Pima Air and Space Museum

I had a spare couple of hours yesterday and managed to get to see the Pima Air and Space Museum. I have been past this and the "Boneyard" many times over the years but never had the time to look inside. It was well worth the visit; at a reduced fee as I am over 62, who said that there are no benefits in aging! The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) known as the Boneyard is where over 4000 (yes four thousand) planes are stored. Some can be made airworthy othere are used as spares for planes in service others are scrapped and sold. As an example there are B52 bombers there that were scrapped as a condition of one on of the disarmnament treaties with the Soviet Union.

 

The air museum itself is fascinating, planes of all shapes and sizes from early planes to some of the latest. The guided walking tours were excellent and the guides extremely knowledgeable.  It was a well spent couple of hours.

An American Original

I am in Tucson Arizona on business. It is good to see that the arch typical American is alive and well.

Diaconal Studies

As I have mentioned previously on the Blog I am in a three year formation program which, DV, will lead to me being ordained as a Deacon. We have this topic to write about; I would welcome your views on this:
Your best friend has been living for years with an unrelenting painful affliction. There is no known cure and no effective pain control. Although the condition is not in itself life threatening, your friend is incontinent and bed-ridden. Your friend tells you that he or she can no longer stand the pain, embarrassment, and dependency and wants to end their life. He or she has given this  a great deal of thought and pleads with you to leave several blister packs of paracetamol by the bed. What would you do?
Give clearly argued reasons for your answer. You may put the answer in letter form addressed to your friend if you wish.

Online banking

My bank, NatWest, is the latest one to go down. I wonder which computer problem this will be assigned to?

My Goodness My Guinness

I spent a couple of days in Ireland last week on business. In the evening I went to a pub, as one does, to sample a Guinness. I am not sure what it is about Guinness in Ireland, but it does taste better than over here in England. It used to be said that it was because the English pint was brewed at Park Royal in London and not in Dublin. It was therefore missing the magic ingredient of the water from the River Liffey (actually the water comes from the Wicklow Mountains, specifically, Lady's Well).The Park Royal brewery is now closed and it is all brewed in Dublin. So is it really different, is that it "doesn't travel" or is it psychological?

Spot the Barry!

This is one of the "large" group photos taken at our niece's wedding.

Fancy this for a daily commute?

Gives me the shakes just looking, click here to see a great way to get to work!

Christmas and New Year 2010

As always this proved to be a rather hectic time; but very enjoyable. It started on Wednesday 22nd December when we took our former Parish Priest, Father Pat to Westminster Cathedral for their "Christmas Celebration" which is a service of choir singing, reading and carols plus a reflection by Archbishop Vincent - a great evening. That evening Helena arrived home for Christmas, as always it is great to see her.
Then on the Thursday Phil, Julia's twin sister arrived with husband Peter, they were still celebrating their daughter's wedding the previous weekend. That evening Phil's other daughter, Natalie came over with boyfriend Pete for dinner. A most enjoyable evening.
Friday saw Peter and I go to join up with the a host of other Mellishs for a pre-dinner drink - mine was J2O as I was driving. Nevertheless it was a good to meet up although numbers were down, largely due to the cold and snow. Lawrie and Emma arrived in the early evening. Then later that evening we all went to the carol service followed by Midnight Mass at St. Joseph's Church. Then back home to a couple of bottles of bubbly to toast in Christmas. So we eventually got to bed around 4am; not a good idea.
Christmas day our good friend Father Peter ( a surfeit of Peter's this year) came over. We lunched late around 4 pm, but were amply fed with nibbles, smoked salmon etc whilst we waited (plus more bubbly).
After a great lunch there was the grand present opening - with 11 of us at home there were plenty of presents to say the least.

After the present opening it was party time which consisted of various games starting with a Christmas quiz and ending with charades with various activities in between, again a rather late night!
On Boxing Day Father Peter had to go "back to work" in his parish. Our friend Mike came over for lunch just to keep the numbers up. Again a great day this time finishing at the relatively early hour of 2am. The one sad thing was that Phil and Peter had to leave after dinner as they had commitments t'up North This was the first Christmas that we have spent with them and we certainly thoroughly enjoyed it. I just hope that they did.
On the Monday Father Pat came for lunch along with two other friends, Paddy and Veronica. Again we had a great time although this time they all left early although we stayed up with Helena, Lawrie and Emma playing more games - the TV had a good rest.
On Tuesday we went up to town around Covent Garden. Had a good Turkish lunch out; but dreadful service! As always the street entertainers were good.

Quite what he was doing juggling knives up a ladder in his underpants takes a lot of explaining - he started off in a kit and no he is not Scottish.

 On the Wednesday Helena left to go back to work and Lawrie also left as he was on duty on Thursday (he returned Thursday night). New Year's Eve was sober for Julia and I as we went to evening prayers at 11:30 followed by Midnight Mass. We did go back to the presbytery for a drink with Father Tom when the service was over.
So the year has drawn to a close. I did manage to keep this Blog going - a minor miracle. We are not quite sure what 2011 will bring. There is repairs work to be done at the lodge as we suffered burst pipes in the extreme cold and for some reason the boiler tripped out. Julia and I celebrate our Ruby Wedding Anniversary and hopefully her leg will soon be cleared of the ulcer which has now been with her for nine months. I will continue the Diaconate Studies and hopefully my essays will pass muster. What else........?

Happy New Year one and all, may 2011 bring you peace, good health and prosperity.