Friday, November 24, 2006

Albatross



New Zealand P3-K Orion, displayed to compliment the Orion posted by Maalie. Notice the Albatross painted on the tail, and the MAD boom out the back. Not to be outdone (I shall find a place for the Orion poem!) Here is my favourite excerpt from the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner;

"...

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!

At length did cross and Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moonshine."

..."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I won't put the next verse in, but if you want to read it all you can find it here.

Also, here is the crest for RNZAF's No 5 Squadron, which is where I work;

If anyone is interested in more information about 5 Sqn, then you can visit the RNZAF website. I hope you enjoyed this post, thanks for the inspiration Maalie :-)


28 comments:

Anonymous said...

`God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends,that plague thee thus
Why look'st thou so?'With my cross-bow,
I shot the Albatross.


I know it well.

Ju's little sister said...

:-(

Plumpy and I don't like that part...

Anonymous said...

It's awful, isn't it? But they certainly paid the price....


And I had done an hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!

Anonymous said...

I can see from the enlarged badge that the albatross is evidently the Royal Albatross Diomedea epomophora, the one that nests at the Otago Peninsula.

Anonymous said...

Sorry if I seem to be hogging your comments box. I noticed you have included a link to Maalie (and I have reciprocated). But there seems to be a hyper-text mark-up tautology: the link to Maalie takes you straight back to Liberamentum!

Ju's little sister said...

no problem taking up my comments, I race home from work each day to read them!
Link rectified - missing '='
You didn't have to reciprocate! But thank you
JLS.

Anonymous said...

I'm Jill, Maalie's little sister. I have been reading his blog and got onto yours. I notice you love Pride and Prejudice. I live very near where the Derbyshire parts were filmed, and in fact my dog had a swim in Darcy's Pool last week, the very same pool that Darcy dived into and came out with that gorgeous clingy, sea-through blouse!

Ju's little sister said...

Wasn't it gorgeous! If ever a pasty white, muscless man could be sexy it would have to be Colin Firth as Fitzwilliam Darcy every time!

I DO love the series, and would love to visit the area.

Photos???
:-)

Nice to meet you Jill.

TCA said...

Steady on! this is meant to be a blog site for robot and albatros fanatics not the Colin Firth fan club! Although I must say he did look far superior to that floppy haired Hugh Grant fellow - terrible actor in my opinion, always plays the same bumbling character

B.B

TCA said...

P.S. my S key is on the blink - apologies for my wrong spelling of Albatross :o}

Anonymous said...

J's.L.S: Now we're on to sisters and things, I'm intrigued about Ju. You are evidently an extremely accomplished woman (as evidenced from your writing - no gratuitous flattery or patronising intended), so Ju must be truly awasome! Is she still at Mesopotamia leading fowl hunts?

As you see, my little sister closely monitors all the females I am in contact with!

Anonymous said...

Never mind about albatrosses and suchlike, Hugh Grant is AWFUL. In Private Eye they refer to him as Hugh Grunt because of his oafish behaviour. Anytime anyone wants a trip round Lyme Park to see the Darcy delights, I would be pleased to act as guide! Jill.

Ju's little sister said...

Maalie, I certainly approve of your sister!!! Thanks Jill.

As to Ju! Perhaps a good person to talk to might be your own Al, as it is through her involvment with the TCA that I ever learned about these blog sites! Julie is living in Petersfield with her pommy partner AD. I miss her a lot of course :-)
I used the identity 'Ju's little sister' to put comments on the TCA site, and when I joined blogger for myself - kept it. My real name is Sarah but I prefer 'Sez.' Though half a world seperates us I still consider Ju my best friend. She is just as talented but much more active than I - more time doing things and less time sitting in front of the computer screen!

TCA and Jill - couldn't agree more on H.G. My opinion of a true actor is one who can turn him- or herself into more than one character. Johnny Depp would be a good example I think. Mr Grant is sadly lacking.

TCA said...

How can planes fly upside down? Surely their wings are aligned to produce 'lift', if this is reversed, coupled with the force of gravity surely the plane should crash to the ground... can you explain?

W

Maalie said...

My guess is that it goes into an upside down "descent", but we'll wait to see what the expert says...

Ju's little sister said...

Who is this 'W' of the TCA?
Where are my thanks for the last explanation?

I feel let down that the last person who asked a question on the principles of flight hasn't even seen fit to comment on my answer. I am sulking, and will not play the game again until the situation has been rectified.

Meanwhile you may ponder how a helicopter works.

Maalie said...

Ah, that reminds me, I meant to ask you if the RNZAF still fly those lovely Iroquois helicopters? That's how I was transported around in Antarctica and if I ever hear one, the sound still carries me back there in my imagination...

Ju's little sister said...

Ah yes, the sound of freedom...!

Did you know the iroqois helecopter are so loud because due to the angular acceleration of the rotors the tips of the blades are constantly breaking the sound barrier? That's what I was told anyway.

We still have them, but they will be replaced in the next three or four years by NH-90 helicopters.

Maalie said...

Yes, one of the Yankee pilots explained that. I used to love hearing the thump thump thump thump of the rotors, perhaps 10 mins before they arrived, and we always made a point of having hot soup ready for the air crew when they touched down at my field station.

But the NH-90 doesn't have skids! How can it go anywhere without skids!

Maalie said...

P.S. W is Worzel

Ju's little sister said...

Huh?!

simon said...

we lost a black hawk and an SAS soldier today.. helping pacific islanders.. :o(

Ju's little sister said...

ouch :-(

Tonga?

I hear the black hawks have been nothing but trouble since the RAAF got them?

Ju's little sister said...

Mum I think you would like some of the writing on Simon's blog, they are about his childhood. The link is back on the main page "an Ordinary Life" but watch-out! You'll need time to read them :-)

TCA said...

JLS.. still sulking? I'm tearing my haor out trying to work out how planes fly upside down...

W

simon said...

it was off Fiji... the damn thing bounced off the landing deck and fell over the side. the guy lost was strapped in.. Ju's mum- I know it was very deep water. I don't think they will find him...

yes these black hawks are used in very dangerous SAS missions and training so they really do push them.

Why this fell over they will never know.

Ju's little sister said...

No, unfortunately even if parts of the plane can be recovered the salt water causes such corrosion that it would be impossible to work out what went wrong. Landing a helicoptor on solid ground is difficult enough though without trying to do it on a moving surface. What a tragedy for the family :-(

TCA said...

Sad news indeed. The Royal Navy use the mighty sea harrier of course which has no problems with vertical take off or landing on moving platforms. They are also phasing out the Sea King in favour of the Merlin helicopter another French- Italian effort.

Johny Depp I agree is a reasonable actor -most amusing in Pirates of the Carribean, based on a certain Rolling Stones character I believe.

B.B