Apologies for the poor quality of photo - my little compact doesn't cope well in marginal light.
This was taken as we crossed the centerline for left-hand turns to land on the runway you see down there. The light was just beautiful, so I grabbed 5 seconds to snap this before getting back to slightly less important duties.. Like flying the aircraft and stuff.
29 June 2011
London City
Boom, like that.
Morning all,
Today I'm writing to you from the hotel lobby of our nightstop hotel in Amsterdam. It's the Marriott Courtyard and it's actually in Hoofddorp, near the airport. It's a nice hotel, situated on the edge of a nature reserve, and were the weather more amenable, I'd be out on a bike having an explore about now. Alas, it's chucking it down so I'm sat on the free wifi in the lobby and blogging for great glory.
Yesterday was... interesting.
The order for the day was a simple City->Amsterdam->City->Amsterdam. However, in this industry things don't always go quite as planned.
Firstly, before we even thought about committing Aviation we had a 'Crew Forum' - we had a sit down with a few crew and upper management - in this case the MD himself - and given opportunity to ask questions and voice concerns. Most of what was discussed it isn't prudent to go into on here, but the airline isn't doing too badly at all and we've got purchase rights and options on yet more aircraft. So generally, that was good news. Oh, also, they're looking at improving the quality of the crew food. I approve of this.
So, management sit-down complete we got onto the real business of the day - the flying. Or, we didn't, because we'd picked up a delay and our 1425z flight wasn't due to depart until 1555z. Our aircraft hadn't even left Amsterdam yet. So it was over to the terminal to grab some sandwiches and a cuppa and chill out for an hour.
Next, we get a phonecall from Ops. The aircraft we're waiting for (G-LCYI) had had a lightning strike coming in from Amsterdam and we'd be further delayed whilst the engineers cleared it for service. Now this was interesting, so we all trooped across to airside and met the aircraft as it taxied in. There was no obvious external damage on first glance, but after it stopped one could observe burn marks above all of the windows on the port side and the engineers pointed out a burn/crack where the lightning had struck the nose of the plane - this was on a critical joint in the airframe so they estimated that it would be at least two hours before the aircraft was either released for service or declared 'tech' and sent to Stansted to be fixed. Not to worry, we'll just change aircraft.
So, we trooped over to G-LCYD, just in from a training flight at Cambridge, and got to work. The usual set-up, walk around, fueling, passengers, briefings, clearance and checks all ensued and we were away by 1645z (I'll have to double-check this time).
Now, Amsterdam flights are busy - by the time you've got airborne, switched frequency three times, got the flaps away and completed the after take-off checks you're already steaming towards the coast. Then you stop the climb low (around FL210), and you've got about 5 minutes before top of descent to brief, set speeds, minima, approach aids, and program the aircraft for landing. Oh, did I mention that the other aircraft got struck by lightning? There were storms about. Lots of storms. We got airborne and immediately we were asking for headings to avoid storm cells. The whole flight was spent heading generally eastward whilst dodging around rather nasty looking storm cells, and completing all of the tasks previously mentioned. Oh, also, they changed runways on us at Amsterdam, leading to more consternation and re-briefing during the descent.
So anyway, we weaved our way through the weather, and managed to get onto the approach for runway 18R. The weather was terrible, and we're fighting at 18-19kt crosswind (which happens to be my current limit). The landing therefore, was fun. A little racy, but I'm pleased to say that I managed to get it down roughly on centerline, straight, and not -too- firmly. It was close though, the left wing dropped quite dramatically during the flare and this nearly threw us off the runway entirely. This is why we train like we do, and why we have crosswind limits. So a long taxi onto stand and shutdown just as a storm passes overhead.
Storms at Amsterdam cause all kinds of issues - the land is very flat and the airport boasts many tall towers and masts for lighting and other such things. Lightning is a serious concern - especially this lightning. All around us, and near-constant. The airport halts -all- ground operations because of safety concerns, so now we have no crew to help us get ready for the next sector, and we're watching as aircraft stack up, waiting to get onto stands that are either occupied with flights that can't leave, or have no crews to greet the aircraft. In short, Chaos. For 30 minutes. We take the time to eat our dinners and grab a few minutes rest.
