Megapixels
Scotland and back
The top left view is of Terminal 5 B, where, it seems, all the Long haul flights go from, while the domestics, including mine, went from the main building. The vibe in the terminal was certainly world-class, very relaxing and soothing with lots of natural light, and no blaring announcements.
I had to take advantage of the superb shopping facilities to buy some headphones for my iPhone, and a tie and cufflinks to match my pink Van Heusen shirt. Despite being tax free, the Sony Style store was a bit more expensive than Amazon, but the Tie Rack offerings were quite affordable for the quality.
The flight (BA, Airbus A321) left 15 minutes late, but the pilot said we'd make up the time. When the meal came, to my surprise, it was a full English breakfast:
and very tasty it was too. If I'd known, I wouldn't have had a little breakfast baguette from Pret a Manger (probably the cheapest eatery in T5) about half-an-hour before. Despite an effort with my paper towel, I got a spot of watery fat on my tie. Drat.
The rest of the flight was moderately uninteresting, a fair bit of turbulence on descent over a big wind farm, and a powerful, hard on the brakes landing. A quick phone call to the groom to check where I was going, and I took the express bus into town. I got off at the wrong stop though, I was sure I saw a sign saying Waverley, but it turned out it was Haymarket, so I had a good Google maps assisted walk into the centre. I was several hours early (just in case), so I went on a little tour of the Museum of Scotland, which was just down the road from the wedding chambers. I got a bit lost on leaving the Museum, but got to the Wedding in good time to set up. Before leaving I took a photo of the Castle from the Museum roof.
We got up there in-time from the 1 o'clock gun...which I didn't hear. Oh well!
The next day, after breakfast with the wedding party, I came to the main 'other' attraction of the visit.
The Scottish Parliament. The last time I was in Edinburgh, the building was under construction. I phoned up and booked a tour for 11:40, and in the meantime visited the Royal Palace across the road (Holyrood), where there was a renaissance painting exhibition.
The Parliament was designed by a Catalonian and was intentionally and obviously modernist: wood, glass, slate, concrete etc. I found the architecture to be a bit incoherent (for my tastes) at ground level, but the overall design, from the air, looks great. It is meant to be stalks and leaves and boats. Inside, there are St. Andrews cross motifs everywhere including in the concrete roof, and all the doors:
and lots of tasteful angles everywhere. My favourite architectural motif was the MSP offices, which have little contemplation booths on the outside:
In a parallel from my
tour of the Australian Parliament, the tour guide
explained how Scottish the materials in the building
were. There wasn't enough sustainable Oak in Scotland
for the flooring so they had to import some from
England France. Sadly, we couldn't take a
picture in the debating chamber, nor in the committee
room we saw, nor in the lobby (why??), so that was
it.
I got back to the station in good time for a great
train ride down the dramatic East Coast Mainline.
Near the top, we were actually by the coast:
Back in London, I decided to take a peek at St.
Pancras International (last time I was there in
November it was still unfinished). Wow, what a
difference and what a vibe! It felt lively and so
very big; walking all the way to the back past shop
after shop took a while, until I found the reserved
platforms just before the final 'circle' of shops:
SE Trains, for
'Javelin' High-Speed Kent
services
I think St. Pancras
International is certainly equal to T5 in ambience,
and of course, trumps it completely in terms of
accessibility and connectivity. I walked all the way
back to take a close look at the Eurostars, and well,
it's certainly summer, they were plastered in blood
and carcasses.
I remember the first time I saw the roof, I didn't
like the colour at all. Funny how the addition of a
clock accessory can change how things look:
It was also nice I think, to see how the western side
of the terminus is now a big window over the British
Library. Nice and airy, a great building.
Ordanance Survey - Explore
Unfortunately there is currently no way to export the routes to GPS orvice versa.Kind regards,
Tsk!
