penguin – Fooyah – Ian Parish

August 11 2026

Hannover Flugzueg

I just like aircraft. I don’t know why. But they are cool and I find them fascinating. On the recent Germany trip I took some pictures and forced Smith to go to the Aviation Museum Laatzen-Hannover. We’ve been visiting Hannover for quite a few years so this was my chance to visit this place which I’d seen from the train enroute to Hildesheim.

This A380 was hiding from us at Heathrow. Smith and I left from Terminal 3 which was a little different to previous years when we used Terminal 5. The parking was slightly more complicated than at T5 but I coped. I had booked Meet and Greet parking and this worked well except for the number plate recognition camera part of it.

This Luftwaffe A400 was doing engine runs at Hannover Airport. It was starting up engines on one side only and running them. I’m not sure of the reasoning for this but I took this picture while waiting in the passport control queue.

This little D028 was sitting outside the museum and, considering we had walked what felt like a long way, was a welcome site. We had got to the museum after walking through some bizarre urban exhibition area.

It was quite nice to see an AN-2. It’s such a proper rugged looking plane and we could also get in and look around. I half expected to see Indiana Jones in the back and some chickens and crates – it had that sort of feel.

The AN-2 cockpit. Lovely.

This engine was pretty cool. In fact all the engines were pretty cool. Smith wasn’t as impressed but he’s wrong. Above is the 22nd ever produced production jet engine. Really impressive to see this.

The F104 is a silly plane. It’s too long and the wings are too small. Impressive to see one this close though and you could also have a look in the cockpit. The instruments seemed so basic, I can’t believe people flew these things and knew where they were going and also trained to intercept or bomb particular places!

D-INJR as recreated here in a 1:1.8 scale model was the world’s fastest propellor powered plane for about 25 years. It held the record from 1940ish until a highly modified Bearcat beat it later. I will say the Bearcat I saw fly at Duxford a few years ago was pretty impressive.

A lovely example of a helicopter. The Alouette looks like it does a great job – excellent.

I saw this B747 while waiting to leave Hannover airport and fly back to the UK. The freight look makes it look quite sinister I think. This particular plane shuttles between Brussels and Hannover mainly, nice to see.

This was our plane for the flight home. I tracked it coming into Hannover and got a couple of shots of it landing. It’s a pretty cute Airbus but not quite as neat as the A318. It was late arriving as, for some reason, the air conditioning wasn’t working properly at Heathrow and they had to delay the flight to make the aircraft comfortable for the passengers. We arrived back in the UK not too delayed though.

July 31 2026July 31 2026

It’s Not Any Flavour

I recently realised that I have some reward points in my X-Plane shop account. It looks like I’ve spent enough money to get some “free” extras. So I purchased the L29 for X-Plane. I’ve been flying around in it and it’s nice and smooth. It doesn’t react to anything as fast as the other military planes I have but it’s nice.

The picture is me flying from Hildesheim to Hannover checking out my new scenery files. Now, it turns out that the title of this communication is a reference to a Monty Python sketch that is about an albatross. The problem is that the L29 is really called the Delfín and it’s the L39 that is the Albatross. Oh well, maybe I’ll get the plane correct next time!

July 26 2026

Rock The Mote

I’m not sure how I saw this was an event but the Saturday looked good and Smith couldn’t make it so I dragged my kids along to this event. Based in Mote Park in Maidstone this is less than a mile from where I work and very local. I didn’t really know what to expect or even where in the park this was but it seemed like a fun thing to do. I did manage to arrange parking at work so I could avoid traffic jams after the festival.

I was mainly interested in the bands on the heavy stage which was a little stage in the corner of the festival area. I watched The Offspin who were an Offspring tribute band and they were pretty good, but I only knew about 4 of the songs they played and I didn’t know them that well. I enjoyed them though. Then I went to see Whitesnake UK on the main stage. I mean, Whitesnake are a UK band but I guess the cover band has to make themselves different some how. Apart from one song, I knew everything they played and it was absolutely great. I do love me some 80s slutty rock. The band opened with Bad Boys and closed with Still Of The Night! Stunning.

