Trip to Concorde

In Bristol we are very lucky to have excellent examples of engineering, the Great Britain, the Suspension Bridge, and Concorde.

We took the no. 75 bus north to Filton, and walked down to the BAWA Centre to wait for the tour coach, which would take us inside the secure site, owned by Airbus UK.

Photographs are not allowed inside the Airbus UK main factory (in case we steal engineering secrets!) but we were taken on a brief bus tour, with a talk by Alan, the tour guide. Many of the buildings are now listed (which means they cannot be altered or knocked down).

On the underside of Concorde we can see the logos of Rolls Royce and SNECMA.

This is the first group of PANSA (Polish Air Traffic controllers), plus Pedro, a Spanish pilot. The guides particularly enjoy having students from within the aviation industry visit Concorde.

The complicated hydraulics of the nose landing gear.

Since Concorde has four engines, each of the instruments is multiplied by four. Shige is asking, "Is it really necessary to have so many switches to fly this thing?"

You can just see the brim of a pilot's cap in the picture. During supersonic flight, Concorde expands lengthwise by 15cm. On its last flight the pilot took his cap off and left it in the space created, and accidentally forgot to remove it before the plane's speed became subsonic again. Now his cap is stuck there forever!



Concorde's last flight: On its arrival at Filton members of the crew signed the cockpit door (strengthened after the 9/11 attacks) with goodwill messages.

The WC on Concorde (very small!)

Here we can see Bernard and Ahmad (with Rayan peeking out behind him!)

How To Stay Young, by Ibrahim Almugrin

After retired you can do many things to stay young for example, you can do a part-time job, like, you can open a small business and spend 4-6 hours a day working. Also you can work in a company or be a consultant in a company. In addition, you can buy a small garden and do gardening if you like.

You can do exercise to stay young every day for a few hours like walking or running to keep your health strong. If you are lazy, you will get ill.

Another way to keep youthful is to start learning a new subject you did not take before to increase your skill. For instance, learning a foreign language is beneficial so you can enjoy travelling.

Finally you can improve your social life by travelling to discover the world and take relaxation. Also it is a good idea to be with your family, for example, to go on a picnic. And always do shopping by yourself. Moreover, meeting your friends is good because it is nice to change your activities once in a while.


In my country people when they reach 60 don’t want to do hard work or work as a part time worker and don’t like to walk and they always use transport like a car. In addition, they don’t like washing up dishes or ironing. They only want their relatives to serve them.

In England there’s the opposite. I see old men working, walking and do shopping like young people. Also I have noticed that old people work in restaurants, cleaning and doing hard jobs. This is the life. Life does not stop depending on age, it only stops when your brain or heart stops.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of opening a restaurant in your country? by Marina Pigaleva

Russia is the biggest country in the world. So we have difficulty with organizing our lives. We have different areas in our country. Some of them are not successful. Perhaps, I am a lucky girl, because I live in the capital of Russia. I live in Moscow. It is a very beautiful city with different opportunities for everybody. People from far-away parts of Russia don’t really like this city, because they think that all the money of the country stays in Moscow. I suppose that a little part of this is true. Basically you have a lot of facilities for reaching your dream. For example if your main dream is to open a restaurant you can do it. Perhaps it will be easier to open a restaurant, for example, in England than in Russia, but you can.
There are many restaurants in Moscow, but if you want to open your restaurant you have you think about people. What can you suggest to them? For example, maybe it will be a respected brand or it will be a pretty café where people can relax and be in a good mood. Perhaps you will open a fashionable restaurant. Anyhow the cuisine in your restaurant must be delicious. So you have to find the main idea of your restaurant.
Obviously, Moscow’s restaurants make a good profit. I suppose it does not depend on their place, because if you have a restaurant in the centre of Moscow you will have a high price for rent. So your overheads can be more than your profit.
In spite of this we have a lot of cafes and restaurants in the middle of the centre. I think that the best restaurants are there.
Actually, if you are the best chef it does not mean that your restaurant will be successful, because you must be a good manager. We have a really good chef in Moscow. He opened a lot of restaurants and I suppose that all of his projects were successful. I think he is a talented person. I suppose 30% of Moscow’s restaurants belong to him. He has good experience and is an excellent example for people.
However, it is very difficult to open a restaurant in our country, because sometimes the rules for opening are impossible.
Another reason disadvantage is that you need to have a lot of money to start. Actually Russian banks do not really like to lend money and interest on a loan is 18-19 % per year. It is very expensive to use this money. However the profit of a restaurant sometimes is 40 – 70 % per year, if we are speaking about successful restaurants.
In particular if you have a restaurant you have to decide about organizational problems and definitely the problems of staff.
To sum up I think it is a good idea to open a restaurant in my country. It is a good experience and a very interesting job.