It was a warm September day and in the midst of the afternoon’s heat came a loud whining engine noise from above. This occurs quite often during the warm months. It’s usually a sea plane or a helicopter; both of which fly low in these parts. Normally, when this happens, the engine sound comes and goes rather quickly. But this time, I wasn’t experiencing the usual doppler effect; you know, the high pitch sound of the engine as the air craft approaches, followed by a lower pitch sound as it moves away.

This sound was different; it seemed to linger over the house at an even pitch. After more than a few seconds of this, I went outside to investigate and there, seemingly hovering above my house, was the Goodyear blimp. It lumbered along slowly and was so low in the sky I could see the people in the gondola underneath. It looked like a giant pig, not unlike the mammoth floating pig that Pink Floyd had tethered to a large building in London years ago. I’d see it whenever I took the train out to Wandsworth.