Bills Posts

After we heard about the issues with the uk air traffic system (the cause of which rather tests my credulity especially after speaking to a former RAF Navigator whom we’ve just met) we were someŵhat nervous about what would be waiting for us upon our arrival at Gatwick.

We had even discussed the possibility of the flight being delayed by anything up to twenty four hours and were grateful that the next part of the holiday wasn’t due to start until 24 hours after that (giving us a roughly 48 hour window in Malta) so we felt well prepared for whatever confronted us at the airport. Especially as the press were presenting a picture of utter chaos.

First indications were that the railway station didn’t appear to be any busier than you might expect it to be, particularly after the weekend rail strike that had only recently ended.

The railway station is at Gatwick’s south terminal and we needed to be at the north terminal for the easyJet departure. We had arrived a good hour earlier than we needed to in readiness for any crush. We didn’t experience anything like that on the monorail transfer service which was fast, efficient, relaxed and uncrowded.

Disembarking from the monorail, we braced ourselves for the heaving crush of frustrated angry people. Only snag was, they weren’t there. Of course there were people waiting to board. We had to wait an hour before we were allowed to check our bags in and there are never enough seats for people waiting to go air-side, but that’s probably to discourage loitering than anything else. The numbers actually seemed a lot fewer than we had expected there were no long queues to check bags in, in fact there were no queues at all (in the context of an airport, half a dozen people waiting to check in bags does not constitute a queue – in my eyes at least).

As we were waiting for our check in window to open, we were watching other people. It was self checkin, looked fairly straightforward; put bag on belt, scan boarding pass, weigh. If under large green light, if over 23kg, large red light. When it came to our turn, luckily our home scales had been reasonably accurate, so two green lights.

Air side was fine, we had enough time to get something to eat and then make our way to the gate. I’m not going to anything about the flight it went ok. Even our transfer from airport to hotel was straightforward, so that was good. Too late to get anything to eat but that’s ok, weren’t really hungry.

Sorry, the picture is a little bit fuzzy if you embiggen it. It’s the view from our hotel room on the night we arrived in Malta. I have to confess, I was a bit surprised to get here.

It all started at around 3:15PM on Monday, I was flicking the the news on the iPad and an item about “problems at British airports” flicked up. Of course given that we were due to fly to Malta the next day, my ears and eyes pricked up. What’s going on here then?

It appears that a badly formatted flight plan submitted to the National Air Traffic System to not just crash, but to have a complete meltdown. Of course I am completely confident that the NATS software is iii&5i57<k absolutely stuffed with well programmed, hygienically secure validity and integrity checking measures so this have been an incredibly badly formatted plan to cause disruption in the that it did, as the papers reported it.

The papers also reported on the chaos at airports as flights were cancelled or delayed and that it would take days to recover. So you can imagine our trepidation as the time got closer to our departure.

The taxi picked us up on time. Only a short run to the ferry. The ferry was running normally, so we only had to wait a couple of minutes. We were a little bit early for the train, but that was fine. I’d rather be early than late. The train was on time, and although our having to change at Cosham was a mild frustration, even that went smoothly.

Well, I say smoothly, the only issue was that the train was rammed. Luckily not standing room only for us, but because everyone appeared to be heading for the same destination as ourselves. So the aisles were stacked with suitcases. But that’s ok everyone was friendly and helpful.

The rammed state of the train became a frustration when we passed Arundel. The first stirrings of the magnificent castle that it has become were made in the 11th century. Today, it’s majestic lines tower above the town. I don’t have a picture for you as I was at the completely the Wrong angle to get one.

I can tell you though, that Arundel castle does look as grand from the train as I hoped it would.

We arrive at Gatwick on time. Everyone piles off the train, leaving the remains passengers to luxuriate in the comfort of the now vacated sears. Or perhaps not. There was a crowd people waiting to board.

I think the count will be reset. I wrote last nights post, but fell asleep before I published it, so it went early this morning. That’s frustrating, but that’s how it goes.

The lunchtime walk in to town was a bit rushed. But it was pleasant nonetheless. The high street ŵas surprisingly full of people. The bars were busy and cheerful. Helped by a bright sun, that just made everything bright and fresh.

