London

Photos for now, write-up will come.

It's beeeeeg (and wobbly)

It all started off with a typical Air France lounge breakfast, it could have been the 10h30 to Houston, but it wasn't, this was a special weekend jol to London. What's so special about waking up early on Saturday to fly to London? The special part, was that there were 516 of us, and we weighed 360 tonnes.  

Air France is busy running some short hauls with their new Airbus A380. They sell it as a promotion, bringing this special experience to those that aren't destined for Jo'burg or New York. My suspicions were confirmed by the landing on the way back, I reckon it is more like training. Our A380 below, will apparently be taking on the Tokyo route in September.

Everything about this double decker beast feels big, one feels the inertia even when turning on the tarmac. Despite its size it is amazingly quiet, with completely effortless take-off. It really doesn't feel like one is going fast enough to get off the ground, and it certainly doesn't sound like it. The seats are a bit wider downstairs, and the walls are still going out by the time they hit the luggage storage, so there is a great feeling of space. Upstairs, however feels a bit more like a normal plane.

I really like it, except for one thing. They go about making this magic plane, and then they plonk in the old seat moulding with its crappy screen, handset and table. They've ignored all the potential to do something interesting with the interface with the passenger. It really feels like the changes are only in the fuselage, pity!

The wings hang when on the ground, and are relatively straight in flight, unlike the Boeing 777 that turn up with the effort of flying. I'm not sure I want to take on serious turbulence in this beast though. Everything is supple, so you wobble through the weather. I have always wondered why there are sick bags in modern planes; in all my flying, I don't think I've seen anyone hurling. I'm not sure it is going to stay that way, the wavy boat feeling may just do it in the future. Will this be the new vomit comet?

Being on the A380 leaves few opportunities to take a photo of it, so you'll have to make do with photos from it. From the top deck you do look down on the world. The A380 is obviously still something of a novelty at the airports, with at least 5 trucks stopping at Heathrow to take photos of us going by.

The Air France flagship coming home, crossing over the coastline. 

Mmm look at those lovely clouds, where's that barf bag?

Back home. The other models in the Air France fleet look quite little from here, even the 747 back there.

Wishing you a new experience weekend, without the wobble.

more Prague

The home of Pilsner, so naturally a trip to Prague must include a Urquell or two.

World Cup

I can only imagine what a party it must be back in South Africa. However, when talking to people overseas, inevitable the subject of violence and security comes up. Having watched the France, Uruguay game, I can now understand their concerns. If you attend this world cup, you probably won't get mugged, but you will return deaf.

So, forget the journalists and their quest for sensationalism. Your biggest danger is that monotonous goddam vuvuzela. Ja, you were all so excited about this wonderful African horn... what do you think about it now after the first two games? You going to make it through the month?

Delta

It's not called the Delta for nothing.

lagos