COFFEE WITH A FRIEND AND A WONDERFUL SCULPTURE

I have been having issues with my Remoska, which I purchased from Lakeland, for a while and decided that I would ring Lakeland to try and get it sorted out.  The man in Customer Services I spoke to was excellent, as Lakeland always are and he immediately offered to refund what I had paid and said I could take it back to Lakeland, which is in Debbie’s at Cirencester, and purchase a new one.

However, having looked around and knowing the issues I have been having, we decided to buy a dual zone air fryer instead and hope that we won’t have any issues with that.  Mind you, we got a bargain - it was already reduced by £20 and I had another 20% off with my Lakeland vouchers, so a win/win situation.

We were due to meet Lillieth, a dear friend at North Swindon, so drove back to the Orbital Shopping Park and duly met her, once she had finished work at M & S.  She didn’t realise that Mr. HCB was coming too, so her face when she saw him was a picture.  I haven’t seen her for a while, but it is months since she and Mr. HCB saw one another, so the hug they gave each other went on and on!

We had a lovely hour with her catching up on all our news but knowing I didn’t have a Blip shot I asked if I could take a photograph of Lillieth and Mr. HCB by this sculpture - and of course, they were happy for me to do this.

The impressive 5.5 metre laser-cut steel sculpture, created by local historian and artist, Dr. Mike Pringle, is designed around the shape and size of a Spitfire wing and features the outline of an engineer and a pilot.  It honours the people of Swindon who helped in the war effort during WWII and contributed to the town’s rich engineering heritage.  

It was unveiled in 2018, the R.A.F.’s centenary year, by North Swindon MP, Justin Tomlinson, who said, “The Spitfire is generally regarded as one of the most important pieces of British engineering and I am incredibly proud of Swindon’s contribution to its production.  The artwork is a fantastic way to celebrate this history, as well as to honour the pilots whose contribution was pivotal dot winning the war.”  

I’m sure you will notice that the “engineer” is a woman with her turban scarf around her head - a very popular piece of headgear at the time, and which I remember my mother wearing.

What I find strange is that there is no plaque or anything to tell people what this is about!  Ah well, I guess if people are that interested, they can Google it like I did!

"Never in the field of human conflict 
     was so much owed by so many to so few."
Sir Winston Churchill

Speech in the House of Commons, on 20th August 1940, also known as "The Few", famous as the origin of the popular phrase "never was so much owed by so many to so few", complimenting the pilots in the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain