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June 17, 2005
Helicopters? Insects?
I know it was sunny this evening (wasn't it wonderful?) but where did all the helicopters go? I was expecting them to stay on later than they've been doing the past few grey evenings, but I heard only a few pass at all. Any thoughts?
And insects weren't around either. We had the kitchen door open till well past twilight, with the electric lights blazing; normally squadrons of little beasties would have invaded. Not one did. The same up here in my study - I have all the windows open, it's a warm humid night, but there are no insects!
Something is wrong: very, very wrong....
Not to worry: if the world is still here tomorrow, I'm off to the races again with my litle tribe and various tribal extensions. As, I suspect, is half the village. See you there - or if not, I'll let you know how we got on!
Posted by Andrew at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)
Day Four
Its a mild and breezy start, with warm humid weather forecast for the day. Its cloudy but this is expected to beak up with spells of sunshine and a maximum of 75F. The outlook is for further cloud and sun, hot and humid. Going still good to firm.
Reports are that Ascot has had much wetter weather this week, so there!
Posted by martin at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)
From the Papers (Friday)
Quick thinking
The spirit of free enterprise is alive and well in Yorkshire. A racegoer in a smart car blagged his way into one of the car parks closer to the action by dropping the gateman a crisp £50 note. "Find this man a good spot," yelled the gateman to his colleague across the car park. "He's given me £20 and we'll split it between us."
That sounds like a very old story to me, but it's in today's Torygraph - Ed.
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Royal procession
Getting around the racecourse yesterday was considerably harder than it had been for the first two days because of the significantly larger crowd. The trick was to follow the Queen, whose path was cleared ahead of her.
"It's a bit like chasing an ambulance up the hard shoulder but at a slower pace," said one racegoer who had got leaving the paddock and over to the stand down to a fine art. "At least you get a clear run through."
From today's Telegraph again. The same applies if you want to get up Bishy Road between 13:40 and 13:55 (approx) - Ed
Posted by Andrew at 12:57 AM | Comments (0)
Helicopters
Martin said we should do a helicopter count, and living where I do at the south end of the village it's difficult not to! They come over, morning and evening, in bunches of five, with each bunch spaced five minutes apart. This is much more noticeable in the evening: they come from the heliports between Knavesmire and the river, north of Manor Farm, and are routed south over the bend in the river - until they get near us, when they mostly turn south-west.
The nearest I can get to a count is a report from a fairly reliable source that there were 220 helicopters on the ground at one point on Wednesday, and presumably more on Thursday. I'll investigate further if I can!
Posted by Andrew at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)
Day Three - iii - a cause for celebration?
Today (Thursday) for the first time the local traffic plan has been impemented as we were told it would be: from 4pm Bishopthorpe Road was open into the village - one way - instead of being competely closed. We'll have to see what difference that has actually made to the village this evening but the buses seemed happier. Have you ever seen a bus smile?
The late forecast for tomorrow is warmer and again dry, but still quite cloudy with some sunshine. We'll see!
Posted by Andrew at 12:23 AM | Comments (0)