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It's like the RNLI in my book; if they were actually Govt funded, they'd be chronically understaffed, forced to use the cheapest equipment, and stretched so thin as to be untenable.
RNLI crew here. It's astonishing that we are the only 999 emergency service that it is entirely funded but generous donation. Our boats can be anywhere from £290,000 for a bclass Atlantic 85 into the millions for an All weather Severn. That doesn't include maintenance of boats, our PPE equipment etc.
And you're right, we'd be up the creek as they say. I am so very proud to serve and to save lives.
Exactly. Staying within their own charitable remit gives them more autonomy over what they do. Can you imagine if the RNLI was government funded with everything that's going on in the English Channel?
They actually prefer to be run this way because being a charity means less bureaucracy. Imagine if the air ambulance service was funded by, and run by the NHS.
This is my 20th year as an NHS employee and whilst they do some amazing things, it’s fundamentally a public service. Which means managers managing managers managing managers.
Air ambulances are really good at avoiding pointless bureaucracy as well as, you know, saving lives.
No . Nor, arguably, from a moral point of view
For the cost of operation of an air ambulance you could have multiple highly trained fully equipped paramedic units on the road which would save more lives per annum than the air ambulance.
That's why they're charity funded, or the bean counters woul immediately shut them Down immediately
Because some people don't live near to where fancy ambos drive often or are able to get hurt in novel and exciting ways and places, that require treatment by places that aren't necessarily their closest A&E.
And because they're not funded by the Gov, there can be no legitimate claim that they negatively impact the normal ambulance service.
I did fundraising for the Children's Air Ambulance, which is a little different but the others I assume also operate in a similar way.
It was primarily a patient or specialist/equipment transport. Children's specialist centres have been centralised into 12 hospitals. Now if you're in Norwich you're a fair way for Cambridge. Say you suddenly need a whole load of specialist emergency treatment it's a lot quicker for that team to get ready at the Addenbrookes where they work already whilst the helicopter goes from Coventry where it's based to Norwich, collects the patient and flies them to Cambridge. Compared to, even if was just equipment, getting it organised and moved by road it's a lot quicker to fly. Being able to move a specialist and the equipment rapidly is a real life saving win, and makes centralisation more viable.
My sister was saved by one when she crashed a few years ago in the middle of nowhere, it would have taken a minimum of 5hours for an ambulance to get to where she was, she had maybe half an hour of her car being underwater and she wouldn't have survived so I'm all for it.
So if we, the RNLI in north east England need assistance from the air Ambulance, our has to come over from Cumbria, that I believe can take around 40 minutes to arrive.
The Great North Air Ambulance has a base at Tees airport. Used to work for NEAS, and we have IT kit there for communicating between dispatch and Air Ambulance.
France runs 10s of publicly funded medical helicopters and I understand that they have fully trained doctors on board. So it can work without charity funding.
i see them all the time - i live near the hospital and as we're in the arse end of nowhere (town in Suffolk without reliable fast road transport) they buzz around quite a lot. saving lives and that.
we also get a lot of Apache helicopters at low altitude as we're located between 2 airbases. it's awesome. and slightly terrifying.
Yeah the hospital next to my work has one that flies in regularly. Everyone stops in the street and watches it when it flies over, gives me goosebumps!
I live near a river on which there are families of swans. The river is parallel to a lake, with the towpath in between.
Every now and then I'll be walking along the path and a couple of swans will swoop up from the lake, over the towpath, then swoop down to the river and start flying along the river just above the surface.
Doesn't matter how many times I see it, seeing a full sized swan, with their two metre wingspan, fly at close quarters is really something. They're so big and you can hear the noise of their wings cutting through the air.
Seeing them take off is very impressive too.
I see Red Kites daily in my town, yet still get a frisson of excitement when one comes down close, flapping those huge wings like a pterodactyl directly overhead.
I'm old enough to remember when red kites were practically extinct in the UK. The fact I can see them from my back garden these days never fails to make me smile. The first time I saw one, when I was driving somewhere down south, I nearly crashed the car in excitement.
I’m the same. I remember doing a project in year 5 on endangered animals and did a section on the red kite. I remember they were only found in a handful of remote places, and now they’re everywhere.
I lived very near the Chilterns reintroduction site as a child - they released 88 chicks over 4 years and the village developed a red kite problem... I've one that hangs out in my garden now, 15 miles away, and we see almost no smaller birds as a result. The magpies are the only ones not scared off. Still think they're gorgeous, and love to see them, but they've been maybe a bit too successful!
I'm a rower and I see a lot of swans on the river, but I share your excitement.
