Tag Archives: fly

Under the Outskirts

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Driving again to Chicago last week I passed under the edge of a dense cloud bank. I always expect some dramatic weather at the skirting line between blue and black sky but it never happens.  Are these the places where those bumpy or jagged frontal lines occur on weather maps?

 

A few years ago I flew over one such edge at sunrise while descending into Philadelphia – even more dramatic in appearance but surprisingly not bumpy

It was a little more concerning to sail under one such cloud skirt edge in the middle of the empty Atlantic early one morning years ago with Tony on Taonui, but again nothing dramatic happened

But right now in Chicago tourists are much more interested in being photographed while standing under the skirts of Marilyn’s huge new statue

 

 

 

 

Two December Days in Abu Dhabi

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Surprised to see snow already in Kurdistan, and the Tigris river on the flight out from JFK.

Flew over Baghdad and saw the first flares of oil wells at Basra, Iraq.  Over the Arabian Gulf much bigger flares showed that we still want oil so much more than gas that it is not economically viable to bother gathering it.

Abu Dhabi has oil, that buys big buildings, gold, and toys for boys.

The 40 th anniversary of the formation of UAE (United Arab Emirates) was celebrated with a very low level fly-past along the Corniche. Hopefully the You Tube link will play an Android phone video for you:

Down at sea level it is equally dangerous to try to capture images of the incredible high heeled shoes worn by the mysterious ladies loosely draped in black.

But the desert is never far away. This development (including premises for a Sorbonne remote university) is temporarily on hold.

I ran out of easy reading for the long flight home so went to the website market on my Android phone for a book. It offered latest Salm’n Rushd’e and Richa’d Dawki’s works, but when I tried to purchase both them were “Not available”.

Return flight over Tehran, Moscow and Greenland where there is still no sign of life. At that high latitude we outraced the setting sun and it appeared to rise as we flew westward.