Simple Pleasures
Who wasn't watching Big Jet TV as Storm Eunice blew in ? Mark your calendars for the next predicted wild winter weather fronts ... Fatima, Gertrude, Horace etc. Driving eldest son into work at Heathrow during the pandemic, when public transport was a germ-laden hotspot of infection, we'd pass Jerry ( as I'd later come to learn his name) strapped to the top of his van whilst pointing his camera at incoming jets. He was easy prey - a plane-spotting, bobble hat-wearing aviation enthusiast. There are hundreds of them lining the perimeter roads of the airport and you'd wonder what the attraction was. Seen one plane land, seen them all. The train-spotting analogies were everywhere. This flask carrying brigade jotting serial numbers in their reporter's notebooks became an easy target. The (mis-attributed to Andy Warhol) quote of everyone having their 15 minutes of fame was never more applicable than to yesterday's edition of Jerry Dyer's Big Jet TV. Even the name h