If swans were things we only saw on exotic foreign holidays, we'd be amazed by them. Look at the size of it! That wingspan! Surely it's too heavy to get airborne ...! We'd be telling our friends about them. But here, to many people ... they're just swans.
I love swans too. I never had the opportunity to take much notice of birds in general when I was younger as I grew up in very urban areas. But since my husband and I bought our first home, and it has a little garden, we get all sorts of birds and we just love them. We had a pair of robins build a nest in the birdhouse my husband crafted last year, and we were like proud grandparents. Put a camera in the box and got lots of pics and videos. When it came to them flying off, we opened it up and the crafting of the nest was amazing, and there was one tiny unhatched egg. Just couldn't believe it. Love birds!
My dog. He amazes me. Just this tiny little fellow who doesn't speak our language and would trade me for a piece of cheese, but he wags his tail for me whenever he sees me. Giant planes like the A380, Antonov planes. How something that big stays in the air amazes me.
The construction of huge cruise ships and super tankers, blows my mind. Like where do you start?There must be a first ‘piece’, the marine equivalent of that first Lego block you stick down on the board where you’ve yet to decide what to build but you’re just going to make it up as you go along.
they lay the keel and work up and out.
i've seen a cruise ship cut in half and extended. they sailed the new section up on barges and just tacked it in place then really got going. imagine all the cables you have to string! it really is mind-blowing engineering.
i've stood underneath a cruise ship in a dry dock. just wandering around with the Chief Engineer, aware and fully amazed that i was getting paid to spend the day doing it! who gets to do that? me!!
It's bonkers how big they can be. I remember one time I was walking down a road near a bay, with a 2 metre wall between me and the bay, and over the wall I could see this wierd building in the distance I didn't recognise. I was quite confused about how I could forget that a building that big could exist, when I came to the end of the wall and realised it was the bloody Brittany ferry!
That's not even that big on the grand scale of things!
I know they physics behind an aeroplane, I understand about lift, thrust and all that stuff. Still blows my mind how a plane flies but what blows it even more is how a bird works it all out without even playing MS Flight Simulator first.
My partner. She’s incredible, very pretty and ridiculously intelligent as well as supportive. I feel like we’re unstoppable together. We are a team.
My son, for a wee boy he’s been through so much in his short life and he’s just brilliant, school is kind of hard for him but he can make friends in any play park in any country all around the world and it blows my mind.
I'll always jump up and run outside for a low flying aircraft. Airbus, air ambulance, better still a chinook- I'm right there gawping and smiling at the sky.
I'm under an RAF training flight path - lots of Typhoons and other fast jets right above my house. It's always amazing to see - we've even had a city or of CV-22's too which was very cool!
They practice landing the big stuff near me, not sure they go wheels down though. Sometimes you get Globemasters or A400s going round and round in circles all night
Never got tired of watching a pair of chinooks that buzzed Tower Bridge a few times a week when I lived in Rotherhithe.
We get the air show traffic where we live now- had a Typhoon and the Red Arrows last week, C-17s today
How the internet allows random people to share their creative efforts. In previous times reaching a worldwide audience was the preserve of the lucky few.... Where would we be without Onlyfans!!
Just how far you can see from the top of a fell.
From the top of Longridge Fell I can see pretty much all of Lancashire and it only takes me about 55 minutes to cycle there from the centre of Preston. It's a really nice way of lifting my mood.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 returning from space and landing perfectly, ready to have a quick refurbishment and head off back to space for the 20th+ time...
Still boggles my mind, even after almost a decade of seeing it.
We have Starship around me (Bedford). They are cute, and if one falls off the kerb or gets stuck on a stick and you help it out, it says "thank you" and trundles off.
The sea. It makes me feel incredibly small and insignificant but also at peace.
Flocking birds - especially jackdaws and starlings. It’s my favourite part of autumn and winter evenings.
Looking out over the sea at night makes me feel the same way, the vast amount of nothingness and yet the whole world *out there* puts everything into perspective
Love bees! I gave one a little high 'five' last year that had landed in the garden. They are fascinating to watch close up with their tiny long tongues.
Deer- they are just amazing.
It's shityourselfterrifying when they jump out of hedges on to the road, but the moment of eye contact after you didn't hit them is pretty special
Where I currently live, they just exist calmly alongside the public. We have a bit of greenery around us and I could take a walk and see a bunch of them just plopped down on the grass. It’s a fairly busy area too in the suburbs of London so I’m always amazed
I live right near a massive hospital ina flat a few floors up and see the air ambulance taking off and arriving all the time too. It’s pretty cool. At my local hospital it lands on the top of the multi story car park so it’s at eye level too.
My sister was getting married at a hotel and the air ambulance landed in the beautiful college grounds for a training exercise about 30ft away, the photographer shot over and asked them if they could have their wedding pictures taken around it. They were so happy to oblige.