Then the horn sounds and the anthill once again kicks up into life. Literally thousands of crew spring back out of their little cubby holes and aircraft start to move again. We get passengers, and clearances and become just about ready to depart. The weather looks reasonable on the way out, most of the storms are to the north and east now, so off we taxi and we have a fairly uneventful, if rather bumpy flight back into City.
The turnaround in City goes pretty much as standard - though we're now getting rather late at night and the airport is keen to see the back of us. Set-up, walk-around, passengers, loadsheet, checks, clearances, start, taxi and we're airborne again.
The weather is back.
We're looking at a near-sold wall of storms between us and Amsterdam. The weather radar shows two little 'corridors' of clearer air, maybe 5-10 miles wide. We start asking for headings to take us towards one of these, whilst avoiding the few storms still dotted about on this side of the north sea. It's getting dark. We can see lightning nearly constantly, on all sides of us and we're flying through what looks to be a narrowing slit of clear-air between two giant cliffs of storm-cells. We feel like Jason and the Argonauts as the walls get closer.
Lightning arcs from one storm to the other. In front of the aircraft.
Luckily, most of the electrical activity seems to be at altitude, and the controller decides this is a good time to give us a continuous-descent to 2000ft in preparation for the approach. We brief, set up the aircraft and I hand over control to the Captain, I make a quick PA to the passengers explaining that we're starting our descent, giving them the time we're expecting to arrive and explaining about the storms all around us and that we've avoided the absolute worst of it, but they can still expect a spectacular light show as we fly the approach. Then it's all hands into the flightdeck as we slow down, position and set up for the approach. This goes fairly smoothly. Only one issue - the missed approach track (where we fly if, for whatever reason, we can't land) is nothing but storm. All of it is covered by one massive area of red on the weather radar. We resolve that, in the event of a go around we're turning the wrong way and explaining ourselves to ATC after the fact. No way are we going anywhere near that.
Easier landing this time - wind is gusty but only slightly off straight down the runway. Taxi in, shut down disembark, and start the walk towards the taxi. Into the hotel for just about midnight.
Three busy sectors on a very bad weather day, I don't think I've ever had quite so much fun :)
Until next time...
Today I'm writing to you from the hotel lobby of our nightstop hotel in Amsterdam. It's the Marriott Courtyard and it's actually in Hoofddorp, near the airport. It's a nice hotel, situated on the edge of a nature reserve, and were the weather more amenable, I'd be out on a bike having an explore about now. Alas, it's chucking it down so I'm sat on the free wifi in the lobby and blogging for great glory.
Yesterday was... interesting.
The order for the day was a simple City->Amsterdam->City->Amsterdam. However, in this industry things don't always go quite as planned.
Firstly, before we even thought about committing Aviation we had a 'Crew Forum' - we had a sit down with a few crew and upper management - in this case the MD himself - and given opportunity to ask questions and voice concerns. Most of what was discussed it isn't prudent to go into on here, but the airline isn't doing too badly at all and we've got purchase rights and options on yet more aircraft. So generally, that was good news. Oh, also, they're looking at improving the quality of the crew food. I approve of this.
So, management sit-down complete we got onto the real business of the day - the flying. Or, we didn't, because we'd picked up a delay and our 1425z flight wasn't due to depart until 1555z. Our aircraft hadn't even left Amsterdam yet. So it was over to the terminal to grab some sandwiches and a cuppa and chill out for an hour.
Next, we get a phonecall from Ops. The aircraft we're waiting for (G-LCYI) had had a lightning strike coming in from Amsterdam and we'd be further delayed whilst the engineers cleared it for service. Now this was interesting, so we all trooped across to airside and met the aircraft as it taxied in. There was no obvious external damage on first glance, but after it stopped one could observe burn marks above all of the windows on the port side and the engineers pointed out a burn/crack where the lightning had struck the nose of the plane - this was on a critical joint in the airframe so they estimated that it would be at least two hours before the aircraft was either released for service or declared 'tech' and sent to Stansted to be fixed. Not to worry, we'll just change aircraft.
