Are you my hero?

Guy: "How is Roger?"
Me: "Roger is my hero!"
Guy: "What about me?"

If your name is Roger, Guy, Mike or Jim you might be my hero. At the very least you might be someone possessing qualities I admire very much.

Mike has no idea that I view him in this light - at least I very much doubt that he does. Mike Roberts. He really knew how to climb. What an inspiration he was.

Jim won't ever read this blog, sadly. He died on 7th April 1968. I didn't know him, although I did see him driving when I was very young. There is a line from a book by Doug Nye that I shall quote, perhaps incorrectly: "The memory of those apple green cars at speed, Clark's dark blue helmet visible above the coaming, the master so relaxed and confident and such a gentleman, still makes the eyes mist over."  What else is there to add?

And then there was the Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot I saw on a documentary recently. At the age of 80, I guess, he went up in a 2 seater Spitfire. 60-odd years later there he was, flying a Spitfire once again. And as she handed over the controls, the pilot said over the radio to him: "You have control of my aircraft. I am very honoured, Sir." Yep.