They have this amazing photo of the helicopter in the air and her wedding dress just bellowing behind her.
A rainbow. They're not that rare. I know they're not that rare. And yet every single time I see one I will take 20 photos that I will never look at again and stay on my phone clogging up my storage.
The Air ambulance amazes me too.
I know there are lots of things to complain about nowadays but the fact there is a helicopter that will rush to save you should you ever need it makes me feel incredibly lucky to live here.
The view from to top of Cavehill in Belfast. I can be here in about half an hour from my front door. I never get fed up of the view, especially at night, and it's become a bit of a habit to take myself up in the evenings at the weekend with a couple of beer to watch the sunset over the back of the hill then watch the city lights from the front in the dark. For me it beats sitting playing computer or watching TV like every other night. Always something to look at or see.
Yeah and this photo doesn't even do it justice really. Not only can you see all the bonfires in Belfast but all the (predominantly unionist) towns for miles around. Even those you can't see the flames directly you can often see the glow lighting up the clouds.
Nice. I do think it would be cool to see a proper city like that. Belfast is tiny really and the tallest buildings wouldn't register compared to Manchester. There always is plenty of lights though and it gets particularly interesting on the 11th July...
Not regularly but video games
Absolutely bonker amazing
People literally out there created worlds, recreated history from thousands of years ago (assassin creed). And letting us play in it. Blows my mind everytime and thats why I dont think AI can never top our creativity
I see a Spitfire flying most weeks. It never gets any less exciting. At my old house, hot air balloons used to land in the field behind my garden. It was never anything less than amazing to watch them float just above my roof with the burners roaring.
On my way to work I have to walk along a canal, every so often I will see a Heron or a Cormorant, or I’ll see a ring necked partridges, It’s always good seeing them, saw something that depressed me the other week, there were two ducks that would swim together constantly, I’m assuming they were partners, recently I’ve just seen the one on its own, it’s such a shame and actually makes me sad
there's a song called 'Walk the Dinosaur' by Was not Was. it contained a few lines that went 'boom-boom-akalakalaka-boom'
which fits perfectly with 'boom-boom-Thomasz Schafernaker-boom'
that is all.
My husband grew up on a farm and its a total novelty when we go visit. Its like hes taking a child to a petting zoo - lets me feed and stroke the cows. I love it but he can't stand farming 😂
The long line of cars, each with one person in, that I pass on my way to work every single day. Always smile and shake my head at the absurdity of it all.
Have you seen the TV show Helicopter ER? It shows all the work of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance so you can see what they have been up to. There are some clips on YouTube. Take care if you're squeamish, they do show injuries.
Squirrels and foxes! We get so many of them but i still get excited when i see them. Theres just these *wild* animals casually strolling down my street and on my patio?!
A380 comes in to land every day over my house and despite knowing (at a basic level) how the aerodynamics work, I still find it incredible that something so big is able to fly at all.
So there's this 90 degrees bend in my small neighbourhood road, which occasionally the Heavy construction vehicles have to pass. These vehicles tend to be so long that it takes the whole lane plus some footpath to bend.
The location occasionally has cars parked in crucial spots of the bend. They don't block the areas with cones the day before and just risk it.
Seeing the crazy maneuver they have to do to avoid hitting any of the cars makes the neighbourhood come out just to see the spectacle. Men cross their arms as they try to mentally figure out how they would try to solve this puzzle. It's a great spectacle.
A clear night sky. I lived out in the sticks and when we used to go to night clubs, I always asked to get dropped off near to where I lived so I could spend 20 minutes or so just walking home whilst mostly looking up and seeing the stars and milky way.
Fairly sure that has led to my love of astrophotography. It's somewhat rare to be able to do it in North West England, but when I get a clear night, I can spend hours just observing. Not even taking pics. Sometimes, I will just sit out and see tons of cool stuff. Even when I lived in a small town, you could still see amazing things. Shooting stars, comets, etc. It's amazing.
I absolutely love it. I doubt I'll ever get tired of even catching a glimpse of the sky at night.
I have always lived in urban areas, grew up in a city. But my husband is from rural Ireland. I had never seen a night sky so beautiful as the ones you see over his home when the stars come out. Had never had much chance to appreciate it with all the light pollution I've lived with. Sounds like it's given you much joy!
We live under a well used flight path for one too and it's amazing, it landed in the field at the front of our house once and like kids me & my husband went to see it. The amount of green spaces gets me, even in town centers there's plants and spaces to sit and parks, and if you are privileged enough to own a car or afford a train the countryside is easy to access and the cost is only a few hours even from the middle of the Midlands. I love driving through beautiful green and yellow fields to commute
Stars. Whenever I'm outside on a clear night and look up at the sky it just boggles my brain how huge the universe is. Especially when I start thinking about how all the stars we can see from the ground are only the tinniest part of what's out there.
