The Anonymous Widower

It’s All So Bare Now!

I’ve packed up a lot of stuff and the house is now looking so bare.  I’ve found a few more gems, including a lovely postcard from Barbara Cassani, who started Go. You don’t hear much of her today, I hope she is OK. I’m just probably getting paranoid.

But look at this.

An Almost Bare Office

December 13, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel, World | , | Leave a comment

The Most Dangerous Part of an Aircraft

As someone who has over a 1,000 hours in command of light aircraft, with most of that in a big twin piston-engined Cessna 340, I read aviation stories, when I see them.

As to the most dangerous part of an aircraft, it’s the pilots, as this story proves.

I always remember the story of a Brazilian airliner that crashed on takeoff.  There was only two casualties, in that both pilots died, when the plane hit trees.  Afterwards it became apparent that they had been having a heated argument as they took off, which led to blows.

One doesn’t like to be uncharitable, but you can be if you want!

November 30, 2010 Posted by | News, Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

Two Protests Against Airport Security

There are now two web-sites in the United States protesting about obsessive security at airports by staging protests over Thankgiving.

They are :-

  1. OptOutDay.com
  2. WeWontFly.com

It would appear that the protesters have a point, but what is going to happen on that day if several burqa’ed women turn up and just walk straight through the scanners without a protest, whilst a group of red-blooded American males are refusing to pass.

But isn’t it a case of too little too late?  If the United States had had some minimal security in place ten years ago, then the terrible attacks of September 11th, 2001, would not have been so catastrophic.

The terrorists were given an immense victory by American incompetence and do you wonder that they keep trying.

The United States has suffered masses of hijacks since the 1960s by Cubans and others and surely they should have taken steps to prevent them then! Or am I being simplistic? But compare the number of hijacks there has been in Europe over a similar timescale!

So tell me, why is it, Irish terrorists have never succeeded in hijacking an airliner?

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November 19, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

Half an Hour Ahead and Twenty-Five Years Behind

I was listening to BBC Radio 5 this morning in bed and there was a bit of confusion in a report from Australia about the time of the Australia England Rugby League match in Melbourne.

I don’t know whether it’s still as confusing, but when I flew C and myself and C round Australia, we found that each State had different time-zones.

The title of this post, was the answer I got to the question “What time is it in Queensland?”, when I checked out of Alice Springs for my flight to Mount Isa.

We didn’t like Mount Isa, as we were only stopping for fuel and the guy in charge of it was a drunk named Cliff, who was the only objectionable person we met on that four weeks trip to Australia. 

By the way, Mount Isa makes Scunthorpe look like a garden city!

Whilst we’re on the subject of time, all flying is done to UTC or GMT, so a typical flight resulted in some pretty strange times in the log book.

October 31, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

Airport Security

The phone-in on Radio 5 today was about airline security.

I’ve not flown since I returned from Hong Kong and I wonder if I’ll ever do it again. After all, I’ve travelled all over the UK by train and I’m now thinking of exploring Europe as far as Berlin.

Some pople on the phone-in were saying that they are getting fed-up with oppressive security and were now using Eurostar for Europe.  How many people are not travelling for business at all but are using innovative video and computer conferencing?

I just think that in a couple of years time, the pattern of travel will be very different to what it is now!

October 27, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

Martin Broughton on Airport Security

He’s talking a lot of sense here.

The chairman of British Airways has said some “completely redundant” airport security checks should be scrapped and the UK should stop “kowtowing” to US security demands.

Practices such as forcing passengers to take off their shoes should be abandoned, Martin Broughton said.

And he questioned why laptop computers needed to be screened separately.

As to kowtowing to the United States, I’m with him on that one.  After all it could be argued that a lack of basic security checks in US airports allowed the atrocities of September 11th, 2001 to take place.

You defeat terrorism by being smart and getting everyone on side to fight it.  Not by alienating all the passengers by pointless checks, that might look good but are worthless!

October 27, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

Britain Goes Nuclear

With the delaying and possible demise of the Severn Barrage, it would appear that we are going to bet on nuclear for our energy for the next few decades.

I don’t particularly mind, as I believe that nuclear is totally safe and of course carbon-free if it is properly designed, built and managed. THe only question is will the opponents of nuclear power stop the stations being built.  Or if they don’t stop them from being built, will it be the decision that gets the coalition turned out at the next election? The public always feel that anything nuclear is dangerous.  That is why you have an MRI Scan at the hospital, rather than an NMRI one. The N refers to the nuclear resonance of the molecules in your body to the magnetic fields imposed on them.

I still think that the Severn Barrage will be built but it will be very different to any scheme so far proposed. Except possibly the one by Sir Frederick Snow.

It will of course have a high and a low lake split by a central spine, so that reversible turbines can either generate electricity as water flows downhill or store energy by pumping water from the low to the high lake.  The trick that makes wind energy viable is being able to store the excess and pumping water uphill is the easiest way to do it.

Whether the spine will have an airport is a more difficult question to answer.  I think it will, and as the need to airports decreases through this century, if the fast rail (Note not high-speed!) was there, then it could replace airports at Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham and to a certain extent, Heathrow.

As I reread my reflections on my trip to Scotland, then this could be an alternative south-western terminal of the West Coast Line. After all, the airport would be within two hours of most of London and Birmingham.

