The Hub Is Chuffed

I may have mentioned one or two thousand times that the Hub is a plane geek.  His idea of fun is to sit in a draughty field next door to an airport, with a flask and a camera.

I may also have mentioned that we don’t often have much money to spare.  His favourite Christmas stocking filler from me is always the latest issue of Airliner World [strapline: The Global Airline Scene, which has me in stitches], as he can’t usually afford to buy it.

You may remember we went to France for £9 with Ryanair – incidentally, a much-maligned airline which is actually really good value for money and the most punctual in Europe.  The Hub had great fun taking pictures on the way to the airport, in the airport, outside the plane, inside the plane and of the plane, inside and out. 

He treated himself to the November issue of Airliner World for the flight, which cost more than half the price of the plane ticket, and entered a photographic competition it was running that month.

I’d like to say he won, but he didn’t.  Never mind.  However, he likes the magazine so much that when he came across back issues going for 99p on eBay, he bought two – April and May’s of this year.

They arrived today and he got as far as the second page, when he suddenly looked puzzled – did that head scrolling up and down the page thing that says I’m looking and I don’t understand what’s going on here – then suddenly jumped up in glee.  The Hub hasn’t jumped in glee since I told him the best news he could ever have – he’s allowed to keep his seven thousand airline pin collection and me – so it was my turn to look puzzled.

His competition entry photo had been used on the second page, as the background to the editor’s article!  He didn’t know they were going to use it because they didn’t tell him, but entry to the competition implied consent.  It was cropped, but not to its detriment, and he was credited.

Here’s the picture:

He’s chuffed, and so am I.  I didn’t have a thing to write about today.