Well, surprise of surprises! It turns out that my wife Sharon, in cahoots with Les and Jan Burningham, connived to give me a special birthday present: a trip to visit Les and Jan and to visit the UK Nationals in November. What a surprise!

We scheduled the visit to take into account both the Farnborough club night and UK Nationals, in that order. Accordingly, I arrived a day or so before the club night and was able to visit a fascinating display at a living museum called “Milestones.” Although inside, the display takes the form of streets, shops, equipment, industry and transportation in the Farnborough area during the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. We spent an afternoon there, and enjoyed ourselves very much.

That night we attended the Farnborough club night, and I was able to extend the best wishes of all members of IPMS Ottawa to the membership. An excellent display of models was on the table, and all in attendance had a grand time. I even remembered to pay my monthly dues!

The next day Les, Jan and I drove to Portsmouth to close up their cottage for the winter. We took the opportunity to do a bit of shopping and to enjoy a delicious pub lunch overlooking the Channel. A grand day all ‘round!

Les and I then took a day and drove to the Royal Air Force Museum in the northwest of London. We spent several hours viewing a superlative collection of aircraft and equipment spanning a time line from before World War One to the present. As an added bonus, Hannant’s (a large mail order modelling supplier) had an outlet not a five-minute walk from the museum. We visited their first to collect a few indispensable items, and we were then invited to leave our car there rather than to use the Museum pay parking: a nice touch!

Came 6:30 AM Saturday morning, and we were into the car and off to Telford, about a 2 ½ hour drive from Yateley. Arriving just after 9:00 AM, we went directly into the display area as the first hour, from 9:00 to 10:00 was open only to IPMS members. That started a super two days! Tony Horton, a Farnborough member and the Competition Coordinator for IPMS UK, asked me to judge the entries for the IPMS Canada Theme Award (“Best Canadian Subject”). I settled on an exceptional model of a Dingo scout car destroyed at Dieppe. I was fortunate to meet several members of the modelling fraternity with whom I had exchanged many emails over the preceding months and years. The banquet that night was another success, with IPMS Farnborough resplendent in dinner jackets for the occasion! We spent the next day in shopping mode, except for an hour or so in the early afternoon as I attended the awards ceremony. I presented the IPMS Canada award, and watched as all winners were given their prizes. The overall champion was a scratchbuilt Handley-Page 0/400 bomber, with fabric removed from portions of the fuselage to display internal structure: an excellent piece of work!

On our return, it was time to start packing for the return flight. However, Les and Jan asked me if I would like to see anything else before I departed. I said that there was: we had visited places all over southern and central England, but I had never really had a chance to visit the town of Yateley! Dead simple, they said, and off we went for the morning to drive around the town and see the sights. I was able to get a very nice pen-and-ink drawing of a number of town landmarks as a souvenir of the day.

ll good things end, they say, and so it was with this trip. I had a great time, cemented friendships and made new ones and, I think, reinforced the ties between Ottawa and Farnborough. An excellent visit indeed!

Les at Milestones

Club Night Meteor

Farnborough display at Telford – Captured Equipment

IPMS Canada Theme Award Winner

IPMS Farnborough members at the banquet