the all-in-one-weekend

unbelievable but true this last weekend proved to be an all-inclusive one with a list of things and events as long as you can see: not only was i able to spend two full days in the garden (after six weeks of rain and misery!) but - hold your breath - we got the computer back, unrepaired as predicted, but deac had lined up the next guy and he really took the computer and returned it fully fixed in less than 36 hours. but at a time when i was actually quite happy to live the computer-free outdoor live it turned out that my birthday present (in fact one of many) from deac and fred was ready and so to biggin hill on sunday morning. about twenty minutes of instructions (yes, on the red model) to give me the faintest clue on what to do in the air and off we went, rike in the back and husband left on the ground, just in case...

a ninety minutes flight to the sea along the river over ebbsfleet and gravesend, with gorgeous views right across to canary wharf and battersea power station, a nervous instructor (german! from a town near where i was born!), a wreck of a flying student, and a very happy camper in the back taking pics from every angle.

yoke and throttle were the most used words in what can only be called a proper language on its own, and while i desperately tried to remember what was what my dear teacher had already moved to the next set of expressions, like mcp and pfd, and the only sentence i really enjoyed was "i am in control", which i had to say everytime i wanted to touch something and of course because it was so utterly untrue.

what else did we do? after the flight we had lunch, then riding, then shopping, then swimming (rike), then a wonderful dinner and "over"!!!

soon more pics from the air!