Today I’m packing for a flight to Italy I’m pretty convinced won’t be leaving thanks to a certain Volcano.
You never know, some miracle may happen.
I was really looking forward to the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy. I was due to be a part of the Media 140 team.
Mostly I feel for @cward1e, @AndeGregson and @KatePickering They have put in an immense amount of work.
I was just due to get there, document, talk and some other periphery stuff. For the others on the team this has been the culmination of months of hard work. @Lesanto‘s intention to drive almost seems prophetic right now as he will be one of the few to make it. I believe @AndeGregson is on his motorbike. It’s a long slog but there is too much at stake for Ande not to get there and coordinate what’s left.
I am preparing myself all the way up to the line but should the worst/inevitable happen, I’m hoping we can pull something back now we all have a day or two spare this week to create some kind of remote Media140 hook up.
I have called a few people, posed a few questions and hopefully got a backup plan underway.
Let’s see what this week has in store.
On an aside. Not ignoring those stuck in foreign ports. I find it amazing how we can suddenly become prisoners in our own country. I imagine there is boardroom somewhere where some suits are looking very closely at what is happening this week. At how easy it is for international travel to and from the UK to suddenly grind to a halt.
Yes it is possible to get past our borders but it either requires some clever booking or a barrow load of cash.
I am seriously considering taking more flying lessons to get my pilots licence. Which also takes a barrow load of cash.. and them some more to maintain it. If i had a microlight I’d be seriously considering a trip across the channel right now.
Flying, for all it”s environmental sins, is still pretty liberating and as we hope there will be more ecological ways of doing it in the future.. Not having it there right now shows us very clearly we have no other other real options or the infrastructure in place.
We live on an island.. you would think we’d have more efficient ways of getting off it.
Shame about the international journalism festival, I hope you do make it by another means.Some other thoughts though:It’s not just the travel, there’s the air freighted food and other things that we take for granted. We should perhaps be more self-sufficient as a country. Oh and of course, not forgetting the last time this particular volcano erupted it did so for a year.