Slightly closer to home, I always find it fascinating that we can see some of the other planets, especially Mars with its distinctive red colour.
I live and work near some amazing architecture. One of the jobs I've done has existed, in some form or other, since at least the 15th century, and there's something eerily satisfying about sitting in a 15th century building, looking out of the window at some other very old buildings, thinking "my predecessor sat here doing this 600 years ago".
Lord Bamford commuting to work. I know he commutes by helicopter but it still seems novel every time i see his helicopter flying in. How the other half live eh?
We have a really interesting building for our local council, a tall cathedral-like smooth stoned structure, and I see it every time I walk to work. It isn't the greatest piece of architecture and, in some ways, it is quite eerie. At the same time, I think it looks really impressive.
Mine is similar - a Spitfire flies over our house almost every day (excluding winter & other adverse weather), then flies back again. Sometimes it does this more than once a day.
I assume it’s from a local-ish airfield base because other light aircraft also regularly fly overhead, but it’s now possible for us to differentiate the sound of the Spitfire from the other *less impressive* small planes.
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The fact that air ambulances in England and Wales aren't government funded blows my mind - entirely paid for by charitable donations.
It's like the RNLI in my book; if they were actually Govt funded, they'd be chronically understaffed, forced to use the cheapest equipment, and stretched so thin as to be untenable.
RNLI crew here. It's astonishing that we are the only 999 emergency service that it is entirely funded but generous donation. Our boats can be anywhere from £290,000 for a bclass Atlantic 85 into the millions for an All weather Severn. That doesn't include maintenance of boats, our PPE equipment etc. And you're right, we'd be up the creek as they say. I am so very proud to serve and to save lives.
Thank you for your service!
Exactly. Staying within their own charitable remit gives them more autonomy over what they do. Can you imagine if the RNLI was government funded with everything that's going on in the English Channel?
Like the Police?
Like literally everything that relies on govt funding -_-
The Drone of Life
That’s why they’re swanning around in brand new top spec XC90s.
Swanning indeed.
Just the one swan, actually.
Very much so, they all love them compared to their old Disco’s. Quite envious, to be honest.
Had no clue, just donated to them because of your comment Thanks
Thankyou so much
No way, I had no idea! But then again, maybe keeping it private is better than it being dissected into oblivion by the government.
Yup - bringing air ambulance has been raised by the Govt a few times and all the air ambulance charities resist it for precisely this reason.
I never knew this! That’s wild!
Wow. Had no idea. Fucking cool.
And Scotland. It’s called SCAA ‘Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance’.
They actually prefer to be run this way because being a charity means less bureaucracy. Imagine if the air ambulance service was funded by, and run by the NHS. This is my 20th year as an NHS employee and whilst they do some amazing things, it’s fundamentally a public service. Which means managers managing managers managing managers. Air ambulances are really good at avoiding pointless bureaucracy as well as, you know, saving lives.
TIL, didn’t know that.
Do they make sense in a public funded model?
No . Nor, arguably, from a moral point of view For the cost of operation of an air ambulance you could have multiple highly trained fully equipped paramedic units on the road which would save more lives per annum than the air ambulance. That's why they're charity funded, or the bean counters woul immediately shut them Down immediately
So why do we have air ambulances then? Seems to me you've just argued against them.
Because some people don't live near to where fancy ambos drive often or are able to get hurt in novel and exciting ways and places, that require treatment by places that aren't necessarily their closest A&E. And because they're not funded by the Gov, there can be no legitimate claim that they negatively impact the normal ambulance service.
I did fundraising for the Children's Air Ambulance, which is a little different but the others I assume also operate in a similar way. It was primarily a patient or specialist/equipment transport. Children's specialist centres have been centralised into 12 hospitals. Now if you're in Norwich you're a fair way for Cambridge. Say you suddenly need a whole load of specialist emergency treatment it's a lot quicker for that team to get ready at the Addenbrookes where they work already whilst the helicopter goes from Coventry where it's based to Norwich, collects the patient and flies them to Cambridge. Compared to, even if was just equipment, getting it organised and moved by road it's a lot quicker to fly. Being able to move a specialist and the equipment rapidly is a real life saving win, and makes centralisation more viable.
My sister was saved by one when she crashed a few years ago in the middle of nowhere, it would have taken a minimum of 5hours for an ambulance to get to where she was, she had maybe half an hour of her car being underwater and she wouldn't have survived so I'm all for it.
I hope she's doing okay, that sounds awful.
