Iceland is a land of waterfalls and geyers. What if they erupted again as a volcanic island? What would the Geysers and Waterfalls look like. Here you have my impressions. To see much more of my photography please visit
http://chrisbushephotos.ifp3.com
Copyright Chris Bushe
Copyright Chris Bushe
Iceland is not a country that I have been to before but some knowledge was there regarding the banking crisis, the ash cloud and more positive reports of good nightlife and interesting places to visit. Reyjkavik is a place that cruise ships now venture to. The first challenge was spelling Reykjavik. I failed when trying to input the city into my I Phone weather app. Thankfully the more intelligent and literary members of my family also failed similarly. In summary this is an interesting island that maybe would be good for 3-4 days maximum. There are plenty of things to see . The first impression as the plane comes into land is that firstly the plane flies low for quite a while whilst out at sea and the first image of Iceland is uncannily like the introduction scene to Father Ted where one views Craggy Island. In fact did they use Iceland? The people are friendly and rather Scandinavian like and most speak excellent English.
I had only 4 hours to see the isalnd and visited 3 places that seemed fairly special. Firstly the tectonic plates that divide west from east and literally these stones represent a dividing line in the Earth’s crust. Secondly some Geysers and lastly a massive waterfall that makes Niagara Falls look quite small in many ways.
The place to see the tectonic plates is called Pingvalla or Pingvellir. Neither is spelled correctly as the Icelandic alphabet has 32 letters which thus include letters that do not feature in our alphabet but also do not include the letters, C, W, Q and Z. The Icelandic parliament was founded here in 930 AD before even my time. And even functioned as a court of Law till 1798. Curiously Iceland has only been independent of Danish and Norwegian monarchy since 1918. In 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations’ Human Development Index.Gender equality is highly valued in Iceland. In the Global Gender Gap Report 2012, Iceland holds the top spot for the least gap, closely followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden. Furthermore among NATO members, Iceland has the smallest population and is the only one with no standing army. The population of Iceland is less than 350,000.
Here are a few images of Pingvalla.
Pingvallir. copyright Chris Bushe
Pingvallir. copyright Chris Bushe
Pingvallir. copyright Chris Bushe
Sian Massey is an English football referee who is 28 years old and has been officiating in the football league and premier league since 2010 when she turned professional. Although the subject of some controversy over alleged sexist remarks from SKY presenters she has been well recieved in the football game. The few times she has officiated at Brentford, including running the line today Brentford v Rotherham, her performances have been in my humble view amongst some of the best. Maybe her original chosen profession as a teacher might have helped her.
Sian Massey
Sian Massey
Something just a little atmospheric about this photo despite taken with the dreaded I Phone.
Landing this morning at Newcastle on a routine British Airways flight I noticed a bizarre shaped plane that looked deformed with CAVOK written on the side. My first thoughts were some sort of spy plane, but a little bit of research informed that that Cavok aero are indeed a real company and they live here http://www.cavok.aero
The plane itself I was tweeted by Newcastle Airport was an Antonov An -74. Here you see a snap I took with the disappointing I Phone camera ( Apple please improve your camera, forget the filters that hide the poor quality but the basic camera is really poor) and one that Newcastle Airport tweeted back.
Cavok indeed are real and this is what they say:
CAVOK AIR was established in 2011 and start its operation since 26.04.2012 – the date of receiving Airline Operator Certificate from Civil Aviation Administration of Ukraine.
What do they do? Well here with some interesting use of the English language we find out. As a prelude what is really encouraging is that they do ” Ground and Flight stuff”
The main activity directions of CAVOK AIR are:
— Air cargo transportation
— DG and special cargo transportation
— Cargo charter operations with 24H flight watch
— Planning and flight support
— Obtaining diplomatic and special permits
I like the bit about a Ukrainian air cargo company obtaining diplomatic and special permits. What exactly are these? Maybe more examples of ground and flight stuff………
So onto the planes themselves. Never actually seen anything like it ever. This is what Cavok have to say
Antonov An-74 is a twin-turbofan airplane designed to carry up to 10,0 tonnes of cargo at a cruising speed of up to 700 km/h at a cruising flight altitude of 10,100 m.
The engines have low fuel consumption and high level of reliability. They meet ICAO requirements for aircraft engine emissions and noise. High engine arrangement practically precludes ingestion of foreign objects into engine air intakes at takeoff and landing even when operating on pebble airfields. Landing gear with low-pressure tires allows autonomous operation of the aircraft on both hard-surface runways and unpaved strips.
The rear fuselage features a mechanized cargo door used for loading/unloading cargoes, wheeled vehicles, livestock cargo, …. . The internal crane enables to load and move inside the cargo compartment pcs up to 2,500 kg.
This is all good news. Many travellers, mostly in front of me at Heathrow this morning seemed to have 2500kg of luggage so this might be the airline for them.
What however is weird is that they just dont look right. Why those huge engines seemingly balanced on the wing ? The plane also looks like a small passenger jet and not a cargo plane. Anyway great looking plane and seemingly great little company.
