wateroverstone

 https://royalarmouries.org/stories/the-biggles-shotgun/

Some interesting speculation on the perennial topic of who might have been an inspiration for Biggles


I have survived my latest visit to my mother. It's a belated Mothers' Day visit so I decided I'd take her to Boundary Mill, her very favourite shop which she no longer feels competent to drive to herself. I'm somewhat reluctant to drive Mum anywhere I need directions for (I will never get over her shuffling the carefully arranged directions to Whitby once as she didn't like what she was reading out to me and thought she might find a better direction on another page. We had gone quite some miles before, getting very worried by the lack of correlation between the road signs and what she was telling me to look out for, I discovered what she'd done) but I thought that she'd be able to direct me to a place she had been to so many times. The journey went:

Me, turning right. 'I need you to direct me now, Mum. I don't know the way from here on.'
Several miles later:
'Why are you going through Downham?'
'Because you you haven't directed me otherwise,'
'Oh, I thought you knew your way. I think we can get there this way but the road is awfully narrow.' 

This I ignore as Mum's idea of narrow is anything less than four double decker buses wide and I am an experienced navigator of single track roads, which this isn't..

We come to a T junction. 'Which way?'
'I don't know.' 
After some consideration, we go left. I am reassured when she claims to recognise a bridge. We suddenly emerge from empty moorland onto a long street. 'Turn right at the top and we're there. They've changed the roundabout.' 
'Oh, how?'
'I don't know. I had my eyes shut.'
Investigation reassures me that she was on a bus not driving. Much to my surprise, as I'm willing to believe I might be almost anywhere in East Lancashire, we have reached our destination and I haven't had to turn around once.

I have to sleep in a tiny, adjoining guest room when I visit Mum, as all the cottages are one bedroom, no overnight visitors. I was delighted on Sunday morning, to be awakened by paramedics in my bedroom, demanding to know if I was alright. I don't know which of us was the more confused, but I pointed out that I was sleeping in the spare room of the Estate Office not number 10 and they retreated, apologising. I fell into my clothes to check that Mum was alright next door, in case they'd got the number wrong (she was) and tried to concentrate on how reassuring it was to know that the people responding to the personal alarms were so thorough and not how the rest of the day was going to feel now I was several hours down on sleep thanks to the clocks going forward and my unexpected awakening.


The Reveal of Kismet's Challenge on the Biggles Forum has been put back a week, to this Sunday, 2nd April, as a number of people have had unexpected real life stuff to deal with. Hopefully an extra few days will allow everyone to finish off their entries. 

Now I'm back in the Land of the Internet, I've been able to have a play with ChatGPT. It keeps passing judgement on my morals, but I eventually persuaded it to write the following in response to the prompt:Biggles and Algy accidentally ingest a phytochemical which causes them to have amatory hallucinations about each other

As Biggles and Algy continued their journey through the dense jungle, they stumbled upon a strange plant they had never seen before. Out of curiosity, they took a few leaves and ate them, unaware of the dangerous effects it would have on them.

Almost immediately, they began to feel a strange sensation in their heads, and their vision started to blur. They were hallucinating, and everything around them seemed to be twisting and turning into bizarre and surreal shapes.

But this was not the worst of it. The phytochemical they had ingested was causing them to experience intense and overpowering amatory hallucinations about each other.

They saw each other in a new light, and their feelings for one another grew more intense with each passing moment. They began to see each other as the most beautiful and desirable beings in the world, and they were completely entranced by one another.

As they stumbled through the jungle, lost in a delirium of desire, they couldn't resist the temptation any longer. They embraced each other in a passionate kiss, overcome by the intense emotions that had been unleashed by the phytochemical.

For a few brief moments, they were lost in a world of ecstasy and passion, but slowly the effects of the phytochemical began to wear off. They realized that what they had experienced was nothing more than a hallucination, and they were both filled with a sense of confusion and shame.

As they made their way back to safety, they knew that they would never speak of what had happened again. They knew that their friendship was too important to risk, and they were both grateful that they had come to their senses before it was too late.

From that day forward, they would be more cautious in their explorations, knowing that even the slightest mistake could have dangerous consequences. And although they would always remember the hallucination, they would never let it interfere with their work or their friendship again.