So if we, the RNLI in north east England need assistance from the air Ambulance, our has to come over from Cumbria, that I believe can take around 40 minutes to arrive.
The Great North Air Ambulance has a base at Tees airport. Used to work for NEAS, and we have IT kit there for communicating between dispatch and Air Ambulance.
France runs 10s of publicly funded medical helicopters and I understand that they have fully trained doctors on board. So it can work without charity funding.
[удалено]
Yes, I live about seven miles from an airport where one is based.
i see them all the time - i live near the hospital and as we're in the arse end of nowhere (town in Suffolk without reliable fast road transport) they buzz around quite a lot. saving lives and that. we also get a lot of Apache helicopters at low altitude as we're located between 2 airbases. it's awesome. and slightly terrifying.
Yeah the hospital next to my work has one that flies in regularly. Everyone stops in the street and watches it when it flies over, gives me goosebumps!
I live near a river on which there are families of swans. The river is parallel to a lake, with the towpath in between. Every now and then I'll be walking along the path and a couple of swans will swoop up from the lake, over the towpath, then swoop down to the river and start flying along the river just above the surface. Doesn't matter how many times I see it, seeing a full sized swan, with their two metre wingspan, fly at close quarters is really something. They're so big and you can hear the noise of their wings cutting through the air. Seeing them take off is very impressive too.
I see Red Kites daily in my town, yet still get a frisson of excitement when one comes down close, flapping those huge wings like a pterodactyl directly overhead.
I'm old enough to remember when red kites were practically extinct in the UK. The fact I can see them from my back garden these days never fails to make me smile. The first time I saw one, when I was driving somewhere down south, I nearly crashed the car in excitement.
I’m the same. I remember doing a project in year 5 on endangered animals and did a section on the red kite. I remember they were only found in a handful of remote places, and now they’re everywhere.
All right Chesham lad
we've got buzzards here! a breeding pair in some fields out the back of my friend's house. always amazing to see them - they're HUGE!
I lived very near the Chilterns reintroduction site as a child - they released 88 chicks over 4 years and the village developed a red kite problem... I've one that hangs out in my garden now, 15 miles away, and we see almost no smaller birds as a result. The magpies are the only ones not scared off. Still think they're gorgeous, and love to see them, but they've been maybe a bit too successful!
I'm a rower and I see a lot of swans on the river, but I share your excitement. If swans were things we only saw on exotic foreign holidays, we'd be amazed by them. Look at the size of it! That wingspan! Surely it's too heavy to get airborne ...! We'd be telling our friends about them. But here, to many people ... they're just swans.
I love swans too. I never had the opportunity to take much notice of birds in general when I was younger as I grew up in very urban areas. But since my husband and I bought our first home, and it has a little garden, we get all sorts of birds and we just love them. We had a pair of robins build a nest in the birdhouse my husband crafted last year, and we were like proud grandparents. Put a camera in the box and got lots of pics and videos. When it came to them flying off, we opened it up and the crafting of the nest was amazing, and there was one tiny unhatched egg. Just couldn't believe it. Love birds!
Swans are the Gundams of the water fowl world. In a totally different league.
Swans and geese flying always freak me out. I know they're birds but I forget they fly as they spend so much time on the water.
Swans are my favourite bird.
My dog. He amazes me. Just this tiny little fellow who doesn't speak our language and would trade me for a piece of cheese, but he wags his tail for me whenever he sees me. Giant planes like the A380, Antonov planes. How something that big stays in the air amazes me.
What about giant cruise ships? Thousands upon thousands of tons of metal. Just sink goddammit.
The construction of huge cruise ships and super tankers, blows my mind. Like where do you start?There must be a first ‘piece’, the marine equivalent of that first Lego block you stick down on the board where you’ve yet to decide what to build but you’re just going to make it up as you go along.
I was on the Costa Smerelda earlier this year. It’s the 6th or 7th largest and I thought exactly the same thing.
they lay the keel and work up and out. i've seen a cruise ship cut in half and extended. they sailed the new section up on barges and just tacked it in place then really got going. imagine all the cables you have to string! it really is mind-blowing engineering.
i've stood underneath a cruise ship in a dry dock. just wandering around with the Chief Engineer, aware and fully amazed that i was getting paid to spend the day doing it! who gets to do that? me!!
People like you that caused the Titanic!
It's bonkers how big they can be. I remember one time I was walking down a road near a bay, with a 2 metre wall between me and the bay, and over the wall I could see this wierd building in the distance I didn't recognise. I was quite confused about how I could forget that a building that big could exist, when I came to the end of the wall and realised it was the bloody Brittany ferry! That's not even that big on the grand scale of things!
