feel a bit like that at times. Someone said that I was now to be the organiser of the family but I don't know whether I should accept that label. My father is still around and I have a brother nearby. We are all capable of organising our own lives. I think my father might object to me taking over, and I don't think I should do that. Maybe as he gets older, but not just now.

Feeling More Positive

I think I needed time to get over my disappointment and to work things through. I have received encouragement from family, friends, and others who have responded to this blog. So, it looks like it could be motion sickness tablets, or wrist bracelets that work on acupuncture points. I need to keep trying.

Attitude helps too. I am not an advocate of "think positive and everything will work out OK", but you do have to have the right attitude. Sometimes, that takes an effort to change. I'm sure that you have heard the phrase "Choose your Attitude" and you really do have to do that - everyday. It does affect how your day plays out. I am an optimist by nature, but even I have to be real. And that is where I am right now, trying to keep in touch with reality.

On a more fun note - the Red Bull Air Race competition was in Longleat, UK, this weekend. Wow!! Some of those pilots were pulling nearly 12G!!!! How do they do it? AND NOT BE SICK!!! I wasn't able to go myself, but watched the TV coverage.

Disappointment

OK. So I did go flying on 6th August but again I was unwell. So, if anyone has any tips on how to get over this, then I would be grateful.

To be honest, at this moment in time, I don't know whether I want to continue, if I cam going to be ill each time. I'm spending a lot of money, and I am wondering if it is worth it.

Flying again tomorrow

Going to Blackbushe tomorrow for another flight in the Cessna. I will remember to eat something this time so that I don't have the misfortune of feeling unwell at any time. I do not want to find out that I get sick up there.

Riat 2006

Wow - what a day. Started driving at 5.30am and parked at 7.10am. Had to wait in the cold for the gates to open at 7.30am and then wandered in to our seated area and "set up camp". It was freezing but the clouds parted just as the flying started at 10am and we had blue sky all the way.

They call this the best Airshow in the world. I am sure that the Americans would disagree but no-one could doubt that the best of the best had turned up. There were trainer planes, World War II planes, Helicopters, and modern day airpower from F16 to F18 to Mig 29. And an Osprey flew in. Is it a plane? Is it a helicopter? You can call it what you like. It was pretty impressive.


What was the best display? It would be unfair to compare them but I was very impressed with the F18 and the Mig 29. Those pilots threw those birds around.

This really was an exceptional day and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Cessna 152

Sunday 18th June was the day I took my introductory flight in a Cessna 152 from Blackbushe Airfield, Surrey.

I was due to take off at around 12 noon but things got put back a little. I was incredibly anxious so didn't each much in the morning and I forgot to eat before I went up. It was a lovely warm day and the smell of aeroplane fuel seemed a little stronger than usual.
12.40pm came and I was given a briefing by my pilot, Steve Larkins, who said that he would let me do most of the flying (!) and our flight path would be to fly to my home town of Chesham, find my house and then fly back again. This was going to be great.
We arrived at our plane, where Steve gave me an overview of the controls. We started the engine and taxied to the runway, testing the engine as we went. Permission was given to take off and Steve took us down the runway. Once airbourne and on our flight path, he handed over the controls.
Steve talked me through what to do to keep the plane level, how to increase speed, increase altitude, bank left and right, how to trim the plane, and how to decrease speed and decrease altitude. We did all this and I saw my house!!
We turned from Chesham and headed back to Blackbushe. I saw the airfield laid out below us. It was at this point, I suddenly came over ill. I couldn't believe it. Steve took controls to bring us around the airfield and to line up while I proceeded to shove my head into a container. Fortunately, because I hadn't eaten, there was nothing there. I recovered enough to see us line up with the runway and land.
I was devastated. Why had I been ill? The only reason I can come up with is that the fuel fumes got onto my empty stomach. It took me a good hour to recover but I didn't feel good for the rest of the day.

So, what do I do now? At my husband's suggestion, I am going to book up another hour at Blackbushe but I am going to eat a light meal before I take off. I want to be certain that this is just a one off occurance. If it isn't, then I am going to be devastated, because I won't be able to complete my dream.

I'm going to phone the airfield again now.

St Albans Vineyard

It's good to find a home of your own, especially when it comes to a matter of faith. There are so many people seeking a spiritual home but feel out of place. I've found mine at St Albans Vineyard.
Everybody is looking for something. I bet you have asked yourself the question "There must be more to life than this?" Well, I definately know there is. If you are wanting to find out for yourself, I can strongly recommend a course/book called
The Purpose Driven Life. Send me your comments.

RIAT

OK. I've done it. I'm off to RAF Fairford for the Royal International Air Tattoo on 15th July. Spent a little extra money on top of the entrance fee so that I could sit in a bit of luxury and watch the displays in the Jubilee Garden. Let's hope that the weather stays fine. Ear plugs will be required because we will be very close to the flight line. I can't wait.

Merlin

Monday night - watering the allotment and I could hear the familiar sound of rotary blades thrashing through the air, but the depth of the sound told me that this was a heavyweight.
Suddenly, there it was, lifting up from the horizon. Big, dark, military and beautiful. The UK Royal Navy Merlin medium lift helicopter is a variant of the EH101 helicopter developed by AgustaWestland. I just stopped to watch her fly over at around 1500 feet.

I get to see so much from my allotment. I have watched Spitfires, the one and only hurrican, SeaKings, hot air balloons and, as Bovingdon Beacon is right next door, every type of civilian passenger aeroplane that flies into Heathrow (LHR).

I am so lucky.

anyone for cricket?

England are playing Sri Lanka today in the 3rd test, and were having trouble getting the tailenders out but we managed it in the end.
Going to a fun cricket match on Thursday this week. Our company, Romeike, are fielding a team for the first round of a number of matches. I won't be playing but I will be going along to support, or be a cheerleader. The matches are trying to raise money for the new St Francis Hospice in Berkhamsted. The website for the tournament can be found here.

If you are reading this outside the UK, I know that our game of cricket can get so confusing. I must confess that it confuses me sometimes but I still enjoy watching England play.

Of course there is the World Cup to look forward to. Also the British Grand Prix (Formula 1), Wimbledon. Oooh, what a summer!!

The end of May

I can't believe that this month has gone so fast. A lot has happened but I am still not yet flying.
The allotment is full of young plants and I am looking forward to seeing them grow and eating their results. Everybody should try to grow a little something, even if it is only one tomato plant in a pot.

Some of you will see that I have added a few more links. One is for a new young rock band I know called "Seconds Away". Their website is pretty cool!! The second link is a video by Muse. I love this group and particularly this song "Stockholm Syndrome" so please take a look.

I have received information from the British Women Pilots Association detailing how to become a pilot, along with their magazine. This year sees them celebrating their 50th Anniversary. They also have an article about the competition that was launched last August to encourage more women to take up flying. It was that day that started me on this journey of flight.

Hey ladies, why don't you join me and look to see if you too can become a pilot. You can do ballooning, microlighting, gliding, fixed wing plane and rotary wing helicopter flying. There is bound to be a centre near you that covers one of these options and it really isn't as expensive as some might think.

Health

Following on from my previous entry about my allotment, I have found one Health site that I love. Mercola.com is a great site for those people who want to read more information about health, drugs, vaccinations etc., and encourages people to make informed choices about their own health.
Go on, take a look. A link to the daily blog, which covers issues in addition to health, can be found in my sidebar.