Those Magnificent Men…
Thursday the other week I was working at home and kept hearing this loud buzzing noise. Kind of like a massive weed-eater having a go at a large flax bush. Hanging out on the balcony to see what was going on I spotted little planes twisting and turning up the Thames. Not very far away from the Thames at all really. Height wise, that is! Practice for the Red Bull air race was going on right on our doorstep! Entertainment for a while, and I didn’t even have to leave the house!
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, these guys race time-trial style through a course of blow up cones. These cones sit on the ground, or on the Thames in this case, and they have to go through them. At up to 400kph. Madness! The official site is here, if you want more detail.
As a bonus, on the Saturday we managed to get some spare “Local Residents” free tickets that meant we could sit in the grandstands right on the river and see them all up close, as well as put up with the pretty awful commentators. (They should really have done more homework about London and the area. Would have made them seem less like muppets!) As well as the racing, there was a neat display by a helicopter doing all sorts of things that helicopters were surely not meant to be able to do, like loops and rolls etc. Impressive. Mighty impressive.
A good day out, but I wouldn’t pay for a ticket, I think.
