Jet Fuelled Ballet

Forget Stof en Diesel, Mango, one of the South African low cost airlines, pulled the coup of year and presented culture to the 1 litre brandewyn, 2 litre coke and 3 litre Cortina crowds. We were left with whiplash as Mango choreographed one of their Boeing 737-800s with the SA Mzansi Ballet company at the Swartkops Air Show.

Although cold, we were wowed by this standing ovation performance of plane and dancers to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the South African Air Force Museum. Without government funding, these magnificent men and women do a gigantic job of keeping those old birds still in the air. Now back to the dancing, ahh those Cortina crowds sure enjoyed those leggy ballerinas in their short skirts, oh sorry tutus.

The only spoil of the day was his eminence Brian Emminis, who's every fifth word was his sponsor Breitling. Some say that he is a top class announcer but he came across as a self absorbed pompous old man who detracted from the show rather than enhanced it. With all the TV cameras around for the Mango event, Brian and his Breitling crew tried to ambush the dance routine by placing their Breiting branded Bentleys in the way. Such poor taste.

Beside his eminence, I would say the Mango, Mzansi, the SAAf Museum and the flying displays made the flying machines all beautiful again.