Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “terminal 5”

09 Sep 2012

The Exeter University Heroes who cycled 4500 kms for charity. Worth your support? Real heroes


Thirteen Exeter university students have given up a summer vacation to cycle from london to Istanbul for Help for Heroes, a charity that supports wounded soldiers. Today they arrived back at Heathrow to what can only be described as a heroes welcome by their families and friends. Terminal 5 might not have seen such a noise for some while. they have cycled 4500 kms and really deserve our admiration.

 

This is what I wrote a month ago.

 

A week ago on 26th July 13 students from the University of Exeter commenced a 4500km cycle to Istanbul. Why? To support Help for Heroes. Many of these students had just completed their degree and graduated 2 weeks before. Somehow they found time to train,organise and generally prepare for this strenous trip. Aside from the obvious physical aspects there were numerous other planning aspects to consider. For example how to spend as little as possible on the trip, as this would reduce the sponsorship amounts for the charity. So, they spend most nights in tents and some nights in cheap hostels. The van they were donated is not of the Formula 1 category and rather like a beached whale is not deemed well enough to migrate the Alps, so will go around and meet the cyclists on the other side. To date they have reached Lyons and are having a well deserved rest day. My son Charles Bushe texted that he had spent a good day but things like washing needed to be done. They will have finished and be back in UK on September 8th. They deserve as much support as is possible. Even if you can only donate £1 then please do so and also importantly please pass on this message so that others can donate.

They are all good folks and already it is clear that they have bonded well together and are supporting each other when needed. For example the first day of their cycle down to Folkestone the temperature was well into the 30′s C, and there were obvious heat problems. A couple of them have had minor injuries such as a fall and tendonitis but they all keep going.

The links are below.

http://www.justgiving.com/Charles-Bushe

Charles bushe

Heroes returning Exeter Uni[gallery columns="1" orderby="ID"]

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28 Jul 2012

South Korea


There is always an expectancy about a place that mixes in awe and dread. This is my first visit. The usual British Airways debacle, arriving 3 hours before departure to Terminal 5 and then reaching the gate in good time to be told minutes before departure of a delay due to a mechanical engineering problem. This then throws out all the other arrangements and the flights subsequent get missed and so on. Do BA care? In my view no. The aircraft that transported me to Hong Kong was an old 747. It looked old and had none of the niceties that other newer planes have. The socket on the floor did not work. The design of the cabin was bizarre.

In contrast Hong Kong, Seoul Incheon , Gimpo and Busan airports were a delight. The Thai airways flight to Seoul was one of the nicest I have been on, comfortable seats and great food and service. The airports too were modern and clean and passengers just flowed through them rather than getting stuck, such as Terminal 5. When one tries to analyse why one airport works well it is interesting to note that the South Korean airports have few shops and restaurants. People turning up this morning to fly from Gimpo ( this is the smaller of the Seoul airports. Seoul is in fact about an hour on the express train from Incheon airport. ) wanted to do just that, fly. They were not piling into restaurants in hordes or shopping as though the day of destiny was approaching. A good learning . Airports are for flying from.

Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and is a modern place. My hotel has placed me on the 33rd floor , and below me is the medical institute and dentistry institute . Somewhere there is a casino. I like this place and the people. Wi-fi is free in the hotel and many other places ( Marriott are you listening?), modern defibrillators line the corridors of the airport but rather confusingly are labelled IPAD. I am sure some younger visitors will get a shock if they disturb the item……

Busan from 33rd Floor

Busan

Busan

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30 Apr 2012

Heathrow airport is the Worst Airport in the World


This is becoming like a mantra. Each time I visit I forget how foul the whole experience is. This ranges from the awful signage, the expensive food, the sour-faced staff, the delays but mostly the cynicism of it all. Today I saw a huge advert outside a currency exchange bureau that said ” great exchange rates”. This intrigued me as in the pharmaceutical industry where I work, this kind of claim would firstly not be allowed but if it ever were watered down, there would have to be clarity over what exactly ” great” meant and compared to what. On my I-phone I have been following the euro exchange rates as soon will be heading off to Spain. Recently the rate is around 1.22 euro to the pound. This “great” exchange was more akin to the great train robbery, if I were to give them 1.38 euros they would kindly repay me a pound. However if I were to give them a pound they would give me 1.11 euros. A disgraceful exchange rate that does not even stop there as there would be a minimum £3 commission. This equates to something like a 20% mark down in their favour. This is not great and in fact should be considered illegal practice. The end result as usual is that not only would I not ever make this exchange at any UK airport but feel the need to stop others. It is the same story with the food, expensive prices for ordinary dross. Long queues to get what most travellers want, a cup of tea and sandwich, but no queue for the silly restaurants with stupid names like ” giraffe”. The staff generally are miserable and unfriendly, the queues for security are somehow always longer than their alleged BAA surveys claim. Today there was a grand claim on the departure boards that 95% ish of people clear security within 5 minutes. This is clearly not true. The only way to achieve this would be to pole vault over the top. End of rant. In contrast today, Glasgow Airport. Civilised, tidy and what I wanted was readily available. Result,  I spent money there. 

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