Towards the end of my summer period of “not-work” I went to the New Forest with the families. The weather was medium for most of the time allowing shorts and t-shirts but it did get chilly overnight in the tents. The campsite was Hollands Wood which was quite large but maximum occupancy levels were enough to keep it feeling quiet. Driving through the moors was very interesting – the idea that this level of wilderness exists in the south of England was surprising.
The maze of paths at Hollands Wood
One of the reasons the New Forest was chosen was that it was on the way to the Tank Museum at Bovington. People in my house play War Thunder and while it’s not my game of choice they are both pretty good at tank recognition – I am not. The number of tanks, the history, the show, the arena, all made for an excellent visit.
Sherman Tank – Fury – Bovington Tank Museum
I found it interesting seeing all the different tanks and I took a lot of photographs, but, I will admit that once I got home all the different tanks kind of blurred into one! A big heavy metal thing with a gun sticking out of it. The kids had a great time and loved seeing the tanks in real life. We all had a ride on a Vietnam was era troop carrier, it took us around the arena a few times and was great fun if dirty and noisy!
Tracked Personnel Carrier – Bovington Tank Museum
I guess I’ll try and find another place like this for next year. Something with planes, trains and automobiles.
As part of the journey to M’era Luna 2023 I had a little less than a day in Hannover, or Hanover as apparently we British spell it. Smith and I flew to Hannover, stayed the night in a hotel room and then travelled to M’era Luna in Hildesheim.
Pentagram Church, Hannover
There’s a website that gives information about curios in different places. You let it know where you are going and then the return data are interesting things. The first one we wanted to see was the church with the pentagram built into the walls. In the above picture you can see the pentagram [traditional sign of the devil] and also the Star Of David around the clock. I’m not sure why either are there, but also, I don’t really care. It was pretty nice to see.
Next on the list was the musical manhole cover or drain cover I guess they should be called. Trying to explain manhole cover to a German native was interesting. Their language didn’t have the male-ness of it in their word so English gets called out, quite rightly, for being misogynist.
Hannover New Town Hall
The new town hall in Hannover was spectacular and very pretty. The whole centre of the city was a delight, even with the mentally unstable people we saw. I found the basement level shopping mall quite a surprise but understandable. It’s hard talking to Germans about their cities when they talk about “it was bombed and we built it back the way it was before”. I’m not sure of the correct response to that. I know when in Washington DC I was almost proud the Brits had burnt the White House to the ground, but these war actions felt different.
Wandering around Hannover it was strange to see emblems of the British royal family. But then I remembered that the current royal family are literally descended from the Hanoverians who ruled Britain in the past. Once I remembered this I felt a kind of kinship with the city and I’m not even a royalist. I’m definitely a not-royalist. But there we go.
Hannoverian Royal Standard
I’m trying to upload the musical drain cover to YouTube but am struggling slightly, I think that the music might be missing for some reason, but that’s the main reason for uploading. I will try again in a moment.
Another summer another journey to Germany for a music festival. Well, it’s the only festival I’ve been to for a number of years and it’s in Germany so all of that makes logical sense. Smith and I have been going since 2015 to this festival and this year there weren’t really any big bands that drew us there but we went for the atmosphere, meeting people and some of the lower-down-the-bill bands. Other darkness visits are all within this site:
M’era Luna 2015 – the first time. A long drive and exploration.
M’era Luna 2016 – getting used to the journey and enjoying it more.
M’era Luna 2017 – the one where it pissed down and the car got stuck.
I’ll write more about the journey in another communication I think. There’s too much that happened and things to share especially from the time spent in Hannover. On the Friday we took a tram, train and bus to get to the venue. There was a kiosk in Hildesheim bus station handing out the wristbands so we were pretty much sorted and got into the venue quickly and efficiently. Friday at M’era Luna is all about looking around, seeing the merchandise and maybe attending the disco. We didn’t attend the disco. I did buy the t-shirt, a hood and a metal cup. I also got a small bag for the Legend.
Hildesheim Airport – Converted ML2023
What follows are my notes from the bands I saw on the Saturday:
Antiage – mains stage – pondering slow standard stuff. Nothing exciting. Bunny dancers. Keyboard on a spring.
Intent Outake – club stage – More threatening. A better band than first one. Sun has come out. Good set design. Couldn’t see Mac operator as hidden behind car, mic with camo netting.
Versus Goliath – main stage – good guitars. Good riffage. A cross between Rage and Linkin Park . Heavy. I liked it. Almost rap. Bought their album.
Rave The Requiem – main stage – Good energetic Swedish rock with three singers and a percussionist. Looked like they enjoyed it. Too many key changes but I enjoyed it overall.
Tanzwut – main stage – rock with bagpipes and a medieval feel. Actually quite enjoyable.
Megaherz – main stage – good German rock. Enjoyed it. Proper rain shower. Heavy rain.
