Ever since Jenny told me about the Telectroscope I was absolutely fascinated.

The story goes that there is a secret tunnel that runs deep between London and New York beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Finally completed in May this year a “telectroscope” was installed at both ends (near Tower Bridge in London and in Brooklyn in New York) to allow people in both cities to see each other through this tunnel.

Brought to us by artist Paul St George this installation has entertained many people during its existence … even “The Queen” has made a visit. Unfortunately the whole thing is going to disappear tomorrow. If only I’d found out about it sooner … then I could have got my cousins in on the act in New York!

For my 30th birthday last year Akhlaq got me a voucher with Activity Superstore for an “Introduction to gliding, with a winch launch.” I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was certainly excited!

Unfortunately it has been surprisingly difficult to get a booking for a spot to glide – you get given a choice of four locations, none of which are even remotely close to London. I actually tried to book in about September at the closest location (still about 60 miles drive away I think) last year but by then apparently there was supposedly no availability until this year! I tried again to book around Feb March time and there was still limited availability, bearing in mind that I could only go on the weekend. In the end the closest location had apparently shut down and the next best availability was Dover! In what turned out to be an over 2.5 hour drive. Lucky Akhlaq volunteered to drive me there … not sure how I would have got there otherwise.

The Channel Gliding Club is situated within the private estate Waldershare Park of the Earl of Guilford. Tom Tom wasn’t actually sure where we were showing us in a field but we finally got there. At the very least this gave me something to discuss and pass time with one of the members of the club. Can’t remember exactly what we talked about but it was something along the lines of hunting, the Earl’s son and making sure you got out of the way of their guns and dogs!

Fair to say that the members who run the Channel Gliding Club are not running a professional venture but are clearly in it for the love of gliding. I know this purely because one of the members, the only lady that I could see, took one of the two-seater gliders up and didn’t come down for surely more than a couple of hours! This caused quite a delay in those of us waiting to get up into a glider as this meant that only one was available. As a result, even though we got there for about 1.30 for a 2.30 glide I’m certain I didn’t get to go up until about 3.15 and by then the thermals had calmed down and they were rushing us through for our turns. So instead of a 10-15 minute flight I was up there for about 6 minutes. Hmmm.

But gripe over, what was the actual gliding like?

After a pre-flight briefing, which involved strapping on a fairly small parachute (disconcertingly my instructor said it didn’t do much except make sure we were tight and snug in the plane for strapping in!) and going through all the instruments on the panel etc., I was strapped into the glider (with an instructor of course!) The glider is attached to a winch by a cable. I was talking to one of guys about it and he reckons that the cable sits on the bed of a flatbed truck and every time a glider has to be launched they basically step on the accelerator to run the cable. Amazing that the force of this is enough to lift the glider into the air!

We got to about 3,00 feet or metres I think? Can’t remember exactly but it was the highest for the day apparently. We had to search really hard for some thermals and we ended up doing some giant circles. Got to see France across the channel which was exciting – very grateful for the fairly clear day. This is probably the closest I’ve come yet to actually flying – there is no engine and although the rushing air is slightly noisy it is otherwise fairly calm up in the air. I can’t wait to try hand gliding which I think will give me a truer feeling of flying. It was just astonishing to think that I was in a plane which wasn’t powered by anything more than air.

I’ve never really been to the British Museum except to go see its special exhibitions such as Michaelangelo Drawings and more recently The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army. Mirela was pretty keen to go see some of the Greek artefacts so of we went this afternoon.

The collection of Greek artefacts is actually surprisingly vast and in fact, strangely enough 60% of the artefacts are in the British Museum and only 40% in Athens! I think there are 13 rooms in total dedicated to Ancient Greece and Rome. The room covering the Parthenon is one of the bigger rooms and quite interesting exhibits sculptures from those that used to decorate the outside of the building. It was disturbing to see all of these sculptures with their heads cut off but you could appreciate the skill that went into creating the amazing pieces. The move to bring the sculptures may have been controversial at the time (back in the 1800s) but I think in the end it was a good move as it probably resulted in the preservation of these historically significant items.

We also visited some of the other rooms dedicated to Asia and Africa but to be honest I think all up we were only in there for about an hour and a half! The museum was very busy which I guess at this time of year is to be expected but it wasn’t too crowded thankfully.

And our reward for this bit of culture. Chinese! Mirela has this thing for hoisin sauce at the moment … I don’t blame her – goes very well with duck pancakes. Yum!

