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Experiencing England with gusto
Good old Blighty!
Of course different trips at times to 
London, England or other places in England, 
remembering one trip to London where our 
whole crew went on a bus tour on the weekend.
 
They had to talk me into going that day, 
but afterwards I was glad I did as it was 
very interesting and it gave you insight to 
where you might want to go back to and 
spend more time. 

The tour guide said because it was a weekend 
and less traffic, the bus could go to more 
scenic places than during the week. Got a lot 
of nice pictures that day. 

Another time we had a layover (cockpit crew 
only) during the Farnborough Air Show. 
(A biennial event, Farnborough International 
Airshow 2008 was attended by over 130,000 
trade visitors with exhibiting companies 
announcing record-breaking order figures of 
US$88.7bn, more than doubling 2006’s figures 
of US$42bn - 2008 Flying Aircraft.

The Captain said why don’t we call up one of 
the British Aircraft manufactures and ask for 
complimentary tickets to the show, as it was 
the first day and only aircraft manufactures 
were allowed, not the public. 

He called one, I forget which, but they only 
had two left and we would have to pick them 
up at the factory before hand. I said you 
two go and I’ll stay here, but the Captain 
said no you come too and you can wait outside 
the gate, till I can get somebody to come 
back with me to get you in. I said yeah! 

I could see me standing outside the fence 
for the whole show. We had to catch a train 
to the factory to pick the tickets up, and 
then a train back, then another train to the 
air show. 

Well, it all worked out okay and yes the 
Captain did come back with somebody to get me 
in after a short wait. 

The air show was great and they had the Concord 
make a few low passes across the field. 

On the way out I bought a First Day Cover 
(envelope), which was date stamped and said I 
was onboard the Concord flight that day.