Good blogs

I have been reading a few good blogs lately. One is Flight Level 390, which is written by a US airline pilot. He has a nice take on life in the skies. I'm not sure why I like it - I just do. I used to go up the front of the plane when I was a kid and see what the pilots were doing, and I think he gives me an understanding of what I was seeing when I was 10 years old.

Another is The Magistrate's Blog, which is written by a pommy magistrate. His descriptions of the underclass that front him on a weekly basis are very good, as well as the deliberations that he goes through when sentencing them. The workings of our courts are a mystery these days as all the major newspapers seem to have given up on covering trials. The media seems to only cover the crime, not the aftermath. You hear about this murder or that rape, but rarely do you find out what happened next - unless some judge imposed what the media thinks is a light sentence, and then all hell breaks loose.

Random Acts of Reality is by a London ambulance bloke. He has just published a book about the blog, and I think his blog has gone downhill a bit since then. His early stuff, describing what it is like to work a nightshift dealing with domestics, fights, stupidity and mayhem, is very good.

I have also been looking at a few UK police blogs, namely Inspector Gadget and Copper's Blog. Both offer an interesting view on what the police have to put up with, and it's not pretty. I am not talking about criminals - I am talking about the mindless management wank that comes down from head office.

The last one is about teaching in the UK, by Frank Chalk. Frank has also put out a book as well, and sales seem to be going quite well. Now that I have some skin in the game (two kids to edumacate), I'm interested in reading what teachers think of their little dears. It's not pretty either.

Why the predominance of UK blogs? I have no idea. There are plenty of US blogs about police, ambulances and teaching, but maybe I just prefer the English style of english. There also seems to be a dearth of good Australian blogs on these topics. However, a good Sydney blog about taxi driving is written by my favourite man of lettuce.

They all put my feeble efforts to shame.