Gatwick Delays

My first experience of international travel was fifty years ago, when with my young family we sailed to South Africa, taking six days to get there, and then drove five days into the interior to reach our destination and new home in Zambia’s Copperbelt.

I think it is only possible to appreciate the vast distances, the changes in the climate, the topography, our racial and ethnic evolution, and the magnificent variabilty of human culture by moving, if we must, gradually and respectfully across our world’s surface. Air travel just doesn’t cut it, IMO.

I hope and believe that one day air travel will be seen as a grave ecological and sociological error that distances the rich elites (of which I am a wretched exemplar by an accident of history) from the better portion of humankind.

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sometimes low tech solutions are the best

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Well I am a hostage to rail commuting and that’s considerably worse

There are folk who think that the advent of boats and thus seafaring… was disastrous.

How different things might be now, if folk had never strayed from the landmass…on which they had been born. :zipper_mouth_face:

[quote=“smwsplr, post:24, topic:23727, full:true”]]
How different things might be now, if folk had never strayed from the landmass…on which they had been born. :zipper_mouth_face:
[/quote]

If ‘primitive’ man had never moved from the Rift Valley it’s likely the human race would now be extinct, Stella.

There’s nothing wrong with the movement of people. Biology dictates that you can’t keep planting crops in the same soil over and over again as I’m sure you will know as a gardener.

People have to move, it’s a biological imperative to prevent starvation.

But how they move, and how they meet new and different people as they move, is another matter, we shall probably agree. :hugs:

I was being cheeky… after your remark about planes… :wink::hugs:

’‘A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions’’…Oliver Wendell Holmes

Although…possibly not so true for those who yearn for the perceived ‘good old days’ - a movie in their minds… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Flights stopped again due to drone sighting, so sorry for those whose holidays etc have been ruined.

I[quote=“smwsplr, post:26, topic:23727, full:true”]
I was being cheeky… after your remark about planes… :wink::hugs:
[/quote]

I rather thought you were, you saucy thing (and definitely not boring old bread sauce, only an anglo-saxon could have invented that, surely :cry:!) :joy::blush:

In black and white (or sepia) with jerky walks, silent with captions and a pianoforte accompaniment… Ah, yes, I remember it well :thinking::joy::hugs::scream:

Friends had come over from Jersey to spend Christmas with their daughter, but had to go back when an uncle died, returning the same day as the funeral. Other members of their family had opted to stay overnight, and their flights to Gatwick were cancelled.

Daughter in law took granddaughter to Spain on 14th to visit her family in Madrid including her sister and family from Portugal, with son intending to fly over to join them on 21st and then all fly back together on 25th. Son’s flight cancelled owing to drones, now hoping to fly on Sunday evening, returning on 25th to join the rest of our family in our UK flat (fortunately we had no problems as we drove via the tunnel).

Friend planning to fly with UK family on Friday to visit daughter in Geneva. When Gatwick closed her daughter in law obtained alternative tickets via Bristol, but when the airport reopened on the day they were due to fly, they decided to fly from Gatwick after all. However the runways closed again before they boarded so their flight was cancelled. Meanwhile friend’s Mum had serious stroke and so she decided not to go after all! Her family are now attempting to fly tomorrow from Bristol.

So families in Jersey, Spain, Portugal, England and Switzerland (in my circle at least) all in disarray and debating when or whether to take the turkey out of the freezer, and all the more offended by the fact that our late son was a keen, good and conscientious drone pilot. Having inherited his drones, my husband and surviving son fear that before they both learn to use the equipment properly their use will be banned. So sad that drones are being used in such a mischievous or malicious manner, but the authorities were not prepared, despite wide use of drones by the military, and they should have known better. Drones can be controlled from a computer several countries away from the activity, and most blocking tactics would affect far more than just drones, but if all aircraft are grounded that should have been an acceptable risk.

I do hope that others on this site will all enjoy a happy Christmas and New Year with their families, by whatever circuitous route they may have had to travel to be together.

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Back in summer, on one of the really hot days my cousin was lying on her bed reading whilst her eldest daughter was sunbathing on the garden. Their back garden isn’t overlooked so she took her top off and was enjoying the sun. Her mum became aware of a strange noise but thought it was a lawn mower,next thing R ran in screaming “There’s a drone watching me”. It came back the following afternoon as well but she had kept her top on.
A few days later there was a notice in the local shop saying if anyone had lost a drone it had landed in someone’s garden and they could contact them to get it back. It was never claimed

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We have finished with all that.

Jim used to commute between Stroud and London and was in the Paddington crash.