Rubénerd!

Celebrating Empire Day in style here in the Schade family household, by posting a veritable litany of randomness, eating crumpets and drinking tea. At least half my genes are pleased with this arrangement, the others aren't so sure. Oh, I say, rah-ther.

Britanime

We start our cavalcade of British Empire blogging whatnot (a spot of tea?) with an image from Detective Conan, and from the K-On! movie where the girls found themselves eating cake in London. I can only imagine the latter, having never seen it.

First image submitted by 穂積 on Pixiv, the second by the fabulously smashing folks at Kyoto Animation who managed to distill moe and dispense it in lethal doses!

Cathay Pacific Sherlock

We continue by flying to Hong Kong, one of their former colonial possessions. Given I only just posted a story about aviation, it seemed fitting. Wait a minute, Singapore was a colonial posession too. Those Brits have been everywhere; and they weren't exactly original with their subordinate's flag designs either.

Anyway, we're getting distracted chaps. On the Australian Business Traveler site, what did the reviewer use to test the new inflight entertainment system of select Cathay Pacific aircraft? That's right, Sherlock!

Naturally, I rewatched an episode of the show again this evening. The first of season two, because it was rather cheeky. I still haven't got over the anger that CBS will be creating an American version, what an abject travesty against decency and good taste!

To help calm down from this, here's a photo of our favourite duo:

Little did they know when meeting for the first time... :'). Oh dear, I'm using emoticons and writing vague sentences with regards to this show just like fangirls. They're so dreamy... ^^

The Brittas Empire

Speaking of British television, one of my favourites from years past is The Brittas Empire. Along with Fawlty Towers, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Keeping Up Appearances, Red Dwarf, Monty Python and too many others to count, this was one of the British television shows growing up that I simply could not get enough of.

I forget which station I used to tune in with The Family™ to watch this each week in Singapore, but it was absolutely hilarious. The gist was an uptight manager of a recreation centre in suburban England that had to contend with incompetent and/or silly staff, government regulations and... customers! With comedic results ;).

On this Empire Day, I found myself learning something new about the show, from the @BrittasEmpire Twitter account:

You bastard! You'll never get away with this! (Brittas swears for first & only time) S1 Ep4.

It also took me this long to realise that I'm discussing the Brittas Empire on Empire Day. Who'd have thought.

Britanime part two, fine folks

I was going to round off this post with a mention of Hetalia, the anime series featuring moe anthropomorphisms of nation states with ridiculous results, but I figure this page unfairly slants towards depicting British gentleman.

So here is a picture of Lynette Bishop, the moe anthropomorphism of the British Spitfire from the 501st Joint Figher Wing of Strike Witches. You'd better believe it.

Don't worry, I didn't understand it either. A jolly Empire Day to you!

It's sure been a month of anniversaries and milestones, for better or worse. Here's one that I feel compelled (and able) to discuss in more detail, the last revenue passenger flights of the Singapore Airlines 747.

Photo by Terence Ong on Wikimedia Commons.

No more SIA 747s

From Asian Skies on Flight Global:

After nearly four decades of successful operations, Singapore Airlines is about to retire its last remaining Boeing 747s from passenger service. The Boeing 747 has been an icon of Singapore Airlines’ fleet since a pair Boeing 747-200s first landed at Paya Lebar Airport on the 3rd of September of 1973.

Since that date the Singaporean flag carrier has operated several variants of the Jumbo jet, adding its first Boeing 747-300 in May 1983 and later on the 747-400. Its first international Boeing 747-400 service, from Singapore to London, was flown on 31st May of 1989.

According to the site, the type's final scheduled flight will be from Singapore to Melborune and back on the 25th and 26th of March, and that cargo 747 operations will continue. In other worse, unless we're crew on a freighter, no more SIA 747 service for us!

Photo of Singapore in 1998 from here, of all places. It's sure changed a lot since! :O

Nostalgia time!

With the possible exception of Concorde, few airframes are as instantly recognisable to the general public as the Boeing 747. With its forward upper deck (FUD, to you non-IT people) and large wings, it was the first commercial widebody passenger jetliner, and became a household name. We started referring to things by comparing them to the size of a 747.

For my sister and I though, the Singapore Airlines 747 fleet will always hold a special place in our hearts and minds, as it were. Boarding our flight from Brisbane in the mid 1990s, it was the first part of Singapore we saw having been told our father's job was transferring us there.

Aside from transferring us away from Australia and forever changing our perceptions of life, the universe and everything (as well as firmly cementing my obsession with Asian culture, food, history, language, people and living!), at the time what we were most excited about were our seats. My father's company had shouted us business class tickets, which meant we got to sit "upstairs"! Compared to the gigantic cabin downstairs with its rows of cattle class seats and noise, the top section felt cozy. It was small, had few seats, and was tiny!

As my sister said:

That's one of the few flights I do remember... which is weird!

Ironically enough, with my father being transferred back to Australia recently and my sister and I being accepted into UTS, our last flight back from Singapore to Sydney on Singapore Airlines was on one of their brand new A380s, the very plane that most likely lead to the retirement of their 747s. Funny how the world works like that.

Anyway, another aspect of our childhoods flying away. Which reminds me, something else from our childhoods had a massive anniversary recently, I'll need to blog about that soon too!

We've come so far in some ways, but tragically not so in others. I guess I'm just a little disillusioned at all the squandered potential.