So, we trooped over to G-LCYD, just in from a training flight at Cambridge, and got to work. The usual set-up, walk around, fueling, passengers, briefings, clearance and checks all ensued and we were away by 1645z (I'll have to double-check this time).
Now, Amsterdam flights are busy - by the time you've got airborne, switched frequency three times, got the flaps away and completed the after take-off checks you're already steaming towards the coast. Then you stop the climb low (around FL210), and you've got about 5 minutes before top of descent to brief, set speeds, minima, approach aids, and program the aircraft for landing. Oh, did I mention that the other aircraft got struck by lightning? There were storms about. Lots of storms. We got airborne and immediately we were asking for headings to avoid storm cells. The whole flight was spent heading generally eastward whilst dodging around rather nasty looking storm cells, and completing all of the tasks previously mentioned. Oh, also, they changed runways on us at Amsterdam, leading to more consternation and re-briefing during the descent.
So anyway, we weaved our way through the weather, and managed to get onto the approach for runway 18R. The weather was terrible, and we're fighting at 18-19kt crosswind (which happens to be my current limit). The landing therefore, was fun. A little racy, but I'm pleased to say that I managed to get it down roughly on centerline, straight, and not -too- firmly. It was close though, the left wing dropped quite dramatically during the flare and this nearly threw us off the runway entirely. This is why we train like we do, and why we have crosswind limits. So a long taxi onto stand and shutdown just as a storm passes overhead.
Storms at Amsterdam cause all kinds of issues - the land is very flat and the airport boasts many tall towers and masts for lighting and other such things. Lightning is a serious concern - especially this lightning. All around us, and near-constant. The airport halts -all- ground operations because of safety concerns, so now we have no crew to help us get ready for the next sector, and we're watching as aircraft stack up, waiting to get onto stands that are either occupied with flights that can't leave, or have no crews to greet the aircraft. In short, Chaos. For 30 minutes. We take the time to eat our dinners and grab a few minutes rest.
Then the horn sounds and the anthill once again kicks up into life. Literally thousands of crew spring back out of their little cubby holes and aircraft start to move again. We get passengers, and clearances and become just about ready to depart. The weather looks reasonable on the way out, most of the storms are to the north and east now, so off we taxi and we have a fairly uneventful, if rather bumpy flight back into City.
The turnaround in City goes pretty much as standard - though we're now getting rather late at night and the airport is keen to see the back of us. Set-up, walk-around, passengers, loadsheet, checks, clearances, start, taxi and we're airborne again.
The weather is back.
We're looking at a near-sold wall of storms between us and Amsterdam. The weather radar shows two little 'corridors' of clearer air, maybe 5-10 miles wide. We start asking for headings to take us towards one of these, whilst avoiding the few storms still dotted about on this side of the north sea. It's getting dark. We can see lightning nearly constantly, on all sides of us and we're flying through what looks to be a narrowing slit of clear-air between two giant cliffs of storm-cells. We feel like Jason and the Argonauts as the walls get closer.
Lightning arcs from one storm to the other. In front of the aircraft.
Luckily, most of the electrical activity seems to be at altitude, and the controller decides this is a good time to give us a continuous-descent to 2000ft in preparation for the approach. We brief, set up the aircraft and I hand over control to the Captain, I make a quick PA to the passengers explaining that we're starting our descent, giving them the time we're expecting to arrive and explaining about the storms all around us and that we've avoided the absolute worst of it, but they can still expect a spectacular light show as we fly the approach. Then it's all hands into the flightdeck as we slow down, position and set up for the approach. This goes fairly smoothly. Only one issue - the missed approach track (where we fly if, for whatever reason, we can't land) is nothing but storm. All of it is covered by one massive area of red on the weather radar. We resolve that, in the event of a go around we're turning the wrong way and explaining ourselves to ATC after the fact. No way are we going anywhere near that.
