He flies through the air...

M bought me my own solar powered airship for my birthday back in December, a 24ft-long number made of a thin black membrane (it resembles a black dustbin liner, but it's much more than that) made by the bods at the Science Museum. We've just been waiting for the right weather conditions to fly it. Yesterday was the day. We followed the instructions to the letter and I was all excited about letting the kids fly over rooftops whilst they clung on to the underside of the airship as I waved them goodbye. Sadly, after much messing around filling the thing with air and tying the open end as we ran across a field, the extremely thin membrane ripped on a dandelion and that was that. But for 30 minutes I felt as if I alone was discovering the secrets of flying through the air, a sort of 21st century Montgolfier brother.
Aborted trip to York today gave me time to spare but nothing to do. Walked to the low-budget supermarket round the corner for cat provisions, paying with £3 worth of five pence pieces. The guy behind the till started counting them but then just gave in to the fiddliness of the tiny coins and dropped them in with the rest of his takings. Then I did a bit of writing. Nothing to shout about.
In other news, I've gone all retro in my comedy listening. Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Sam Kinison (yay! outlaws!), Peter Sellers and The Goon Show are all tickling my fancy and keeping me up into the early hours. Have just listened to the Bill Hicks 33rd Birthday Party, a 90-minute US radio special of Hicks clips and his brother and friends talking, as well as the axed Letterman Show set. The internet is good for this obscure, seldom-heard stuff, although Carlin and Kinison's world view seems a little bit out of step and I don't care for the latter's pre-September 11 pro-American jingoistic rants. Bruce's riffs are amazing, though, although don't really induce a lot of laughter.
Oh, and M would like to disassociate herself from the fiendishly cruel RSPCA-taunting Hog Roast, which she didn't attend on perfectly understandable moral grounds. She is also a pro-life, tee-total anti-smoker.