Journal Entries
Gatwick Airport
Posted Sep 21, 1999
Hey, Gatwick now has security cameras for all people going through departures! Smile to the cameras next time you go on holidays! Your image will be processed accordingly, and added to the no doubt huge file of information already amassed about you by the security services.
A suggestion : Next time give us a number card to hold, allow us to put on a stripey shirt and take a side profile of us while you are at it.
And thanks a lot for taking us off our plane, sending us through customs and security for a second time and giving us a free tour of the airport while we are in transit from one part of the EU to another part of the EU!
Here's me wishing great success to the people in BAA for making our life as travellers an even greater misery than usual.
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Latest reply: Sep 21, 1999
All Ireland Hurling Final
Posted Sep 13, 1999
Yesterday was the peak occasion in the calendar for most people living in Ireland's "deep south", the all-Ireland Hurling Final.
Hurling is a game similar to field hockey except for the fact that there are no rules worth talking about. You can catch the ball, hit your opposing player, run with the ball over long lengths of the pitch, and even hitting the ball over the crossbar will give a team valuable points. It is also a very fast and skillful game, players need mental agility in as much measure as physical ability.
In other words it is possibly the least boring game on the planet - Period.
Anyway, the encounter this year was between Cork and Kilkenny. Both teams fought very hard in particularly atrocious conditions, and it ended up with Cork beating Kilkenny by 16 points to 15 points (that's quite a low scoring game).
I am disappointed about the score, being from Kilkenny myself, but it was an exceedingly enjoyable game and I'm looking forward already to the next year's championship.
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Latest reply: Sep 13, 1999
Back Home
Posted Aug 20, 1999
Back home after my trip to Turkey. People are now saying that the earthquake could have killed as many as 40,000 people. I mean how is it possible to take that kind of number in? 40,000 people killed in 40 seconds?
I met someone yesterday who had relatives killed in the quake. He was working during the day, but during the evening he was heading over to Ismit to find and collect relatives. He was in bits.
There were lots of people sleeping outside in Istanbul, but I saw relatively little damage. It's was very hard to reconcile my experience to the situation in Ismit and Gulcuk. This is a dreadful experience for many people in Turkey.
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Latest reply: Aug 20, 1999
Turkish Earthquake
Posted Aug 17, 1999
Just my luck.
I am staying in a hotel in Istanbul, and I experienced the Earthquake last night.
I had just dropped off to sleep (somebody in reception had just contacted me by accident) when the shaking started. It lasted only 40 seconds, but it felt like an eternity. It was the strangest feeling - the earthquake vibrations were actually very low, maybe about 5 vibrations per second and with a relatively low amplitude. There didn't appear to be any rumble, like you hear in the movies. It wasn't so much the vibrations that scared me however, but the effect of those vibrations on the hotel itself. I am staying on the 6th floor of the hotel, so the room began to push backwards and forwards quite alarmingly. It was like being on board a ship, with all the walls, windows and supports creaking with the stresses. A number of smaller aftershocks hit us hourly for the rest of the night.
The buildings near where I am staying appear to be relatively unscathed. There are a number of new skyscrapers in the vicinity which did not seem to have been damaged in any way. I have seen the sights on TV and I cannot reconcile this devastation a few miles away to the view close to where I am. I did notice a lot of families looking for shelter with little more than a blanket to keep them warm later this evening.
This was my first experience of an earthquake (indeed this is my first time in Istanbul), and I would not be very keen on going through another experience like this.
I just feel very lucky. A lot of people died last night (2000+) in just 40 seconds. If what I felt was 100km away I cannot imagine what it would have been like in Ismet.
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Latest reply: Aug 17, 1999
Oh yeah - THERE you are!!
Posted Aug 12, 1999
As if to taunt me the sun is right now shining in my bloody window!!!! Is this some sort of sick joke?
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Latest reply: Aug 12, 1999
Woodpigeon
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