We trace it all back to the mid-air curry explosion on British Airways last year, when a flight attendant re-heating a curry dish started a fire on a plane in flight.
Britain's curry woes are now continuing. With new immigration laws, the number of curry chefs in Britain is on the decline and many Indian restaurants across the country are being threatened with closure.
And on top of that, a British Airways flight this week from Belgrade to London had to be grounded because of a frightening smell--a terrorist gas attack was suspected. It turned out to be a large container of curry spices.
We have to confess to just a tiny crush on Colin Firth, that quintessential English gentleman who we adored in "Bridget Jones's Diary" and is starring in "Mamma Mia!" soon. This tiny crush means we are very, very open to the travel suggestions he made recently in the UK Times.
Colin's especially keen on the desert, like the stuff you find in the northern Sahara in Tunisia, but it sounds like the place on earth that he'd most recommend is the west of Scotland.
He's vacationed in that part of Britain more than once, but he's also spent time around Loch Fyne filming a movie and says it had an "impossibly romantic glow." Right: Adding west Scotland to our must-travel list now. We hope the charming Colin Firth will come along with us.
A dolphin popped up in the polluted waters of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland over the weekend. The unlikely animal sighting has experts worried because the dolphin appears to be badly injured and emaciated. Officials say they don't expect it to survive, but they may be able to help the dolphin if it beaches itself on a sandbar. In the meantime, we clearly have to name him Clyde.
Clyde has been identified as a Risso's dolphin. The species is found all over the world but it's rare for them to be seen outside of deep ocean water. That said, these dolphins do have a bit of a history of seeking out human attention. One named Pelorus Jack became legendary after spending nearly forty years escorting ships through a dangerous stretch of Cook Strait in New Zealand.
If Clyde survives and has a similar craving for animal stardom it would be the biggest windfall for the Scottish tourism industry since Braveheart. Go, Clyde, go!
England doesn't seem that big when you look at it on a map, but a journey from London down to the pretty southwest areas of Cornwall and Devin does take a while. Now that rail company First Great Western has revamped the London to Penzance sleeper train route, however, you don't have to waste time getting there.
This route's been there a while, but now that it's had a £2 million ($3.9 million) upgrade, Great Western is hoping to get a whole heap more passengers. A designer who's worked for Porsche has done new interiors for the trains and all fixtures, fittings and even the toilets have been completely upgraded.
The last time we traveled this route, it was neat and clean enough and very practical for saving a night's accommodation cost--now we're keen to try it again and do it in style instead. With a romantic name like the Night Riviera Sleeper, how can we go wrong?
This won't be the first time we've mentioned how Britons have "rows" instead of arguments. American Express did a survey about the current vacation habits of the British, given the so-called credit crunch, but discovered that most of them don't care about that at all--and think much more about holiday rows.
The stats show that almost half of the survey respondents argue about how much stuff is being crammed into suitcases before the trip even begins; two in five have arguments stemming from getting to the airport on time (or not).
The cost of a vacation and the kind of accommodation are also issues that induce quite a few arguments amongst traveling Brits, according to the survey. The biggest problem seems to come from people in Yorkshire--one in five have to turn around to pick up something they left at home.
Eight days to go til the 2008 Glastonbury Festival kicks off in Somerset, England on June 27. This year, the line-up includes James Blunt, The Verve, Crowded House, Kings of Leon and a long, long list of others.
Most people had to go through a complicated rigmarole of registering their details plus a passport photo before they could buy tickets, but there are some last-minute tix available which don't need a registration number--you will have to totally prove it's you at the gate though.
They're expecting around 140,000 people, so you won't be on your own. Camping out at Glastonbury can get soggy, so pray for a good weather forecast or be boy-scout prepared.
Feel like a burger? Feel like a really, really good burger? We don't know if the new "The Burger" being sold in a West London Burger King is a really good one, but we sure know that it's really expensive.
At £95 ($186) "The Burger" is the world's most expensive, they say, and includes delicacies like this:
The world's most succulent Japanese Wagyu beef with white truffles, onion tempura prepared in Cristal champagne and Italy's finest Pata Negra prosciutto.
Profits go to a local charity, so your burger munching is for a good cause. If anyone tries one of these, we definitely want to know if it really tastes 95 times better than usual.
The longest day of the year is due in the northern hemisphere this weekend, and all earth-lovers, hippies and miscellaneous interested parties are invited to the Summer Solstice bash on Friday night at Stonehenge in England.
If you think that this collection of rocks is the work of the world's first astronomers then you might find some kind of magical occurrence at sunrise. Or you might find a collection of samba bands, a bunch of druids with dreadlocks and a number of police making sure all of the rules--including "no camping"--are enforced.
Summer solstice at Stonehenge is a bit of a hat-tip to the 70s, but we wish we could be there. It's one of the few times you can actually touch the stones, and we love getting our hands dirty.
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by amandak
