When I was I think about five or six, I had a notion that I would like to learn to play the piano and made it known to all and sundry on the off chance that one day, a piano might miraculously somehow appear in our lower working class north of England home in Barrow-in-Furness Lancashire * our home erring shall I say, on the poorer side of humble. One day a brand new upright piano ** was delivered, it turned out courtesy of my maternal grandmother, my Nana *** as I called her in the British language usage of…

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It must be quite a relief for airline passengers, especially those with a nervous disposition towards flying per se, to hear the word INADVERTENT used when, shortly after landing and upon arrival at the gate, a flight attendant announces over the public address system that the Emergency Escape Slide has been ‘inadvertently’ deployed. Translation, no worries someone screwed up big time. Likely they pressed the wrong button. There is not nor was there an emergency. The slide has simply been accidentally activated. (to considerable expense!)  Emergency slides of course cannot be deployed in flight however, on at least three occasions…

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Now a very long time ago, upon seeing ECILOP in very large letters showing in the offside mirror of my AJS 350 cc motorcycle and thus drawing my attention to the police car disconcertingly close behind me momentarily threw me for a loop. Was the then seventeen year old that was me loosing it? Late for work as usual, I was doing 50 plus mph in a 30 mph zone en-route to Glaxo Laboratories where I worked as a laboratory assistant in Ulverston Lancashire.* (Now Cumbria). A certain well known all be it rather disliked local police officer constable Bellamy…

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In all honesty, albeit I am a licensed private pilot I can’t say that I ever harbored even as a passenger, much less as the pilot, any ambition to fly in a light aircraft however briefly, upside down or inverted to use the aviation expression. How is an inversion accomplished? As one example performing a loop will do it. A loop is when the pilot pulls the plane up into the vertical, continues around until it becomes inverted and then heads back down ultimately continuing forward in the same (original) direction, like making a 360 degree turn, except it is…

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As a Canadian tourist literally having landed less than an hour previously and driving a rental car solo out of the Sidney Australia airport bound for nowhere it particular, it did not occur to me that I would be pulled over almost immediately by a policeman. Not only that, he was heavily disguised in full on believe it or not, standard mark one bee keeper regalia. Adding insult to injury, his opening pitch after having firmly and I thought rather over enthusiastically flagged me down that very early morning was, have you had anything to drink today sir?  Tempted to…

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Feeling very relaxed well into a long and up to that point uneventful transpacific flight some time ago en-route to Sydney Australia, I thought I could smell burning. In an instant needless to say I was no longer relaxed. I tried to tell myself it was probably something else I was smelling or perhaps just imagining, surely nothing was burning in the fully seated cabin of the late model Boeing about half way into the largely over water flight.  As I was trying to process this, musing with the idea that it was quite likely just my sometimes overblown imagination…

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In a hurry one day, all right a needless blind panic, I led myself into something of a mix up not to say fiasco. Let me be honest it was a farce, one of my favourite comedic theatrical disciplines albeit I wasn’t trying to be theatrical nor funny at the time. That said it was a ludicrously improbable and absurd event executed as stated, under the guise of haste. The adage more haste, less speed comes immediately to mind. Adding insult to injury and regrettably, I was sober.  I had several letters to mail and as per my norm, quite…

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“Egalitarianism is a philosophical perspective that emphasizes equality and equal treatment across gender, religion, economic status and political beliefs.”   Since emigrating from the UK now some considerable time ago, okay actually longer than I care to remember, I have often times been asked and still am, what made you come to Canada? My answers have been consistent and candid. Primarily to escape the British class system, without doubt still deeply entrenched to this day.* I wanted to have the opportunity to join and contribute to an egalitarian centric society where most everyone, regardless of their social background, education and upbringing…

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The few times I have encountered close up well known celebrities, be they sports stars, movie stars, theatre stars, politicians, royalty (actually none so far) etc, etc ad infinitum, I have made a point of not bothering them. My gut feel is that the majority of them prefer it that way. In the extremely unlikely event that I ever become well known, I too will appreciate being afforded my privacy. On second thoughts make that a maybe. I am inclined occasionally to give free rein to the thespian in me. *  I am an enthusiastic lifelong competitive physical sports fan…

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Some time after a foreboding winter brush with dense sea fog whilst under power single handing my then sailboat, a Shark 24 as in twenty-four feet in length,* a member of the yacht club of which we were both members was also single handing his much larger and hence significantly faster sailboat. He was also under power and at sea in winter. Wisely in addition to of course wearing a life jacket as had I, unlike me he was also wearing a safety harness. However the line attached to the harness, correctly and firmly affixed to the boat was incorrectly…

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