WordPress has kicked off a new challenge to encourage more regular writing…the first challenge is themed From Mundane to Meaningful…the general idea is to take some mundane action from your day or week and lead it to a train of more meaningful thought…

Because we both often away from home, we have to always have a plan for looking after our dogs…there are big enough that we can leave them on their own for about a day and a half but anything over that, we have to make other plans…Our kennel of choice is Creature Comforts, just north of Sanson, under the approach to RNZAF Ohakea. We’ve been using it for many years and know that our ‘kids’ are well looked after there: we use them often enough that the drop-off is pretty routine for all of us.

Driving past the main gate of the air base, I glanced in just in time to see the Avenger out of its hangar – the first time I have seen it since it arrived. It’s great to see this aircraft fully restored and flyable: I sat and waited to see if they were going to fire it up but no joy this particular morning.

For me, this and the other flying warbirds are a link to a past that we don’t appreciate and are all to quick to dismiss and forget amidst the tempo of our modern world. The Avenger is particularly evocative of the massive naval air battles of the Pacific War that turned back the Japanese tide at odd-sounding and other insignificant places like Midway, Coral Sea, Leyte Gulf and the Marianas.

And the thousands of young men, all of whom had other aspirations, careers, plans, lives…who downed tools, quite school and signed up to fight for some basic values…The young, now old men, who flew for Bomber Command, Britain’s only means of striking back during those dark years from 1940 to 1942, who only now have been recognised for their sacrifice seven decades ago, recognition denied them for reasons of political tidiness.

And we shouldn’t forget that every day, other young men and women launch themselves into the skies from Ohakea and Whenuapai, into harm’s way because flying will remain an inherently dangerous act until such time as we can do it unaided…I understand the physics of what they do but remain in total awe of the way that they have mastered this unnatural act…slipping those surly bonds in such a way that it seems so natural and effortless…

An act as mundane as dropping our dogs at the kennel led to a sad nostalgic train of thought…