Ballooning.

Am now in the US and again at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Having a great time except for the 3:15am getting out of bed, at least it saves me from trying to beat jetlag.:-)


The weather was predicted to start raining after the first mass ascension on Saturday and last all week. The forecasters are as bad here as they are back in Blighty. We have had a wonderful week flying. Only bad spots were Wednesday when it was my turn in the basket where we put up and then the winds on the field picked up and Keith decided to rip out after we had moved about 4 feet still tethered. Shortest flight of the week. Made up for it an Thursday though when I had a flight of around 70 minuted and flew north west over the Rio Grande and Corales and landed in a vacant lot west of Hwy 528 near the dog spa. Yes here they even have spas for pooches where they can stay for a few days and swim in the pool, get a massage and their skin toned etc just like a spa for people. There are some really messed up people over here who would waste money on that sort of shite.

Friday was the only day we did not try to fly as the winds were a bit strong and a couple of rain showers came across the field with a front that moved from the west and over the mountains.

Did all the usual things, visited Old Town and the Candy Lady for some of the best chocolates around, bought new clothes in the sales, ate lots of food smothered in chillies, made and ate lots and lots of jelly shots.

2 Hours in 5 minutes

In UK

Been out of Africa for a few weeks now and having a great time. Spent two weeks in the UK visiting mum and son whilst having plenty of real ale and some very nice wine supplied by Naked Wines, who deliver.

It is good to be back in a place where everything you always took for granted can be taken for granted. Never a worry about running out into the rain to start a generator, not being stopped by the police for a licence check near the end of the month for no real reason. Being able to buy what you want from the shops and bars rather than what they want to sell you.Good internet speeds and, congestion on the phones and TV that works even in the rain.

Cannot show any pictures yet as I did not manage to get my camera released from police custody as yet. Seems that the case is still ongoing, only been 4 months.

Lorcan is fine and busy working hard. He and girlfriend are in the process of buying a flat in Helston. Managed to spend a day with him which was good.

On Holiday

Left Freetown last Tuesday for England. BMI changed the plane and the departure time without much notice even the check-in staff did not know the layout of the aircraft and even though I asked for and was given a seat by the exit, I ended up stuck near the back with an inconsiderate twonk in front of me. He was the first to lean his seat back and give me even less room. He even complained to stewardess when I kept 'accidently' hitting the seat. Dumb bint then moaned at me even though she could see how little room I had.

Back in London went to get train to Shrewsbury from Marylebone. Odd pricing structure single £39 1 month return £40. Three hours to kill so had bacon for breakfast and found a pub open. Nearly fell over £3.80 for a pint. Savanna cider that I was selling for the equivalent of £1.50 was priced at £3.90

Train was nice, clean, uncrowded and on time.

Off to a beer festival this evening, no real ale for 9 months and now a feast. mmmmmm

restrictions

The reason the blog is now restricted is because somebody, a welsh person I think, has anonymously plastered my blog on a Sierra Leone website and pointed out the bad things that I have said. Unfortunately even though I have only stated what has happened to me and my reading of certain situations it has caused a stir here. I am being told that 'this brit' has slagged off the government and all the government institutions in the country.

Unfortunately before I found out that I could restrict the site I had decided to erase any mention of this country. Well if history can be airbrushed I am sure I can sanitise my blog.

Once I am out of here who knows what will be written! Especially when I find out who is stirring the shit.

Meanwhile invited people only. If you know of someone who reads this but hasn't been invited please let me know or get them to drop me a mail.

End of Fiesta.

Another AIBF comes to an end with all flying cancelled on the last day due to high winds. In all we did not fly on three days due to wind (2) and rain. The rest were great flying days. I managed a flight on Tuesday and had another great one, although the landing was pretty boring, a soft one with a couple of hops and a gentle stand-up landing. I much prefer when we come in at over 20mph and bounce, hit, crash and drag along the ground. When you walk away from those the adrenaline is certainly pumping.


We flew south of the field



past the balloon museum,



Over other balloons,


and little boxes laid out in neat rows, how boring,

Glad I don't live in places like this.

