Hello everyone and welcome to the first Halloween blog of 2023. Over the next few months I'll be investigating all the Halloween wares that shops and websites have to offer along with other spooky fun.
We're starting off the celebrations with good old TK Maxx who's store here in Eastbourne has quite a lot in already.
I won't be purchasing (Well trying not to anyway 😂) as much this year as I'll only have my room to decorate. Also as a witch Halloween/Samhain is an important spiritual celebration and I want to keep that in mind with my rituals this year.
So here's what TK Maxx had to offer!
Most people like Christmas snow globes, I like Halloween snow globes!
Amongst the snow globes there was a haunted house that I'd really like for my 'Haunted House Shelf' so I may go back for it (🤞it's still there).
The haunted shelf last year
Unfortunately the Halloween gonks are back for 2023 .......
Give me the er Halloween sparrow any day
I have the 'big' version of these little Pumpkins
I really like the book of spells cushion and may have to go back for it ... cushions are always practical right? .....
I have however definitely banned myself from any more Autumn/Halloween candles as I do have 100s 😬
I could of course buy lots of cooking accessories and terrify everyone!
Ironically I actually only came away with a lovely crystal. This gorgeous slice of Agate was on the shelf with the garden accessories (as you do) so at least I managed to get some witchiness into my day!
Hello! After over 2000 photos to edit and multiple videos to review I'm finally here with a blog about our slightly er muddy experience at The Royal International Air Tattoo this year.
The drive to RIAT takes about 3-4 hours depending on traffic and arguments with the sat nav, bridge closures you get the idea. You can always tell when we're close as you start to see buildings made from the distinctive Cotswold stone.
As we do every year we stayed on Townsend Farm which gives some really great views of the aircraft (more on that in a minute). We'd also travelled up on Wednesday rather than our usual Thursday to see more aircraft.
Rocking my RAF Display Teams hat - that's a parachute on it not a mushroom as Helen thought
All set up
As we parked up I heard the unmistakable sound of jets getting airborne and was over the moon when I realised that it was my favourite ever aircraft Tornados in formation with an A400M. These were from the Luftwaffe and were part of the 'Skytanker 23' theme celebrating 100 years of air-to-air refueling.
Thank you Germany!
Currently my phone background
Throughout the day there were more arrivals and practice displays (PDAs). As is tradition we went up to the bar in the evening, they have a lovely converted barn with a covered area and outdoor seating.
We loved this table
A G&T to round off the day
Our campsite by night
The next day was the perfect lazy day of sitting around the campsite waiting for the aircraft to come to us 😆 from 9am until about 7pm we saw almost 90 (yes I just grabbed my notebook and counted) arrivals and PDAs! Absolute heaven!
It was absolutely brilliant to see Harriers again. The UK retired ours for some unknown reason back in 2010 and they were always such an airshow favourite of ours. So thank you to Spain and Italy for sending us some!
Spanish Harrier in action
One very notable arrival and PDA came from the ME262. The ME262 was the world's first operational jet fighter right at the end of WW2 and there's only one flying example in the world.
A few more arrivals and PDAs -
Italian Master
Luftwaffe A400M
USAF KC135 Tanker
PC21
RAF A400M
USAF F35
One of the final arrivals of the day was the Greek F4 Phantom, unfortunately it arrived as we were queuing for food and we only saw a flash of it. So please enjoy this photo of the air space just after the Phantom passed by ....
The day ended with a lovely sunset and unfortunately that was the last of the decent weather .......
The next morning we awoke to the sound of heavy rain and it DID.NOT.STOP for the rest of the day. Seriously fuck the British weather! Unfortunately it was also the day we were due to go into the show itself. I decided to leave my camera at the caravan so as not to risk damaging it in monsoon conditions.
My thoughts on the sodding weather
Here are some soggy static participants -
RAF Poseidon
RAF A400M
RAF F35
RAF Hawk T2
RAF Typhoon & F35
Seafire
USAF F15
USAF F35 & Globemaster
I was also pleased to discover an F1 crossover with this mock up of this season's Williams car.
I do love the look of the new generation of cars
Shockingly some aircraft did fly, a massive round of applause to the organisers and air crew for getting the planes into the air and displaying.
We left after a couple of hours (especially when the rain started to soak through our waterproofs) but stopped at the end of the runway to watch the Danish F16 and were treated to it landing right over our heads!
Our view for the rest of the day from inside the awning
Even our lights had lakes
The next day dawned drizzly with low cloud and with scenes reminiscent of the famous Glastonbury mud baths (guys when I said I missed Glastonbury I meant the town and Chalice Well not the festival!).
Red Ted enjoying his breakfast cuppa
The weather was thankfully a bit better for those headed into the base, we had showers but not the whole day and even had some sunshine 😨. The main issue facing the organisers was the strong wind which put paid to any warbirds flying and some of the jets like the ME262 (thank god we saw it on Thursday), Czech Gripen and B52. But obviously safety must come first for everyone involved.
We did get plenty of action over the top of us (in between moving our chairs in and out of the awning dodging showers) here are some of the highlights.
The French Rafale put on a great display -
Gripen
This beautiful SAAB SK60
Colour was the name of the game with the great coloured smoke from the Saudi Hawks and Fursan Al Emarat.
Swedish Gripen
The Finnish F18 bringing some Top Gun vibes
Belgian F16 'Dream Viper'
A flypast from an RAF Voyager Tanker and the Finnish F18 celebrating Finland joining NATO -
The USAF contribution to the tanker theme, a CV22 Osprey and Hercules
The RAF Typhoon looking mean and moody
Another international display team were the Spanish Patrulla Aguila -
Last but not least is this RAF F35 in the hover -
It was another fantastic year despite the vile weather on Friday (once again fuck you British weather!!!) and I can't wait until next year.
