Lost in space...

... or perhaps that should be 'How to throw the losing dice'?

This image, from the excellent radarvituel.com shows four long haul British Airways jets currently heading for Heathrow.

So long as you are not geographically challenged, you may notice a slight problem.

The planes left Lagos (Nigeria), Calgary (Canada), Vancouver (Canada) and Beijing (China).

Houston, I think we have a problem!

Whether they end up in Madrid or Paris (either of which looks possible), I think if I were a passenger, I would rather have been diverted to Newcastle or Durham Tees Valley, both of which appear to be capable of receiving flights at this moment in time.

Ho hum.

20.30 I think the most easterly of the four planes was from Beijing and that plane landed at Amsterdam's Schipol airport. The 'orange' flight from Calgary is due to land at Paris CDG, the flight from Lagos has just done a circuit over the Channel Islands and doesn't seem to know what it is doing while the flight from Vancouver is currently doing lots of circuits over the Irish Sea.

20.50 The flight from Vancouver appeared to be about to land in Dublin, but then headed out over the Irish Sea again.

20.57 I've just noticed that flight BA254 from Lusaka (Zambia) appears to have done an about turn just South of the French coast and may now be heading for Spain? This looks interesting.

21.09 I hope the B747 from Lagos has plenty of fuel - it is still doing circles over the Cherbourg peninsular. The Vancouver flight is currently over Chester at 26,000 feet and heading South East towards Birmingham (currently closed). It must be an interesting evening on both of these planes.

21.20 The fligh from Lusaka appears to be heading for Barcelona and is currently descending through 17,000 feet. The Vancouver flight got as far South as Stratford-Upon-Avon and then did an about turn and has now done a circuit over Birmingham! The Lagos flight is still going round in circles.

21.27 I can't find the Lusaka flight any more. I am getting bored. You must be!

21.33 Just a thought... I wonder whether BA are trying to bully the UK authorities into letting them land at Heathrow. Currently there is a flight from Vancouver doing circles over Birmingham, a flight from San Fransisco that did a fantastic dance off the West coast of Ireland and which is now heading for the Welsh Coast, a flight from Lagos whic is still doing circles off the French coast, a flight from Los Angeles currently over Plymouth and a further two from Abuja (Nigeria) and Mauritius which have been circling over France and which are now heading across the English Channel.

So, What's Been Going On Then?

Last Saturday's post was posted 'on the hoof' from my Father's laptop while sat in my Grandmother's front room. All a bit of fun really to prove to Grandma that she was 'On The Internet'.

I needn't have bothered, because I subsequently remembered another family blog with loads of pictures. My plan was to subsequently remove the post- I then realised that that could be construed as wrong, it is however simply an example of the way that social blogging works. I have however abbreviated some specific proper names down to ensure that this remains a virtually anonymous blog.

No that isn't a challenge to 'Out' my identity (Hercule Poirot would have no difficulty in that), it is just the way I prefer things to be.

So, what have I been up to?

• Sunday: Well, following a family birthday party in the North-East of England last Saturday, the rest of my immediate family left for home on Sunday morning. After lunch with Grandma in a local hotel we went for a ride up Swaledale and Arkengarthdale (in the hire car) stopping for a couple of minutes at the Tan Hill Inn. The Tan Hill is Britain's highest pub at 1,732ft above sea level. I know it might not seem very high to those used to continental mountains, but it really is in the middle of nowhere. Swaledale is where I come from and I get quite emotional even thinking about it. I am a country bumpkin at heart and very proud of it.
• Monday: I was set to work digging up sundry rose bushes, followed by the digging, weeding and bonemealing of the raspberries. Honour done. After lunch we went on a monster drive of the North Yorkshire Moors taking in Saltburn on the way we went to Whitby, Goathland, Pickering, Helmsley and then back via Thirsk and Northallerton. Four hours and about 130 miles. Fantastic scenery.
• Tuesday saw me on a lunchtime flight from Durham Tees Valley back to Heathrow, the 140 bus home and then (via the Central Line) to the London Palladium to see The Sound of Music with my parents. This is a good week!
• Wednesday was a chill out day, though in the afternoon I went out to leafy Buckinghamshire (and also not so leafy High Wycombe) on Chiltern Railways. All will become clear in due course.
• Thursday was a day of domestics with a quick trip to Ealing (Central Line and First Great Western) thrown in for good luck.
• Friday was a correspondence day with a late shop thrown in (repeat of Thursday).
• Saturday is well... now and I'm still at home.

Well if that hasn't done enough to shake off the die hard readers, I am not sure what to do next!

Pip pip!

A Flying Visit

Caught a flight yesterday morning from Heathrow up to Durham Tees Valley (Teesside Airport to you and me). The flight landed 15 minutes early and I was at my Grandmother's by 12 Noon.

Today we went up to Washington, Tyne & Wear, to visit relatives and to have a sumptuous tea. When I spoke to my Aunt last week she had said "I'll bake a cake." My Grandma and I turned up to be faced with a fantastic entirely freshly home baked high tea.

By the time we left at 18:35, the weather had got fairly squally. Down the A1M to North Yorkshire and then off to Teesside (DTVA) at 20:10. Appalling weather so no chance to put the speedy sporty whizzy hire car to the test (well hardly). I'm now sat in the departure lounge waiting for the 21:50 flight as the rain batters against the windows. Let's hope the flight doesn't get cancelled as the weather really is grotty.

I am so looking forward to getting back to London and to work tomorrow (NOT)!

Airport Security Checks (Part 2 - The Answers)

Following my post earlier in the week, here are the brief descriptions again, along with the names/locations of the airports to which they refer.

All opinions are mine and are non negotiable unless negotiations include offers of free flights or similar!

• a) Hi-tech (digital photo taken, barcode placed on boarding pass). Small queues. Efficient. (Durham Tees Valley)
• b) Massive queue but well managed. Loads of tourists getting stuff confiscated. Grave danger of missing flight if extra time not allowed. (Edinburgh)
  
• c) Ten Minutes from getting off bus to being in departure lounge. No queue. Efficient and effective. (London Heathrow)
  
• d) Officious. Over the top. Plenty of staff. (Newquay, Cornwall)
  

Airport Security Checks (Part 1)

For reasons I won't bore you with, I have travelled through four UK airports in the last week or so.

In alphabetical order, those airports are:

1. Durham Tees Valley (Teeside)
2. Edinburgh
3. London Heathrow
4. Newquay

Now, see if you can match the following descriptions of my experiences of the security checks at each airport:

• a) Hi-tech (digital photo taken, barcode placed on boarding pass). Small queues. Efficient.
• b) Massive queue but well managed. Loads of tourists getting stuff confiscated. Grave danger of missing flight if extra time not allowed.
• c) Ten Minutes from getting off bus to being in departure lounge. No queue. Efficient and effective.
• d) Officious. Over the top. Plenty of staff.

I'll provide the answers in a day or so.