Plane spotting and Battle of the Somme Anniversary

As a break from my current contented domesticity I allowed Ally to persuade me to accompany him to Rosyth today. This was to see some planes doing a fly past the two newly built aircraft carriers on which they are going to be based. They are F35B Lightning II fifth generation strike fighters. (I only know the names because James just told me.) 

So off we went, and found a suitable vantage point near the new Queensferry crossing bridge (which is still under construction - the towers are all built but the bits in between have not been joined up yet.) And right on time, the two F35Bs flew overhead towards the dockyard, accompanied by an RAF Hawk. Ally was very excited. Five minutes later they flew back in the other direction and that was that. We had a nice coffee together in South Queensferry before heading home. How nice to be able to go on an outing with my boy just for fun.

Back in Glasgow I popped into town on a shopping errand and to my surprise I saw several young men dressed as 1st World War soldiers, walking silently around on the concourse at Glasgow Central Station. They stood out among the crowd because of their uniforms and lots of people were turning round to look at them. Later I saw on the news that they were there to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916. There were about 1500 volunteer participants around Britain, at railway stations (from where they would have left to go to the war) and other public places. The tribute was coordinated by National Theatre head Rufus Norris and artist Jeremy Deller. Each participant represented one of the soldiers who died in the battle, and I thought that it was a very moving and haunting way to remember them.