Summer Part 3

So my 2 weeks off work draws to an end.  It has been a great time, although generally busier than I had expected.  Plenty of family time, a bit of game time playing with my latest Star Wars space ships (this lot being bounty hunters and mercenaries) and also a bit more work on the Flying V bass guitar that I have been fiddling with for the last couple of years, on and off.

Here are a few of the highlights of the last couple of weeks.

My birthday!  Had a really nice day, with some great presents, including a case of Maltese beer that my daughter had ordered for me.

Camping. 

The weather was rubbish, starting as drizzle and building to a huge thunder storm on our last day.

Custard thought it was the best holiday ever, though, as he had been feeling the heat of the previous week or so.  For him, sitting and laying on the damp grass in the drizzle was heaven.  Frou Frou did not enjoy it, though, being much more of a town mouse. She spent a lot of time in bed or being cuddled.

Despite the weather, we all had a great time, often drinking cider and playing card and board games.  Lots of fun and laughter to be had.

The Air Show.

In contrast to many things that our town fails at, this year's air show was amazing.  I was filming blind most of the time, just pointing the camera and hoping to catch something.  I hope it conveys some of the excitement.  Here are a few photos that I took:

The Red Arrows

A seal that came to see what the fuss was about.  These are a rare site here.

Some geek enjoying a beer during a break.

Replica World War 1 planes.

A display team using home made planes.

The woman in this plane made lots of hearts stop...

The last Vulcan bomber.

Eurojet Fighter.  This was incredibly loud.  When the afterburners kicked in it felt like someone was thumping you in the chest.

(Just saw on the news that there has been a fatal crash at another air show, with a jet crashing onto a busy road, killing several people.  The second that I know of this year in England.  As you will probably have worked out, I got a great view of this show, on a long jetty that runs into the sea, where the planes were performing.  At the time, I joked with another spectator that although we had a great view, if anything went wrong we would be toast.  It seemed like a joke at the time, but is a bit too close to the truth now.)

Our younger daughter is learning to drive.  Mrs RC and I do not drive, so we were expecting our kids to have trouble learning to drive, but she is doing great and loving it.  As some have said, she has not watched us driving badly so is starting from a clean sheet, probably making it easier for her to learn to do it properly.

Finally, our younger son has just got the results of his exams (he is 16).  I had to be restrained on FB, but here I will totally brag that he got the best results in the entire school.  Proud?  You bet!  He drove some of his teachers a bit nuts because he does not stress about his work and does not seem to try very hard either.  He just knows what works for him.  And he is, of course, very very clever!

We had a meal out today to celebrate and he is now spending the afternoon at the beach with this friends.  A great kid.

PS a load of the fish eggs hatched. We now have several hundred babies, some in a tank indoors, some in a small pond in the garden, so the big fish will not eat them.  They are growing, but still tiny, have not managed to get any good pics yet.  More on these as they develop.