Looking back more were taking off,


Later that day when we were back at the field Keith was approached by a guy who asked if we could fly a banner in memory of a US marine killed in Afghanistan. As Keith and Tina are both ex-marines, and fly a flag from the back of the chase truck, they readily agreed. All we know about the marine is that he was called Sebastian, came from Santa Fe and died about 6 weeks ago. We took some pictures of the balloon flying the banner and Tina will try to find the man's mother who gave the banner to the guy who passed it to us.

In memory of Sebastian USMC, RIP.

The last week seems to have taken a lot longer as getting up hours before dawn, having 2 breakfasts a day as well as multiple naps daily stretches ones concept of time.
It affects some worse that others.

Ray taking another nap!

Sometimes looking out from the field it seems that the whole sky is filled with balloons


Finally the best banner seen on the back of a chase vehicle was this one showing that with age comes enlightenment:

Fiesta

On my holidays again ....... when am I not I hear you ask :-)

Had a few days in England where I visited the Blue Anchor in Helston whilst staying with my friend Robin.

Robin

Fiesta started with a pretty good day. Up at 03:30, to the field by 05:30 for breakfast which consisted of green chillie chicken soup which was very good.

Dawn patrol took off by 06:45 before sun-up and flew in all directions as there was a box forming.

Dawn Patrol

For those who do not know a box forms when the drain winds coming from the mountains are in the opposite direction from the ground winds. Today the ground winds were from the South whilst the winds higher up were from the north. This enabled many balloons to fly over the field a few times.

With The first two days always being mass assencion days, for the weekend crowds, we were in the second wave of over 500 balloons registered.

Mass ascension

After seeing the first wave fill the skies and head off into the distance,

The first wave goes

We inflated and launched Keith in SkyAngel off into the wide blue yonder.

Keith, Dennis and Sandra in SkyAngel

Amost there.

It has finally happened - I have sold the house. Exchanged contracts last Thursday and have to be out by Wednesday 1st July.

Have a busy weekend with the boys coming round and getting what they want in the way of furniture and stuff. Lorcan wants my bed so I will be on the floor for a few days, but so what I have slept in worse situations.

Just have to push her to get the divorce finalised now and I will be free, for a while.

Nearly there...

The house saga is slowly coming to a close. We have agreed a price and signed contracts, although she decided to dig in her heels one more time and threatened not to sign as she would not 'be rushed' into moving out. Can't quite see that one as the house has been on the market for over 30 months and we accepted this offer just after I went to China for 5 weeks.

Anyway we are awaiting contract exchange which hopefully should be this week and completion in a fortnight.

Freedom awaits......

Enough for now, three posts in one morning and my fingers are getting worn out, must away to the Blue for some libation.....

Wembley.... again.

On my return to England I met up with my son in London and we went to the new Wembley stadium for the second time. This trip much more important as Millwall were there in the League one play-off final. (For those unfamiliar with the English football league system this is the old third division).

Anyway who cares why we were there the fact that we were there was enough of a reason for around 48,000 Millwall fans to cross the globe, or venture across the river, to cheer on the lads to a historic first win at the place. Previouse finals were the AWS cup in 1999 (1-0 loss) at the old Wembley and a 3-0 drubbing my Man Utd at the Millenium stadium in Cardiff in 2004.

This time it was going to be different, we were going to WIN, despite not being the in form team, having lost to scunthorpe twice during the regular season, having a young team who had never played there before where the opposition were there earlier this season in the paint pot final (Johnsons paint trophy), or having played in front of such a huge crowd. A record for League one play-off finals 59661.

Crowd segregation - Millwall to the left. Again we completely dominated the crowd with over 80% of the support, like a very big home game.

After going a goal behing against the run op play we hauled ourselves back into it through goals by Gary Alexander,

The first having been described as the best seen at the new stadium to date, a 30 yard screamer into the far top corner, Alexander on right of picture..

The second a header just beating the keeper and crawling over the line.

This was as good as it got. Two silly mistakes at the back, one a goalkeeping howler left us on the wrong end of a 2-3 scoreline.

