I have a bit of a phobia about being the wrong way up.
I mean, that’s not entirely irrational, is it? Unlike my phobia of spiders, which I realise isn’t rational at all, and which I fully believe I “inherited” from my dad, having witnessed him from an early age screaming at the eight-legged beasts and deducing that they were clearly something to be mortally feared.
I’ve tried to deal with the spider phobia to the extent that I can tolerate those spindly daddy-long-legs ones that inhabit dusty corners of ceilings (there’s one in our bathroom that we’ve named because it’s been there so long; we haven’t yet had the heart to evict Kevin). But the ones with legs the diameter of a dinner plate – nope.
Him Indoors has his uses, and humanely removing these creatures rather than blow- torch my house to the ground is one of them…
The upside-down thing, though – I’m not sure where that stems from. You’ll never get me on a rollercoaster at Hull Fair if going upside- down is part of the deal (and it usually is). What I do know is that I could never do the sort of stunts that are bread-and-butter for Tom Cassells, the pilot who will be coming to Withernsea for the Blue Light Weekend this summer.
When I chatted to him for the feature on page 8, I hesitated to put the word “bonkers” to him, but in the end I could find no other appropriate way of expressing it. And, thankfully, he did seem to concur.
As part of the air show on August 13, he’ll be performing all sorts of loops, tumbles, rolls and something called frisbees, which is probably as stomach-churning as it sounds. People who can do that sort of stuff fearlessly really do amaze me, but, as Tom points out, it’s all about the science of aerobatics – making the plane do what it’s capable of doing, which is far more than going in a straight line. I’m glad that I’ll have my feet on terra firma while he’s doing his display – and I can’t wait to see it.
This week (Thursday, July 13) I’m also heading to Withernsea Methodist Church for the Opera in a Day project I mentioned a while back and which you can read about on page 10.
It involves both Withernsea Ladies and Hornsea choirs, and will culminate in a performance at Hull’s Freedom Festival in September. I’m intrigued to find out more about it – and if you are, too, then do come along. Absolutely no musical experience is necessary, and if you don’t want to sing, that’s fine too. Watch this space for a report next week…
