Issue #1: Around London

Layovers can be ————–

Dull? Lonely? Boring? Been there done that? Rather stay in the hotel room bed?

OK, if your answer was the last one then I totally get it – after years of long haul flying I must admit I did a few layovers myself where I just hipposlugged out in the hotel room and caught up on much needed rest. So I am not judging, I say “Enjoy! Sleep well! and don’t forget most places have Deliveroo nowadays!”

If you answered one of the others though then this is the place to be because I think, together (and by that I mean as a great big aviation community) we can help each other find the adventure and wanderlust that led (at least in some small part) to many of us wanting to work in Aviation in the first place.

Best layover tip of all: Don’t feel silly eating alone in a restaurant. Take a smart but nondescript pad, ask for a table for one, pore over the menu for a lengthy period, make a note in said pad, ask for a wine recommendation, make another note. Take a single quick snap of the food, eat it. Enjoy it. Make a quick note. Unsubtly drop your knife on the floor. Eat some more…

A ‘pretending to be a food critic “expert” said 5/10 times they get better service, quite often a freebie bit of food and very occasionally a kitchen tour

And then there’s the community thing

Aviation’s greatest feat, I think, is that it brings the world closer. People, cultures, countries, communities…

So maybe we should harness that a little more and start sharing what we love to help others discover more adventure, excitement, fun and everything that is amazing in our world.

Now this has started out as a sort of travel blog for pilots because I hate that a lot of international crew think London looks like Crawley or the inside of a Heathrow Airport hotel room.

That isn’t really all I think it can be though.

I think it can be a way to share community stuff – the local coffee shop that’s amazing but you’d never find unless you knew about it, the local charity that we can all support, the local aviation colleague who started their own business and could use some support, the community project that could go global (if global comes to it), and of course the cool quirky better things that every city has to offer, but only the locals know about

So please read, use, share, add to this post and enjoy the real [London] but also send in your ideas for your city (add it on a forum) and those ideas can be anything – from the best food spot to the weirdest site, a random bit of history worth checking out to a charity, project or person that you think the international aviation community could help support.

:Around London

Here’s Issue #1 Little Big Adventures, coated in some grey drizzly rain and a bit of chip shop grease… but still awesome!