
Third generation balloonist to fly at Bristol Balloon Fiesta
Mr Hall said there had been lots of balloons in the house during his childhood."I'd invite friends around and we were jumping around baskets, being a nuisance, swinging around the office chair pretending to run the business at the age of seven."He took charge of his first flight aged 14 in France."My dad jumped out of the basket, and said 'just fly over the forest, we'll find you on the other side'."
Mr Hall now flies hot air balloons in India, and has travelled all over the world."It's not so commercialised in India as it is in the rest of the world. I think there's only four Indian pilots in total," he said."When you come to land, there will be hundreds, potentially thousands of people that just surround the basket, and they want selfies and to shake your hand, which is really nice."Though ballooning is more familiar to people here, it still draws huge crowds. That interest carries the world over," Mr Hall added.
What started out as a hobby has now become a full-time job for Mr Hall."Sometimes when that happens you can lose interest, but it hasn't happened for me yet," he said."Everybody loves a balloon flight, and it's pretty rewarding when you're giving someone a once in a lifetime experience, and it's one of those things that is accessible to nearly everyone, yet still quite an adventure."I enjoy the chaos of not knowing whether you're coming or going, and it's all very weather dependent, but that's how we work," Mr Hall added.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
First edition of The Hobbit sells for a ‘record-breaking' £43,000
A rare first edition of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit that was found during a house clearance has sold at auction for a 'record-breaking' £43,000. Bought by a private collector in the UK, the book is one of 1,500 original copies of the seminal fantasy novel that were published in 1937. Of those, only 'a few hundred are believed to still remain', according to the auction house Auctioneum, which discovered the novel without a dust cover on a bookcase at a home in Bristol. Bidders from around the world drove the price up by more than four times what the auction house expected. Caitlin Riley, Auctioneum's rare books specialist, said: 'It's a wonderful result, for a very special book.' Riley added: 'Nobody knew it was there. It was just a run-of-the-mill bookcase. It was clearly an early Hobbit at first glance, so I just pulled it out and began to flick through it, never expecting it to be a true first edition.' The copy is bound in light green cloth and features rare black-and-white illustrations by Tolkien, who created his Middle-earth universe while a professor at the University of Oxford. The book was passed down in the family library of Hubert Priestley, a botanist connected to the university and the brother of the Antarctic explorer and geologist, Sir Raymond Edward Priestley. 'It is likely that both men knew each other,' according to Auctioneum, which said Priestley and Tolkien shared mutual correspondence with author CS Lewis, who was also at Oxford. The Hobbit, which was followed by the epic series The Lord of the Rings, has sold more than 100m copies worldwide and was adapted into a film trilogy in the 2000s. A first edition of The Hobbit with a handwritten note by Tolkien in Elvish, a family of fictional languages, sold for £137,000 at Sotheby's in 2015.


Time Out Dubai
3 hours ago
- Time Out Dubai
Play unlimited mini golf at Swingers Dubai this August
Yes, we'll take unlimited golf any day of the week, thanks. And if you're keen on pairing a round of putting with a chilled drink in hand, Swingers – The Crazy Golf Club on Bluewaters Island is the place to be. What's on the menu here? Three quirky 9-hole courses, a bar serving up seriously good mixed drinks, gourmet street food to fuel your game and a cracking team to keep the good vibes rolling. And this August, Swingers is offering a summer special that you'll want to keep a secret – unlimited crazy golf for just Dhs80 per adult and Dhs60 per child (for kiddos aged five to 12). Available daily until the end of the month, the offer covers all three 9-hole courses, Hot Air Balloon, Waterwheel and Clock Tower, each packed with fun obstacles and photo-ready backdrops. Families are welcome until 7pm every day, and the vibe picks up in the evenings with live DJs and all the buzzy energy you'd expect from this playful hotspot. The unlimited offer runs from 4pm to 1am Monday to Thursday, 4pm to 2am on Fridays, noon to 2am on Saturdays and Sundays. What a brilliant way to escape the heat, get competitive and rack up a few laughs along the way. But that's not all, though. Check out Happy Hour running from Sunday to Thursday from 4pm to 7pm and 11pm until close, Monday date nights, ladies Latin par-tees, Friday evening brunch and family funday Sundays (brunch). Ready to tee off? Book now at Dhs80 (for unlimited crazy golf). Mon-Thu 4pm-1am; Fri 4pm-2am; Sat-Sun noon-2am. Bluewaters Island, @swingers_uae (04 557 6309).


BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
'Astonishingly rare' The Hobbit book sells for 'record-breaking' sum
An "astonishingly rare" first edition of The Hobbit has sold for a "record-breaking" £43,000 at copy of JRR Tolkien's novel is one of only 1,500 copies that were printed in 1937. It was discovered without a dustcover on a bookcase during a home clearance in was sold to a private collector in the UK through an online auction at Auctioneum in Bath, Somerset, Riley, the book specialist from the auction house, said: "It's the quintessential auction story. Everyone dreams of finding a rare item hidden in plain sight, and here we are." The book, which was only expected to fetch between £10,000-£12,000 at auction, attracted hundreds of bidders from all over the Riley said the book is in "absolutely beautiful condition" and she believed it sold for a record price for a first edition without a dustcover."House clearances can be tricky, stressful and troublesome... this could have so easily been sent to landfill, or disposed of by someone who didn't realise it was there," she added. The book came from the family library of Hubert Priestley who was a famous botanist in the 1930s and brother to the Antarctic explorer and geologist, Sir Raymond Edward Priestley. Priestley had strong connections to the University of Oxford where Tolkien stood as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke men knew fellow author C.S. Lewis and it is likely that they knew each other."It's the connection to Tolkien and the important provenance that makes this book so special. It's not just any first edition; it belonged to someone who very likely called Tolkien an acquaintance," Ms Riley added it was astonishingly rare to find a first edition in such good condition. "Being a children's book, most of them have seen children's hands, children's colouring pens in some cases, so to have one that appears to be completely unread and never enjoyed is really, really astonishingly rare," she said. The Hobbit is one of the most successful children's novels, with more than 100 million copies story is set in the fantasy world Middle-earth and follows the hobbit Bilbo Baggins on a quest to find rare edition that was sold also includes rare drawings by Tolkien himself.