Next I watched most of the Kiss tribute band and it was fun even though I didn’t really know any songs. But next up were Live Undead – a tribute to Slayer and I was definitely looking forward to this. They opened with Hell Awaits, played War Ensemble and all the greats. The only one they missed in my opinion was Mandatory Suicide. But it was a great show and there was a mosh circle/pit in front of me. Really enjoyed their set.

After returning from the car I caught a little of War Pigs as I walked just outside the venue. I found this amusing, the level of “nasty” music when there was what looked like a church gathering in the park! Once inside I heard the last of the Ozzy set, it seemed they did a good job and then I waited for the Metallica tribute.

What I liked about the Metallica tribute was they didn’t try to be Hetfield on stage. They were just some lads playing Metallica songs rather than trying to emulate the band as a whole and I liked this. Their set was chosen by the fans so they played ten songs including a few I quite dislike – Whiskey In The Jar and Nothing Else Matters. But every other song was absolutely brilliant and I really enjoyed their set. The crowd loved it so much that the band had to ask the pit to calm down three times! It was a great day with great music. I think going to see cover bands is great – you get all the best songs and nothing from the new album which hasn’t been released yet.

July 22 2026

Building Plans

For whatever reason a while back I decided to build a “big thing” in Minecraft and I kinda broke my own rules while doing it. Until this point I had made it a mission that all builds shouldn’t be able to be seen from the main base on the shoreline. I failed to do that with this build:

So, I am going to build some sea cliffs to hide the superstructure of the platform. I’ve started the basics of the sea cliffs and we will see what happens. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m also scared at the same time. There’s a lot of work to be done.

July 21 2026

The Odyssey

I didn’t book IMAX for this film, perhaps I should have, it did look gorgeous throughout. But, I am getting ahead of myself. There are standard details that must be included before thoughts on a film otherwise what is the point? I went to the Cineworld cinema at Rochester and the tide was about two thirds of maximum height and I wondered if it was ebbing or flowing and, given how long the film is, would I be able to tell when we left the theatre? It turns out the tide was flowing as when we left it was definitely high tide, the film was long but not that long! After watching this film I rated it on IMDb, there is a system explained in this communication, so when I tell you I scored The Odyssey 8/10 you will understand why it gained that score.

At the end of this film my initial thought was “that could’ve been longer”. There were so many little stories along the way and each of them could have been their own film. I think I almost felt cheated out of something remarkable and simply got something quite extraordinary. Can you imagine seeing almost three hours of film and then wanting it to be twice as long! This film was a delight from the start to the finish. I don’t care for the manufactured controversies about casting, those people are bigots and they can go fuck themselves. This film, was utterly great.

I know that they messed around with the actual story. Everything you can possibly do to get this story filmable means you have to make changes. I don’t know enough about Homer’s version of the story to be able to make meaningful comments about those changes. All I can tell you is that I enjoyed this film.

The overall theme of the destruction of civilisation seems pertinent for right now. Perhaps it works for every age? Perhaps humans constantly think that the before times were better times. I feel that way but mostly because there are fascists in charge of many countries around the world and we definitely were making social progress but that is in reverse now. The difference between this film and society today is that Odysseus was aware that he was responsible for the breakdown of society. He broke the rules of society to further the cause of some “righteous war” and that led to the destruction of the entire society. The fascist leaders of today do not see anything they do as wrong, they are constantly “right” and “justified” and that will surely send them all to hell [I know it doesn’t exist, it’s just an expression].

Perhaps I see every film through the lens of my perception of society. OK, yes, I do. I definitely do that. I see society reflected back in film and how much it disappoints me. Maybe I shouldn’t do that? Maybe I should accept films for what they are without pushing my ideals onto them. Maybe I could accept that superhero films are actually good? Ha, ha. Nope. Not doing that. Superhero films are bullshit, fascist, immoral wank stains.

July 20 2026

Racing Spa

One of the weekly events that happen in Gran Turismo is a time trial around a particular circuit in a particular car. When I logged in recently there was a timed lap challenge around Spa-Francorchamps in a Porsche. I always try and do these events as they are an easy way to make some in-game money. With this particular circuit the game seemed very strict with track limits – there were bollards on some corners and if you touched them it invalidated the lap. Here is my laptime result:

The world record is 2:30.316 and then levels of greatness are done in terms of percentage time added on. I managed to get a GOLD time on this circuit. This makes me very happy. I’m normally somewhere around a mid-silver. I’ve only had two gold times before. I think this will bag me a million in-game credits.