How to pack a sleeping bag
I decided on my trip to Bradford that my sleeping bag was a) a smidge too small, and b) too big when packed. I used my messenger bag (about 28l) as my main bag, and the sleeping bag basically filled the bag, leaving precious little space for my inflatable mat and requiring my clothes to be compressed. My toiletries had to go into my (hydration) back pack, my pillow was strapped to the front of the bike and so was my water proof jacket. So last night and today I had a look at 'lite' bags.
Looking first on Vango (which is my current brand), I noticed that I already have a 'Travel/Lightweight' bag! Odd, I thought. Looking at the current bags, my equivalent would be a Voyager 100.
Reading reviews of
sleeping bags mostly from Americans, I was struck how
all the features they were marvelling at on expensive
bags (double-sided zips, convertable to a duvet, zip
secured with velcro) is all old hat with Vango bags.
The new Voyager shaves off 550g in weight, down to
1KG and (I thought) a full 10 cm in pack size, down
to 21cm long.
However, the length was the same at 210cm, so I
thought I'd look for a bit more. I had a look on
Outdoors Magic for other
British brands making sleeping bags. I thought of
Craghoppers, and somehow came across this. Hmm, never heard of this
lot...Snugpak? I looked at the reviews on Outdoors
magic and saw this question being asked about
looking after a new sleeping bag. Apparently you
shouldn't fold up a sleeping bag, since you can
crease and damage the synthetic lining, instead
you should just stuff it in. I also saw the same
advice given on Youtube for packing a tent, you
might crease the outer shell. So, I thought I
would test this out, but first I picked the bag I will eventually buy.
The 'micro' pack size is
remarkable (if not achieved by any of the reviewers),
and it has a number of features that sounds good to
me: a chisel foot for my big feet, a "Chrysalis
Baffle System"...a what, what the what? CBS=Stretchy
sides to permit turning in your sleep (ah!); and most
importantly 220cm in length. But yes the reviews,
they said that all they tried, they couldn't squeeze
the pack down to 16cm long. They called on the
manufacturers to tell them the secret, well, I'll
just email them if I cant figure it out, but they
made me think. I always had trouble fitting the Vango
into it's little bag and squeezing the compressions
straps over it. But the reviews talked about a
compressed size and an uncompressed size.
Uncompressed, the Softie was 30cm long! Compressed,
they got it down below 20cm, but not to 16.
I have two sleeping bags. The first once I felt was
too small, and I changed it for the Vango. I but I
remembered that the old one was always easy to pack,
so I got it out and unfolded it and stuffed it back
in the bag. Easy! Next, I decided to see how far I
could compress it. Rather than pulling on the
compression straps, I put it tail up, and pressed it
down with my knee and used the straps to hold the bag
in compression. Wow! Instantly 20cm. Some more
kneeing and it was 16cm!!
The diameter was also
much smaller than the Vango, so overall it was much
less than half the size - TINY. I've promised this
bag for my sister, Caroline, so it turns out she's
getting a super small Micro Thermalite bag. Not bad!
The weight of it was exactly 1kg. Next up, and just
dried from the washing machine was the Vango. Again,
stuffing rather than folding the bag actually worked.
There was a little sweating involved, but it all fit
in, giving a +30cm long package. Down with the knee
again, and:
21cm. There you have it,
not pretty, but that's how to pack a sleeping bag.
DAB clock radios getting better
Never mind, it's discontinued now, so there is no Sony option in this space.
I happened to look again today and I was pleasantly surprised to see that that better designs are now coming along. The Tivoli model came out last year and is rather expensive. I tested it out in John Lewis and was disappointed to find that the fabulous big dial only operated the FM radio. The DAB worked through the cheap feeling buttons.
But this VITA R1 is thirty quid cheaper and looks fabulous!
But, cheapest of all, and now on my wish list is the Revo Uno. At £70, with radio alarm, weekday and weekend settings, and audio-in for the iPod, I think I found my simple 'wake to BBC Radio 3' box.
