Entered on 30 August 2002 at 9:20 a.m..
Helicopters, Hedgehogs and Pear-shaped
Yesterday was rather eventful as I went for my first helicopter ride. One of the guys here, Jason, is a helicopter pilot and he offered Jenny and I a ride yesterday. We provided him the excuse he needed to rent a larger helicopter, that he wanted to fly in anyway. So off we went on a 30 minute tour of Cranfield and surrounds from about 1000 ft. It was amazing. We flew in brandnew R44 helicopter, which had plastic/glass everwhere so you could really see well. I was astounded at how smooth the flight was, not like being in a little Cessna at all, much quieter and not nearly so much turbulance. I took some photos, and when I finish up the roll and get them developed, I'll post a few.
The other grand event in my life yesterday happed at around 8:30 last evening as I was watching TV in our darkened living room. In the twilight I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. Now normally we get all kinds of birds doing rather amusing things outside of our glass doors, so I turned to see what was up. Then I saw it again, and to my delight there was a little hedgehog making his way along the edge of the grass towards our hedge, not more than 3 feet from me. For those of you who haven't seen many hedgehogs in your time, they are extremely cute as they are about these size of a large turtle, only fuzzy. I watched him for a while, but he eventually turned into the hedge and out of sight.
Lastly for my journal entry for today is the british phrase, "It's all gone pear shaped." Similar to our "Its all gone sour." I find it very amusing and have heard it used often recently, so I thought I'd mention it.