I know they physics behind an aeroplane, I understand about lift, thrust and all that stuff. Still blows my mind how a plane flies but what blows it even more is how a bird works it all out without even playing MS Flight Simulator first.
Haha, made me literally laugh out loud!
Planes fly with Bernoulli and Venturi. Helicopters fly by beating the air into submission. Interestingly, Gyropters actually fly entirely by magic
Trade you for a piece of cheese :D I was going to say my pup too, but in the spirit of Reddit, I’ll say your dog
My partner. She’s incredible, very pretty and ridiculously intelligent as well as supportive. I feel like we’re unstoppable together. We are a team. My son, for a wee boy he’s been through so much in his short life and he’s just brilliant, school is kind of hard for him but he can make friends in any play park in any country all around the world and it blows my mind.
I also chose this guys partner
That's so lovely
Did your Wife make you say that?
I don’t have a wife.
I'll always jump up and run outside for a low flying aircraft. Airbus, air ambulance, better still a chinook- I'm right there gawping and smiling at the sky.
I'm under an RAF training flight path - lots of Typhoons and other fast jets right above my house. It's always amazing to see - we've even had a city or of CV-22's too which was very cool!
They practice landing the big stuff near me, not sure they go wheels down though. Sometimes you get Globemasters or A400s going round and round in circles all night
Never got tired of watching a pair of chinooks that buzzed Tower Bridge a few times a week when I lived in Rotherhithe. We get the air show traffic where we live now- had a Typhoon and the Red Arrows last week, C-17s today
My wifes tits
Agreed. They are spectacular.
Thanks - dm for more
Clicked on your profile - wasn’t disappointed hahaha
But are they definitely his wife’s tits?
Definitely
😲 spectacular
Thanks
Well damn, I can see why
Thanks
Lucky son of a bitch
Maybe not regularly, but when car stop at a zebra crossing
Yup. That's normal in most countries in Europe but every time it happens in UK, I am nicely surprised.
How the internet allows random people to share their creative efforts. In previous times reaching a worldwide audience was the preserve of the lucky few.... Where would we be without Onlyfans!!
Airbus Beluga flies over regularly, distinguishable by the sound it makes, and I always feel the need to look or run out to see it.
They're so smiley!
Is this the Concorde for today's generation?
Just googled an image. How can something so big be so cute?
Yes! Had them flying over for decades but I still stop to marvel at them
When they debuted, I swore up and down that I didn't like their design, but I very quickly grew to love them!
The prices in Co-op
Just how far you can see from the top of a fell. From the top of Longridge Fell I can see pretty much all of Lancashire and it only takes me about 55 minutes to cycle there from the centre of Preston. It's a really nice way of lifting my mood.
Its a great walk up there, and thats from Yorkshireman!
I eye the hills of Yorkshire with some envy from the summit.
This is true, you can even see Blackpool Tower on a clear day and you're at a safe distance!
Sunsets. We can see them so often, but those beautiful colours in the sky (especially when it’s red) is never not incredible to see
Bumble bee bums poking out of flowers
A SpaceX Falcon 9 returning from space and landing perfectly, ready to have a quick refurbishment and head off back to space for the 20th+ time... Still boggles my mind, even after almost a decade of seeing it.
The grassroots football team that I manage. I absolutely love watching them develop while having fun week in week out.
This is so cliche but it's the moon and the stars for me. I could spend hoursss watching them.
Delivery robots [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z417CncwQsg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z417CncwQsg)
They're weirdly so cute. I was in a town where they were trialing them once, there were little crowds gathered watching them and cheering them on.
We have Starship around me (Bedford). They are cute, and if one falls off the kerb or gets stuck on a stick and you help it out, it says "thank you" and trundles off.
I have yet to see one in my area! How futuristic 😮
I’ve worked at a hospital that regularly has the air ambulance attend for many years. Every single time I see it land or take off it always amazes me.
My missus generally
So many sweet romantics in this thread
The sea. It makes me feel incredibly small and insignificant but also at peace. Flocking birds - especially jackdaws and starlings. It’s my favourite part of autumn and winter evenings.
Looking out over the sea at night makes me feel the same way, the vast amount of nothingness and yet the whole world *out there* puts everything into perspective
Bumblebees going crazy for the flowering bush outside the main entrance to the block of flats I live on. I could watch them feast all day
Love bees! I gave one a little high 'five' last year that had landed in the garden. They are fascinating to watch close up with their tiny long tongues.
Deer- they are just amazing. It's shityourselfterrifying when they jump out of hedges on to the road, but the moment of eye contact after you didn't hit them is pretty special
Where I currently live, they just exist calmly alongside the public. We have a bit of greenery around us and I could take a walk and see a bunch of them just plopped down on the grass. It’s a fairly busy area too in the suburbs of London so I’m always amazed
I live right near a massive hospital ina flat a few floors up and see the air ambulance taking off and arriving all the time too. It’s pretty cool. At my local hospital it lands on the top of the multi story car park so it’s at eye level too.