All in all after wanting to rip northern monkeys to shreds for a few hours, which you will be pleased to hear I did not act upon as I was playing the responsible parent as Lorcan was even worse than me. Probably as I have 30 years more of Millwall letting me down than he has and although it still hurts I am slowly becoming used to it.

Surreal moment of the day came back at the underground station where I found myself going down the stairs side by side with a guy I once spent 29 hours in jail, in Cleethorpes, with. A story for another time, although some may have heard it already.

Roll on next season..........

Journey into the unknown.

Some journeys are real eye-openers!

After finishing in Qingdao we headed for Chongming County, an Island off of Shanghai. A journey of almost epic proportions as it involved travel by car plane and boat. Getting to Shanghai was the easy part, a taxi and a plane, done thousands of times each day.

On arrival at Pudong we, John and I, foolishly went looking for a hotel shuttle bus as we thought the hotel was in Shanghai. John had been told that when the initial install had been done the guys had to get a ferry every day to the site. How wrong can you get!!!

After finding that the only shuttle busses serviced the two hotels next to the airport we secured a taxi only to find that at an international airport they spoke chineese only. This is where mobile phones really come into their own as we gave the driver the hotel details and he just called.

An hour later we were unceremoniously dumped out of the taxi onto the street somewhere in Shanghai. Baffled and confused we watched helplessly as our luggage was transferred to another car. What can one do when language is a barrier but shrug and go with the flow. The second taxi then roared off onto another elevated highway and headed for the industrial part of town. we were full of trepidation with what sort of hotel we were booked into, concerned that it may be a dockside seamans mission type place handy for the ferry and full of working girls!

Fears relieved somewhat as we sailed on past the docks and headed for the power stations. Finally we parked up in a queue of traffic waiting for a ferry, the taxi was taking us across to the island.

Thankfully not by this boat....

...but by this one instead.

Another link to Sierra Leone in that these are the only times I have has to get a boat to a work site yet.

After chugging an hour and a half across one of the busiest waterways in the east, if not the world, dodging an assortment of craft from huge bulk carriers to little coastal tramp steamers we arrived in Chongming which did not look all together too bad as it seemed lively enough and a busy little town.

Didn't really matter what the town was like as the driver drove straight through heading for the countryside as if a brigade of taliban were on our tails. Seems that once you are away from civilisation there are no speed limits except for the vehicle's own limitations. The guy was clearly beyond his and I was just thankful that the taxi wasn't new or we may not have made our destination. Was also pleased that the roads were mainly straight so not too many turns where we were grabbing for the 'fuck' handles, you know the ones above the door you grab and scream 'OH FUCK' when hurtling round corners to stop rear seat passengers from injuring each other.

After what seemed like forever, and at least 5 stops for directions we eventually were dumped out at what must surely be the remotest hotel in China. If you had a map of the middle of nowhere then this place would not even be marked on it, it was beyond there.


If it wasn't for the trees I swear you would be able to see the edge of the world!

To top it off and make it seem even more remote it was a pretty big place,



with its own lake.....


.... empty swimming pool.....


....... gym in a corridor......

.....and one other guest......


...who was a noisy little bugger that was up at the crack of dawn shouting and hollering as if there was no-one else around to disturb.

So if you ever find yourself in the Shanghai Dong Tang International Conference Centre remember the following

1. It is not in Shanghai,
2. It is not international as Chineese is about the only thing spoken
3. What little English is used mainly consists of NO.
4. Take a shotgun for the bloody cockerel.

Spent 10 days there installing equipment in a cable station 10 minutes drive away. Would have been 20 but for all taxi drivers on the island thinking they were competing in an F1 race.

Had fun though as even at world's end one has to make the best of things. The guys, John and Sean, were good to work with but eventually became fed up with my relentless quest for knowlege. After a week of 'why do they do it this way?' and 'Wouldn't it be better if we did it that way?' and other annoying questions I was finally told 'Don't ask why, just install the bloody stuff'. Kept forgetting why I was there.