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By Kirsty, August 25, 2010 4:07 pm

Based on her mother’s true story, Kay Mellor’s heartfelt play will be on stage at the Hull Truck Theatre from 10^th September to the 2^nd October 2010 and Virgin Balloon Flights are one of its proud supporters.

The play which was recently aired by the BBC and starred Sue Johnstone and Billie Piper ends with the lead character Betty riding off into the sunset in a hot air balloon.

A Passionate Woman tells the story of Betty, a middle aged mother and wife. Set on the day of her son’s wedding; she climbs into the loft to escape from all the arrangements and drops the flap shut! Betty has a secret that she has kept hidden for years; when she was younger she had a passionate love affair with a polish fairground worker. Now the spirit of her dead lover, Craze, comes to her on the roof and Betty relives her time all over again with him. Her son and husband meanwhile realise Betty’s whereabouts and try to woo her down to the all important wedding, but she’s not going anywhere except up!

Writer Kay Mellor entitled the play A Passionate Woman because she realised that’s exactly what her mother was. Kay has re-worked the play especially for Hull Truck and is delighted to be finally playing her mum (Betty) for the first time. The star studded cast for the performance also includes ‘Emmerdale’s’ Anthony Lewis, ‘Hollyoaks’’ Stuart Manning and Andrew Dunn from ‘Dinnerladies’.

Here at Virgin Balloon Flights we are giving all ‘A Passionate Woman’ spectators the chance to fly off into the sunset just like Betty. Simply take a flyer from the theatre after the performance which instructs you how to claim the flight voucher discount.

A Passionate Woman – Hull Truck Theatre, 10 September – 2 October 2010 Box Office 01482 323638

Up, up and away! 

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By Eve, April 16, 2010 2:46 pm

As aircraft go, there aren’t many that rival the serenity and sheer spectacle of a hot air balloon.  Travelling some 30,000ft lower than your average civilian aircraft our passengers have been getting airborne from several of our launch sites across the UK this week amidst more lovely spring sunshine.

If you’ve ever spotted a hot air balloon peacefully wending its way above the beautiful British countryside have you ever wondered what keeps a balloon up in the first place? Well, the gas that generates ‘lift off’ in one of our big red Virgin balloons is propane. Once the balloon envelope’s been inflated with air that air is then heated with propane burners. The gas’s (now hot air) molecular behaviour alters making it less dense. This makes the air inside the balloon lighter than the air that surrounds it outside which enables the balloon to counteract the laws of gravity in what is known as The Gas Law; basic thermodynamics.

To learn more about how hot air balloons work why not build your own balloon? We don’t recommend this for unsupervised children or anyone wanting a half decent aerial view whilst on their hot air balloon ride.  For this we’d refer you to one of our excellent balloon pilots.  Chocks away!