Flying...

A C-130 is a four engined cargo plane, used by many nations. Flying in it as a passenger is reassuring because the aircraft has been around forever. It is sort of ungainly, and has a utilitarian form which emanates a charm and also a feeling of security.

As a passenger, you are cramped onto seats made of nylon straps. Squashed between soldiers on each side, and in front of you. You have to interlock your feet and knees to get comfortable.

This is in contrast to flying back in the civilian world - where we spend so much time trying to make sure we are not touched by the passenger next to us.

The cramped experience is sort of ok, no choice really... The worst part is the interminable sweat which forms and rolls down my face, back and legs - and much worse is the nausea. There are only a few round windows on these aircraft, and any maneauver by the pilots means that you have no idea which way the aircraft is turning...Sometimes it feels like I am rolling upside down.
There is an unpleasant feeling of directionless movement with no view of the horizon. It is perhaps like being in a closed roller coaster compartment, with no windows, and no idea which way the track is going to take you.

Nausea is an overwheming feeling, producing an awful sensation of doom.

Poem for Today

Night

Tonight’s infant moon is just out,
Hanging tiny,
Scared and poised,
Daring me with its arc eye,
Poking it out from hiding.

There’s a white gleam of skin at the edge of her shirt,
It is just where the front comes together, before the overlap.

A sliver of bright promise at the end of midnight blue fabric,
It gleams,
Afraid, and alert and looking.

August 2008

Its a Good Day When...

I'm going to miss these plastic toilets when I get back home...

There is no flushing, just use and go...Sometimes the best things in life are a clean plastic Port a John, and a hook to hang your clothes on.

Holy Drinking Bats, Batman!

A couple of days ago in the evening I saw bats...Nothing unusual ther. They are small and come out in the evening to spin and flutter in crazy patterns. At first one might think they are birds, but the angular nature of their wings gives them away. Also, their flight is frenetic seeming, like Brownian motion.

I saw them skim the water of a canal and dip their heads very briefly in it as they flew. Perhaps they had found an insect close to the surface. Perhaps that is they way they drink. Never saw that before.

Heard about the new batman movie in the States. Guess I only know Adam West as Batman...