Flying from Heathrow...

I'm on my way to Vienna for training.  I had really wanted to fly from London City Airport but there were no flights that worked.

So, instead, I'm flying out from Heathrow :-(

I considered flying BA but, because Austrian Airlines can at least bring me back to City Airport, I decided to fly out with them as well.

An unintentionally inspired decision!

I am in Terminal 2.  No queues at check-in and minimal queue at security.  And at least the possibility that my bags will arrive.

It wasn't all good, however. I've just had the most strange "fish pie" from the air-side Wetherspoon's.  I'm not sure why I went there as I didn't have a drink.

Either way, I'd love to know if anybody could identify the fish I ate. There were two main fish-like elements to the pie: red cubes and orange cubes.

I'm guessing the red pieces were Salmon but I have absolutely no idea what the orange pieces were. They didn't taste smoked (well, they didn't taste of anything, really) so what on earth could they have been?

Big Bridge News

For those who like bridges and cranes and railways, tomorrow is your lucky day!

North Woolwich Satellite Dish Breeding Farm

I thought I'd visit scary South East London on Tuesday so took the DLR to King George IV so I could take the Woolwich Ferry over the river... I'd never done it before.

Before I got on the ferry, I had a walk around the riverfront.

I stumbled upon what I can only describe as a factory farm where they grow satellite dishes.

There were big ones, small ones, baby ones, portable ones, oddly shaped freakish ones. Most bizarre.

The name of the site was particularly funny. Apparently it's a "Teleport". One shudders to think what goes on there.

There's a small glimpse of it in this photo... but the real thing is much scarier....

New London Architecture

Ian linked to the website of "New London Architecture" the other week.

I was in the area the afternoon so popped around.

What a fantastic place!

The centrepiece of the venue is a massive map of Central London with 3-D models of the buildings. There is a small photograph of it here. One could spend hours looking at it.

I spent some time in the book shop and stumbled upon the reference section. They have a collection of periodicals from organisations such as the Institution of Civil Engineers. 

One of the magazines I flipped through was a special edition about the building of the high-speed link between St. Pancras and the Channel Tunnel. More technical detail than you could ever wish for (if that sort of thing rocks your boat...). They're not available to purchase, sadly.

Naturally, the first thing I did when I arrived home was try to find the issue on the web instead.

And here it is!

The individual articles are provided as separate PDFs but it's well worth browsing through.

If you've ever wanted to know about ventilation shafts, the building of the new Thameslink Station under St. Pancras or the cost of the project then look no further!