I’ve left it too late in the evening again for it to be anything other than a rushed post. Sorry about that. I did my usual Thursday night radio net, which was interesting, not really much about radio more about flying light aircraft.

I must take a look at Alaskan bush pilots, apparently they are a bit daredevil-ish. And, who would have thought that STOL (Short Takeoff & Landing as a competition.

one of the flaws of this blog is a lack of planning. Many (most) of my posts are spontaneous and I have nothing in reserve. What I should be doing is writing two posts a day, but only posting one. By the end of a month of doing that I would have thirty spare posts that I could draw upon whenever I needed.

The other problem is that the focus of the blog is just me. There isn’t one. If I had a single or just two or three subjects, would it be easier? But what would I concentrate on? Who knows?

I managed to get up at 6:30AM I walked to the waterfront as I passed one particular shop I saw a person whom I really want to stay away from. He said something but I assumed he wasn’t talking to me. I ignored him.

I stopped and talked to friend for a couple of minutes and then moved on. As I did so I heard an exchange coming from the bus station it was loud and it was angry. I’m pretty sure one of the voices I heard was the person I wanted to stay away from. I carried on walking.

I think it’s sad that this kind of thing happens.

No, it’s not wrong, I don’t mean our monarch, Charles III. I was walking along the timeline on the high street looking to see which date line I could write about next at it was in 1684 that King Charles II visited Gosport.

The purpose of the visit was to inspect the defences. Whilst he was here, he would have stayed in Portsmouth’s Governors house. We have now reached the point where I have told you as much as I have been able to find out with the degree of access that I have.

If I wanted to find out more I think initially I would probably have to go to Portsmouth library and do a bit of research there. I wonder if I would find any thing there? I would expect that there would be things like official records, newspapers, diaries letters. It might be worth spending an hour there.

I’m reading a book about ley lines – called the new view over Atlantis by 5John Michell. Now I’ve already acknowledged that the whole ley line thing is interesting but no more than that.

I’ve reached a point of the book where the author is talking about how features built by people thousands of years ago (along the lines of Stonehenge) believed that there were dragons and the features were built in conjunction with the lay of the land to reflect the connection with the dragons.

Now, my first thought was that this was bunkum, but when I thought about it, how could I know what people from back then were thinking. So I have this plan about visiting various Neolithic sites in Dorset. I was just interested in the sites but perhaps I will pay more attention to the site and it’s location, is there anything about the area that would indicate why the site was located in that particular place, bearing in mind that surrounds would have changed over the thousands of years since they were constructed.

It all adds to the interest.

It has been a lovely day. We walked into town, ending up at the waterfront. We sat there for a while, not talking to anybody, but that’s ok. We had a bit of a browse around the shops. For some reason, I went into CEX I bought a couple of DVD’s. Well, a star gate movie and and the band of brothers box set. I shall watch them slow time.

We had. Drink in Coffee 1, then I went to have a quick look in The Works. The 2024 diaries are out. This is important because I now have a bit of a dilemma. I was in the post office a couple of weeks ago, and they had a diary on the counter, it was a two pages per day version. I hadn’t seen that variant before, so I ordered one off Amazon. Trouble is , it’s the wrong one. Paper is thicker, making it huge. What to do?

I think I’m now outside the return window, so can’t do that. I either have to use the one I have (it won’t be long before I start getting 2024 dates) or I buy the one I want. I can see me doing that. The annoying thing is that the two pages per day thing really does meet a need.

It looks like I am going to have to bite the bullet.

The water front that is. A surprisingly warm easterly breeze was too strong to describe as caressing my face. Not at all unpleasant. There seemed to be a haze in the harbour. Like I say it seemed strange.

Even the sound of the harbour were ringing in my ears. I could hear quite clearly the narration From the small boat doing the tour. Having said all that there was a freshness, I just stood and absorbed the atmosphere.

It really was a strange quality which if I were a good creative writer I would E able to describe what I was experiencing in a way that would convey what I felt to be the beauty of the combination of conditions that I was experiencing. I really quite enjoyed the walk.