Easier landing this time - wind is gusty but only slightly off straight down the runway. Taxi in, shut down disembark, and start the walk towards the taxi. Into the hotel for just about midnight.
Three busy sectors on a very bad weather day, I don't think I've ever had quite so much fun :)
Until next time...
20 June 2011
Minecraft for Great Glory
Over the last few months, Minecraft has become the internet’s newest craze. Simplistic, elegant and buggy little game that it is, it's taken over the lives of so many geeks worldwide (making it's creator an overnight rich-thing).
Minecraft combines simple ‘Lego block’ worlds with a ingenious crafting mechanic… and not much else. There’s no story, no goal and absolutely no point. The only achievement you will ever receive is that of personal satisfaction a sort of ‘I made it’ feeling. Its not exactly a social commentary, but it makes you think about a world where the only objectives ever set for you, are set by yourself.
The game is bought for around £10, and for that you get an account and a single, really very tiny, executable file. Once you start, you’re in a random spot, in an (almost) infinitely huge randomly generated world, with nothing but your curiosity and a pair blocky hands.
The first thing to do, is to chop down some trees, trees that you craft into wooden planks and then into a workbench (the centerpiece of all homes and bases). Then, instead of going out and exploring the world, you need to burrow yourself into the nearest mountainside and seal yourself in. Staying out at night is deadly, since all different types of baddies come to reduce you to player-pate once night falls. You’ll have more than enough time tomorrow to explore gaming’s largest ever game world.
As you adventure, whether above or deep below ground, you’ll come across more and better resources; coal, iron, gold and even diamond. Use all this cool stuff to build larger, better, deeper. Then relish in it, because you’ve just done something unique - no one else has ever done this quite like you have. Sure, there's similarities between systems and efficient ways of doing things, but this is yours. Now step back and look at the impact you've had on this world. Suddenly, there are towers in the horizon. The night is no longer dark, but instead lit by the rays of your many beacons and tourches. The depths are no longer dark hidden and full of dangers, but sealed and safe, pillaged, possibly spewing out lava onto the surface. Hapless pigs run around with saddles on their backs and the chicken population dwindles, and you happily punch a passing sheep to gain more wool for your latest project.
Now I play Minecraft in a social setting - I have a server run by a group of friends from Bristol and along with another Pilotish friend of mine, we've created our base. We've spent days levelling ground and digging rock to create a runway. We've built a railway station complete with track-selection courtesy of Minecraft's best and most buggy feature - red-stone circuitry. Hell, I even took the time to create a doorbell with the Westminster chimes. We're on a integrated rail network of which, "The Sandstone line" is but one small part (http://mc.zem.org.uk/wiki/Sandstone_Line) - oh yes, we document everything on a wiki.
Why do we do this? What's the benefit of playing Minecraft for days on end?
I like to play games for their story - games like Bioshock, Half-Life, Portal, even Borderlands - but Notch (the man-god who created this gem of a game), oh dear Notch has put nothing of the sort in here to distract me. So I sit, and I play, and I think about what exactly I am doing. I sink hours of my life into a game who’s only reward is its gameplay. The only thing you’re rewarded with is a token of all the time you’ve spent hunched over your computer; your world. Its a place you crafted, its a place you mined, its YOUser generated. You’ve created a place for yourself, most likely, no one else is ever going to appreciate it the way you do. But you will, you’ll appreciate that there used to be a mountain there, until you and your greed and your curiosity came and turned it into a gargantuan stone tower.
With Lava.
And a Doorbell.
tl;dr: Buy Minecraft and never sleep again.
18 June 2011
Red Shells, Green Shells and TMS
Why hello!
So I'm currently visiting my father up near Grantham - it's nice to get out of the city for a few days (plus, you know, if they feed me I don't have to buy food). I'm here on pretence of helping out with some work in his garden and the sheds (well, they're outbuildings really). You see, because Dad is away for just over half the year, the house in the UK is neglected for all of 6 months of the year and hence there's always work to do here.
