Living in London

We spent the weekend in Rye, and Dungeness, at the suggestion of Desmond. It was a great place to visit – Rye is indeed very old, charming, and one-of-a-kind. We could almost hear the echos of the smugglers laughing off the dampness as we walked past several long-established pubs.

The beach by the power plant in Dungeness is otherworldly and mystic. Unfortunately for us it was pouring rain the entire weekend and very uncomfortable walking around either place. We loved the “tour” of Rye that took place at the Visitor’s Centre via a scale model of the city.

The most enchanting part of all however was the numerous drives we took down little one lane roads that bordered the local farms and pastures.  We had some good podcasts of English and Scottish folk music that were the perfect accompaniment to these drives.

Formerly a sea port, and virtually an island, Rye is now completely silted up and now sits two miles from the sea. St. Mary’s is the local parish church in Rye, and has the oldest operating clock in England. This clock is rumoured to be the source of the famous nursery rhyme:

Hickory dickory dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
The mouse ran down
Hickory dickory dock

I flew a 727 today. We took off from Heathrow in the early afternoon and flew a nice gentle circuit around London before I brought her down in a rather “bouncy” landing dead centre on the runway.

The 727 is anything but nimble, and a humble servant to Newton’s first law. At about 86 tonnes, whatever direction she is headed in is the direction she's going, unless you apply continuous force to change her mind.

Okay, so I didn’t really leave the ground — but from inside the cockpit you would never know it. I spent about an hour and a half in a full-fledged flight simulator. This thing sat 10 feet off the ground on a half-dozen hydraulic pistons and was able to emulate the the full motion of the plane, complete with turbulence and a heck of a rough landing. It was quite an adrenalin rush.

I love to understand how things work, and spending more than an hour flying in the cockpit of a large aircraft satisfied a lifelong curiosity of what it is really like to fly a commercial aircraft. Let me just say that flying in three dimensions is much harder than driving in two.

Today’s word is shambolic. According to Answers.com it is an adjective, used chiefly as British slang, meaning disorderly or chaotic.

An example from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Now, nearly four months and three chief judges later, the court has actually sat for just 10 days, and those sittings have often descended into shambolic shouting matches between the defence and the bench, peppered with walk-outs. Last week, the defendants boycotted the court, which continued hearing the case without them before adjourning for 10 days. Such scenes have led some observers to label the trial a sham, warning that it may help make a martyr out of Saddam Hussein.

What a great word. Say it a few times and feel how it rolls around in your mouth.

It seems like it might also be used appropriately in discussing the US State of the Union but I could not find an references in US newspapers