Show Me The Way To Go Home

The good intentions today had been to meet with a wood-carver and horseman, turned video artist called Simon Buttimore at his home on the Isle of Man. I had planned to blip him with his Welsh Cob horses and collection of hand-made Romany Caravans. Easy peasy, I thought. A pity then that our working day in Peel should overrun by so much, and that Noah and I should have to dash for the airport and miss seeing Simon.

It was a classic lesson of not counting your chickens before they hatched, and backing-up with some reserves contingency. Sadly, all I had to show was a few shots of Peel, including a large flock of distant seagulls circling over the harbour; and a pair of discarded lace-trimmed knickers, thrown and tangled in the overhead arch leading to St Peter's Church grounds. "Many an islander has been conceived in these here grounds", I was told proudly.

This then is my alternative perspective, flying back to Manchester, and passing over the mouth of the Mersey estuary, with the lights of Liverpool and the Wirral lighting our way home.

Postscript: Disappointingly for this auxiliary blip, is that still there is no sign yet of artist Anthony McCall's mega public artwork called 'Column' either. This major work was due to have been visible at Birkenhead's East Float on the Wirral by now, and was actually to have been unveiled earlier this year as part of the Cultural Olympiad. Once eventually installed, it will aparently comprise a three-mile high spinning vortex column of 'cloud' visible for miles around. The project suffered major setbacks when planning permission was held up by Civil Aviation Authority fears about the impact on flights.

There was no impact made on our Flybe flight home tonight though.