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Showing posts from May 29, 2011

The Gatwick Grand Prix

Walking around the area around Gatwick airport this week (I'm staying in a hotel near there whilst away on business) it occurred to me that there is very nearly a ready-made F1 Grand Prix track here. Of course it could never happen but if you open the attached KMZ file in Google Earth, you'll see the route I think would work. The Start/Finish would be in the tunnel outside the terminal building, then the track would arc out on the exit road, around the roundabout and out to the M23. Loop around the elevated roundabout over the M23 and back towards the airport. Turn in towards the south terminal, and then swing left towards Slumberger house with a tight right back towards the terminal. Zip past the long term parking and back on to the straight outside the terminal. 2.91 miles. Plenty of places to put grandstands and such. Well. We can dream. Gatwick Grand Prix (kmz)

Fastest trip across the Atlantic ever

So I'm travelling again, this time on business. If you've not been living under a rock for the last month you'll be aware of the horrendous storms that have swept across the midwest of America. Well those translated into an incredible jetstream across the Atlantic last night. The normal 7hr 50min flight took a mere 7 hours. We arrived so early that we ended up stacked over London for nearly an hour flying endlessly round and round. Although that's normal practice now - when we came over on vacation a couple of weeks ago, the flight would have arrived on time but again we were stacked in a holding pattern. As a side note, when I arrived at Heathrow this morning, I didn't see a single European person either in the passport hall, the baggage hall or waiting outside arrivals. They were all Indian, Turkish and Pakistani. It actually took me by surprise when the doors to the arrival hall slid open and I was presented with what looked like Delhi Central Station. And this i