A bit like a London bus, flush with the success of taking Kat Oram to new heights in her program discussing hot air ballooning around Oxford on Monday, our Chief Pilot was asked to appear on another BBC Radio Oxford program later that week. "I doubt it means I am on a route to becoming a national treasure" quipped Kim. But on Friday afternoon last week presenter Jerome Sale certainly surprised Kim, pulling up the Nimble Bread advert while they spoke and playing it on air. "When I first thought about setting up a hot air balloon company in 1985, all I knew about ballooning was the Nimble Bread advert I had seen in my childhood on the black and white television at home – I don't really know a lot more now!".
The Nimble balloons (there were three of them over a decade or so) were early examples of advertising on hot air balloons. The female "pilot" Emily Jones in the advert was last heard of running a book shop in Ludlow in 2006 and beat competition such as Joanna Lumley to the £3,000 a year contract to star in the adverts. The real pilot for the flying shots, Christine Turnbull was an experienced hot air balloon and gas balloon pilot who has now sadly passed away.