So at the moment we're limbering up for the day playing Mario Kart on his Wii, before booting up and rebuilding his garage door, rebuilding the garden gate and possibly digging up the front flower beds. On order for the weekend is recombobulating the workshop-shed and some paving (though, we'll have to wait for the rain to subside before we can lay much of that). This is very much why I enjoy visiting Dads - there's always stuff you need to be building and fixing and digging. It appeals to the manly-man side of me.
So between gardening, sawing, Mario Kart and the Cricket... you're lucky you got a post at all today. Still, it's not like me to neglect my blog, even in the face of manly-go-build-stuff things.
Also, there's a geocache up near the village I fully intend to nip out and log :)
Cheerio!
So I'm currently visiting my father up near Grantham - it's nice to get out of the city for a few days (plus, you know, if they feed me I don't have to buy food). I'm here on pretence of helping out with some work in his garden and the sheds (well, they're outbuildings really). You see, because Dad is away for just over half the year, the house in the UK is neglected for all of 6 months of the year and hence there's always work to do here.
So at the moment we're limbering up for the day playing Mario Kart on his Wii, before booting up and rebuilding his garage door, rebuilding the garden gate and possibly digging up the front flower beds. On order for the weekend is recombobulating the workshop-shed and some paving (though, we'll have to wait for the rain to subside before we can lay much of that). This is very much why I enjoy visiting Dads - there's always stuff you need to be building and fixing and digging. It appeals to the manly-man side of me.
So between gardening, sawing, Mario Kart and the Cricket... you're lucky you got a post at all today. Still, it's not like me to neglect my blog, even in the face of manly-go-build-stuff things.
Also, there's a geocache up near the village I fully intend to nip out and log :)
Cheerio!
14 June 2011
Only an Island as lackadaisical as this...
Well, another duty block has ended. Another 6 days of scooting a few dozen tonnes of metal and padding around the skies of Europe comes to a quick and painless end. Now I'm happily on leave for 10 days.
So I sit on my balcony and, beer in hand, and look upriver to watch the sun sink slowly down behind the O2 and Canary Wharf like a bad metaphor for something other people have to worry about. Sure, things aren't perfect at the moment - I'm short of cash and I still know practically nobody in London. However, right now, right this second as I relax and I know that there's no early start tomorrow no worries about being on time, no ironing uniform, no delays, no slot times, no loadsheets, no fuel figures, nothing but a vague sense of having accomplished a decent first stint as a fully-fledged Pilot and now I've got a good couple of weeks off to chill out, go and see the folks and generally just enjoy the fact I'm young and it's summer.
Tomorrow I'm off into town to spend the day with the Lovely Liz, the Lovely Liz-y-Beth and Steph, who is as yet ungraded but gets a provisional 'Lovely' on the basis of recommendation from the Liz-y-Beth. We shall be out taking photos. Wait, there's a moment here for awe at Science...
Cameras will be pointed and, through science, staggering numbers of photons will cause barely measurable differences in the movement of electrons in a detector array, in turn causing immeasurable binary switches to flip state to create what will later be decoded (again, through Science) into little currents of electrons that will change some orientation of millions of little blocks of a few molecules of coloured crystal, through which we will then shine light created by exciting electrons in a particular chemical, creating a faithful reproduction of the original photons we captured earlier. They call this a digital photo. We will do this hundreds of times.
Oh also, we're off to see QI get recorded.
tl;dr: Life is good. Science is awesome.
So I sit on my balcony and, beer in hand, and look upriver to watch the sun sink slowly down behind the O2 and Canary Wharf like a bad metaphor for something other people have to worry about. Sure, things aren't perfect at the moment - I'm short of cash and I still know practically nobody in London. However, right now, right this second as I relax and I know that there's no early start tomorrow no worries about being on time, no ironing uniform, no delays, no slot times, no loadsheets, no fuel figures, nothing but a vague sense of having accomplished a decent first stint as a fully-fledged Pilot and now I've got a good couple of weeks off to chill out, go and see the folks and generally just enjoy the fact I'm young and it's summer.
