Royal Tattoo

 

Well, the Royal International Air Tattoo, to be precise.   Tattoo also means "an outside military show" -- I never knew!  The show is the largest military air show in the world and is held annually near Swindon.  This is about 2.5 hours (and $35 in gas!) away.  Pre-purchased tickets were necessary so we headed down despite the gloomy forecast and actual rain that was occurring when we left in the morning.  If you happened to catch any of The [British] Open on Saturday, you could see how bad the weather was and how it can change.  It was still raining when we got there, but fortunately it subsided and the flying began.

Wet skies gave us some time to look at the static displays.  Surprisingly, the kids were rather underwhelmed.  Despite our profession, we aren't big airplane geeks and could have used a little more information in general.  Here's a Chinook.  Unfortunately, we only saw one fly briefly.

One of the few engine displays, even if from the competition.

 Tornado GR4 -- side view

 Tornado GR4 -- front view

They also had some "indoor" displays in the Imagineering Tent.  Here's Nicole in front of the Rolls-Royce display (Trent engine in the background).  FYI, since this was a military show it was staffed by the folks in Bristol (which is also closer), rather than the Civil folks in Derby (where we work).

Alex surprised himself by how much fun he had.  Here he's putting together a thrust propelled car (also in the RR area).

further help with the car

This may be as close as I get to a 787, which is the aircraft that "my" engine (Trent 1000) goes on.  We are in direct competition with GE (where my brother works) on this platform.  GE is very well respected, but very much the evil empire and the enemy in Derby.  We didn't get that vibe back in Indy (since it wasn't such a direct comparison).

 here he is outside pumping up a "bottle rocket" -- he was all giggles

 now we are flying!

F-16 amidst gray skies.  I was amazed at how slow they could fly these and still maintain control.

 Typhoon (I think)

 Typhoon under belly shot.  Again, the kids weren't nearly as impressed as we were.

Here's a shot of the Red Arrows flying BAe Hawks.  Same planes as in the photo at the top.

Heading out and obviously going a little faster (I barely caught them in the frame).

In the end, it was a surprisingly good day given the weather and the distance traveled.  We didn't stay until the very end given the drive back that lay ahead.  Both kids zonked out with mouths agape on the ride home (very rare despite our many car trips).  We capped it off nicely with a fancy dinner at Anoki on the way home.  Anoki is a higher end Indian curry house and we treated this as a pre-birthday celebration for Kuk.  We ordered 2 orders from the [expensive] set menu and had fun trying all the dishes (none were overly hot).  The kids did a good job of trying things and each found a dish or two that they liked.  Bravo!

No hike this weekend.  Alex was relieved.  He had assumed that Sunday = hike and I had double booked his weekend.  All smiles when he realized he had some free time after all!

Birchover & Stanton Moor (Peak District)

Another Sunday, another day in the Peak District.  Saturday had perfect weather.  We were hoping for the same and almost got it.  No rain, just a little overcast at first.

Today's hike started in Birchover and featured Stanton Moor and was approximately 3 miles (walk #3 in Derbyshire Walks with Children).  The kids really enjoyed it as they were able to climb a few rocks and we enjoyed the change in scenery from some of the previous walks.  From the book:

Stanton Moor is the heather-covered plateau immediately to the south-west of the Derwent and Wye river confluence.  At just over 1000 feet it provides extensive views.  The moor is covered with Bronze Age relics including a circle of nine standing stones and massive isolated stones with climbing holes cut into them.  Birchover village nestles on the hillside below the moor and is mainly involved in quarrying.

 

The "cork stone".  Alex had the right strength to mass ratio to climb up this rather impressive rock.  In some ways, the rest of the hike was a downer for him after this!

 

And at the top . . . a poorly framed Nicole can give you an idea of the size of the rock.

I realized that I didn't take any pictures of the ground cover which was quite unique.  I did snap these flowers though.

The next landmarks were the Nine Ladies.  Legend has it that nine ladies danced here on a Sunday (how dare they!) and as a punishment were turned to stone.  Stonehenge it's not -- I was expecting something a little bigger.

A top "Cat Stone" (more climbing -- yeah!)

obligatory domestic farm animal shot w/ baby calf

shaved Alpaca (poodle/giraffe mix??)

We (I) had planned a second hike around Black Rocks (walk #4) as it was on the way back and "only" 2 miles.  For a variety of reasons we decided to cheat and only hike up to the rocks and bag the rest of it.  I'm not such a task master after all.  This is a shot from the top looking down the adjacent town and quarry.

