(Good) Friday Fat Jet.

Prep for an early morning run.
From the camera of Alex.

Quite big inside. And I also particularly like this stunning photo. Art.

Update: 22Mar08. Peter (Worldman) left this message;

"Well, I guess that you know by now that I am a "plane" freak. Though the biggest one I ever flew myself (as a pilot) was "only" a Piper Cherokee 180 (a long time ago). But I have given the virus to my son who now (with some 4'200 hours) will leave... "Swiss" to join Emirates on an A330. Which fills me with pride.". [Edited - slightly shortened by Phil].

Congratulations Peter (and to your son as well of course). It is a very fortunate soul that, in this world, gets to follow their dreams and has a profession or job that they love. Some know what they want to do from an early age (good on 'em). Some of us still aren't quite certain what we want to do 'when we grow up' - even at middle age! (Ah well - "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" (From a John Lennon song I think).

Airstream pictures (US 'Grey Nomads').

In Oz these days we have a phenomena known as the 'Grey Nomads'. Over 50's who pack up and hit the road, usually in caravans (trailers), but some in motorhomes, converted buses, even just living in a tent.

Daughter found these folk (Jacquie and Dave), and thought I'd like the site, and the story. I did like the site and story Thanks Britt. Very much.

I suspect the similarities, and contrasts of the touring experience in the US and Australia would be an interesting study.
Two worlds similar yet different. (Who doesn't dream of doing Route 66 - that icon of not just US, but worlds 'road trips' one day?).

So best wishes for a wonderful trip. Great pictures.

(And here's to Norton the wonder dog).

Tibet.

The world is seeing things happening in Tibet (they have been for ~50 years, it's just a bit more obvious currently). Just like we've seen things happen in Burma a short while ago, and Zimbabwe. Like the world saw things happen in Rwanda, or the former Yugoslavia. Like things continue to happen in the Congo.

Will the world, be it collectively, individually, or by it's 'representatives' in the UN do anything to help the Tibetan people?

I'll wager No. Sadly, in the world of Realpolitik, China's size as a trading partner, and it's growing presence on the world stage will mean a few tut-tuts, and frowns, but probably not much else.

Is that right? How can it be? The larger question though, is how can humanity's collective conscience, and disapproval of all that goes on that is bad - in Tibet, Burma, North Korea, Zimbabwe (and Goodness knows what else where we are prevented from seeing) - be brought into play to change for the better.

Puss Remembers.

Found this via Tim Blair's blog. More history here.

I vaguely remember reading about this many years ago. Seems these guys (back in the 60's/70's) acquired a large cat, reared it until it got (not surprisingly) too big to keep in suburbia, and then had to release it back to the wild. (Story checks out - it's true!).

They were told that 'Christian' wouldn't remember them when he had settled back in to the wild.

But Christian DID remember them.

Your feelgood story for the day. It's hard to maintain that 'dumb' animals don't have feelings or memories when you see things like that. Be it a dog, or a puddy tat, or any one of many pets you can have, sometimes dumb animals clearly aren't that dumb.

Friday Flat Jet, Friday Fat Jet (plus vid links).

Some like cars, bikes, or boats. But, IMHO, planes are the ultimate big boy's toy. A Top Fueler pass may be one of life's experiences, and ZZTop nice n loud is pretty good.

But there just isn't anything that can quite compare to a fast jet, low, on full AB.

These photos, again, some of Alex's great work. (Now 4 C-17s on the hardstand as I understand it. Thats 250, 500, 750, 1 billion dollars worth of aluminium lined up in a row!).

As promised, some vid links;

An F-111 doing some party tricks (New Year's eve (I think). And Evans range.

This is a nice little compendium. (Knuckleheads behaving ba... er normally).

And Something for Peter and pumuckl (the Swiss,interestingly, fly much the same aircraft Australia does - F/A-18s, and we used to fly Mirages).

And just to show that other than western air forces fly fast too.

Holly in Oz (Sydney actually).

Found this blog (or re-found it really) because someone had gone to it after doing a search to an earlier post of mine ('eyes of a newcomer'). Such are the (tangental) travels of an armchair net surfer.

I liked this blog because sometimes some feel-good therapy from a happy soul gives your world a little lift. Holly is an American living in Sydney with her Hubby, and the great thing about her blog is she brings a fresh outsider's view to what is to us the everyday environment we live in. She likes Sydney and surrounds, and I feel, having read her posts that we should appreciate the city and society we live in more than we do.

It's Holly's birthday - so Happy Birthday Holly! :-)

(It's Sydney Royal Easter Show time again real soon! One of the world's largest 'fairs').