Tomorrow I'm off into town to spend the day with the Lovely Liz, the Lovely Liz-y-Beth and Steph, who is as yet ungraded but gets a provisional 'Lovely' on the basis of recommendation from the Liz-y-Beth. We shall be out taking photos. Wait, there's a moment here for awe at Science...
Cameras will be pointed and, through science, staggering numbers of photons will cause barely measurable differences in the movement of electrons in a detector array, in turn causing immeasurable binary switches to flip state to create what will later be decoded (again, through Science) into little currents of electrons that will change some orientation of millions of little blocks of a few molecules of coloured crystal, through which we will then shine light created by exciting electrons in a particular chemical, creating a faithful reproduction of the original photons we captured earlier. They call this a digital photo. We will do this hundreds of times.
Oh also, we're off to see QI get recorded.
tl;dr: Life is good. Science is awesome.
11 June 2011
More time than sense
So we're now looking at a Mike post Split Duty.
This Mike is a tired Mike.
However, due to the caffeine required to meet the clearly spurious requirement to be alert when operating a 34-tonne jet, this Mike can't grab a quick nap just yet. So as the copious amounts of caffeine wear off and the sweet abyss of sleep beckons once more, I shall regale you with many a story of woe and trial.
Well, maybe.
Today, our roster came out for the next month. It comes out on the 10th of every month ("but it's the 11th!" I hear you yell -I'll get to this). Crewing have a monthly nightmare with the roster, given that we've too few captains and still just slightly too few aircraft for all our routes. The standard practice is that the roster will come out late on the 10th, and then for the rest of that week you're confirming furious changes as they try to get the whole thing to make sense. I've got a copy of my new roster and will soon be transferring it all over to google calendar for the greater glory of Mike. This month, Crewing had slightly more trouble than usual, and looking at people's rosters it's no wonder - there's some interesting things going on (we're talking Hotels in Heathrow for flights from Stansted and the like). Still, they seem to have made ends meet for another month so all seems well.
Some interesting facts about my Roster until the end of July:
This Mike is a tired Mike.
However, due to the caffeine required to meet the clearly spurious requirement to be alert when operating a 34-tonne jet, this Mike can't grab a quick nap just yet. So as the copious amounts of caffeine wear off and the sweet abyss of sleep beckons once more, I shall regale you with many a story of woe and trial.
Well, maybe.
Today, our roster came out for the next month. It comes out on the 10th of every month ("but it's the 11th!" I hear you yell -I'll get to this). Crewing have a monthly nightmare with the roster, given that we've too few captains and still just slightly too few aircraft for all our routes. The standard practice is that the roster will come out late on the 10th, and then for the rest of that week you're confirming furious changes as they try to get the whole thing to make sense. I've got a copy of my new roster and will soon be transferring it all over to google calendar for the greater glory of Mike. This month, Crewing had slightly more trouble than usual, and looking at people's rosters it's no wonder - there's some interesting things going on (we're talking Hotels in Heathrow for flights from Stansted and the like). Still, they seem to have made ends meet for another month so all seems well.
Some interesting facts about my Roster until the end of July:
| 31,901 | 69 | 10 | 17 | |||
| miles | flights | countries | routes |
Furthest Flight — London to Faro (1073 miles, 2:55 hours)
Furthest North — 59.7°N (Stockholm)
Furthest South — 36.7°N (Malaga)
Furthest East — 17.9°E (Stockholm)
Furthest West — 8°W (Faro)
Furthest South — 36.7°N (Malaga)
Furthest East — 17.9°E (Stockholm)
Furthest West — 8°W (Faro)
10 June 2011
Split Duty
So Tonight I'm off to Zurich for something known as a 'split duty'.
