Wingspan

The wing of a 747 Jumbo is 5,600 square feet, an area large enough to hold 45 cars. It still amazes me that I can board a giant tube, filled with rocket fuel and 400 people, and arrive on the other side of the planet inside a day. And not think twice about it.

And so here is my first view of the Bay Area following ten hours in a plane.  Yep, San Mateo. San Francisco is 20km away and Berkeley yet further, across the Bay Bridge (which is being rebuilt from Treasure Island to Oakland at a cost of $5 B and counting). I learn that the Intl Terminal is the largest building in the world built on base isolators to protect against earthquakes. Let's hope it works when the time comes.

As for the long-haul itself, I could really do without but , hey, this a price I pay, living in London, away from my beloved Northern California.  To make the flight durable, I stretch often and it amazes me that most of my compatriots glued to their seats, unmoving, for the duration. This cannot be healthy, and indeed I have a friend who developed deep-vein thrombosis from air-travel which nearly killed him.

In London, Sonnet attends London Fashion Week and kids back to school following half-term break.