Magic Moments

I flew a plane. Sort of. For a short while. In circles. And always turning in the direction of the crimson setting sun. Well I turned from bearing south to north via the west and then from north to south also via the west. A few times. And I tried to go groundwards but my friend advised me not to. I didn't get to take off or land of course. Or fiddle with any of the switches or levers.

We set off around 5 and got back gone 7. So it was a long flight. And I wasn't ill. The weather was good- very few clouds except to the west, over the Pacific, to capture the sun's rays. We went north some 80 miles or so over the east bay (Oakland) and saw the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay from that direction. Then landed at Santa Rosa and went up straight away to some open airspace where I could have the controls. I was rather timid I guess but hey, I just can't yank the plane around and not panic. But anyway. Did a load of 180 degree turns and watched the sun go down before Jo took back control and flew back home to Palo Alto. This time we flew down the coast (actually got quite far into the Pacific at one point) and went just west of San Francisco. It was so beautiful. Like Christmas. Like someone had spilled a million Quality Streets! So many amber lights and a few white and red particularly along the roads- ribbons of colour. The lights were so small and perfect and extended so far into the distance. Absolutely stunning.

Duchess

Oh and I must mention the delicious vertigo. Wow I have never felt so disorientated. You know the odd feeling you get after fainting when you are convinced you should be somewhere else, anywhere but where you actually are? Oooh.