Project Pitchfork – main stage – Honestly boring, even with two drummers. Both drummers playing same thing – what’s the point? Walked during song three.
Solar Fake – club stage – Really fucking good, upbeat. Excellent drummer – he really impressed me.
Mesh – club stage – Boring.
Solar Fake ML2023
Sunday was a better day weather-wise and I was looking forward to some of the bigger names this time.
Dragol – main stage – mythical? Cellist. Male pianist. Female singer. Slow, but quite interesting. Tom Tom player looked like the caveman from Ghosts.
Blitz Union – club stage – amazing. Thrash bordering on excellent rock. Interacted with the crowd really well. Wall of death. Very enjoyable. Had a good energy rather than the plodding of a lot of the weekend.
Heldmaschine – main stage. A bit plodding German metal. Nothing special.
Eisfrabrik – MainStage. Dressed in white. Bit meh.
Gothminister – main stage. Dressed very goth. New German rock. The keyboards were very chord-y. Songs were too long.
Letzte Instanz – main stage – Rock with violin and a cello. There was a cello solo.
Ashbury Heights – club stage – Very enjoyable set. Not really my stuff but got the crowd moving and the songs were excellent.
Subway to Sally – main stage – A very enjoyable set. If you have a violinist they don’t need to play ALL the time. Oddly very heavy at times.
Mono Inc. – main stage – loved it. Was close to front. They played a cover of Passenger. Excellent crowd dynamics. Great.
Mono Inc. ML2023
Within Temptation – main stage -Derivative female led rock music. I guess it was ok. Nice to see. Not bothered about seeing again.
The overall highlight of the weekend was Mono Inc. for me. I missed them play at the Underground in London because I had covid and so it was lovely to see them and really appreciate it.
Within Temptation – The End of ML2023
So, that’s it for another year. I’ve seen plenty of new bands and also some that I’ve missed in the past because other music has been on in the hangar stage. It was a lovely atmosphere. All I have to do now is wait for my back to fix itself. I’m being reminded that I’m getting older and all the walking, dancing, sleeping on airbeds and travel might not be great for me. So, until I do it all again next year:
What started as a bit of a “around the coast” trip to look at the scenery ended up being an around the world trip in short hops. I started this sometime in 2021 with a trip from Manchester Airport to RAF Valley, just to see what it would be like. Then I continued around the coastlines of all seven continents. See this communication for the start of the list. All airports landed at are listed in these communications:
So now we have the final list of airports. From somewhere in the Gulf Of Mexico to Manchester.
Henry E. Rohlsen Airport, US Virgin Islands
JAGS McCartney International Airport, Turks and Caicos
Providenciales International Airport, Turks and Caicos
Leeward Point Field – Guantanamo, Cuba
José Martí international Airport, Cuba
Naval Air Station Key West, USA
Florida Keys/Marathon International Airport, USA
Tavernaero Park, USA
Ocean Reef Club Airport, USA
Boca Raton Airport, USA
NASA Shuttle Landing Facility, USA
Daytona Beach International Airport, USA
Waycross-Ware County Airport, USA
Myrtle Beach International Airport, USA
First Flight Airport, USA
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, USA
Atlantic City International Airport, USA
LaGuardia Airport, USA
Nantucket Memorial Airport, USA
Beverly Regional Airport, USA
Portsmouth International Airport, USA
Seacoast Airfield, USA
Portland International Jetport, USA
Saint John Airport, Canada
J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport, Canada
Gander International Airport, Canada
Narsarsuaq International Airport, Greenland
Bíldudalur Airport, Iceland
Reykjavík Airport, Iceland
Vestmannaeyjar Airport, Iceland
Hornafjörður Airport, Iceland
Vágar Floghavn, Faroe Islands
Tingwall Airport, Shetland
Sumburgh Airport, Shetland
Kirkwall Airport, Orkney
Wick John O’Groats Airport, Scotland
RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland
Oban Airport, Scotland
Glasgow Airport, Scotland
Campbeltown Airport, Scotland
City of Derry Airport, Northern Ireland
Belfast International Airport, Northern Ireland
Belfast City Airport, Northern Ireland
Ronaldsway Airport, Isle Of Man
Keswick Airport, England – Fictional Airport
Warton Aerodrome, England
Manchester Airport, England
And there we have it. All the airports visited as part of this around the world flight. It’s taken around two years but I feel a sense of achievement. The next thing for me to do is to learn how to use navigation aids rather than VFR. That’s my plan for the next set of flight sim activities.
I’ve been playing Fortnite since about last October. I quite enjoy it, it’s not my favourite game but it is the only one I play where I get to interact with the family and run around killing things. I’ve played Navy Seals in the past and the online experience wasn’t great, especially if you’ve only just started playing online and don’t have all the time to get good at the game. Fortunately the Legend has guided me through Fortnite and I’ve got some kids who play better than me and carry me a lot. Here are the stats from the Fortnite game itself:
Fortnite Solo Stats
Fortnite Duo Stats
Fortnite Squads Stats
I get carried a LOT in squads. I think I’m most proud of the top 5 statistic in the Duos category. Considering a lot of the time the Legend and I are just driving around breaking things and generally having a bit of a giggle to get top 5 that much I think is impressive.
