First trip to Belfast for 2011 today, so an earky start for me, far too early. Straight forward drive to the airport but loads of standing water and fairly heavy rain. The terminal was fairly empty but the queue for security was long, so I paid the £3 to jump the queue.
I realised I had forgotten to bring a pen with me to do the Sudoku puzzle, which the Independents advanced one is my challenge for the 1hr flight. W H Smiths wanted £3 for their cheapest pen which I declined, I did a scout round and found a “Great Britain” pen in the tourist shop for £1.49 so I settled for that one.
The flight was on time but we were bussed to the plane so the speedy board was looking at risk. Easyjet have a cunning strategy for the situation they get only the back doors of the bus opened and ask us to board the bus and move to the front, then at the aircraft they open the front doors first, simple.
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The big storm is on and I am waiting for EZY196, which is delayed. My colleague Paul who is waiting for the flight to Heathrow is also delayed. You may remember that earlier this year I posted a blog entry about finding a claw of a Signal Crayfish on the canal tow path on the walk to work. Well this morning I found a whole live one, I have posted a video of the blighter on you tube for you all to see. They are quite vicious so I handled him with care, whilst getting the footage. If I waved a hand above him he raised his claws, and I suspect that he would have nipped me given the opportunity. On the way home I came across a man in an inflatable boat with an electric engine, he seemed to be putting out fisherman’s keep nets. When I asked what he was up to he told me he was catching signal crayfish to turn into bait for fishing with. Apparently the harvest was variable sometime many sometimes only one or two per net. I wished him luck and went on my way. Oh and for the record I had a couple of birding moments today, first a sparrow hawk was chasing a swallow/martin outside my office window, then on the way home two grey heron were chasing each other round and about.  Segoe Hotel I am stuck at the Seagoe hotel in Portadown, Northern Ireland and tonight was my third night. I have been working my way through the menu, I don’t eat meat but I do eat fish so the options can sometimes be limited. My walk to and from work takes me along a strecth of the Aylesbury arm of the Grand Union. The farmers have been recently cutting the grass to make hay and I noticed this morning that this means that the hares have no where to hide, and so it makes them easy to spot. In one filed I saw around 6 or 7 all sat together in a group, in a field next to the A41 Aston Clinton bypass. Stuck at Belfast City I thought I would have one last go at this. As you can tell by this post I was successful. 1. Pair your blackberry to your windows machine, via bluetooth. 2. Set up an Internet APN. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel at+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”internet” Click OK. 3. To configure dial-up networking, complete the procedure that is appropriate to the operating system you are using: Click Start
 Radar virtuel If you want to see live airplane traffic check this out http://www.radarvirtuel.com It shows the current position and status of planes over Europe. You can also add labels, see the current position of the volcanix ash cloud, and filter out any of the aircraft based on many parameters. I regularly fly to Northern Ireland so I use it to check what it happening to those flight paths only, useful to see if the incoming plane is on time. Sat on plane waiting to take off from Belfast city, all was going well until the despatchers and the crew could not agree on numbers.  AVG license message Back to Luton airport for a trip to Belfast. Thought I would have breakfast at the airport, this time, as I noticed that Pret does porridge. Turns out to be good porridge, I guess because it has been on the heat for a while the oats really get a chance to expand, so the whole thing is much more creamy. I opted for a dollop of honey for £1.99, which means they are making big margins on materials. I get a kg of Tesco value oats for less than a pound, and all you need for a portion of porridge is half a mug full. A bag lasts me a couple of months.  George Best Airport Travelling again to Belfast, different this time though I am flying in and out of Belfast City (George Best) Airport rather Belfast international. City (as the locals call it) is right in the heart of the city of Belfast situated in I guess what would have been Harland and Wolf docks, I think they built the Titanic here. It is smaller than International with less gates. They give you plastic bags in security rather than charging a pound. I arrived early and took the opportunity for a bite to eat from Harvest Market. The fish pie and mushy peas is to be recommended. When I arrived in the departure lounge it was quite crowded but a couple of flights left and it emptied out. |
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