so just now I was walking li'l Oppen home down Thorntree Road when I saw an intensely bright light in the sky ahead of me, unmoving. immediately ruling out Venus or somesuch I determined it must be the light of a police helicopter - after all, continue in a straight line for 1km and you're in slaughterhouse Woolwich. but there was no helicopter buzz in the air, just the twilight witterings of robins, thrushes and my wheezy hound. so I begin to wonder - what could it be? eventually, after a great length of time, the light began to shift upward and elongate. then it began to break in twain, and two wingtip lights blinked into view. so it was an aeroplane. but here's the thing. by the time it flew over me, it had grown to the size of a medium passenger carrier - a two-engine Airbus, by the looks of it. when I'd first seen the light, it must have been, what, 20 miles away? and yet those lights were unbelievably bright, like little I've seen in the sky. so, I can only conclude that the plane's landing path (it was in a circular approach to the City Airport) had it pointing almost precisely in my direction, its forward lights shone straight down my throat. felt a bit Slothropesque.