It was a scorching day, indeed the hottest of the year so far. The roads seemed to be melting as we made our way down to Withyham, a small village in East Sussex. Tony and I were on our way to visit Niall and Liz, fellow balloonists.
We had brought the Puffin balloon envelope down in the back of Tony's Land Rover Discovery for the sole purpose of testing it in Italy. It was good to visit Niall and Liz, but the underlying reason for this lengthy detour was to hook up a trailer containing a large balloon envelope, basket (with burner and gas tanks), plus a smaller hopper balloon. Out of the seven gas tanks, we were only allowed by P & O Ferries to carry 47Kg of propane gas onto the ferry. Thus time was spent purging four of the gas tanks at Niall's.
For good measure, we checked the trailer lights worked. Lo and behold, there was a problem. Inexplicably both LED rear indicator lights flashed continuously when the trailer electrics were hooked up to the connector at the rear of the car. "This does not happen when the trailer is hooked up to other cars," Niall adamantly pointed out. It was getting late and we had no time to decipher this perplexing problem. We just rigged an old rear lights board up to the back of the trailer, and swapped the number plates - job done.
With all the chores taken care of, we freshened up, enjoyed an excellent meal prepared by Liz, washed down with ample measures of beer and wine - bliss.
This was a relaxing time with Niall and Liz, an easy going and amiable couple, who I first met twelve years earlier at a balloon meet in Metz. We had last together in 2009. Indeed I had not flown during the last seven years; the summer ballooning always clashing with my long summer sailing trips. Tony and I would be driving the balloons down to Montefalco in Italy over the next three days, with Niall and Liz, plus another couple, John and Fiona, flying out later to make up a six man/woman team., Tony's wife, Philippa, was up to her neck in grandma duties, but would fly out to join Tony after the balloon meet, and then they would both drive off to stay with friends in Italy.
Niall is a Chief Operations Officer in the Fire Protection Trade, a job which he still gets a buzz out of, though he'd dearly love to cut it down to fewer days per week. However, his lords and masters have different views, preferring the all or nothing option. He regaled us with stories regarding his work, highlighting the turmoil in the building industry, and expressed his frustrations on how quality and safety are driven down to reach the lowest cost. Niall was on a mission to change this, shining like a solitary candle in the Battle of the Somme. The words "head", "brick" and "wall" spring to mind.
