Rather like this photo I took today from a helicopter over St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh - the confusing symmetry of the crescents and the way you can see why it's quite a long way from the bus to the cathedral when one is late for the Synod Eucharist. The helicopter in question belonged to Jensen Button, the F1 racing driver, until about 10 months ago, and was quite alarmingly old, I felt, at more than 25 years. Apparently most helicopters are, according to the pilot - don't quite know what he meant by this, but he reserved the information till we were landing, which was probably wise.It was interesting to contrast this flight, on a grey and decidedly blowy day, with the flight over Las Vegas four weeks ago. This felt very ... real, especially when it bumped about a bit. I had been fairly sanguine about it all after my first ride, but today's flight was more like I'd imagined. I left my insides, I think, somewhere above Arthur's Seat.
Fun, though - and the last of this year's Christmas presents. There's always Glasgow from the air, now .....
Just watch out for the jeelie pieces then!!
ReplyDeleteWhat on earth is a jeelie piece? Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteBTW, I cannot get to Bill's blog. Instead, I am redirected to WordPress.
I have never been in a helicopter before. I so wanted to fly one for a long time, though. After going through a terrible bump in my life, I had done a lot of assessment testing to see where my skills and interests lie. The woman who went over the results became so annoyed when I told her I would love to be a helicopter pilot. She bah-humbugged my idea. Ah well....As a totally useless piece of info, my uncle taught Francis Gary Powers and Neil Armstrong how to fly!!! Wish I would have gone to him and my aunt to learn! I still get excited every time an Army copter flies over our house.
Katya, a jeelie piece is a jam sandwich, in Glasgow parlance, and there is a wonderful song, "The Jeelie Piece Song" about not trying to chuck them from high-rise flats. I know. It sounds incomprehensible. You can find it here
ReplyDeleteAnd if you're interested, you can hear it sung by real Glasgow weans here!
ReplyDeleteEgads, this is too hysterical! i thought that is the funniest thing I have seen/heard in quite some time.
ReplyDeletePassing under TALLLLLLL buildings will never be the same!!!!