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Tim couldn’t make it to a No. 1 Squadron dinner to mark the Battle of Britain, but the young pilot who did the flypast for him (see previous entry) read it out for him–and apparently got a standing ovation.

QUOTE

“Group Captain Waterfall, Ladies and Gentlemen, especially those, of course, of No.1 Squadron. I have been asked to say a word about MY Battle of Britain. My story is not the stuff that Aces are made of I didn’t do much of that, but I’ve chosen the event that to me is the most memorable.

“In 1936, Olive Oyl gave Popeye ‘Eugene the Jeep’ – a mystical animal, capable of foretelling the future and materialising anywhere to work its magic. Just the thing for the nose art on my aircraft. I suppose you could say that it helped on the day it was applied – 15th August – when I achieved possible success in my first encounter with the Enemy.  A smoking Me109 disappearing seawards through the clouds near Harwich.

“But something slipped on 16th. With the help, a few years ago, of ‘Uncles’ in No. 1, 43 and 601 Squadrons, we are now fairly sure that I was the 18th victim of Helmut Wick when we were intercepting the raid on Tangmere. Quite an experienced chap, so I’m not too put out!

“Leaving a burning aircraft is easy. You just throw yourself over the side. But first, make sure that you disconnect your Radio and Oxygen connections!

“On the second attempt, I was out. Lovely sunny day, Portsmouth visible through the haze. No pain, just blood. But I was over the sea; had not thought to inflate my Mae West.

“I remembered nothing more until there was a freckle-faced ambulance girl cutting my trousers off. A strange homecoming! Maybe Eugene was in fact still around, because Flight Sergeant Fred Berry, my Section Leader, came to my rescue and, somehow, with slipstream presumably, drifted me onto West Wittering. But only just!  Without his aid I would have drowned.

“As usual, my Mother was on her Hayling Island balcony with my Step-Father’s Naval glasses, watching it all happen. She was unsurprised when the phone rang from the Hospital 30 minutes later!

“Berry was killed before I was able to thank him, but a few years ago, we were contacted by his family through our son’s blog and a meeting was arranged.

“Nowadays, I follow No.1 Squadron’s activities with interest and admiration, and still recall with great pleasure and pride my two short tours with the squadron. The ‘Brylcream Boys’ of 1940 have had their fair share of hero worship in the media, but with the choice of your war or ours, I know which I would choose. Ours, most definitely.

“Given the hazards of warfare today, ?the nature of the enemy, the environment, modern weaponry – together with the complexity of aircraft systems, I count you not only brave but wonderfully skilled to boot. “It’s encouraging to see the great traditions of the Services in such good hands.

“I wish you continuing success.”

UNQUOTE

Spoke to my father, Tim, yesterday. Turns out that he had a rather exciting Wednesday, having been invited by No. 1 Squadron (with which he flew in the Battle of Britain) to Wyck Hill, a restaurant on the hill along from Little Rissington, where he was then invited to come outside around 13.00. Noticing that people from No. 1 kept looking at their watches, he asked whether they would prefer to be elsewhere? No, they said, they had plenty of time. And then a No. 1 Harrier jump-jet did a fly-past.

Having now had a personal aerial salute, it’s hard to know quite what to do for him on his nineteenth birthday in December. Apparently, the pilot who did the fly-past also read a brief speech Tim had done at a dinner – and received a standing ovation. In the end, though, as BoB veteran Geoffrey Wellum (who’s on again as I write this) put it on TV a few days ago, the main purpose of all of this is to honour all of those who took part  in the Battle.

One real benefit of long-haul flight is that you can plough through books – and on the way to and from Buenos Aires one of the books I read (and finished) was Gary Shteyngart’s extraordinary Super Sad True Love Story (Granta Publications, 2010). One of those books you race to finish – but don’t want to.

Given that I was in Argentina to talk to high net worth individuals, it was interesting that the business of the book’s main protagonist is recruiting ultra-rich people for the biotech company he works for, Post-Human Services. The story, involving the collapse of America, seems to be set 15-20 years into the future – and the language has mutated to suit, in a world where pornography has entered (and corrupted) mainstream culture and no-one reads books.

Interesting to see sustainability reduced to personal SUSTAINABILIT¥, an online measure of personal wealth. Global warming also puts in a fleeting appearance on pages 307 and 328, accorded a word or two each time.

With part of the Avina Foundation team Taxi meter – against which I kept banging my head Cathedral Demonstration 1 Demonstration 2 Demonstration 3 Me Bullet scars from 1973, the driver said Graffito Football Colours Tango 1 Tango 2, with Christine Blondel Tango 2, with Luciana and Fernando Colours 2 Some of the Desparecidos Tails somebody wins Blues It’s still winter Panama hat Twilight In the transformed Docklands The Pink House Tango band at the Cafe Tortoni Tango 2 Tango 3

It is Argentina’s Bicentennial Year, I discovered when I arrived in Buenos Aires for a conference aimed at young people who are owners of multi-generational family businesses in Latin America. Organised by Banco Itaú Unibanco at the Palacio Duhau, the event was full of interesting folk – and I emerged with a strong interest in coming back – and a couple of invitations to do so.

The first day, I did a session for the Avina Foundation with around 25 people – and afterwards we went back to the Foundation’s offices, where Alejandro (Litovsky) used to work. After the event closed, Luciana Tavares Nobre Varella and her colleague Fernando from Banco Itaú Unibanco hailed a taxi and took Christine Blondel of INSEAD and I on a tour around the city – ending with supper and a tango show at the Café Tortoni. Joyous.

An uplifting piece from my friend Rajni Bakshi appears on openDemocracy, here, arguing that we should not allow the events of 9/11 2001 to dictate the way we thing either about that date in the annual calendar or the wider world.