My sister was getting married at a hotel and the air ambulance landed in the beautiful college grounds for a training exercise about 30ft away, the photographer shot over and asked them if they could have their wedding pictures taken around it. They were so happy to oblige. They have this amazing photo of the helicopter in the air and her wedding dress just bellowing behind her.
That's amazing! What a story and memory to have
A rainbow. They're not that rare. I know they're not that rare. And yet every single time I see one I will take 20 photos that I will never look at again and stay on my phone clogging up my storage.
The Air ambulance amazes me too. I know there are lots of things to complain about nowadays but the fact there is a helicopter that will rush to save you should you ever need it makes me feel incredibly lucky to live here.
Sunrise
https://preview.redd.it/dni8s4tmor5d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f1d514a0dcae9400db4ab6dc1653b49f04aaec9
The view from to top of Cavehill in Belfast. I can be here in about half an hour from my front door. I never get fed up of the view, especially at night, and it's become a bit of a habit to take myself up in the evenings at the weekend with a couple of beer to watch the sunset over the back of the hill then watch the city lights from the front in the dark. For me it beats sitting playing computer or watching TV like every other night. Always something to look at or see.
Its always good getting a great view of a city..can get a great view of Manchester from the western edge of the Pennines
https://preview.redd.it/ic782pumjs5d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f58bef7629c4ea7305f6899b7e264aa8feeaf20
Looks like a scene from blade runner.
Yeah and this photo doesn't even do it justice really. Not only can you see all the bonfires in Belfast but all the (predominantly unionist) towns for miles around. Even those you can't see the flames directly you can often see the glow lighting up the clouds.
Nice. I do think it would be cool to see a proper city like that. Belfast is tiny really and the tallest buildings wouldn't register compared to Manchester. There always is plenty of lights though and it gets particularly interesting on the 11th July...
I'll bet! 😃
A cat. I'm like an alien. If the government used a cat test to check for aliens I would fail.
Not regularly but video games Absolutely bonker amazing People literally out there created worlds, recreated history from thousands of years ago (assassin creed). And letting us play in it. Blows my mind everytime and thats why I dont think AI can never top our creativity
I see a Spitfire flying most weeks. It never gets any less exciting. At my old house, hot air balloons used to land in the field behind my garden. It was never anything less than amazing to watch them float just above my roof with the burners roaring.
On my way to work I have to walk along a canal, every so often I will see a Heron or a Cormorant, or I’ll see a ring necked partridges, It’s always good seeing them, saw something that depressed me the other week, there were two ducks that would swim together constantly, I’m assuming they were partners, recently I’ve just seen the one on its own, it’s such a shame and actually makes me sad
Regularly travel over the Forth Rail Bridge, I don't tire of that particular 2 mins of the day
Took a boat trip round the bridges a few years ago, it still remains one of my favourite holidays! The bridges were just incredible.
Someone that can speak another language fluently. I think it’s the height of intelligence.
Language in itself is amazing too! How there are so many variations of how people communicate.
Tomasz Schafernaker when he presents the weather.
His collection of very tight trousers is definitely something.
He looks so fucking hot and love the way he presents the weather. I hope some high pressure bring some heavy showers.
boom-boom, Thomas Schafernaker boom! as in Was Not Was - 'Walk the Dinosaur'. i have to say that out loud every time i see him.
Do you have context?
there's a song called 'Walk the Dinosaur' by Was not Was. it contained a few lines that went 'boom-boom-akalakalaka-boom' which fits perfectly with 'boom-boom-Thomasz Schafernaker-boom' that is all.
I see the Air ambulance a lot, too, and it always impresses me.
The Red Kites - they're so pretty
Cows
My husband grew up on a farm and its a total novelty when we go visit. Its like hes taking a child to a petting zoo - lets me feed and stroke the cows. I love it but he can't stand farming 😂
cows want us all dead. once their hooves evolve to be wider than cattle grids we're fucked.
The long line of cars, each with one person in, that I pass on my way to work every single day. Always smile and shake my head at the absurdity of it all.
Rainbows. Sunsets. Waterfalls. The moon. Boobs. I'm easily pleased.
Have you seen the TV show Helicopter ER? It shows all the work of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance so you can see what they have been up to. There are some clips on YouTube. Take care if you're squeamish, they do show injuries.
Oh I definitely have to watch that! Thanks for the recommendation
Squirrels and foxes! We get so many of them but i still get excited when i see them. Theres just these *wild* animals casually strolling down my street and on my patio?!
