Rugby Sevens

We had a day out at the Rugby Sevens at Twickenham last week, I has not realised what a party event that this was going to be, we turned up at 10AM and the place was relatively empty but I knew that it was going to be busy later because of the difficulty getting hold of tickets. The rugby was good but it was the crowd that was most interesting. Unbeknownst to us there is a theme to the event and the crowd all appear in fancy dress on this theme. It took us a while to put two and two together on this as the type font on the advertising and information signs were in a “monster” font and I had assumed that the monster energy drink was sponsoring the event. We were it had to be said surrounded by a number of zombies and a fair number of Honey monsters.  It transpires that they sold 75,000 tickets and I would estimate about 60,000 people in fancy dress.

The other thing that became really obvious is that I am getting old; it did feel like we were the obligatory grandparents at an 18^th birthday party later on. By about 3PM the place was busy and whilst very good natured it was turning into a party where the rugby was the entertainment but the party was the central event. A great day out but we left 2 hours before the end which I suspect was going to be far from the end of the party.    

Turkish Taxi Ride

We arrived in Sabiha Gokcen airport in Istanbul just after 8:15PM  and had a departure from Istanbul airport at 1:15AM the next day. My research on transfers between the two airports had revealed that there was a bus to central Istanbul connecting to another bus to Istanbul airport and that the total journey time should be in the region of 3 hours or you could take a taxi for about EUR80 and it would take about 90 minutes.  I opted for what was to be one of the most terrifying taxi journeys of my life. The driver did not speak English and I think my enquiry about “how long would it take” was mistaken for “I am in a rush”, we left the airport at 160KMH and when we hit solid traffic in all the lanes  he made the concession of slowing to 100KMH whilst driving on the hard shoulder, there was seldom more than a car length gap between us and the car in front, often less.  At one point we flashed the traffic police out of the way as they were not going fast enough for the driver, 55 minutes later we arrived at Istanbul airport.  it took a couple of drinks in the lounge to calm my nerves

a lepoard can change its spots...

I have travelled on four Ryanair flights recently, Ryanair have for a long time been known for the dismissive way it treats its passengers. As far as they were concerned they were safe and cheap so people would always book on them regardless of their service offering. They flew you to airports that were two hours from where you wanted to be, there were announcements advertising things you could buy from the moment you boarded and they charged outrageous  fees for everything and they had a very difficult to access website with CAPTCHA technology on it. They made millions as they were cheap and people will accept almost anything for a free flight.

 

Recently there financials took a bit of a downward turn and they have decided it’s time to go up market, they have a new friendly website, and the announcements are gone before 7AM and after 10PM. They have removed the baggage checks and started to move from the out of town airports to places where people want to actually be.

It will be interesting to see how airlines like Easyjet respond as Ryanair have a lower seat cost that Easyjet so Ryanair can undercut them.... and something’s don’t change... people will still do anything for a cheap flight.   

would you live here?

this is a street near the Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire

Lost in translation

so is that buy one pair and get one half price or buy one shoe and get the other half price?

Desert sand

We have taken a southerly route to the Middle East this time, across Europe down what was the Yugoslavian coastline before cutting across the Med to Egypt, the photo above is the view as we crossed the Egyptian coast. The desert comes down to the sea but it is still clear enough to get a reasonable photograph. A short while later the sand in the atmosphere meant that the ground was no longer visible. It may sound obvious but sand gets everywhere in the desert, it does not just lie around it blows about and gets into every gap and makes washing cars a daily task or one you just don't bother with at all.

Transition

I love being at home and after all this time I am OK with being away, I do however have difficulty with the transitory state between the two. Its Sunday morning and I am at Heathrow airport having just boarded my flight to the Middle East, its a short trip I will be back home in two and a half days. My Saturday was fine but in the early evening I had to pack a bag and arrange a taxi for 0330 Sunday morning, this meant my head was slowly getting into away mode. This combined with the fact that the meeting I am attending is an important one on the future progress of the company meant that I was not as relaxed as I might have been. I am missing my youngest sons football and the family Sunday which is always depressing, travelling  at weekends is always worse. Once I get to the airport at the other end I will have fully transitioned to "away mode" and all will be fine again. When I get back on Tuesday its just for one night and I am away in Poland for two nights before getting back home about 11PM on Friday night to start the weekend.