Nicole's turn at the top

more Nicole

a rare couple photo!

Mr. Stinker.  He was pouting because this didn't involve the type of climbing he was expecting.

 

A random, cool cloud (and to show that we get blue skies every now and then).

 The reward at the end of the day . . .

Weekend Update

Well, blog fans (both of you?), no grand adventure this weekend.  We did have perfect weather (mid 70's and sunny both days) though.  We just got back from a group picnic with other Rolls-Royce ex-pats for a "3rd of July" celebration.  There were 3 other families and 3-4 singles.   It was good to get together with others going through similar experiences.  The site is so large and spread out at work that we don't really bump into the vast majority of the people that work there.

Other bits and bobs from the week . . . .

It's July and the kids are still in school.  Feels weird.  They are handling it well and though they won't admit it, it does keep them well connected with their friends.  I'm glad the timing worked out for us to get here before school let out.

Nicole had activity week this past week.  She got to go to the National Space Centre in Leicester, visit the cathedral and castle in Lincoln, and go to a theme park (Alton Towers).  She was so looking forward to AT and had perfect weather.  Unfortunately, two of the girls she was matched up with didn't like "scary" rides so she didn't get to ride as much as she wanted.  We'll still hit a theme park for her (late) birthday.

Kuk made a quick trip to London for a Women's Conference.  She happened to be working from home in the morning because the public school teachers were on strike (welcome to the UK . . . ).  She had to catch a 3:25 train and left the house at 2:45 (that included parking the car)!  We obviously don't live far from the station and train check in is a little different than flying . . . .  We'll get to experience it as a family in a few weeks . . . .

Well, I got 2 weeks with the sweet, executive style ride but my intended car was ready for me this week and I had to turn it back in.  This one is more in my pay grade though!  It's a nice little BMW 116i (see below).  It's great to have a little car around town though we will need to take Kuk's slightly roomier car for any trips.

Hartington (Peak District)

Notice anything different?  Shorts!  We actually had a proper summer day after a week with highs in the 50's.  It actually hit 80 and was quite warm for us fair-skinned, thick-blooded UK types.  We were wondering if we could actually get a sun burn here, and, yep, you can.

For the 3rd Sunday in a row we headed to the Peak District.  Our base this week was Hartington which is about 10 miles up river from Dove Dale (from 2 weeks ago).  We hiked Beresford, Wolfscote, and Biggin Dales from our trusty Derbyshire Walks with Children (#2, 6 miles).  It's one of the longer walks and with the higher temps we were dragging by the end.  It was about 4 hours (slightly less, as I tried to cheap out and only pay for 4 hours of pre-pay parking -- it was a little rushed at the end).

The pre-amble for the walk stated:

"This circular walk from the picturesque town of Hartington provides a memorable experience.  The scenery is constantly changing -- pasture gives way to a gorge, which in turn is succeeded by meadow, scree-covered valleys and then limestone upland with its drystone-walled fields.  A visual delight with interest at every turn."

I would agree.  It was great, but did I mention it was hot?  You guys are probably all baking in the 90's somewhere though . . . hard to complain.  It was good to see the sun.  On to the photos!

 And we are off!

 More cows than sheep at the beginning.  Even they thought it was hot!

 Pardon my domestic animal fascination

 

Perhaps it was the recent rains, but we saw lots of snails, and much to Nicole's chagrin, gargantuan slugs (eww).

We had hiked up (off trail) to a small cave.  This is the view back down (to where we were going).

 resting at said cave

 sheep time (this has yet to get old)

 

Hey, Ewe! (running corn ball joke)

 

lots of limestone formation (near Drabber Tor)

This, I learned, is scree (avalanche of small stones).  Looks like driveway gravel.

 

 Heron/egret type

Cool sign.  This was one of the better marked trails.  Of course, we still got lost at the end where it wasn't so well marked (actually it was marked fine -- our guide book led us astray).  Milldale is half way between Hartington and Dove Dale.  We'll have to visit there some time but not on this hike.  We took the turn to Biggin Dale and then looped back to Hartington.

Neat walk through the dale with the lose stone fence and the hills on either side.

This cave wasn't actually a cave but an old mine shaft.  We didn't get very far in it since it got quite dark (and we didn't bring our "torch").  It was nice and cool though.

This was an artistic attempt to snap the spider and web from inside the cave looking out through a small hole.  Too bad you can barely see the spider.

More cows.  There was actually a fence separating us this time.

 Last snack break and rest.  Happy and tired kiddos.