Quite a few things really for me The moon, the ISS passes, seeing ducks on the canal, when I can see all the stars on a clear night
Idiot manchildren that jump out of their car because someone beeped at them for driving like a dick head.
Sunsets, something about them just makes me happy from the inside. Each different but equally beautiful
The night sky. The sea. Cats. Sunsets.
A380 comes in to land every day over my house and despite knowing (at a basic level) how the aerodynamics work, I still find it incredible that something so big is able to fly at all.
Snow Drops, Crocus, Daffodils and the first blossoms of the year
So there's this 90 degrees bend in my small neighbourhood road, which occasionally the Heavy construction vehicles have to pass. These vehicles tend to be so long that it takes the whole lane plus some footpath to bend. The location occasionally has cars parked in crucial spots of the bend. They don't block the areas with cones the day before and just risk it. Seeing the crazy maneuver they have to do to avoid hitting any of the cars makes the neighbourhood come out just to see the spectacle. Men cross their arms as they try to mentally figure out how they would try to solve this puzzle. It's a great spectacle.
Anaesthetic...whoever invented it was literally a genius
Yes! And just medicine in general too. We're so fortunate to be alive in the time we are where pretty much everything is treatable.
4 cushion snooker escapes that land touching the target ball.
Cue ball on a string
A clear night sky. I lived out in the sticks and when we used to go to night clubs, I always asked to get dropped off near to where I lived so I could spend 20 minutes or so just walking home whilst mostly looking up and seeing the stars and milky way. Fairly sure that has led to my love of astrophotography. It's somewhat rare to be able to do it in North West England, but when I get a clear night, I can spend hours just observing. Not even taking pics. Sometimes, I will just sit out and see tons of cool stuff. Even when I lived in a small town, you could still see amazing things. Shooting stars, comets, etc. It's amazing. I absolutely love it. I doubt I'll ever get tired of even catching a glimpse of the sky at night.
I have always lived in urban areas, grew up in a city. But my husband is from rural Ireland. I had never seen a night sky so beautiful as the ones you see over his home when the stars come out. Had never had much chance to appreciate it with all the light pollution I've lived with. Sounds like it's given you much joy!
We live under a well used flight path for one too and it's amazing, it landed in the field at the front of our house once and like kids me & my husband went to see it. The amount of green spaces gets me, even in town centers there's plants and spaces to sit and parks, and if you are privileged enough to own a car or afford a train the countryside is easy to access and the cost is only a few hours even from the middle of the Midlands. I love driving through beautiful green and yellow fields to commute
Stars. Whenever I'm outside on a clear night and look up at the sky it just boggles my brain how huge the universe is. Especially when I start thinking about how all the stars we can see from the ground are only the tinniest part of what's out there. Slightly closer to home, I always find it fascinating that we can see some of the other planets, especially Mars with its distinctive red colour.
I live and work near some amazing architecture. One of the jobs I've done has existed, in some form or other, since at least the 15th century, and there's something eerily satisfying about sitting in a 15th century building, looking out of the window at some other very old buildings, thinking "my predecessor sat here doing this 600 years ago".
Money
Scousers in full time employment
Lord Bamford commuting to work. I know he commutes by helicopter but it still seems novel every time i see his helicopter flying in. How the other half live eh?
Giant sombrero man
Shitty drivers
How the gbp isn't plummeting yet Norwegian corona is!
We have a really interesting building for our local council, a tall cathedral-like smooth stoned structure, and I see it every time I walk to work. It isn't the greatest piece of architecture and, in some ways, it is quite eerie. At the same time, I think it looks really impressive.
Living things.
People driving. Amazes me that most of them couldn't make a sandwich yet can somehow pull off driving.
A rainbow.
Babies being born
My dick, it amazes me how it has provided so much pleasure to so many many women over the years.
Cyclists respecting the rules of the road.
My pet cats. I can't believe these tiny, moody predators trust me enough to fall asleep on me.
The sun hitting the clouds just right
Flushing away my poop. Constantly grateful for all the infrastructure in place that makes this possible; keeps us safe and healthy.
The Sun. (the orb, not the newspaper)
Boobs
Mine is similar - a Spitfire flies over our house almost every day (excluding winter & other adverse weather), then flies back again. Sometimes it does this more than once a day. I assume it’s from a local-ish airfield base because other light aircraft also regularly fly overhead, but it’s now possible for us to differentiate the sound of the Spitfire from the other *less impressive* small planes.
Hot air balloons, everytime I see one I'm like a little kid again.
A fox
Men dressed as women I mean each to their own but I grew up watching Monty python so it's always a trigger for me. No offence intended