Effectively this means I stay up very late and have to get up very early - Flight Time Limitations (FTL) regulation only allows me to be 'on duty' for a certain time, but the company can extend this time by a few hours if I get a 4-hour or greater break in the middle of my duty. They use this to have a crew operate the last flight out to a destination, overnight and fly the first flight back the next day. So tonight, I operate the Zurich flight at 18:35 (London time) from City this evening, then I have the grand total of about 8 hours in a hotel before I'm up and doing to fly the 07:30 (Europe-time) back into City.
This has benefits and disadvantages to it - firstly I'm going to be shattered tomorrow. Left to my own devices I tend to drift Nocturnal and hence shifting from normal Mike-patterns to an early morning is never pleasant. However, it does mean that when I get to City at 08:10 (London time), I then have the rest of the day to myself. So, if I can keep the levels of caffeine up I've got a day off effectively. This is actually full of win.
I'm still in two minds as to how much I enjoy the Split duty. I'm a fan of getting some time at our destinations to maybe take a walk or hire a bike and generally get out to see the Cities we are lucky enough to fly into daily (yes, even Glasgow, stop looking at me like that). Split duties don't give one a chance to go and see a place - even if they do give one basically a whole day to chill out and get stuff done.
Effectively this means I stay up very late and have to get up very early - Flight Time Limitations (FTL) regulation only allows me to be 'on duty' for a certain time, but the company can extend this time by a few hours if I get a 4-hour or greater break in the middle of my duty. They use this to have a crew operate the last flight out to a destination, overnight and fly the first flight back the next day. So tonight, I operate the Zurich flight at 18:35 (London time) from City this evening, then I have the grand total of about 8 hours in a hotel before I'm up and doing to fly the 07:30 (Europe-time) back into City.
This has benefits and disadvantages to it - firstly I'm going to be shattered tomorrow. Left to my own devices I tend to drift Nocturnal and hence shifting from normal Mike-patterns to an early morning is never pleasant. However, it does mean that when I get to City at 08:10 (London time), I then have the rest of the day to myself. So, if I can keep the levels of caffeine up I've got a day off effectively. This is actually full of win.
I'm still in two minds as to how much I enjoy the Split duty. I'm a fan of getting some time at our destinations to maybe take a walk or hire a bike and generally get out to see the Cities we are lucky enough to fly into daily (yes, even Glasgow, stop looking at me like that). Split duties don't give one a chance to go and see a place - even if they do give one basically a whole day to chill out and get stuff done.
A note on the background
So, I decided to use this picture, right...
The image in the background you won't find on the stock images sites - it my very own taken down on the Devon coast, near Beer. It is a lovely part of the world. I still don't know what made me take the camera out that day, and drive down to the coast, but I had such a wonderful walk along the cliffs and beaches.
The photo was taken shortly after I started walking - I wandered along this fence until I hit the next town across the coast. At which point I stopped, turned around, and walked back. Little is it known that a footpath is completely different going the other way - you know roughly what's coming from your first trip along it, so you're looking for the things you didn't see - it's a glorious mixture of surprise and familiarity and not to be snuffed as covering ground twice. The wonderful thing about owning a brain is that it's hard-wired to not notice everything as you walk along, and with a little effort you can paint a whole scene into a different light.
The photo itself can be seen in a more accessible size on flickr. I post new stuff on there fairly often, but then again, if it's anything worthy of expansion, I'll probably talk about it on here, so decide for yourselves if you're going to check back in there or here, or at all...
athankyou.
The image in the background you won't find on the stock images sites - it my very own taken down on the Devon coast, near Beer. It is a lovely part of the world. I still don't know what made me take the camera out that day, and drive down to the coast, but I had such a wonderful walk along the cliffs and beaches.
The photo was taken shortly after I started walking - I wandered along this fence until I hit the next town across the coast. At which point I stopped, turned around, and walked back. Little is it known that a footpath is completely different going the other way - you know roughly what's coming from your first trip along it, so you're looking for the things you didn't see - it's a glorious mixture of surprise and familiarity and not to be snuffed as covering ground twice. The wonderful thing about owning a brain is that it's hard-wired to not notice everything as you walk along, and with a little effort you can paint a whole scene into a different light.