This guy posted this advert online and although I am unlikely to be able to help him I would like to see if anyone else can offer him anything in the Stoke area.
By chance the second time in a few weeks that I have seen Ramsgate play. A decent enough game played in a low atmosphere ground with a crowd of 100 in attendance. The ground is essentially one sided now with the condemning of the main terrace stand. Walton have had a mixed start to the season under their new manager Steve Baker and on the evidence of yesterday they are a work in progress but going in the right direction. They played good football and generally were entertaining. Ramsgate played a lot more of the physical stuff and a little less of the football, but nevertheless a decent team. The game got off to a bizarre start as firstly kick off was delayed by 45 minutes due to a major M25 accident. In the second minute Ramsgate had their full-back carried off with what looked like ligament issues. In the fith minute Ramsgate had their number 11 sent off, maybe harshly. Not long after Ramsgate scored and although Walton chased the game it was not until the 80th minute that Walton equalised with a new header from their impressive number 9, Will Turl. He also had the opportunity to score again in the final minutes with an identical move and header but fell just short. Interesting aspects of the game? The referee made any number of errors, do not blame him for that, but why not at least consult with the linesman? The Ramsgate goalkeeper, although competent certainly had eaten some if not all of the pies. All in all end to end stuff and at this level a highly entertaining game.
Something for real football fans to read and mull over the implications for many non-league clubs
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Disallowed Walton goal.Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe. Will Turl
Stompond lane has been the home of Walton and Hersham, who now play in the Ryman South division, ever since I began watching the club almost 50 years ago. There have been some famous moments. Walton have played FA Cup first round games here in front of thousands of spectators including against Exeter and Brighton, managed then by Brian Clough. Walton also won the Amateur cup in 1973. Things however have been declining since then almost consistently. Far from being one of the best non-league clubs they are now one of the smallest in crowd terms at their level and things may get even worse. The council plan to redevelop Stompond Lane and force Walton and Hersham to share with their neighbours, also in Ryman South, Walton Casuals. This plan has not been met with joy by either club however statements only a week ago suggest that this plan to redevelop Stompond Lane is becoming fairly final.
I do not know enough to really make an informed decision here however one can see a number of aspects that make some sense. The crowd base of both clubs is around 100 each and does this warrant two individual football grounds in Walton? The population of Walton, which is where the club is based, a few miles from Hersham, in 2011 was 24,137. Neither ground is perfect, although each has character and reasonable parking. Yesterday I visited to see Walton play Ramsgate. The crowd was 102. Down at Walton Casuals yesterday the crowd was 163 boosted somewhat by the good start Casuals have had to the season where they top the league. What is currently proposed is that the two clubs share Walton Casuals ground. What might equally be proposed is that these two clubs if this happens might be candidates to merge in the future. Should either of these things happen?
On my football grounds website I have many photographs of Stompond Lane and should the club move I shall add many more http://www.footballgroundz.co.uk
A good report on recent matters can also be found here
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/new-plans-submitted-stompond-lane-5908373
A few here however just to introduce the novice to the ground that is and was Stompond Lane.
Stompond Lane. Copyright. Chris Bushe
Stompond Lane. Copyright. Chris Bushe
Stompond Lane. Copyright. Chris Bushe
An entertaining Ryman premier league game that saw Carshalton win their first home game of the season. the reality of the game was that in the first half Carshalton should have been at least 3-0 up and that in the second half Billericay should have scored. That they did not says much about the staunch defending from Carshalton combined with excellent usage of the substitutes. This is a young Carshalton team and they will improve. From the photos I leave it you to count the number of impressive kung-fu moves in the penalty area and in the whole series of photos there were plenty of shirt pulling episodes, all missed by the referee and his team. Carshalton is friendly place to watch football and the football played yesterday was actually exceptional at this standard by both teams. Good movement off the ball, intelligent running and some decent tacking too. Players who really impressed yesterday included Kieran Woodley, number 11 who scored a decent goal and tommy Bradford number 7 who never stopped running all afternoon. Maybe the oddest thing though is that man of the match would have to go to the Billericay goalkeeper Billy Lumley. Great saves throughout. Game stayed interesting right until the end when Ricky Sappleton was sent off for two yellow cards around 10 seconds before fulltime.
Our garden is an eco-system, well thats the opinion of the teacher at our daughter’s school and in fact applies to all the form who have a garden. Thinking about it we have foxes, bees, hedgehogs and numerous other invaders and visitors. Compost is made and goes on the soil, an oak tree grown from an acorn from Wisley Gardens, apple tree and so on. Anyway whilst photographing this melee of activity today ( whose homework is it?) I met some large and curious spiders. The garden spider is alive and well in New Malden. What however is interesting and there may be a simple reason, is why hardly any of these exist at Wisley RHS gardens? any clues?
Garden Spider by chris Bushe
Garden Spider by chris Bushe
Garden Spider by chris Bushe
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 