All this says is that we need to think boldly! In fact, we need to think very boldly!

We tend to base our planning on what we do today, not what we will be doing in thirty years time.

I’m just about to watch football on the television.  In 2040, will I be watching any match I want to in some form of immersion 3D system? And will I use the same technology to have business meetings with colleagues and clients?

October 18, 2010 Posted by | News, Transport/Travel | , , , , | 3 Comments

An Idea for the Glasgow Edinburgh Railway

Writing these notes, which reflected some things I’d seen on my journey to Scotland, I realised that Scotland could do much better between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Or should it be Glasgow to Edinburgh?

They could create a large Parkway station with lots of parking on this line about half-way and call it something imaginative like Scotland Central.  It would be easy to get to either end and if major stadia like Murrayfield and Hampden Park had quick connections, it would make getting to Scotland’s twin capitals and their major events easier.

It would also make connections to the north via Stirling and Dunblane easier!

If it was in the right place for those coming from the south of Scotland, so this would be ideal for Kazakh Jock.

A Glaswegian suggested to me, that you close the three southern airports of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Prestwick and put one in near Scotland Central, as there’s not much there!

I’d love to be a fly-on-the-wall in the committee, which decided to do that!  Both Edinburgh and Glasgow would have different and irreconcilable views.

October 1, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

Over the Sea From Skye

The bus took a more or less direct route between Kyle of Lochalsh to Arnadale with a small detour to Broadford to put down and pick up passengers.

It was my first time on Skye since about 1972.  Then we had all come, with our three boys crammed in the back of our 1969 Porsche 911T. Strangely the car still exists and is in New Zealand.  But a picture of the car is the only one of the holiday.

Porsche 911T on Skye

That Porsche 911T was the first performance car we had and we acquired it for £1650 courtesy of a loan from my favourite bank manager, David.

I remember for that holiday we left early in the morning from the Barbican and first stop was Gretna Green at about 7:30 in the morning.  So when people say I push myself, it’s nothing new in my book.

We stayed somewhere north of Portree and I remember that we were greeted on the doorstep by a dead sheep.  It was nothing against holiday homes or anything sinister, but just an inconvenient expiry.  In the end we got the Police, who found who owned it and it was quietly disposed of.

I also remember we hurried off the island and I can still remember hurtling up Glencoe towards Glasgow, which we achieved at an average speed of about 80 mph.  Or that’s what I claimed at the time!  But it was certainly fast on an almost empty road.

The detour to Broadford reminded me that in 1975, the village had an airstrip. C said that next time we came we’d fly! I doubt I will and she sadly can’t!

I went straight to Arnadale and immediately got the ferry to Mallaig.

Arnadale to Mallaig Ferry

September 30, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , , | 3 Comments

To Glasgow and Back

I’d been to Glasgow a few times before in my life.  The first was when I was a student and I hitched to see Spurs play in the Glasgow Cup, the second and third  were when I passed through on the way to and from Skye with my family and the last time was many years ago, when C took her first flight with me in Tango-Tango, my Piper Arrow.  In the last case, we were actually aiming for Prestwick, but weather meant a diversion to Glasgow Airport.  It’s sad to think, that the two people who accompanied me that day,  C and my youngest son, have both passed away. I can still remember us all getting out of the small plane at the General Aviation Terminal and saying to a pilot with a smart uniform, that today had been my wife’s first flight.  He suggested that because of the weather, that she deserved a Purple Heart!

I’m not sure now, where I’d hitched to Glasgow from in I suppose the summer of 1966 or 1967, but it could either have been Liverpool or perhaps London, where I was working at the time in Enfield Rolling Mills.  I do remember though going over Shap in an old Albion truck in the pouring rain, as there was no M6 in those days.  I also remember waiting perhaps two or three hours for a lift on the A74 to somewhere nearer to my destination.  In the end I got a lift from a driver in a van that had been delivering the Scottish Daily Express.  I think, it’s the only time in my life that I’ve had any positive thoughts to that rag in any of its guises!  I remember that the match was at the old Hampden Park and Celtic were the opponents.  Searching the Internet I did find this program, which sets the match in 1967, which must be right.  But then I must have known C at the time, so it’s surprising she let me go off hitching around the country.  Unless this was when she was being a mother’s help in Ireland for the Wright family from Norfolk!  Two of their daughters; Amanda and Caroline were later bridesmaids at our wedding.  They also had a brother Tim.

I also remember passing that day on the beach at Wemyss Bay after taking one of the Blue Trains from the centre of Glasgow.

I don’t remember much of the match, but I think Spurs won and I also remember a Rangers supporter who turned up getting thumped for his trouble!

After my troubles getting lifts in Scotland coming up, I took the late train down to Manchester.  It was very late and I remember I wrote a letter of complaint, about having to use a taxi to get to my friend’s house in Manchester.  I think they sent me a cheque for about nine shillings!  It gave me my first reward in the art of complaining.

So that trip shows, I’m just reverting to type after over forty years, by travelling around!

But on Monday, the trip was different!  My host kindly dropped me at Waverley, I bought a ticket from the machine and fairly soon, I was on my way to Glasgow in a smart new train. It’s when you do this sort of journey you realise how far trains have come in the last twenty years or so.  And also how far, some of the lines have still to go!

September 30, 2010 Posted by | Sport, Transport/Travel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

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