Ice ice baby!

After my week of technology filled mishaps, and I won't bore you with the story of my iron blowing up and my three (yes three) visits to the Electrical store before I got a working one (I hope that that's my last visit to an electrical store this year) I am finally on my way to London for my two weeks training.   

On my way but, not without delay.  (I'm good at this rhyming thing!).

We boarded on time, with all the usual drama of boarding passes, queuing, walking down the tunnel, more boarding passes, more queuing, finding your seat, finding a space for your bag, buckling in and sitting back and waiting for the roar of the engine and take off..  

Except we didn't take off.  No, we had to wait.  And wait.  And wait.  And wait, for the de-icer machine to come and clear the ice from the wings.  Ice on the wings, I didn't think it was that cold!?  Well, this could be interesting, I've never seen this before.  I wonder what  kind of high tech machine they have to do this job?

And wait, and wait...

Apologies from the captain and it arrives!  

I'm sitting a few rows up from the wings so I have to twist around in a most uncomfortable manner to see what's going on.  Me and the rest of the passengers.  I can't see anything, it's too dark now.  Suddenly there are three bright lights shinning in the window making me blink!  It's like the light you see in that film Close Encounters when the spaceship lands.  White, bright, and very strong.  Gosh this must be some machine.  Maybe the bright lights are going to shine on the wings and the ice will melt from their heat...

Shows how much I know.  The lights are on the front of a cherry picker and there is a man in a high vis jacket standing in the basket of the picker, with a high pressure hose, spraying something on the wings.  What is it? Salt? Sand? I have no idea, I will have to look it up.  Anyway, it took about two minutes to clear the ice.  I feel cheated, is this what we had to wait an hour for...jeez...

More apologies from the Captain...the roar of the engines...and we're off! 

Time for coffee and a read.  That reminds me of my recent train journey, which was much nicer than this one...

More apologies from the Captain, and we are finally making our decent into London.  I can see the city spread out underneath me like millions of yellow/orange coloured diamonds of various sizes scattered on a black cloth.  Random shapes twinkling.

Better turn this thing off before an irate cabin crew member reprimands me for using a prohibited electronic device.  I suppose I could go back to the old fashioned way and keep on writing with a pen and paper.  But then how would I post that on my blog?  Hmmm, I'd have to revert back to technology again...