RIAT 2017

This summer I fulfilled a life-long plane geek dream of going to the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) for the first time. RIAT is the UK's (and must surely be one of the world's) biggest air show. It's held over 3 official show days at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. Whilst it only has 3 official days, in reality it stretches over nearly a week with people arriving at the campsites dotted around the airfield as early as Wednesday to watch the arrivals. 

We drove up on the Thursday, whilst a large proportion of the journey was spent by my parents arguing with the Sat Nav that tried to send us up ever smaller country lanes, we were lucky enough to see the U2 Spy Plane in the distance arriving at the show.

As we got nearer to the campsite we were treated to some of the Cotswolds' famous yellow brick buildings. I've actually been to the Cotswolds before, a college trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon but all I can honestly remember from that trip is my friends and I chasing a bee out of the room that we were staying in, resulting in much squealing and flapping of pillows.

Our campsite, Townsend Farm had a beautiful farmhouse and a barn used for weddings etc (or in this case 100s of hungry campers in need of a burger and a beer!). 

The farmhouse

Barn and campers!

Now I must point out that when I mention Dad, Mum and I camping I really mean 'glamping' (although they will deny it). My idea of camping is the festival experience tent, groundsheet, loo rolls being a prized possession, port-a-loos (if you're lucky) and a hair-wash in a washing up bowl being considered luxury. Instead we took Dad's off-road caravan. He designed and built it himself  and boasts a pull out stove, awnings that can be attached either side (I had my own personal bedroom), it's completely powered by solar panels, has a built in music system and even an attachable shower tent! It immediately attracted the attention of a group of army engineers when we pulled into the field, a pretty good indication of how cool it is! Even though it still resembles a burger van (sorry Dad).

Stolen off of Dad's Facebook, sadly there was no beach available on-site

Setting up the caravan whilst I was scanning the skies

Aaaand relax

The caravan even comes with optional fairy lights, very useful when finding your way back in the dark!

The campsite is right next to the runway so we were in the ideal spot to see aircraft landing. I'd assumed that we wouldn't see much until we went into the show the day after, boy was I wrong. From the moment we pulled up aircraft were coming over left, right and center!

The first 'official' RIAT snap was of these two Tutors arriving

Camera at the ready!

Best of all one of the first aircraft that came over when we arrived were two Tornados. Anyone who knows me will know I worship at the alter of Tornados and they're my absolute favourite aircraft. So to look up just 5 minutes after we'd pulled in and see a pair coming in lead to squeals of excitement. (Sorry to all the other campers).

Tea and Tornados - perfect!

After that aircraft were coming in literally every 5 minutes, in fact we saw as many aircraft in those few hours as one would see at an all day airshow!

Typhoons

No zoom needed! This Hercules nearly scraped the solar panels off of the top of the caravan!

Poseidon on final approach

The planes weren't the only interesting birds around. These buzzards are beautiful

The other benefit of arriving early was getting a sneak peek at the PDAs (Public Display Authorisations - not diplays of affection .... that would be weird ...) and rehearsals from various teams. 

The Midnight Hawks (lucky we saw them on Thursday as they were unable to fly on Saturday due to the weather)

We were also able to see the Patrouille Suisse PDA, unfortunately for Mum and Dad this lead to a lot of Top Gun quotes from me. The team fly F5 Tigers which were used as the fictional 'MIG-28s'' in the film.

"Woah MIG-28s! No-one's been this close before!"

We also got a sneak-peek at the USAF Thunderbirds display and, most excitingly, the late addition to the show of a Ukrainian Airforce SU27 Flanker. We used to see Flankers at loads of shows back in the late 90s/early 00s and it was great to see one again.

You can see clips of the Tornado, Typhoon, Hercules, Midnight Hawks, A400M and SU27's arrivals and PDAs on my YouTube channel. 

I wanted to make sure I remembered everything I saw over the weekend so made sure I wrote it all down -

Combining my love of lists and planes.

Despite being on holiday I woke up early on Friday morning. 

I call this 'geeking anticipation' face

I'd just drifted back off to sleep only to be rudely re-awakened by the Thunderbirds and 2 F22s taking off just after 7.30 (Best alarm clock ever!!).

