Arrival in London
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2007
1
5
22
Trip End
Sep 23, 2007
London,
England,
United Kingdom
Saturday, June 14, 2008
And as usual the Heathrow experience was not the best - we had to wait 30 minutes on the tarmac before they found a bay for the plane to park. We learned the airspace had been restricted because of preparations for US President George W Bush's arrival today in the UK on his 'farewell' tour of Europe, which can hardly be described as a 'victory run' and therefore is just a waste of people's time and money and a general nuisance for everyone involved.
But the good news, we were told, was that buses would take us from the 'plane right to the passport control of terminal 3 and we would be spared the usual long walk involved. Following a bus ride of what seemed like the entire perimeter of Heathrow airport, which had us all clinging on for dear life every time we took a corner, we arrived at Terminal 3, but not exactly at passport control - we still had to walk for what seemed like ages along corridors, across air bridges and up and down escalators before getting to passport control.
From there it was 'smooth sailing'. The ride from the airport to Tudor Place (http://www.tudorplace.biz) - a charming guest house in Berkshire, near Reading, where I'm staying for the weekend - was just a narrow escape from the Friday rush hour and took only half an hour.
I received a gracious welcome from my hostess and was shown to a large, comfortable room in typical English style with leadlight windows overlooking a lush, walled garden, flower curtains and old oak furniture.
A quick, refreshing shower and we were on our way to my friend's place for a home cooked meal, very kindly and competently cooked by his teenage daughter despite being under tremendous stress from taking her A-level exams right now.
This was followed by an evening at 'the races' - slot car races that is - a toys-for-boys sport which had an important team competition event that evening. This, I discovered, is a genuine sport governed by the British Slot Car Racing Association (http://www.bscra.fsnet.co.uk) which has clubs throughout Britain.
Each club build its own racing track, typically 30m long with four to eight lanes, and hold weekly team competitions where members bring along their slot cars and some pretty serious-looking tool boxes to repair and maintain them.
Slot cars are 15cm long which the players build themselves and consist of a chassis with a small motor, two rubber wheels in the back and a T shaped guide at the front, which fits in a slot cut in the track, and a very light plastic body which must ressemble a racing car.
Before the race, drivers spend a lot of time tinkering with their cars to get them ready, which can involve soldering, gluing, cleaning and sticking the plastic bodies on.
Each driver has a hand held remote controller with a trigger which can vary the amount of power supplied to the car - and the harder you press the trigger, the faster the car goes. The trick is to drive as fast as possible without jumping out of the slot.
Marshals are stationed around the track during the races to get the cars, which sometimes jump quite spectacularly through the air, back in their racing lanes. Assuming the cars are in good repair (they do get damaged by crashes and when they get off the track), it is the skill of the driver which wins race - much the same skills needed to drive a real racing car: full speed along the straights, slow down in the corners and then speed out of the corners.
Needless to say, the sport is dominated by men, but on one of the teams yesterday I was surprised to see a gray haired 'mumsy' type participating when she wasn't preparing cups of tea for everyone.
I must admit the tea helped me stay awake because I was wilting fast. But towards the end I had a second wind and joined the players at the nearby pub.
I didn't arrive home back at the guest house till about midnight and very glad to be able put my head on the pillow and wake up this morning after a full night's sleep.
