Flights, and flights of fancy

Flying's expensive - in the foreground, an Aston Martin

 

Helicopters as well as fixed-wing planes and gliders at Shobdon

 

Drove Professional Bleeder and VR to Shobdon Airfield yesterday. Watched light planes take off and land, watched gliders towed up towards the clouds, there to be released to find their thermals. All three of us had the Full English Breakfast (barring baked beans) the unhealthiest meal known to mankind.

At Brampton Bryan the hedge goes on and on

At Aardvark the shelves go on and on

Then on to Aardvark Books "an enormous bookbarn with 50,000 titles " in Brampton Bryan, a village with the most spectacular churchyard hedge in the world, previously described here. At Aardvark there's a café where customers may sit among the books, eat cake and natter. PB ordered a cafetière of Ethiopian coffee; in an afternoon of superlatives this turned out to be the best coffee in the world.

I bought Richard Dawkins' essays and Mrs Thrale's letters to Dr Johnson.

And a score. Ten Brahms songs published in the days when London postal districts were identified by a single letter. Original cost: four shillings.

A sneaky indulgence buying scores, obviously an elitist practice. Showing off, I made sure others at the table saw what I'd been up to. With V I've already learned one of the songs (Wiegenlied - Cradle Song) but I don't suppose I'll learn any more. Nevertheless it's fun to trace the notes and murmur approximations of their sounds. One way of proving I'm not a soccer fan and haven't seen even ten seconds of A Game of Thrones.

I should be ashamed of such self-aggrandisement but the Hell with that. Music means more to me than it did three years ago and I'm in profit. If I won the lottery I'd move into a bigger house (with indoor swiming pool) and sponsor recitals with free wine. Those with tin ears could swim.