C is for George Cayley
| This is my contribution to ABC Wednesday and for Round Ten I am focusing on people from the past, some famous, others less so. |
The first person to fly in a heavier-than-air machine wasn’t the Wright brothers, but an unknown coachman who did so in 1853.
He worked for the Yorkshireman, Sir George Cayley, sometimes called the Father of Aviation, who carried out the first truly scientific study of the way that birds fly.
Cayley correctly described the principles of weight, lift, drag and thrust that govern flight and built a series of prototype flying machines, including some with flapping wings powered by steam and gunpowder engines.
B is for Backing Britain
| My contribution to ABC Wednesday which for Round 10 I am focusing on people from the past. |
Although I mean to focus on interesting individuals from the past for this round of ABC Wednesday, this post is about an entire nation who briefly joined the I’m Backing Britain campaign of 1968.
It was a time with echoes of today − the economy was weak, the national debt was high and Britain was a country full of anxiety and despondency.
A is for Angelsey
| My contribution to ABC Wednesday which for Round 10 I am focusing on people from the past. |
For this round of ABC Wednesday, I thought I would focus on people from the past, some famous, others less so, but hopefully all interesting in one way or another.
Starting with the flamboyant 5th Earl of Angelsey, who “seems only to have existed for the purpose of giving a melancholy and unneeded illustration of the truth that a man with the finest prospects, may, by the wildest folly and extravagance, play away an uniterable life, and have lived in vain.”
Z is for Zephyr, Zibi and Zip-lining
| Can I complete the whole of Round 9 of ABC Wednesday based on our four week stay in South Africa in February? Click on the photos to enlarge. |
Phew! I managed to make it through the alphabet from South Africa and with quite a few examples for the letter Z. First up is this Zephyr in bronze and chrome that you can find on the waterfront at Knysna.
It is the work of South African artist Stephan Raubenheimer and weighs 62kg when off its Jarrah-wood base. It was created in 1997 and was on display in Auckland, New Zealand in 2000 during the America’s Cup Regatta.
Y is for Yachts and Yellowwood
| Can I complete the whole of Round 9 of ABC Wednesday based on our four week stay in South Africa in February? Click on the photos to enlarge. |
Yachts are always helpful to illustrate the letter Y, as any author of ABC books for children will tell you.
I took this photo of yachts at Knysna Quays Waterfront during a stop off on our Garden Route trip along the south coast of Africa.
X is for Xhosa
| Can I complete the whole of Round 9 of ABC Wednesday based on our four week stay in South Africa in February? Click on the photos to enlarge. |
There was a black stand-up comedian in Cape Town who told a joke that went something like this:
‘A lot of my white friends ask me if I speak Zulu when I’m at home. You know why they ask that?
‘Because they can’t f*****g well say Xhosa!’
The joke only works if you understand that Xhosa is the major language spoken by black Capetonians and is itself an extremely difficult word to pronounce .
W is for Wheels, Water and a Wedding
| Can I complete the whole of Round 9 of ABC Wednesday based on our four week stay in South Africa in February? Click on the photos to enlarge. |
I have two wheels to show you for the letter W, although the first is a bit of a cheat because we saw it in Holland en route to Cape Town.
We flew with KLM and our connecting flight at Amsterdam Airport was delayed, so we had a wander outside which is where we came across the Wheel of Energy on the left.
V is for Victoria, Vineyards and Vuvuzela
| Can I complete the whole of Round 9 of ABC Wednesday based on our four week stay in South Africa in February? Click on the photos to enlarge. |
My first V from Cape Town is the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, a very colourful place as you can see from the ladies who had been singing with their choir.
And it is Victoria and Alfred, not Victoria and Albert. Construction on the harbour was begun by Prince Alfred in 1860, the first basin being named after him and the second after his mother, Queen Victoria.
Read the rest of ‘V is for Victoria, Vineyards and Vuvuzela’
U is for Umuzi Photo Club
| Can I complete the whole of Round 9 of ABC Wednesday based on our four week stay in South Africa in February? Click on the photos to enlarge. |
I want to use the letter U of ABC Wednesday to promote the Umuzi Photo Club, a project that my daughter became involved with during her stay in Cape Town.
T is for Table Mountain
| Can I complete the whole of Round 9 of ABC Wednesday based on our four week stay in South Africa in February? Click on the photos to enlarge. |
It is said that it is easy to get your bearings in Cape Town simply by using the ever present Table Mountain as your guide.
A good theory that I never quite got the hang of while driving around and about the city, something I put down to the sun being in the ‘wrong’ place – ie in the north and crossing the sky from right to left.
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