Fortnite Stats as percentages
The above table is all of the stats but percentaged for each category. I honestly have no idea if the percentages are good. Also, to be honest, I don’t care. The thing about these games is to have fun. Once you become too competitive I think it becomes less fun and more stressy. This is the main reason why I don’t play Gran Turismo online that much. There’s too much stress. Oh, I’ve just passed 800 hours on Minecraft – yes, I’ll take that applause, thank you.
I recently took a trip with the Legend to a part of the world that is very strange. If you travel in Kent towards the Marshes and then venture even beyond that you end up at a reclaimed part of the world that boasts loads of special scientific interest because of its geomorphology. I’m not sure what that means but basically it’s quite a special place. So, we have an area of land that is scientifically important so what should we do with it? Let’s place a nuclear power station there – it’s close to the sea and there’s not many people living nearby.
Dungeness Map
Some other things to point out, which bother me a little. There’s an airport close by, about 4km according to the map above. This seems a little bothersome. Then there’s also a massive army weapon training area close by, again within about 4km. I know it’s desolate on those ranges because I’ve been there and shot at things. Nuclear power, weapons and aircraft. Nothing much happening there, very little to see!
Nuclear Power – Dungeness
There is a strange desolation to this place. It was sunny but windy when we went and you get an idea of how it must feel in a storm. It’s very open and, if I’m allowed to be horrible, feels quite backward. It’s the sort of place you wonder if you need to carry cash or whether cards will work.
This hat has served me well. After being bought in Australia it has travelled almost everywhere I have been. It has protected my head and absorbed sweat in many countries and atop a few mountains. But, the years have taken their toll and it was time for a new hat.
Barmah has as seen better days
The leather is old and crusty, has holes in it and leaches brown dye onto my scalp. I searched for a new hat. I ended up getting a kangaroo leather hat from the same company, and in the same style. Why would I go changing things? I also have a few extras to make this new hat better. I’ve got a chin strap for when it’s windy and I have some conditioner for treating it. Hopefully this won’t leave the hat “sweaty” of dye.
New kangaroo leather Barmah hat
The new hat hasn’t yet been worn outside because it’s been raining in classic England style. I’m looking forward to getting this stylish head-topper out in the sun and all weathers.
Had a lovely day trip to London Biggin Hill Airport today and got shown some amazing things. Private jets, small and large, helicopters, small and medium and then some second world war fighters, all small. It was a great day. I think I’m a little warm in the face from the sunshine though.
Such A Lovely Rotor Head
I think I’ve become a bit of a fan of helicopters. I used to only really enjoy aircraft with afterburners, maybe I’ve grown up a little?
When I use my phone in the car it can get too hot and shut down some of its services. On hot days with direct sunlight my phone will refuse to charge, especially if I am using a Sat Nav service on it. I don’t tend to run my phone at a low charge level but I also don’t want to damage it by making it too hot. I clearly needed an aircon unit for my phone and so I looked online. There are fans that could work but they won’t attach to my Quadlock kit – which I am not changing. So I tried to make a toilet roll tube ventilation shaft to feed air from the blowers on the dash to the phone, this did NOT work!
So, I wondered if I could find some flexible purpose built tubing to feed air to the phone. I ordered some from Amazon and then spent a while thinking how to fix it to the right places without damaging the car. After about a week of ponderance I came up with a small hole in the tubing to fix the device to the Quadlock holder and then cable ties to hold it to the air vent on the dashboard. My phone now stays lovely and cold. But, in classic British style, the weather hasn’t been that hot recently. I’m sure it will get that way sometime soon so I’m quite chuffed at my bodge job.
I have just returned from a lovely week on summer camp at RAF Henlow. This is the third camps we’ve run there, mostly because it has a dedicated cadet block and we know our way around. We did plenty but we couldn’t do the usual Saturday through to Saturday as the block was booked by Beds and Cambs Wing [the gits], so we did Monday through to Sunday.
Phantom at Wattisham Station Heritage Centre
The week was your usual busy with the following taking place:
Indoor sky diving
Visit to the Army Air Corps at Wattisham
DCCT Rifle Training
Imperial War Museum Duxford
Military Intelligence Museum at Chicksands
Weapons training
Weapons drill
Falconry
Meal out at The Airman
American Military Cemetary
Nuclear High Ropes and Zipwire
I had a great time. It was lovely to see Theresa again along with spending time away with the staff from our section. I spent the week driving around a Mercedes Sprinter Minibus which had light steering and very soft brakes. I almost went through the window when I got back in my own car!
