Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well my Droogs…
May has been a fairly busy month for things going on. The start of the month was very busy on the river with the Royal Navy arrivals for the 70th anniversary of the battle of the Atlantic. The icing on the cake was the final visit of HMS Illustrious which compared to the US aircraft carriers is fairly small, however, seeing ‘Lusty’ passing your lounge window at close range I can confirm she’s the biggest ship I’ve ever seen pass the Thames.
A couple of days later I had the chance to go on board her and meet some of the crew which was a real thrill. Unlike the visit to HMS Ocean last year, I was able to wander around the flight deck with leisure and imagine Harrier’s landing on a rolling deck out at sea. The crews were more than willing to answer your questions and I even got a chance to board a helicopter and chat to its pilot.
The whole day was great fun and made me proud of our armed forces and the job they do. It’s a shame that the whole fleet of Invincible-class aircraft carriers are being decommissioned. The replacement, HMS Queen Elizabeth won’t be available for some time and when it does, it won’t fit into the Thames. So this will be the last aircraft carrier to visit Greenwich, London.
Today, I was lucky enough to meet current Doctor Who companion Jenna-Louise Coleman. She was very pleasant and ever so tiny.
I also managed to meet actor Malcolm McDowell. I’ve been a fan of his for quite some time ever since I watched Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’.
We spoke for a short while and I told him that during the films banned years my university lecturer managed to get hold of a fairly worn out VHS copy of the film and we secretly met to watch it, calling ourselves ‘The Citrus Club’. He said that he had heard of students doing that sort of thing, which led to its cult film status in the UK. He also asked if we watched it this with the aid of Marjuana. Apparently that was fairly common too…
All in all, an interesting few of weeks… I’m off now for some Moloko plus.
M
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Earlier in the week HMS St Albans paid a visit to London and today I was lucky enough to be able to go on board. The security was very high in these challenging times but they still let me walk around this Type 23 frigate. Royal Navy personnel were on hand as always to offer information about the ship and its operation and they were very approachable and informative. Here are some of the pictures I took today. 
