Birthday - Allan ...

Good evening,
It is Allan Irwins birthday around about now and Dad, Ping and I have done the usual ....

And obviously in the best intersts of Allan`s health, Dad and I hope that we can help Allan drink some of these!

Woodwork, Paragliding, Inception ....

Well a few weeks ago went to the woodworking show where graduates display their work and as usual there was some lovely stuff there . I quite liked the above by a Yuqi Chock but the most unique or unusual item was this ... but I didn`t get the artists name ...

This week I went flying at Hillend - how unusual! - took lots of photos and some videos of Tim Jackson - who as usual makes it look effortless ...

Tim Jackson 100722

And I had a short 10 minute flight after 2 poor reverse launch attempts, flying over and landing too far up - but near Hazel - work colleague. And here is my kml file generated by phone GPS  (as my normal GPS batteries had run out)which if you righ click and save you can then open in Google Earth.

This weekend went to see Inception on Saturday night - very good - recommended ...

Latest update from Bob Veitch

Well as usual no news for ages reported and then lots to catch up with.
Paragliding - nothing much happened for me for weeks - did go to field behind Sherriffmuir and had a few hours of first day paragliding ground handling practice with Utopia harness.

Swimming - most weeks 2 -4 times - started going to Loanhead at lunchtimes - nice. Still rubbish and if doing a fast 50m still tending to be about 45 seconds so unhappy with that.

Holiday - booked a few days down in London in August staying at Tony and Xijuan + Alyssa`s. Ping had an excellent time in China and I think I had more jet lag than she had on her return!

Saturday 4th and 11th July 2010 Ping purchased a new diamond ring - so collected on the 11th - very nice.

Sunday 12th - just went for a short walk with Ping from Menstrie - rest of weekend mainly spent watching videos from Love Film.
Children of Men - possible the weakest of all these watched - story about a world where no children born over 18 year period.
Old Boy - enjoyable but quite viloent and disturbing in places but very good. Man kidnapped for 15 years and has to find out why when released ....
Nathalie - story about a wife who is suspecting her husband (Gerard Depardeu) of being unfaithful .. - very good. and finally
Departures - Japanese film about a musician who changes career - fantastic / emotional / beautifully filmed - a masterpiece I think - thoroughly recommended.

Recently Gregor at work kindly got a range of negatives scanned onto cd for me so here are a few examples from the past : - 

Above my hang-glider - Vision 5 large on Mam Tor  with the cement works in the distance and below Hang-glider training on or near Blacka Moor on a training day with Steve Hudson on the left - from way back in time say late 1980s or early 90s!

And from an early skiing trip to Courcheval I think  ...

Richard and I hillwalking one winter a long long time ago ....