Morning greetings from a Globemaster

Post 'luxury' washing up bowl treatment

We'd chosen to go into the show itself on the 'quieter' Friday. The short walk to the base meant walking under the flight path and nearly getting flattened by a Typhoon and a Sea King coming in to land (not quite as close as this encounter at RAF Waddington and yes before you ask that would be my dream).

Annoyingly I didn't have the camera ready to catch it as it flew right over us

Hi there

As we got in to the show we were greeted by the return of the two 'alarm clock' F22 Raptors.

The airshow opens at 7.30am and now I see why, the static display is almost 5 miles long! We didn't see a huge amount as we didn't want to miss the flying. I did, however, manage to stumble across an old friend .....

I'm a Tornado fan-girl and proud!

Mum and Dad doing 'patient parents' expressions

RIAT is known for it's special combinations of aircraft (see the Red Arrows & Vulcan back in 2015) and we were treated to a joint flypast by the Red Arrows & The Thunderbirds -

The mighty reds then officially opened the show and set the standard for the rest of the day 

Wing to wing!

If you like F-16s then RIAT is the show for you! With F-16s from the Belgian, Turkish and US Airforces and of course the F-16s operated by the Thunderbirds it's practically an F-16 convention!

The Belgian Air Force F-16

CV-22 Osprey

The RAF Typhoon 'Bringing The Noise'

The Chinook display is always good fun

The impressive Couteau Delta display team

I really enjoyed this Slovenian PC9 trainer, it was incredibly maneuverable, I believe the pilot won
one of the many awards handed out at the end of the show.

The theme of RIAT 2017 was the celebration of a 100 Years of the US Airforce (USAF), to mark it there was a special flypast of types operated by the USAF in the UK.

KC135 Stratotanker

C130 Hercules

F-15s

F-16s

The Thunderbirds closed the show in style -

But the star of the show (aside from the static Tornado obviously) was the F-22 Raptor. Just wow!

"We're going ballistic Mav, go get him!"

"Let's turn and burn"

An utterly insane display

My shaky camerawork doesn't do it's display justice thankfully this is exactly what https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb2XgRAeC3w was invented for!

We watched the show from the comfort of the caravan on Saturday - in my humble opinion there's nothing as patriotic as enjoying a full English fry up and cup of tea whilst watching the Red Arrows.

Unfortunately the British 'summer' got in the way of some of the earlier displays, the F-22, Typhoon, F-18 & Midnight Hawks had to call off their performances. 

Thankfully I got to see the Italian Airforce Tornado IDS -

It was the first Tornado display I've seen in years and was full of my favourite low altitude high-speed passes (surely the best bit of any jet display let's be honest). 

We had some really low passes by both the Red Arrows -

I spent the whole display trying to get a patriotic photo of one of them with this RAF flag, unfortunately this was the best I got .....

The best moment of the day came courtesy of the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF). Anyone familiar with their displays will  remember that they tend to do 2/3 passes in their formation before breaking for their solo pieces. We were lucky enough to have the formation break directly over our caravan, it was absolutely stunning. Unfortunately neither Dad nor I got that moment on film but I did manage a few other shots of them in all their glory -

The A400M is always worth watching, despite having seen it display for a number of years now it still staggers me how it can be thrown about the sky as if it was a fighter, rather than the heavy transport aircraft that it is. 

Sticking with the theme of transport aircraft I recommend that you check out the 'Spartan' if it happens to be at an airshow with you. It's ridiculously maneuverable and the Italian Air Force put on a really spirited display with theirs'. 

Adding to the USAF theme for the weekend shows were B-17 Flying Fortress 'Sally B' and a P-51 Mustang. 

We were perfectly placed for the Thunderbirds display, we had a number of passes right over us. My new aim in life is to be the 5th Thunderbird who's job it is to fly fast and noisily along the display line!

My noisy spirit-guide

I was really pleased to finally see a solo Rafale display, I'd heard lots of good things about for a few years and it didn't disappoint. 

Such lovely weather

I loved the paintwork

Heading over the top of us to land

The one benefit of the bad weather that rolled back in for the end of the flying display was the vapourtastic photos I managed to get of the SU-27

You can see how close the planes came to us in my other YouTube video. 

RIAT was such a fantastic weekend and it sounds silly to say but I really miss it. I'm already saving the pennies to try and convince Dad we need to go next year ...... possibly to a site with better toilets. 