Above is my overall results from the online challenges and races. I don’t really enjoy the races because it’s quite common to get bumped off the circuit and all your qualifying practice and time are just ruined. The time trials are more interesting and a better way to compare yourself to others.

July 9 2026

Supergirl (2026)

The weather is, currently, terrible. It’s about the third week of heat. Two weeks ago it was mid-30C. This week it’s low 30s. Fortunately at work I am in air conditioned rooms, but I do feel guilt about that, the electricity use and carbon output is high. So, as the world warms we use air con which creates more energy use and more carbon. When I leave the buildings at work I enter an oven. I’m fed up with sweating in my own house for no reason other than weather. I’m fed up with my head feeling hot, it’s very annoying. I’d like to be able to sleep in a nice cool room. Given the terrible weather it’s worth seeing a film just to spend a couple of hours in a cool room. Towards the end of this film I almost felt chilly!

This trip to the cinema was slightly later than yesterday’s. That means that the tide was almost highest as I drove in. There was a tiny little bit of mudbank that looked like a little beach, inviting to all. I will admit that the river and the view of Rochester the other side was very pretty. On leaving the cinema the tide was at its highest and no mud could be seen. I was stuck behind someone driving around 30% the speed of normals so I used the time to observe the water.

After watching this film I rated it on IMDb and, of course, there’s a system. You can read about that system here or if you want to can refuse to learn anything and be annoyed with how things turn out. I rated this film 6/10.

I actually enjoyed this film. I am not a fan of superhero movies, I think they suck artistically and morally. But I did enjoy this one. The story is pretty standard. But the filming was ok and I thought the script was decent. I was happily surprised that it didn’t take place on Earth although the girl in the film looked remarkably human with oddly human morals and attitudes. I guess I shouldn’t worry about realism in a superhero film.

Why do baddies in films always have face-art? The main baddie in this one had tattoos and metal pins in his face. When this person arrived I kinda hoped they were going to make him a nice person, you know, shock the audience with a “don’t stereotype people” vibe. But, no, he was the baddie and not particularly interesting at that. Leather, tattoos and piercings don’t make you a baddie. If anything they tell of emotional worries. Please, please, please can we have some heroes that have face art or look ugly or are just slime. I guess this film is trying to please the masses in a time when all the baddies in the world are white old men.

Why doesn’t Supergirl just laser-eye all the baddies? If she has that power, and she does, then would it be more efficient just to sinter them all from a distance and with accuracy rather than fist punching them all into buildings that then crash down endangering all the innocents? I didn’t care for the Supergirl costume, but I guess that’s gospel according to some pictures that a bloke drew fifty years ago.

Overall I enjoyed the film. Probably won’t watch it again but there are definitely worse ways to spend two hours when it’s 32C outside.

July 8 2026

Teeny Bubbles

I recently had the good fortune of visiting some hydrodynamics labs in Sheffield University. Gosh, it was great to see experiments set up covering all aspects of my degree. I got talking to some of the techs and teachers there – super to have technical conversations. IT got me thinking about another conversation in the staff room recently – apparently other people don’t see the world in terms of force diagrams! Like who doesn’t?

This image is of a turbine blade from a steam powered electricity generator. All power stations use steam to turn turbines. This particular blade was hanging and had sensors so that different resonant frequencies could be generated. If you hit the blade gently in different places you get different harmonic tones. If you look at the bottom of the blade you can see where water bubbles have cavitated in the low pressure and then collapsed causing damage. It’s quite incredible to think that happens.

When this was explained to me I didn’t say the only reason I know about cavitation, it felt a touch embarrassing. When in the second year at university I owned a Sega Mega Drive. One of the games I had was 688 Attack Sub. I know that if you tried to travel too fast in the submarine then other subs and vessels could hear you because you caused cavitation around the propellor. Cavitation was a thing to be avoided.

