Song of the Sky A Pelorus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Song of the sky  is a book in my bookcase   written in 1954  by  the war correspondent   and  Air Transport  Command pilot navigator    Guy Murchie  a 1950s  paean to the age of modern flying   in four prop crates  such as  C54,  Constellation.  Electra,, DC6   across   the  trans Atlantic  aero route via the Azores to Bermuda   Shannon to   Gander or Prestwick to Goose Bay.

  This  book was of   the monochrome  silver wings   era   of  Observers   Books /Eagle  comic cut away drawing    Aeroplanes   and shares the bookcase with them.

  

  In his chapter on future flying Murche writes of   new horizons  in 1960s  supersonic  VTOL  "the   pogo planes , the secret atomic ships  and ram jet helicopters "  the  irony is  that  the pogo hyperjets  were unrealised  and   four prop crates  are  still flying  cargo    as viewers  of the Canadian  TV series  "Ice Pilots" will know.

 

 Murchie a pilot from 1935   navigates  by  sextant sighting from    the  aeroplane  astrodome  and  three star fix   and uses  Sun compass and non magnetic bearing via  Pelorus  on  his  Arctic circle  flights

" I could see  Alphard    off  to the south of Regulus   and Kochab  by the pole "

 A navigator   in the tradition of  the Astrolabe   and  the  Bethlehem  star compass   Murchie  relates how in Arabia   " you can follow your way as  Alpheratz  shone over Mount Sinai  Albireo on Tebuk, Hamal on Medina  and Markab  on  the great southland of Sheba "

Like wagonner  charts of coastal  landmarks in   16th  century sailing   a  notched and serrated   stick with  points  could have served  as early pointing  star compass.

 

 

I have tried out my star compass  Alpheratz is my  south  pointer in summer  and  procyon pollux my south  in winter

 

Ironic that today    a local councillor  was  complaining "58% of the over 65 in the Cheshire  area  not on  online or have any IT skills  - why  is not something  done about   providing  IT  training "

 did he not know there was a   local  learning  centre  where I was  delivering IT  courses for a number of years  to that  very age  group until  closure last year !!!

 

that age group however  from my  teaching experience tended   to treat  me as either "their personal   computer servant "     or as  an  weekly internet demonstrator   demonstrating  youtube,  flickr and history pin  over a number of weeks

 

Re website design   emailed CWCA   how it was doing  and got  terse email back saying " I  have  not yet   seen other   applicants "

 

 I have learnt  Office 2013  skills simply to pass  the time   interesting   business  oriented  program with its  web app for Access  Sparkline for Excel   and saving direct to   Sharepoint  and Skydrive 

 first Microsoft  product  since Office 97 I have not  taught at ITQ level  in any  lifelong learning  environment

  Office 2007 and Office 2010  totally passe  but  if you notice the  basic   structure  is the same in Office 2013 programs  as it was in Office 97  programs  even down to  keyboard shortcuts 

  Access still the most  exciting software on the planet

 

Read  New poetry   an anthology   of  modern poets  from 2008  by that haven of mediocrity  Bloodaxe  books   the type of book  taken out on average  twice a year  from the local library   and for the first time  and  last time  I read Liz Lochhead, Peter  Didsbury,  Ian Macmillan and  48  other  new British and Irish poets   from the  1980s and 90s

  what an load of outdated interchangeable angst  from  our New  poets (   you can tell they are  really  our young poets  when the bio  informs    you  so and so  born in  1946)

 

   all oh oh  rambling  randle   thinkie  rinkie  we    the   stream of clicheness telling me  tripe

  of    poems  eating a sauce buttie

 remembering  church and chapel childhoods  -complaining but not blaspheming ,

 depression   in local dialect ,

 bit of    slash   taken out of newspapers   to pseudo shock   along the lines of   he stole grannies  teeth and kicked her in for pension   

  the   sudden  TS  Elly  bosh mixing    produce placement memories   and   classical lost his oil can     so like  a poet  sudden  cleverish   pseudo   Poundies      Aeolus  and  Nebuchadnezzar   had the making of chess players,     good violinists

 

 

Unfortunately  this woefully  outdated modern poetry  is  stifling the  whole medium   with   day job   free lance writers  with  two collections to their name    churning out  this same old    same old  in style  and content that does not amuse me  or tell a story.

 

 So that when it comes to poetry book    editors   expect more like  this  and   merely comment to me on  "my diction  that  makes this poem  unsuitable for inclusion in our current publication"

and of course  with something like atom spider  versus radio killer  space  mystery  "not an appropriate  genre  " salters ghost  " we do not publish supernatural " and there is me with two collections to my name!!