The things I've learned from the Air Tattoo are -

1. Don't go if for some odd reason you don't like F-16s

2. Go into the grounds as early as possible to have any chance of looking around the static display.

3. Be prepared to photograph as many trees and caravans as you do aircraft (right Dad?)

And finally ...

4. No matter how loud the display, Mum will always fall asleep!

Love Jen

XxxX

Who you calling fangirl?

This morning I got an email from EMP (online store for lots of punk & goth pretties) advertising "This Is what fangirls wear on the beach" . Now I admit due to already being in a foul mood due to work issues, PMT and losing my beautiful Stellybear a week ago but I really lost my rag with this.

The term 'Fangirl' really winds me up. It's normally used to describe female fans of artists or bands who constantly squeal and hyperventilate over Twitter/Facebook, worshipping them and obsess over their favourite member/s (don't even get me started on the creepy trend I've seen on Instagram and Twitter of referring to musicians as 'Dad' or 'Mum' it makes my skin crawl). Unfortunately the Fangirl label seems to be handed to any of us gals who are into music.

It would appear that due to having boobs and a vagina that I can't be trusted to like bands without going all teenage about them. Now when I was a teenager I was fangirly over bands with members I had crushes on (Hi 911, A1 & N*Sync - actually lets face it I still like N*Sync and Justin Timberlake is still hot) and cared more about that than the output of musical quality. I didn't have the apprehension that I do now when a favourite artist releases a new album as to whether I'll like it or not.

So my protestations that I like 30STM, Nirvana, Lady GaGa, Green Day, Deap Vally et all for their music are apparently misguided. If I get asked one more time "Ah so are you a Jared fan then?", with matching smirk, when I'm talking about Mars' music I may actually commit murder. Shockingly I got into them before I knew who the hell any of them were. I heard Attack on the radio and thought it was awesome and the rest as they say is history. I know the next argument will be "But you've seen them soooo many times and been abroad" well yes I have *slow clap* but they are quite frankly one of the best live bands I've ever had the fortune to see and whilst I can afford to I shall continue to do so.

I'm not going to lie and saw that I don't find Jared & Shannon from 30STM, Lady GaGa & Billie-Joe from Green Day attractive because frankly they fit my 'Tattooed rock n roller' taste. But it irks me that people assume that it's the only reason I like them. Put it this way I'm not going to listen to/go and see someone just because they're aesthetically pleasing.

And in answer to what do I wear on the beach? It mostly co-ordinates with my Top Gun hat and camera as I'm plane geeking!

Love Jen

XxxX 

Ps Dear 30 Seconds To Mars if you don't release your goddam album soon I'll be covering my Triad tattoo with a portrait of Justin Bieber!

Sun Worship

It's currently 32 degrees in our office with 4 fans going, Facebook and Twitter are full of updates stating the bloomin obvious that it's H-O-T! I'm trying my hardest not to move should I melt into a pool of polka dots, tattoos and earrings. Pollen is my nemesis stabbing my eyes, flooding my nose and prickling my eczema and I feel rough from not sleeping well the last couple of nights from the heat - although it's amazing how quickly the noise from a fan can fade into the background. Everyone is short and snappy for the same reasons but I actually love this.

 As you all know summer is my favourite season and even when it's this hot and on occasion makes me as snappy as the next person the heat and sunshine still lifts my spirits. I may be stuck in a furnace of an office but I like knowing that I can venture outside to the courtyard with Helen at lunch and enjoy the warmth. I like that a BBQ is always potentially on the cards. Eating dinner or lunch of any kind outside is one of life's simple pleasures. I like knowing that tomorrow post-work I'll be able to fit in a swim at the hospital pool and still have time to put the girls on the grass as it won't get dark or chilly 'till late in the evening (in fact last night I was still reading my book in the garden at 9.30 - the girls had long since put themselves to bed!).

 Speaking of swimming, as some of you will have seen from my Instagram post, I had my first swim since 2006 last week. I'd forgotten how much I love being in the water! Years of having a boyfriend who couldn't and wouldn't swim, thinking I was too fat for a swimming costume and my natural abilities as a jellyfish magnet were dismissed the minute I jumped in. I find cutting through the water exhilarating and then floating lazily soothing for the soul. By the end of my 45 minute session my entire body ached, I couldn't move my arms without cramping but I was on a real high. I've re-discovered something I'd lost from earlier, happier times. I don't care about health benefits, whether I may lose weight, doubtful since I'm currently eating my (quite considerable) body weight in Ben & Jerry's for their 'cooling properties' or getting a tan (dear god no). I care about getting back in touch with my inner water-baby who had to be physically dragged from the sea or pool as a kid.

