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Batten down them hatches

trefor_thumbTook the Docklands Light Railway from Bank to London City Airport. Used the DLR many times before to go to Telecity but this may have been my first time on the Woolwich Arsenal branch.

It’s also the first time I’ve ever given any thought to the area. Boy is it bleak. We are talking New York tenement type scenes. I may be exaggerating a little but I don’t think so. That’s how it felt. Blocks and blocks of flats with long external corridors open to the elements. Limehouse basin with its expensive yachts seemed to be a little haven amongst all the red brick and concrete.

Taking off on a grey day from London City Airport the view seemed to highlight the wasteland nature of the area. Large industrial plots with expanses of nothingness. Sewage works. Scrapyards. Dumps. Weeds.

I could visualise conditions on the ground. Not a place for strangers. You need to be streetwise. The police don’t get out of their squad cars. Psst wanna buy something?

My own natural environment is totally different. Cocooned really. Yours probably is too. Worries are different. Which hotel to stay in? Hope the flight is on time. Should I buy that shirt? I don’t really need it. What shall we have for dinner tonight? Chicken of beef? Indian or Chinese? Shall I open a bottle? Android or iOS?

The flight isn’t even half full. V comfortable. Quick service. I don’t normally go window but the aisle seat next to me is empty. Best of both worlds. I have Pink Floyd Dark Side of the moon in my earphones. Lost in my music and my world of words.

When I get to the Isle of Man it will be yet another world. Windswept, wet and wild, in a partly manicured way. Green and brown fresh air grey instead of the dirty inhospitable threatening grey of the Docklands.

Peel, where mam and dad live, is one of my favourite places in the world. Beach, promenade, runined castle, harbour, fishing boats, gulls, ice cream parlour, Harbour Lights Cafe. pubs, Peel HIll.

The weather matters not. Coat off or batten down the hatches. Take it as it comes. At our house the broadband is adequate. I am not cut off. Particularly useful as roaming charges apply. Always annoyed me that.

Leaving London we soon entered the clouds and stayed there until seconds from landing. Ten minutes out from Ronaldsway the weather front hit. Not experienced such buffeting before, at least not in recent memory.

We sat on the tarmac for a few minutes. The wind was over the 40 knot limit above which they weren’t allowed to open the door. The weather in Isle of Man is familiar. Wet and windy. I can hear it loud on the windows of our house.

Hatches being battened. See you at LINX84 on Monday.

Trefor Davies

By Trefor Davies

Liver of life, father of four, CTO of trefor.net, writer, poet, philosopherontap.com

2 replies on “Batten down them hatches”

Roaming charges, that’s what happens when you leave the EU. Wonder if IoM will still have them when the EU gets rid of them, perhaps just to undermine the fact they’re not in the EU? Have a safe return flight

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