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Waiting at Standsted

My flight back to Berlin is delayed for about 1:30 hours. Waiting in Stansted Airport...doodling. Didn't know that this airport had a past.

During World War II Stansted Mountfitchet Airfield was used by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force as a bomber airfield and as a major maintenance depot. Although the official name was Stansted Mountfitchet, the base was known as simply Stansted in both written and spoken form.

Bought the new James Bond novel 'Devil May Care'. It has been written by Sebastian Faulks as Ian Fleming. I bet this will be rendered in a movie in 3 years time.

Gotta check out.. my purchased one hour time is up! See ya all later.

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Photo Blog From London

The financial capital of the universe?

Houses in London Docklands.

The Palace.

The Palace Guards. Disclaimer: This is not a statue.

The landmarks..


More landmarks: The egg

Is this a church? Guess not.

View from Waterloo

Romeo & Juliet was sold out in Shakespeare's Globe. Watched Shakespeare's All's Well That End Well at the National Theatre - a fine performance by Royal National Theatre

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In London.. Again

I arrived in London - Stansted airport today well on time. The last time I had a bitter experience of going through the horrors of a cancelled flight and the need to find an alternative flight at another airport to reach on time for my exams. I came one day early just to avoid the stress.

This is a typical UK weather, you never know when it drizzles and when the sun shines. The temperature is just at par with Berlin.

Basically this trip is a deja-vu for me. The Ryan Air flight again landed on time and they played the same taped message cheering the feat. The Italian crew at the Terravision coach spoke terrible English but took us safely to Liverpool Street station. I reloaded my Oyster card bought during previous journey.

This time around there are a lot of constructions going on in London for the 2010 summer Olympics. Improvements are going on in many tube stations. That was a bit of bother to find the way to the destination. I saw a Bangladeshi wedding party on the way. The guests came by bus, women wearing Sari and a lot of makeup. The boys and guys on suits. Reminded me of home.

The next days look more challenging as ACCA mailed me that there is a tube strike which will hamper the journey towards the exam hall. Well I have to work on an alternative route after the first exam. I wonder how London will function without the tubes, which is a lifeline of the mega-city. I can't guess how long will it take in Bus (with dense traffic) for the 1 hour journey in tube, 2 or 3 hours?

The 20-20 world cup is happening right here in UK. Its a shame that I am not able to watch any one in an stadium. I am keeping myself away from TV for the exam preparations. However am cheating myself by watching the game via this site or following in cricinfo. After all what do we live for?

Here is a small video of the landing in Standsted:

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Towards Reconciliation

During the Bush era the West distanced itself much from the Muslim world. Here is Obama's approach to reconcile with the differences and lending a hand towards a new future.

Some excerpts:

I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground.

Sujatha says "The speech is most definitely worth a read and worth sharing with our children."

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Why?

There are a lot of speculations over why the Air France flight crashed in 447 in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Here is a detailed meteorological analysis which concludes:

Overall what we know for sure is weather was a factor and the flight definitely crossed through a thunderstorm complex. There is a definite correlation of weather with the crash. However the analysis indicates that the weather is not anything particularly exceptional in terms of instability or storm structure. It's my opinion that tropical storm complexes identical to this one have probably been crossed hundreds of times over the years by other flights without serious incident.

Still, in the main MCS alone, the A330 would have been flying through significant turbulence and thunderstorm activity for about 75 miles (125 km), lasting about 12 minutes of flight time. Of course anything so far is speculation until more evidence comes in, and for all we know the cause of the downing could have been anything from turbulence to coincidental problems like a cargo fire.

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