 Us Brits aren't cut out for the heat, we do tend to turn into a sweating, wobbly mass the moment the temperature passes about 22c but in a few days/weeks time when it's grey and raining we'll be complaining about "the Great British Summer" . I am at the advantage of not being stuck on the train to London every day (well when they run) and only having to spend 40 minutes tops on the bus home, admittedly that was a test in itself yesterday with screaming brats and two older gentlemen who spent the entire journey from the hospital to town complaining about the heat and why couldn't do something about it? I intend to make the most of the current weather, tomorrow it's the summer solstice which means a 4am trip to the downs to watch the sun come up, marking the high point of the year (I try to stamp down the pessimist in me that points out that the nights will now be slowly drawing in).

 And let's face it, as a country we could really do with a few rays of sunshine at the moment.

Love Jen

XxxX

Now We Are 30!

I always loved AA Milne's 'Now We Are Six' poem as a kid. It fits a child's idea of growing older perfectly. Now I promise not to perform any poetry on the subject of my birthday, especially as it would be about the same standard as Vogon Poetry. Instead I want to share with you all photos from my celebrations and describe how much fun we had!

Technically I started my birthday celebrations some weeks back when I treated myself to a set of tattoos. 

The first is a music note to make sure that I'm always listening to a happy tune

The arrow is on my arm and represents a poem that my Dad sent me.

"An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great. So just focus, and keep aiming."

The main tattoo is on my lower leg and shin. It's a mixture of the original illustrations from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by John Tenniel.  The main image of Alice and the cards relates to the quote "Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) 'You're nothing but a pack of cards!" I try to remember this when I'm having bad thoughts that overwhelm and scare me, I try to imagine them as a pack of cards, easily thrown away. 

And now back to the day itself! I'd booked the function room at The Arlington Arms so that I could spend the evening surrounded by my loved ones to celebrate.

I started off with my first trip to the hairdressers in over a year and the first time I've had it styled since my school prom (about 14 years ago)!

I had it styled in a cool Rockabilly look -

I'd decided ages ago that if I did decide to have a party then the theme would have to be Alice In Wonderland. I also wanted to incorporate my love of plane geekery so ordered some plane themed selfie-props and put up some photos I'd taken at airshows. 

I added a little red heart to fit with the Alice theme.

My Alice print dress

I always like to make photo boards at parties to celebrate the fun times I've had with friends and family

Alice in Wonderland and Plane themed selfie-props

Good work by Chris & Coleman!

These are the best photos of the night!

Firstly the Richardson Mafia was out in force - 

Phil and Amanda

Amanda, Phil and Helen

Playing the 'Drag Queen Name Generator' with Luke and Barry

Chris & Vana with John & Delize

I think these might be my new airshow essentials!

Helen and I trying out the photo props

Sounds about right!

Hilary, Luke & Tone

Me and Hilary

The pink hat was popular with Tone ........

....... And Jamie!

The party bags kept everyone quiet!

It was an absolutely brilliant night and I genuinely felt like a princess, I loved my hair, my dress and most of all spending the evening with all of you. 

Love you all 

Jen

XxxX

 

Making Your Mind Up

With just 2 more days to go until the General Election the political parties and broadcasters are ramping up their campaigning, fighting for every single vote. There is also a lot of work being done to ensure that young people register to vote and take part in the democratic process.

This means harnessing youngsters' attention across social media, TV, radio, music and more. I think it's incredibly important to make sure they're included in politics as to use a cliche they are the future. However I am getting quite annoyed with the biased way they are dictating to the same demographic who to vote for.

Last week's NME dedicated it's entire front page  and leading article to Jeremy Corbin & Labour's campaign inviting readers to ask questions and detailing the Labour manifesto. Mike Williams uses his Editor's letter to tell the readership to vote for Corbin as does Leonie Cooper in her opinion column. Tomorrow's issue of Kerrang! also promotes Corbin's campaign.

My problem with the coverage isn't because they're worshipping Labour, they are perfectly entitled to give their opinions on who they believe are the best candidates. What worries me is that whilst they are encouraging young people to make their voices heard they are only presenting them with one option.

