Yesterday for the first time since I got stranded here in the UK I looked at TripAdvisor and ballooning on the internet.

Two things involving hot air balloons had previously irritated me enormously but don't any more.
The first was when my company was market leader with a huge following on TripAdvisor and they removed all reference to our company without warning. In trying to be re-instated I finally discovered after one day spending £70 on phone calls to their "helpline" that it was just a call centre without the means to help at all, but charged a premium to do it.

With a lot of help from our supporters a new start was made, but of course we had lost our top spot. The only excuse given was that we didn't have a web site, yet no where on their site or in correspondence was there any indiction that it is necessary in dealing with TripAdvisor. I really don't care any more.

The second irritation was that the balloon that took me a long time to design appears frequently on the internet advertising other companies and when any reference is needed in the press with relation to ballooning in Egypt. After looking through the references to ballooning in Egypt last night on Google I just thought without boasting it is what it is, the most photogenic balloon and people like it. I also discovered that other companies are using my words verbatim in their advertising after all this time - but I don't care any more. I'm Free

Does that mean you no longer have anything to do with the company?

Only indirectly Horus. WhatsApp is a wonderful thing and frequently used. Because of my current state of health I am I suppose on the equivalent of sick leave. I had known for a very long time that I would have to have operations and my present immobility was anticipated. Thus from the beginning of the firm our staff was trained so that no one was indispensable, least of all me. I was always a visiting Operations Consultant. I had a resident young right hand man who worked with me as well as being an excellent pilot. He's been with the firm now for 20 years or more. Good chap.

My DH's sons and a cousin trained for 5 years before we allowed them to fly solo and we liked them to have a few hundred hours up as co pilot first. Many more than is legally required. DH had to stop flying of course when he was 60 years old so he keeps a watching eye on things but has his farm. We both share a love of Arabian horses, I have 4 mares and he has far too many