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Oops, forgot to include the link to that great view of the cockpit. I have remedied that in the post, but here it is again: http://www.gillesvidal.com/blogpano/cockpit1.htm. In fact if you go to the main site of Mr Vidal, http://www.gillesvidal.com you will see more of his fascinating 360 work.
Want to have a little bit of creative fun? Sure you do! Play with Flash Doodle. Hope you find the bubbles.
Flying to Johannesburg this week, after a quick two day visit to Harare, I bumped into Alan & Sonja Ruile, old friends. Alan was in the same church as us for many years, and for a while was part of a men’s quarter called The Kingsmen, with Clive Bishop, Johan Backman, and myself. They were on their way to Toowoomba in Oz to see their daughter Sue, and her family. It was great to see them again, and catch up with their family news. On the flight, I caught them REALLY enjoying in-flight luxuries they had not had for ages – bread and cheese! Makes you sad to think of that. The airport restaurant tried to charge me US$36.00 for 2 Cokes! Silly people – they had popped the tops off, so I told them to stick them back in the fridge because I wasn’t going to pay that amount. Personally I think the young lass behind the counter was simply demonstrating her inadequate calculator skills, although I might be quite wrong and instead it was just the greed of whichever Comrade owns the restaurant at the airport.
We had a meal out in Littlehampton, this past Saturday night. Cold day, and we arrived for the local bonfire society’s annual bonfire and fireworks display rather too early – but that did mean great parking and opportunity for a relaxed supper together. It was fun. Rose was tempted by the Knickerbocker Glory pudding, which thankfully we shared, as it was was rather large!
A delightful view from the balcony of the Hotel Paradise in Juba, where we reluctantly had to stay. The UN camp had filled up with delegates to the peace process connected to the LRA in Uganda, so we lost our bookings there. However we did get some useful time in the mapping office at the UN compound, a sprawling town of airconditioned rooms built inside containers. Very expensive, very well organised, all the latest stuff, and lots of people sitting in the coolth watching movies on the laptops! I am sure that some very important work gets done there, though. I hope.
This picture is across the street for one of Juba’s markets, a bustling tent-like bazaar of just about anything you can think of – mostly food and clothing, but plenty of high end mobile phones, motorbikes, televisions, and electronics. Here a woman is thinking about crossing the dusty main road, looking at the steady stream of four-wheel drived vehicles – I have never seen so many of them per square kilometre as I did in Juba. Not just with UN markings – everyone working or doing business here seems to have one.
Norman Brierley and me teaching basic radio awareness and doing some planning work with missionary Vince Ward and local person, John Kwash. The kids in the background were a permanent feature, and would slowly get closer and closer until right up against the mosquito screen. There they would stand and stare, not really understanding a word, but fascinated by these strange people living in their village. Dinka people are friendly, and have to greet anyone they pass. So we spent a lot of time telling people our names, but most had not concept of the UK or America. Strangely, a lot of the older kids would ask us: ‘how do you do?’ and we doubt they got that from Canadian missionaries! This training and meetings took place inside our hut.
We have often dreamed of being able to take a holiday with some friends, on a long-boat and doing the canals of Britain. Maybe that should be the canals of Wales – after the beautiful scenes we saw today.
ONE EXPLODING FIREWORK I MANAGED TO GET A SHOT OF
Watching Inspector Morse on ITV3 was interrupted tonight by loud pops and explosions. Someone not that far away was having a firework display, and it went on for at least 10 minutes with beautiful colours. I tried to take some pictures, and snapped away a couple of dozen, but only a couple were in focus. Not sure at all what the ocassion was.
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