I’d quite forgotten how cool the Natural History Museum is. Today, whilst Mirela was studying, I went with her Mum, Aunt and sister to go check the Museum out. Its been just over 5 years since I last properly visited this museum (the last visit being when I came to London for the first time in 2003 on a short holiday) so I guess I was overdue a visit.

Housed in a beautiful building the Natural History Museum is an impressive sight, particularly on a beautiful day like today were the blue sky brings out the gorgeous green lawns and inspring sight of the building.

The nicest thing about the Natural History Museum is the fact that a lot of thought has been given to the presentation of the various exhibitions – most of the times there will be interactive components but what was most striking was the interesting and varied way information was presented between each of the galleries. Every gallery we went into was quite visually appealing. The only confusing aspect was the paper map – which, written in its three-D style, had me all turned around! But that was probably me. The Museum itself is well sign-posted to direct you to the relevant areas without a map as long as you know which zone you need to get to.

Zones are broken up in the Red, Green, Blue and Orange Zones. The Red zone being dedicated to all things earthly, the Green for all things planet-wise, environment-wise and evolution-wise, the Blue for all things alive on our planet (strangely including the dinosaurs!) and the Orange for all things wildlife. There is a lot in this museum that’s for sure! I was impressed that they even had a display on the volcano (Mount Pinatubo) that erupted in 1991 in the Philippines. Admittedly this was one big-arse disaster!

A highlight of our visit included one of the more dramatic entrances to a zone being the Giant Earth Sculpture up into which you ride the escalator. Its stunning and you can understand why everyone stopped there in particular to take their pics. I also liked the overhead walkway they had on the Dinosaur zone and the “simulation” earthquake (of the Kobe disaster) they had in the Red Zone.

We were only at the Museum for a few hours so didn’t get around to all the exhibits so I guess something to do on a rainy weekend perhaps. Next time I’ll be making sure to visit the Butterfly temporary exhibition too!

To be honest I can never tired of walking through Hyde Park. Mirela’s Mum, sister Andriani and Aunt got in to London on Thursday and this is the first time I think that they’ve been to the park to witness all the craziness that goes on with Londoners when the sun first comes out. It was a little overcast to be sure and we did get there towards the later part of the afternoon so although there weren’t too many people still in their bikinis there were still a heck of a lot of people lounging around.

I said earlier that Mirela’s door might as well be a revolving one for all the visitors she is having at the moment. For this week it is her Aunt and two cousins (Olga and Eleftheria) who live on
the floor below Mirela’s family in Athens. I had previously met her Aunt and Eleftheria when I was in Athens last December.

Mirela’s Aunt has been to London a few times before but I think quite a long time ago. Still she seemed to remember quite a few things about London. Also she seemed quite keen to see all the sights again and also to show her daughters. Tonight we went on a massive walk from Piccadilly Circus through Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square to Embankment and along the river back to Westminster.

Its nice that London is such a walkable city at night. Although there are clearly still come dangerous areas that you should be wary of if you stick to the touristy areas you can walk around at midnight (which was what we did tonight!) and still feel quite safe. We also dropped in to Victoria on the way home to meet up with Olga’s “boyfriend”. She seemed quite embarassed to be meeting up with him – I think mainly because she wasn’t interested in him (its one of those long distance affairs which has since waned) and also her mum seemed quite keen that they hook up! LOL. Ah .. young love – she is only 18 after all.

It seems that at the moment Mirela has a revolving door of visitors coming to London. Probably to take advantage of having a “local” to show them the sights. On this occasion it was Mirela’s good cousing Ilias, who apparently has never left his village back in Athens, his girlfriend Veni and his friend Marios.

Although they didn’t speak the greatest english and I’m fairly sure Marios not even one bit of English we somehow were able to communicate fairly well.

Coincidentally Mirela also had another cousin visiting London but for work reasons as he was working a stand at the A Place In The Sun exhibition (helps with buying property abroad) at the ExCel centre so today’s agenda was basically to go check out the east side.

Finally at the end of the day we made our way back to Notting Hill for dinner but also to be close to the Church to celebrate the Greek Easter. We got there for about 8pm and, to my surprise, it was extremely difficult to find somewhere for the six of us to have dinner without having to wait an hour. We tried about three restaurants before finally getting to Sadaf where we got some yummy Persian food. Funnily enough in the end it took us about an hour to sit down anyway!