May.

I have just realised that it appears to be May. This is a good thing in some ways, but does herald the beginning of the end of the good weather, and rings in the 100+ F temperatures and high humidity of the Houston summer.

I was 'volunteered' to be a captain for the first ever BHP Billiton dragon boat team a couple of months back, and I am pleased to report that the team, many of whom had never been in a dragon boat more than once prior to race day, did us proud by coming 3rd in the energy cup, and 5th overall out of 30 teams. Nice job! We'd been kitted out in BHP "thunder from down under" t shirts and Aussie style hats for the event which went down very well with the locals. It did turn out that "thunder from down under" is also a group of male strippers from Australia performing in Las Vegas (if you're interested!), but as we'd already printed the T-Shirts... Ah well. Best laid plans...

I spent yesterday at an Aussie mates stag do which went off very well. We kidnapped the poor chap, and drove off up to a paintball park near Tomball, close to the airport I fly from. It appears that the Saturday lunchtime crowd in Texas burger joints are a bit bemused when you bring in a guy in pink fluffy handcuffs and a pillow case over his head, Guantanamo Bay style.

I'd not been paintballing for ages, and it was great fun running around sniping at people through the forest. Those little paintballs don't half move though, and you certainly know about it when they hit you!

Took the diamond DA 20 out for a spin last Sunday evening. I love that plane! It's so small that its almost like wearing an aircraft, and is just an extension of your body. Its very sprightly and turns on a dime; you can knock it on its side and pull awesomely tight turns without pulling the wings off. This is of course a good thing.

Its a great priviledge to be able to just take off and fly over the "great nation state of Texas", taking a look at cars passing below, flying low along the Brazos river, and watching the sun go down off your wing.
--
Sam Clayton

www.samclayton.net

Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry.

posted by Sam @ 3:27 PM