Yesterday was the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the R.A.F. so we drove out to a disused airfield a mile or so from home to see the fly-past of aircraft towards London. It gave us (and around forty or fifty other people who'd had the same idea) a good view of the fly past.. We talked to an elderly lady (even by our standards - she told us she was 92) who wanted to know if any of us knew about her favourite aircraft she'd ever flown in -the Walrus? Well of course I knew of the crate - it was a 'pusher' amphibious aircraft of (I think) the thirties. She also told us (she'd arrived by car - she'd driven herself) that her family didn't really approve of her still driving, but she'd consulted her doctor, who'd examined her, and then given his opinion that she was as safe a driver as she ever had been. I carefully did NOT give my opinion that this remark could be taken two ways. I think her family had shown great restraint by not pointing this one out - they must have spotted it, I'd think.
In the top picture I'm sitting on an old shooting stick I keep in the car, supported by walking sticks - nice and easy to get up from. In the second picture Ruth is holding the shooting stick. A pleasant morning's outing.
10 comments:
Hello Mike,
Just discovered your blog is active again, hope this comment reaches you. Lovely to see you all enjoying the flying. Shame about the RFC but flying was too important to leave in the hands of the army.
Your picture reminded me of the old riddle "What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three at even-tide?"
Now I'm waiting for something to remind me of the riddle's solution!
Once, I gave someone a reference which included "he has been a valued member of staff" - meaning, he was once but wasn't any more. He got the job and I felt guilty for years, as I'd been so desperate to get rid of him (and he to leave), but then I met him by chance and it turned out the move had been a resounding success. Quite a relief.
I think that's the riddle of the sphynx :-
What goes upon four legs, or two legs, or three.
And the more legs he goes on,
the weaker he be.
The answer, of course, is man.
A baby crawls, a man walks.
An old man walks on three legs i.e. two legs and a stick.
Hello Zoe. It ain't what you say - it's the way what you say it. Or rather perhaps, it's the way that you stress it.
Or, as my father used to say - It's not what you know, or who you know. It's what you know about who you know.
Sorry Z. That last comment is NOT by anonymous but by me, Mike. Don't quite know how I did that.....Yes, I do, though -sorry, hit wrong button. Won't, I trust , do it again.
Hello again, Crowbard. Talking of that riddle, I find that old joke about not catching an old bird with chaff crossing my mind.
I prefer seedier jests myself ~ and seedier bird-bait too.
Sorry Mike, didn't get your drift there until a second reading. I seed what you meant and take it you now consider yourself almost fully mature and wise to the jests and follies of junior sibling who was only chaffing lightheartedly.
My dear Crowbard; I don't think you will ever be able to fill a short comment with more puns than that!!!
P.s. So please don't try!
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