Crunchy ‘Nanas

One of the advantages of living right across the road from Manston airport is you get a free airshow in your backyard without any warning. It’s like finding the $20 you hid in your Christmas stocking last year when you have no recollection of ever planting it in the first place: an exciting surprise. Last weekend, we got two shows, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Now they’re short, mind you, a loop or two, but exciting all the same. And so loud, you can feel the energy in the air.

On Saturday, I was driving back from Margate along the back road behind Manston when all of a sudden I saw a formation come out of nowhere and drop colored smoke. By the time I reached the airport perimeter, the planes were landing right over me. I flustered for a moment- there’s nowhere to pull over! That was until I realized that everyone was just stopping in the middle of the road, anyway. So that was cool. I got to watch a red arrow land right over my car. Nice!

As exciting as that was, the photographer in me was a little disappointed because I didn’t have my camera in the car (what? I know, strange, though actually I could have busted out my fancy new camera phone, but I don’t do phones in cars- it’s not safe, but then again neither was the positioning of cars in the road at this moment either), and by the time I got home they were done. However, I was sitting upstairs on Sunday, as you do, and I thought a spaceship was landing on our house. I ripped down the stairs, grabbed the camera, and ran outside. Obviously, I didn’t get the lens cap off in time for the red arrows’ low flight over the roof (according to Crunchy husband it was cool), but I did get these shots. I also learned something very important. Crunchy husband has never seen “Top Gun”. I married an alien.

Yes, I know airshows are bad for the environment, and believe me, I think we need to conserve all the fuel we can. I read an article in New Scientist last week that had me picturing world travel reverting back to the seas, me and the honey rowing home for Christmas. This article discussed how it’s really hard to find a green solution for jet fuel because it needs to be energy dense, remain fluid at -50 degrees C, and found all over the world. But, it brings up the idea that algae could be an alternative. It’s pretty far off, has lots of issues to get through and may never be a viable solution, but man, it had me ready to run down to the beach and start tossing all the stinky seaweed I could smell into buckets for fuel rations. It could just be the solution to the stench on some of the beaches around here this summer. (I love seaweed, I really do, I just don’t like the smell…and we’ve had a particularly smelly summer.) So yes, I know it wastes precious energy. But, you can’t help but enjoy it when it’s happening anyway, right over your head.

This entry was posted on Monday, 18th August 2008 at  20:19 and is filed under Random foliage. You can follow responses to this entry using the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.