Following reports of strange objects spotted in the sky over Trim on Easter Sunday, the Weird-Wide News Team (in this case, me and the wife and kids) dropped our chocolate eggs and made our way hurriedly to the edge of that historic town to investigate. There, in a field just across the river from Trim Castle, we came upon an odd sight. Well, actually a whole field of odd sights, including an enormous can of Guinness and a gigantic Panasonic battery rising up over the landscape.
It was the Trim Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, struggling against typically damp and cold Irish weather. Sonic the Hedgehog, a giant chicken, a cat and the Boyne Valley Honey Bees all made an appearance. Apparently Darth Vader’s head, a colossal slice of orange, Bertie Basset and Thomas the Tank Engine were all there over the weekend. Aviator Brian Jones also paid a visit, in a replica of the balloon in which he and Bertrand Piccard became the first people to fly all the way around the world in a hot air balloon without stopping.
The balloons should have been the main event, and they certainly attracted crowds, but it was a pity to see such fantastic sights slowly inflate, only to be allowed buckle and fold back down again because the wind threatened to drag them away.
There were no flights taking place, as they only happened early in the morning or in the evening, when we couldn’t go. 
I fully intend to get up in a hot air balloon sometime soon, and apparently Trim is one of the centres for ballooning in Ireland.
There were a lot of stands around, with various foods, games and activities, as well a big inflated ball you could roll down a hill in, crazy golf, inflated slides and people in the ballooning baskets scattered around so you could see how the burners worked and get your picture taken as you triggered a jet of fire into the sky. But the weather really put a dampener on things.
When you think of the gorgeous weather we had last weekend, the organizers of the festival must have walked outside, and let off some colourful language as they saw the sun shining down out of those lovely clear skies a week too late.
And speaking of balloons . . . in ‘Strangled Silence’ I had a war where nothing was what it seemed and tricking the eye – and the mind – was all part of the game. 
In yet another case of fact being as strange (or even stranger) than fiction, Weird-Wide News has discovered that the Russian military are ‘faking it’ for real, with balloons that look like military equipment. These life-size decoys are used to make a base or airfield look as if it’s better defended than it actually is, or to attract the attention of attacking aircraft away from real troops and hardware.
It’s like some of the stuff I read about in the book, ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’ (now a major film – a pretty good movie, but could have been better), except not quite so unbelievable and scary.
I love this idea of balloon decoys. I can see the Gardai using this in a few years, putting inflatable police cars by the side of the road to stop people from speeding. Or maybe property developers will start putting up inflatable houses, to fool people into thinking we still have a building industry . . .
