Notes of Life

I think the title is right, at least that’s what the label in the flower pot says!

Somebody was in need of the air ambulance early on this evening.

I was out in the back garden trying to take photos of some of the plants, but the breeze was getting the better of me. The next thing I know is there’s a helicopter circling the village and getting closer and closer. I thought at one point that it was going to land in the field behind us, but that would have been dangerous because of the slope and the trees. Instead, it landed on the playing field by the village school. I didn’t get any pictures of the helicopter landing as (typically) I had the wrong camera/lens in my hands (I was using my d-SLR and macro lens), so once it had landed I came in to grab another camera. A paramedic headed in the direction of the old peoples’ bungalows just as we could hear a normal ambulance arriving (with sirens blazing). By the time, half the village seemed to be out to see the helicopter.

Wales Air Ambulance needs over £5 million a year to operate the service. With the average “mission” costing £1200 the charity needs all the money it can get! The crew can get to places the road ambulances are unable to reach, which is a vital service in a county like this with lots of hills, paths and winding country roads etc.

Congratulations to Sarah & Paul who got married yesterday!

I’ve got back into reading books again lately. I’ve read more books in the past few months than I’ve read in a long time. It’s been mainly autobiographies and factual/history books, but there’s been the odd fiction one too.

I’d like to recommend a great little website for buying books (UK based), but first I must recommend a book I’ve read recently. It’s not for the faint-hearted and is certainly moving, but I think it’s a book everyone should read if only to remind people of what really happened and so that the attrocities don’t happen again.

Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor’s True Story of Auschwitz by Olga Lengyel is just that… her true story about what happened at Auschwitz. She was there and this book was written shortly after, so it was all very much fresh in her mind (not that I think those memories would have ever left her).

This book wasn’t the easiest book to read, due to it’s subject matter, and it had me in tears by the end of the first chapter. I had to put the book down half way through the next chapter too, that’s how moving I found it. Olga unknowingly sent her mother and eldest son to the gas chambers along with her youngest son. She had thought she was saving them from hard work, not knowing what would actually happen. She must have felt such guilt, despite it not being her fault. After all, who could have believed that human beings were capable of such attrocities on such a mass scale.

This book is Olga’s personal story, but she has also tried to include any detail she could remember and the stories of other people she met in the camp.

I did history in school and we learnt of what happened during World War 2, but that barely touched on what these poor people experienced.

If there’s one book you should read in your life, then I think it should be this one. It’s not an easy read, emotionally, but it’s certainly unforgettable.

Now to the website I’d like to recommend…

Bananas.co.uk is a division of The Book People (who you’re more likely to have heard of). The Book People might sell books cheap, but Bananas sells them even cheaper! How? Well, Bananas is The Book People’s online clearance shop. The books that are on the Bananas website are only available in limited stock, so I recommend that if you see a book on their website that you want, then you should buy it there and then as it may not be there next time you visit.

An example of just how cheap some of the Bananas books are is U2 by U2. This book has a RRP (Recommended Retail Price) of £30 (not a price that I’d easily pay for a book), however Bananas are currently selling it for the grand price of £1. Yes, you read that correctly… ONE BRITISH POUND!

As Bananas is a clearance website, they don’t have a huge amount of books on offer, but it is still worth having a browse. After all, you might find a right bargain!

In the past couple of months I’ve made 2 orders with Bananas and purchased a total of 11 books for £24.50 (plus postage). I would like to point out that the books weren’t just for me… I’m not reading books quite that quickly… some of the books were for Mum. The most we paid for 1 book was £3.50 and the least we paid for a book was £1.

You get free postage if you spend over £25, but that’s a lot of books at Bananas prices! They’ve also currently got an offer on for 10 £1 books for just £7.50, saving even more!

Honestly, it’s madness!

Yesterday, Dad & I went to The Pageant of Power at Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire. Dad had won a pair of tickets (worth £25 each) and I don’t often turn down a day out, especially when it’s a free day out!

The Pageant of Power is a 2 day event filled to the brim with lots of things going on, including historic racing cars and bikes being driven/riden around a specially constructed track through the beautiful castle grounds, inshore powerboats racing on the mere, modern & classic aircraft flying through the air above the castle including stunts and displays, and military displays. Other fun stuff going on includes car & bike clubs exhibiting their vehicles, trade stalls and the JCB Dancing Diggers (which you’ll have noticed in my photos!).

I’ve seen the Dancing Diggers before, a long time ago when I was a kid, but they’re always quite a spectacle to see. Is it me, or do you think that JCB (above) looks like it’s about to tip right over onto it’s side?! It didn’t, but it just goes to show what you can do with these diggers!

Aparently, the idea for the Dancing Diggers came about after the boss wanted to show a customer just how much he trusted his JCB and so positioned his digger just like those above and drove his own car beneath them (just like the JCB is doing so beneath the other diggers).

Odd things to do with a digger… Just don’t try this at home!

Posted for Thematic Photographic. This week’s theme is Odd.