The photo itself can be seen in a more accessible size on flickr. I post new stuff on there fairly often, but then again, if it's anything worthy of expansion, I'll probably talk about it on here, so decide for yourselves if you're going to check back in there or here, or at all...
athankyou.
Well, here we are.
Much unknown to people, I've actually been gearing up to restarting blogging for a while. I let my old blog die out somewhat sadly during flying training. This I feel was generally a bad thing, so I decided that I would set up a blog on an entirely more free platform. This is that.
One has to ask oneself very carefully why one wishes to blog. One cannot just wade in, splurge into a WYSIWYG editor and hope that people will read and/or care. Well, at least I can't. I like the idea of blogging for the same reason I like the idea of going to the pub with friends who have opinions that differ from me - I just love to rant. However, a drive to rant isn't enough to keep a flame lit under one's desire to blog, so what else is it that continually drags me to the keyboard in the wee silly hours? I do enjoy writing, one cannot write and not enjoy writing. I'm drawn to the idea that I can take the crazy ideas from my head and place them out into the world. Sure, I'm one of hundreds of thousands who have the same drive, we're awash with content generation in this new age of internet and expression - and though much may be dismissed as tosh, the mindless outpourings of those with nothing to say and all the will in the world to say it, we must remember that these people don't write for us to read, they don't write to have their writings become popular. They write because they want to.
All this aside, I've not even approached the reason why I specifically came to the decision to pour myself onto the digital page. I blog to remind me that something happens to me every day and be dammed if I'm going to snuffle all this experience up and watch it slowly dissolve into past years and vage remembrances. I write because in a few years I'll look back and think "yeah, I remember that". I blog because I hope someone else may read something, some little thing and think "yeah, I've had that, I've been there, I've felt that".
Of course, the real trick is keeping on blogging.
My schedule for updates is the same as my schedule for new uploads for Flickr, or for working on any number of little projects I have on the go - when I feel like I have a post in me, I'll create one. Obviously, I've all the will in the world to make these updates regular, but we'll see.
So, Welcome, reader.
Much unknown to people, I've actually been gearing up to restarting blogging for a while. I let my old blog die out somewhat sadly during flying training. This I feel was generally a bad thing, so I decided that I would set up a blog on an entirely more free platform. This is that.
One has to ask oneself very carefully why one wishes to blog. One cannot just wade in, splurge into a WYSIWYG editor and hope that people will read and/or care. Well, at least I can't. I like the idea of blogging for the same reason I like the idea of going to the pub with friends who have opinions that differ from me - I just love to rant. However, a drive to rant isn't enough to keep a flame lit under one's desire to blog, so what else is it that continually drags me to the keyboard in the wee silly hours? I do enjoy writing, one cannot write and not enjoy writing. I'm drawn to the idea that I can take the crazy ideas from my head and place them out into the world. Sure, I'm one of hundreds of thousands who have the same drive, we're awash with content generation in this new age of internet and expression - and though much may be dismissed as tosh, the mindless outpourings of those with nothing to say and all the will in the world to say it, we must remember that these people don't write for us to read, they don't write to have their writings become popular. They write because they want to.
All this aside, I've not even approached the reason why I specifically came to the decision to pour myself onto the digital page. I blog to remind me that something happens to me every day and be dammed if I'm going to snuffle all this experience up and watch it slowly dissolve into past years and vage remembrances. I write because in a few years I'll look back and think "yeah, I remember that". I blog because I hope someone else may read something, some little thing and think "yeah, I've had that, I've been there, I've felt that".
Of course, the real trick is keeping on blogging.
My schedule for updates is the same as my schedule for new uploads for Flickr, or for working on any number of little projects I have on the go - when I feel like I have a post in me, I'll create one. Obviously, I've all the will in the world to make these updates regular, but we'll see.
So, Welcome, reader.
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