Fathers Day 2012

The Red Arrows

I'm not usually one who goes in for all this Fathers & Mothers day malarkey. I believe it to be a money making commercial racket.However I gotta admit that this year I not only loved the day, but I relished the time I able to spend with my son now aged 28years.
You see, I have always been keen on airplanes ever since I was a kid. I used to assembled them and hang them from the ceiling of the spare room in my grandmothers house. Indeed, one of my earliest olfactory memories is the smell of  the apples that lay carefully packed & stored in boxes on the floor in that room. My grandfather had 6 apple trees and used to store the apples in that room!
So then imagine my delight when my son, Christopher, asked me if I'd like to come to an air display as a Fathers' day treat!! So, come this last Sunday morning he came early to collect me and took me to RAF base Cosford for the display. It was FANTASTIC! we spent 7 hours there, & I have never in my life known 7 hours pass so quickly! I am unable to describe the sights that we saw nor the emotion that I felt having  Chris now a man, stand besides me, for the last time we went there (not to an air display but to the air museum at RAF Cosford) was when Chris was 9 years old. I did shed a quiet tear as we sat in his car eating  sandwiches that his partner had made us.

I have enclosed for you just 1 snap I took of one of the displays we witnessed. It is of the RAF aerobatic display team-'The Red Arrows'. These planes were hurtling about the sky at speeds in excess of 450mph & flying in close formation at a distance of only 8 feet between each plane!
Then we saw (& heard!!) the Euro fighter. I have never heard such a noise. The ground shook as it roared past, & the machine seemed to defy gravity when it stood on its tail in the sky before roaring vertically upwards. For the life of me I am unable to understand how these machine manage to stay in the air!.
However, on a pragmatic note, I reflect on the financial cost of each of these Euro fighters:£126,000,000 each plane. And for what?? But let me not spoil the day.

Thank you Chris. Thank you too Claire for your gift, & to my lovely Esther for hers.
You are my treasures and my delight.
xxx