Hot air balloon flight in Belgium

Today I flew in an hot air balloon for the first time! Got up before dawn and drove to Viller la Ville, just outside Brussels. It is mandatory to fly in the early hours of the morning or late in the afternoon, when the air is calm. Otherwise the big and not at all aerodynamic shape of the balloon would be dangerously buffeted by the hot air of Summer thermal currents.

We we welcomed by the organizers with some hot coffee and started getting the balloon ready. The huge canvas was slowly filled with hot air by a huge fan. As the sun rose above the horizon, we (half a dozen of us) got into the big basket with our pilot.

As he fired the gas burners into the balloon we slowly lifted off. Soon afterwards the barely perceptible wind started pushing our aircraft over the Belgian fields. Down below, a car was following us, taking instructions from the pilot as to which road or path to follow to better stay close to our flight path and be ready for our recovery. (Note added in 2012: there were no GPS then, so this was the only way for the car to know where to go in order to follow the balloon as closely as possible.)

We gained altitude up to some five hundred meters. It was, needless to say, an exhilarating experience. A few times we flew pretty close to the tree tops of some hills, but when this happens the pilot fired the reassuring burners, the air in the balloon heats up and the craft moved safely up in the sky. The morning air was comfortably cool in our faces.

After about half an hour we began our descent. The pilot let the air cool inside the balloon and the aircraft moved slowly downward in a gentle glide. As we approached touch-down he instructed us to brace. Just before hitting the vegetable field he fired the burner one last time to soften our impact with the ground. As the basket hit the soil it ground to a halt and slowly tilted forward until it fell to its side. I feared for my camera but it all went well.

After disembarking amongst the inevitable excitement we got into the recovery vehicles and drove back to base camp, where a bottle of cool champagne was waiting!

Well done European Balloon Corporation! Hope to fly with you again soon.

Book Review/Recensione: "Red Sorghum", by Mo Yan, *****

ear of red sorghum

RECENSIONE IN ITALIANO DI SEGUITO

Synopsis

A legend in China, where it won the major literary awards and inspired an Oscar-nominated film, this is a novel of family, myth, and memory, set during the fratricidal barbarity of the 1930s, when the Chinese battled both Japanese invaders and each other.

Author Mo Yan won the Nobel prize for literature in 2012, the first ever Chinese living in mainland China to became a laureate. Some criticized him as not being authoritative enough as a writer and more importantly for his shyness in criticizing Chinese literary censorship.

Recensione libro: Il treno della Cina (1995) di Furio Colombo, ***

Sinossi

Un viaggio nella Cina antica e moderna raccontato da un giornalista. "Ho l'impressione, ripensandoci adesso alla fine del viaggio di non aver visto una sola stella rossa in tutta la Cina. C'è invece, dovunque, dipinto e illuminato, un mare di pubblicità". (Furio Colombo)

Recensione

Un diario ragionato di un giornalista intellettualmente onesto che dopo un periodo post comunista è transitato ai radicali. Colombo racconta quello che vede e ci ricama sopra considerazioni più generali e mai banali. Consigliato per una visione del gigante asiatico negli anni immediatamente successivi ai fatti di Tiananmen, che ricorrono come un ritornello nella narrazione cadendo il viaggio durante il 4° anniversario.

Da allora la Cina non è diventata più libera, come Colombo, tra i tanti, immaginava, ma è diventata più potente.

Stopover in Hong Kong on the way to Australia

click here to see this map in full size

Cathay pacific offers me a day room at the hotel by the airport. Landing at this airport is an experience in itself. As we approach in the early morning hours it is still pitch dark. I can see the bright lights of the bustling city, which has just reverted to China a few weeks ago, in stark contrast with the black background of the mainland. During the final approach the  pilot comes on the intercom and advises that he is going to switch off the main cabin lights so we can see better outside. A few minutes later I understand why. The plane comes in low literally between rows of high rise buildings! You can almost see inside the bedrooms of the apartments as he makes a precise landing in the narrow strip of reclaimed land in Kowloon bay!

Book Review/Recensione: I was Amelia Earhart, by Jane Mendelsohn, ****

Recensione in italiano di seguito

From the New York Times, 3 July 1937

Synopsis

A fictitious account of Amelia Earhart's last flight, with flashbacks to her childhood and difficult marriage. Amelia and her raffish, drunken navigator, Noonan, crash-land on a desert island. They fight, touch madness and finally fall in love, before taking off again on only half a tank of petrol.