Today at 10.30 a nearby neighbour, Reg Nixy was buried. He had lived to 85. He had fought in the war, and been evacuated from Dunkirk. They had lived in the village for over 50 years. The service was pleasant and well attended. Afterwards we adjourned to Jacks for tea and sandwiches.
Paragliding and Triumphs
Well I should have gone paragliding, but instead in the afternoon we washed the Triumph, took it for a drive and boiled the brake fluid. I did wonder why I could only get to 40 mph, and that had to be in third gear. So must speak to Graham to see what damage I have done to the front brake and cylinder. The paragliding bit, well I did some ground handling in the field. My last flights last year were all forwards launches, and I have all but forgotten how to do a reverse launch. I was also trying a technique, which is called the reverse hand launch. Something most people launch with, but I never mastered. It is a safer technique when launching in a strong wind on a hill.
Clay shooting
More work for Rosemary, but at least from home. The day was a beautiful sunny day, so I went clay shooting in the morning at Collet. Quite a good turn out for the KC&RC. Not sure what my score was. I really should take the cards and publish them on the web. We decided it was time to have a committee meeting
Work work work
Saturday was a sad day for me. Rosemary had to work all day. Result was a lunchtime meal in the Plough and Anchor as a reward for me. I do love their starter salad of green leaves, oranges and raspberry juice. The main course was lobster.
Funeral of Joan Blasdale
Today was the funeral of Joan Blasdale who was my aunt. The service took place at 2.00 pm at the Robin Hood Cemetery and Crematorium. The weather was very pleasant. Afterwards we had food and drinks at the Ramada Jarvis Hotel.At these events you catch up with your relatives who you should see more regularly, but never do.
Accident at the P&A
Last night, just after 9.00, a police car travelling from Bicester to Aylesbury on a blue light run was overtaking a van just before the Plough and Anchor pub. The van was turning into the pub, and has hit by the police car. The van ended up in the hedge. The police car took down the pub sign, (5 by 5 inch timber post), the cast iron lamp post which was shattered into may pieces some of which travelled 50 meters down the road. Took down the metal fence, hit the pub wall damaging the window and was wedged between the pub wall and the fence. No one was hurt.I was totally oblivious to what had happened, and only became aware of the problem when I went to the pub for a late nightcap. In the morning I took some pictures of the pub including one of Paul holding part of a pub sign on the other side of the road.
John Curd starts his sixth decade
Rosemary and I went out to see John Curd on a special surprise visit organised by Carol to commiserate his 50th birthday. Many of the old Walker crowd were there to drink to his health. He had been expecting to go out for a curry, but instead we had a brought in curry organised by the New Himalaya Tandoori house.
Snowdrops at Painswick
Today started out as a beautiful sunny day, but cold. Rosemary and I decided to visit the Painswick Rococo Garden, which is situated in a hidden Cotswold valley in Painswick near Gloucester.
This time of the year is a special treat with floods of Snowdrops amongst the gardens and woods. After viewing the gardens we had a pub lunch with a pint of Hook Norton.
I took a few photos of the garden while I was there. Hopefully, they will be on the site in a couple of week’s time. I was not alone with my camera, there were several professional photographers taking pictures of the Snowdrop grove.
Big Fat Repack
Went to the BFR at the Reading Rivermead Lesure centre. I listened to the lecture on how to deploy, check and repack your emergency parachute instructions.
After that I queued up for the deployment practise. Here you were suspended on an aerial runway in your harness, in a precarious angle to simulate your position when everything was going wrong. You were released to slide down the runway wire; you went for your reserve parachute and chucked it out. It then opened behind you.
Next with the allocated partner you repacked your parachute. This took almost two hours. Then to see if it worked, we went for another ride down the wire to see if the home packing worked. It did!!
A final repack, now down to one hour for my chute and my partner’s chute.
During the day I saw Mike, Brian and Derrick from the Annecy trip.
Tree planting
After a few days of cold and chaos on the roads caused by two inches of snow, the weather improved and the weekend was fine
Managed to plant the poplars replacing those that died from last year, and also creating a cluster in the field corner. The Holly and the firs went in between the graveyard and garden.