There are currently 12 different parties represented in the UK Parliament, all who are up for election in their various constituencies across the country. Surely they should all be covered too? NME derides Theresa May and the Tories as a danger to the country hell-bent on sending us all to poverty to keep the rich comfortable. But should they not give equal, or at least some, column inches to what the Conservatives, Lib Dems, Green Party, SNP or even UKIP have to say?

Whatever your political beliefs surely you must agree that it's equally dangerous to give young voters the message that only one party is the answer, without mentioning other parties' policies or pledges. To be fully engaged with the political process everyone needs to do their research, to understand what each party is offering. Not to be dictated to by the media and biased left or right wing coverage.

My plea to anyone, young or old casting their votes is to make sure you can make the most informed decision possible as to which box to put your X in on Thursday.

Love Jen
XxxX

A is for Anxiety

Yet another night going to bed anxious and wired out of my fucking skull. My efforts to have a nice calm last few weeks of my 20s are well out the window, across the street and narrowly missing smashing windows!

I can't take any more of the permanent panic attack that I'm in. I can't look at the buns without wanting to sob hysterically. I actually dread opening the hutch first thing in the morning in case I find one of them has passed away overnight. I love them so much, they're the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning.

I hate that I have to upset Stelly every morning by tipping her upside down and trying to wipe her. It upsets her which makes me feel even worse, but the potential alternatives are horrendous. I worry that Esme feels neglected because of all the focus being on Stelly's health. We're off to the vets again tomorrow to see if they can give any advice on better ways to keep her clean, show us how to give a butt bath etc.

I'm scared that I'm going to lose my job with all the time off I'm having. When I'm at work I have to fill myself up on coffee to make up for the exhaustion from my sleepless night's. The coffee then gives me panic attacks and sicky headaches. I don't want to lose my job, I really enjoy it! If I say so myself I'm the best envelope stuffer in the West!

I honestly don't know how much more stress I can take before I really do have a major meltdown. Meeting this new therapist on Wednesday can't come soon enough!!!!

Love Jen
XxxX

Ps where in God's name is the new 30 Seconds To frigging Mars album? Pull your fingers out lads before I ditch you for 21 Pilots (*shudder*)

Off Down The Mine!

In a more positive blog, today I want to share a website I came across about living with BPD. I initially was trawling the internet to see if I could find any advice about working when you have BPD since my job is seriously on the line at the moment. This website flashed up, it’s an American site but the advice is applicable to anyone - https://www.verywell.com/borderline-personality-disorder-4014754 .

It covers every kind of subtopic you can think of such as coping with stress, avoiding triggers and to more ‘out there’ topics such as “what is splitting?” (something I seem to suffer from – basically ‘all or nothing thinking’ ) https://www.verywell.com/what-is-splitting-425210 and debating whether Mindfullness is a useful tool (didn’t work for me as my brain doesn’t do calm!).

 I was especially interested in what they had to say about the kind of work/jobs that suited people with BPD and they had a theoretical case study which sounded quite familiar to my experiences.

 The New Job—From a Happy Start to an Angry End

Bruce is always very excited when he begins a new job. He tells everyone he sees how fulfilling the work is, and for the first few weeks, he cannot say enough about how much he likes his boss and co-workers. He talks up the company and shares his dreams about moving into more and more responsible roles.

However, after only a short time, Bruce begins to feel that his boss is "out to get him." He perceives every work request or direction as an unfair criticism. He also becomes increasingly frustrated about working with his co-workers. He complains about what he sees as their lacklustre efforts that no one else seems to notice or care about.

By this time, it's clear to Bruce that his supervisors and co-workers don't like him and are picking on him.

Eventually, Bruce comes to believe that the people at the office are trying to find reasons to fire him, and he reacts in a rage. He yells and swears at his boss while complaining about how unfair the situation is and "always has been." His angry outburst and disrespect toward his boss can only end one way: Bruce is let go to search for another new job. There is further detail here https://www.verywell.com/example-of-bpd-at-work-425151

This is scarily similar to my workplace experiences and does lead me to wonder if I’m actually the problem or at fault for a lot of the bad experiences I’ve had? My difficulty concentrating caused loads of problems at my last job and I’m now unsure if I really was being bullied at CMS/Veritek (although I’m still hedging towards it ).

 I’m really glad I found the site though as it seems that it’ll be a mine of useful information and I intend to dig deep!

 

Love Jen

XxxX