Still on renderer code this morning, all going according to plan, just lots of typing.

Then filled up the car with the remaining garage stored fuel. Then drove up to Cheltenham….actually it was Staverton airport. Nice little place, lots of hangers with vintage planes, lots of geeks hanging about watching them. I was here for a purpose though. It was time for me to learn to fly a helicopter….

So it was into ‘Rise Helicopters’, where I met Captain James. He showed me the Robinson R22, it looked like it was made out of Meccano and held together with cheese. We climbed aboard, it was somewhat compact. I switched it on (well I pressed some buttons I was told to do), then he fired it up. It vibrated a lot. But soon the rotor was up to speed and we lifted off gently down the car park to the helipad. We got tower clearance then we were up and away. I took a few photos as we were climbing. He went through all the controls now we were in the air and then moved the cyclic (that’s the stick thing) over to me. I was somewhat nervous. We were 1500 feet in the air and I was in control. It’s surprisingly twitchy and you have to be very gentle on the controls. The art was to keep the compass box on the windscreen level with the horizon while keeping the air speed up. I oddly got the knack of this very quickly. So I then spent the next ten minutes just flying about, changing air speed and turning. I then asked about the ‘auto-rotation’ which is what happens when the engine stops. He said in 22 years he’s never heard of an engine failure on an R22. He then proceeded to drop the engine RPM so it disengaged the rotor. We were now pretty much in free fall, except not a great deal happened. He picked a field and got it to land beautifully with no engine power. He then told me to lift up on the collective (another stick) and we took off again. All too soon it was time to go back to the airfield, I flew it all the way back to the boundary. We then had a go at hovering, trying to keep it stable on the spot. That is very very hard, I only had a few minutes at it but was getting the hang of it. And then we went back to the car park.

It’s easily the most fun you can have without lubricant. It’s also somewhat surprisingly cheaper than karting used to be. We had a chat and I’m going to go back a do some more lessons, even if I don’t complete the whole course it’s still great fun.

I’m now a ‘chopperholic!’.

Woke up at 6:30am and took the dog to daycare. Went back to bed and started work at a reasonable time. Still getting through Glastonbury videos on the iMac in the background. Working on render and shader stuff, still a hell of a lot to do, it’s mainly still in the design and creative stage at the moment. A couple of interesting issues to do with instances, rabbit for another time.

Managed to get out this evening and find three caches over Almondsbury way that were grouped together. I’m beginning to fill in a few areas now. Doing a home recheck tomorrow so will venture out that way. Now watching ‘Luther’, good as always.

Didn’t sleep hardly at all last night, mainly down to the heat and Jamie snoring like a train. So woke up this morning very tired. Made a start though, then drove over to Vauxhall to get the car serviced. They gave me that bloody white Agila again. Pram with an engine, it feels just so plastic and it had no bloody petrol in it. Got back home and cracked on.

Been feeling very tired all day, up to the point in the afternoon I almost dropped off. Picked up the car, which took bloody ages due to traffic. Came back and ploughed on. What I’m doing at the moment is very complex, there’s a hell of a lot of it, just have to plough through it. Felt very tired so finished a little bit early. Didn’t go anywhere this evening although it was a beautiful one. Now sat down watching this court case thing, recorded live in a Scottish court. After that I think I’ll try and get an early night as the dog is at daycare tomorrow.

Woke up late, probably due to having baths and wine at stupid o’clock last night. Yes, indeed, today I was working on shaders, again. But finally I’ve finished, sorted out my default parameters issues. So ready to move on to the next bit, which is renderer related. That’ll be a long job, but a fun one.

Booked a hotel for a gathering of work people in a few weeks. Opened up the Tesco shopping list. Then I’ve booked something interesting for Friday, certainly something I’ve never done before and probably never will again.

Walked the dog. She got very hot and tired. Went to Combat, which was quite quiet.

Thinking about doing the 5-2 diet again to buff up for Turkey. That unfortunately doesn’t mean five cans of larger followed by two bottles of wine. Technically I could do a 3-4 diet just by cutting out bread from my lunchtime sandwich and cheese. Will give it a blast next week.

Today was warm. No actually today was hot. Sarah arrived and picked up the carpet shampooer, the dog almost behaved. Then Mr Tesco arrived and substituted by chili tortilla chips for cheesy ones. I’m sure they are awful. Walked the dog lunchtime, she was fine, enjoyed the sunshine. Came back and ate a chicken salad sandwich. Put the washing on.

I opened the bedroom window and dear Buzz Lightyear made a bid for freedom and dived over the window sill. I then had to get a chair outside and retrieve him off the living room flat roof. Today was working on shaders again, the good news being is they now all build. I’ve still got the fun problem to solve with default parameters though. One for Monday.

Went to the gym and did Body Pump. Was fun, except I think I put more weight on the bar than usual for biceps and now my arms are killing. Came back and loaded up the GPS with caches ready for Sunday. Tomorrow I think I’ll walk the dog over to Almondsbury and then in the afternoon I’ll walk into town and go around the docks and stuff. Cooking tomorrow night, making pies. Need to pick mother up from some wedding.