Planes from childhood

During my childhood in East Timor my familly and I were often flying on a pair of De Havilland Dove aircrafts which connected remote locations with the capital, Dili, specially during the rainy season when overflowing rivers made it impossible to travel by road.

These two planes are special to me. Not only they had a special odour that only an old plane has (or an old airman remembers), but also because one of these birds literally saved my life on Nov 1st 1973, when I was airlifted from Viqueque to Dili hospital after being seriously injured in a domestic accident.

One of these planes was the Oecusse (registration CR-TAH) seen here in this photo from my family album taken on Baucau around 1972. The girls wearing traditional clothes were part of a welcome ceremony for tourists arriving from Australia.

I lost track of this particular aircraft and, according to this page, it was acquired by Soloman Islands Airways, although I suspect it never left Timor when Indonesia invaded.

The second aircraft (Manatuto, registration CR-TAG) managed to fly out of the island on the day of the Indonesia invasion and, after being parked on a remote spot of Darwin airport for a while, was restored and is now being displayed at the Darwin’s aviation museum next to a B52.

De Havilland Dove CR-TAG – photo from Darwin’s Aviation Museum
from https://www.goodall.com.au/photographs/doves-herons-70/70sdoves-herons.html

Another plane that regularly visited East Timor was a Trans Australia Fokker F27 registration VH-TFM, seen here on a photo from my family album. This was the plane that took me and my family out of East Timor a few days before the Indonesia invasion.

Planes have always been part of my life and that’s why I never cease to be amazed by the act of flying:

 

Feel good places

For most of us some places will be forever linked to good moments. For me and for the last 35 years, one of these places is the Coliseu de Lisboa, a concert hall in the center of Lisbon where I attended memorable performances since my teenage days.

ticket for Feb9 1982 Ian Gillan Band show
Skunk Anansie, Feb 11 2017, Coliseu de Lisboa

Another much different place which has been attracting me over the last months is a small bar near the place where I live. This place belongs to Apogma, an organization of OGMA workers, an aircraft maintenance company in Alverca, Portugal and although access is reserved for members, I have been fortunate to come along with friends who are.

Rockinh Horse covers band - Setptember 15th 2017
Where are the artists and where is the audience?

The small familiar place, the regular attendance (10% Milennials, 90% Gen X) and a multitude of local artists keep this place buzzing with fabulous live music on Friday nights, superb crowd engagement, and cosy atmosphere. On the downside, the facilities are very old and lack proper sound insulation, there is no effective separation between smokers and non-smokers zones, and although live music finishes at mid-night(ish), people living in the neighborhood understandably complain about the noise.

Rocking Horse covers band, September 15th 2017
Paulo Brissos – October 20th 2017
MT 80, December 9th 2016
D.Gang – November 3rd 2017