July 7 2026

Obsession

So, the weather is pretty hot here at the moment. I’ve been lucky that I’m mostly in rooms with air conditioning this week. We have activities running and I’m teaching kids how to race in Gran Turismo. But, when I leave school it’s still a touch hot. The car said 33C just now as I drove home. So, for a couple of extra hours in the cool I went to see Obsession at the cinema. There had been screenings before today but they started late and I didn’t think I wanted to be out that late as I might fall asleep! Today’s showing started at a sensible time. The tide in the river was rising but not highest, it was saving that for my exit from the screening as it was high tide when I headed home.

After watching the film I rated it on IMDb and there is a whole level of thought that goes into that. You should read this communication to understand how the system works. I rated this film 6/10.

I enjoyed this film. Although there were supernatural elements they were very superficial and didn’t really have any effect on the whole story. A wish coming true can be considered a small thing. I liked how the film coped with the obsession of a person by someone else. The pain for the obsessor when they felt spurned was really highlighted. Not that I’m defending obsession itself, that’s a terrible thing and not healthy. Another thing I enjoyed was the lack of jump-scares, these I find childish and atmosphere ruining. This film had a couple but they weren’t played to be massive jump-scares.

I would say the film was a touch dark. I guess it’s meant to be. It’s detailing the worst of human behaviour and the shadows and silhouettes dehumanise the characters. Maybe that makes it more comforting for the audience. If the lighting was bright and pretty there would be large incongruence with the mood of the film. Overall this was finally a good horror movie done well.

June 25 2026

Scary Movie

This trip to Strood was more to get out of the heat and to be somewhere environmentally comfortable than to actually watch a movie. Also, I have just finished some extra-curricula work marking mathematics exams for an exam board and this was my first evening of freedom for a while so it needed to be noted in some way. I noticed that the tide was middling on my way to the cinema. I parked in the shade but neglected to take account of the lack of hills in the distance so, although I was aware the sun would move, the car was in the direct sunlight when I left to drive home! It was around 34C in the outside air but because the cinema can be a bit chilly sometimes I did carry a fleece with me to the showing, just in case my legs got cold.

The custom since around 2013 is that I rate each film I’ve watched on IMDb and there’s a system to it to try and make my ratings consistent with something. You should read about that system within this communication. I ended up giving this film 6/10. In the past I would have tweeted my result, but I left twitter when it started to become a cesspool and I’m glad I did. So, no embedded tweets within these pages anymore.

The film itself was childish, stupid and very much in a category of “american stupid humour”, a categorisation that I use for this genre. The forth wall was broken within a minute and without it’s self-referential themes this film would be nothing. I kinda enjoyed it and it made me chuckle a few times. There was a lot going on visually as well as within the script and it kept me busy looking around for the jokes.

The n-word is used a lot in this film but in appropriately suitable contexts and never in hate, even so it still made me feel slightly uncomfortable – I think that’s probably some type of white-guilt that I feel. There were many jokes about a gay character and they were funny but I wasn’t sure if they amount to homophobia. The character isn’t aware that he is gay, but it’s obvious. There wasn’t any hate towards that character I think the jokes were more playing on his saying inappropriate things at the wrong time. Part way through the film I found myself checking the jokes and then decided whether I should find them funny. It removed me from the film a little bit.

One of the characters is a less-mentally-developed person and, again, there were jokes around that. But, I don’t think any of them were aimed at the disability. The stereotype was harsh, as all stereotypes are, but again, this removed me from the movie and made me consider the ethics of what was happening on the screen. As it happens this character had some of the best and most pertinent lines in the movie, pointing out the stupidity of the current government of the USA.

The film was full of references to popular culture and I’m sure I didn’t spot all of those. There were jokes about the state of social discourse in the USA along with sketches that highlight the inerrant racism in the american culture and government agencies. Overall I enjoyed the movie and the way it took the piss out of the USA. It certainly has made me think about what is appropriate to be shown on the big screen.

There was a trailer for the last Jackass movie and I think I will go and see that. I tried showing my kids some scenes from the film and they just didn’t find people deliberately getting hurt that funny. I was crying! maybe it’s because of the era in which I grew up.