Yeah, I’m back. Luckily the server didn’t have any blips like last time I went away, which is filed snugly in the ‘good thing’ drawer. I’m pretty tired, which sounds daft since I just got back from a break, but it’s a surprisingly long journey down to deepest Cornwall despite the distance on the map not looking very big (the nearest you can fly to is Exeter and we got the train down).
It might sound perverse to some, but I actually quite like travelling by train. For a start, I get motion sickness on anything that moves (besides my own feet), which despite thirty years of mental training can still be annoying, but trains move in mercifully straight lines and gentle curves and so are rather easy to handle even for those of us with over-sensitive senses of balance & inertia. Secondly, unlike a plane you actually get to see something on the way, besides cloud. You get far more of a sense of travelling this way I think, rather than just magically appearing between drably uniform airport terminals. Unlike a car, you can fall asleep whenever you like without causing high-speed mahem and death, you don’t have to stop moving to take a break, and the lack of navigation / driver conflict has to be better for the blood pressure. Sure, you have to share your space with others (unless you’re travelling on the Orient Express, something I’d love to do one day), but sometimes that can be a source of entertainment in itself, and if the person is really obnoxious at least you can just get up and move without a stewardess barking at you. Lastly, they’re actually pretty kind to the planet too, which is always nice. Sure they may be late sometimes and don’t go door to door but overall I find them pretty agreeable for medium to long distance journeys. I just wish the Chunnel had a branch off it running through the Channel Islands.
I know I’ve had a dig at Exeter airport before but my goodness, does it have delusions of grandeur. They plaster the word ‘International’ everywhere they possibly can (‘Exeter International Airport’), so proudly that it’s rather painful to watch. It’s mostly a backwater but seems to think that because it flies to a few foreign places it can slap ‘International’ on everything as if it’s going to challenge Gatwick or Manchester sometime. They have two security scanners for goodness sakes, and I’ve only ever seen one actually functioning no matter how long the queue. It just makes me laugh because it’s trying far too hard when it’s really not much bigger than Guernsey airport – should ours have ‘International’ emblazoned proudly on it now because we have a few foreign flights? I’m being harsh, but it really should just accept that it’s a small airport and get over itself already.
Anyway, I’ve missed quite a lot in the forum but I’ll just have to trust that anything that important will resurface. Catching up with various TODOs now….
September 18th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
but I actually quite like travelling my train.
*Cough* That self employed malarky must be big bucks.
Agreed, trains are best. Except the Tube variety!
Had my worst travel experiance ever a few weeks ago, and it was on the tube going from Wembley stadium to King Cross. The train was full (and I cant stress the word full enough here) with sweaty (again, stressing the sweat) and mostly drunk northern rugby fans.
Im a Northen rugby fan myself, I was there for the Challenge Cup final, but I dont wish that experiance on anybody. I had at least two strangers hot sweat literally dripping onto me.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Sure, why not. After all, the airport I live 10 miles from does the same thing, and the most they can claim for International flights is a few stops in Canada. Hell, it’s really just a convenience airport. People only use it because it saves them an hour of driving, which depending on the flight time I can understand, but still, it seems a little weird to me why it even exists.
September 19th, 2007 at 1:27 am
Haha sounds like Teesside International Airport. If by international you mean a couple of flights to Amsterdam or some dodgy Spanish resort!
September 19th, 2007 at 3:44 am
I’ve got a city named exeter right near me. I’m in Canada, so I guess if you’ve got the airport there then it must be international…
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=exeter+ontario&ie=UTF8&z=14&iwloc=addr&om=1
September 19th, 2007 at 7:42 am
I like travelling by train too for exactly the same reasons.
Being that Guernsey only flies to the UK, other Channel Islands and France I think calling it an international airtport is a bit of a stretch. We get Geneva and Zurich from November but given the frequency at which airlines stop routes I think putting International on it would leave egg on the face within a year or so when we’re back to UK/CI/France.
[)amien
September 19th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I’ve always found travelling on the train to be the best way to get around anywhere. If it wasn’t for the fact it is so expensive (it costs me more to travel to London by train than to fly) I would use the train more often.
Glad you had a good time and hope you don’t get bogged down by email too much
September 19th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
I just wish the train tracks in England where straighter. For example in Japan they have super fast trains because there aren’t any bends in the tracks.
Faster, Safer, cheaper.