The Deferred Academic By Richard Warburton

This summer I am awaiting the result of my MA dissertation.  It has been a testing year academically, a serious step up from the BA I completed last year.  Life as a student has come to an end.  My young colleagues will be starting out in their careers, but when I graduate I will be 45 years old.

The decision to resurrect my aborted academic pursuits came after redundancy and a long summer of doing little else but painting the house and listening to test matches.  Job hunting was arduous and unsuccessful.  My wife suggested some education and within five minutes of idle googling I had spotted an undergraduate course at the University of Portsmouth in film studies and creative writing – perfect.  Term began in less than a month and I had serious doubts whether they would be interested in a middle-aged man with a mixed bag of exam results and two hedonistic years in the early 90s at Swansea University.

Nevertheless they accepted me straight away.  I simply had to find some evidence of my A-Level results, apply for funding and buy an A4 pad and a pen.

Induction day was weird.  Suddenly surrounded by hordes of nervous and excitable teenagers I felt every inch the outsider.  Over the three years I watched them slouching about campus guzzling energy drinks and very occasionally visiting the library.  I had dreaded rubbing shoulders with today’s much-maligned youth but I found they were largely a delightful, if somewhat sensitive, bunch.  I became something of an essay guru and found much of my free time was spent reading their work providing advice, and correcting their free spirited approach to grammar and punctuation.

The academic life suited me and I did well from the start.  I had advantages though, including decades of watching and reading about film as well as more life experience to bring to the creative writing work.  The lecturers were awe-inspiring although not all of their audiences were so appreciative.  Attendances were poor in the mornings and I saw two people actually nod off in class.  My other key asset was a renewed fervor for learning.  When I dropped out of Swansea I was weary of lessons and timetables and the real world beckoned with its allure of independence and grown-up city life.  Twenty years later I was hungry again.

Lectures and seminars were the highlight of my week.  I contributed, took notes and asked pertinent questions.  The library was incredible with thousands of books on cinema.  Online resources were equally staggering and I immersed myself in as much of it as I could.  The student paper provided me with a useful outlet for decades of cinematic ruminations that manifested itself in over forty articles and reviews.  The editor was grateful for anyone who could write and published everything I sent him.

When I handed in my bound dissertation on The Existential Hollywood Hero I felt mildly bereaved.  Without any vital research to do or articles to write I felt distinctly uneasy at the prospect of re-joining the real world that had looked so enticing in my youth.  So with the blessing of a very understanding wife I applied for an MA in Film and Philosophy at King’s College London.  The work was much more demanding and the students all exceptionally bright.

Now I am sated.  No PhD for me, tempting as it is.  Other projects await.  Throughout my time at university, puzzled contemporaries would nod politely at my descriptions of the course then ask, “But what are you going to do with it?”  They are missing the point.  I’ve just spent the last four years having the most fun in my life.  Beat that.

 

Top 10 Books Most Commonly Left On Flights | Holiday Reads

holidayreadssummerbooksA good read is one of the essential ingredients for a relaxing holiday, according to 80 per cent* of holidaymakers who always pack one for their travels. Despite this, around 600 books and 1,400 kindles are left on board British Airways flights every year.

 

The most common is The Holy Bible, accounting for six per cent of books left on board. Some of the more unusual books which have been found include notebooks, personal diaries, wedding sketchbooks and even a cheque book!

 

The British Airways survey found that books were still the most popular form of reading with three in five taking a book, compared to one in five taking an e-reader. Women are also more likely to own an e-reader (20 per cent) compared to men (15 per cent).

 

British Airways has compiled a list of the top 10 books most commonly left on flights over the past three months, as inspiration for good holidays reads this summer:

 

  1. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (Fiction, Thriller)
  2. King and Maxwell Series, David Baldacci (Thriller)
  3. The Fault in our Stars, John Green (Novel)
  4. Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty (Business/Economics)
  5. Alex Cross, Run – James Patterson (Thriller)
  6. The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton (Novel)
  7. Michael Lewis, Flash Boys (Non-fiction)
  8. Fifty Shades of Grey (Freed), EL James (Romance)
  9. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Novel)
  10. The Racketeer, John Grisham (Thriller)

 

Novels are the most common type of book found on flights (22 per cent), followed by crime thrillers, study and learning books, travel books, non-fiction and business and economics. The least likely genre to be left behind are ‘chick flicks’.

 

Some of the most popular biographies found on board were by John Bishop, Muhammad Ali and, no surprise during the Wimbledon Championships – tennis player Rafa Nadal.

 

The survey also found that Scottish travellers were the most likely to own an e-reader (28 per cent) – the least likely were East Anglia (nine per cent). Nine out of ten people from the East Midlands were likely to take a book on holiday, compared to just a quarter from the North East. Those from the South East are the biggest readers, taking at least two or three books on holiday.

For those prone to losing books, British Airways has a selection of audio titles in its extensive library collection. It includes Jennifer Saunders biography ‘Bonkers; My life in laughs’, Virginia Woolf ‘The mark on the wall’, Roald Dahl ‘The Great Automatic Grammatizator’, Anton Chekhov ‘The Chorus Girl’ and Charles Dickens ‘Great Expectations’ among many others available on selected long-haul flights in July.

 

*1,000 people surveyed by OnePoll

 

 

New York World's Top Destination; New York Stats

Britain’s ‘crucial’ New York link is world’s most popular route – meaning you could wait longer for a pizza than a flight to the Big Apple

More than 3.6 million passengers have flown from Heathrow to New York over the last year as it continues to be the world’s most popular transcontinental route, figures out today show.

Flights between the two cities are so frequent that you would often wait longer for a pizza, a train or maybe even a cab. March saw an average of one departure an hour during the day and one every 15 minutes during peak evening hours.

Waiting times across the airport are also down. Heathrow passengers get through security in under five minutes 99 percent of the time and last month’s average time for returning bags fell to just 30 minutes from the last one being unloaded off the plane.

Heathrow’s most popular route is essential for international business and tourism, linking the world’s two financial capitals. But as the UK’s only hub airport, Heathrow is the premier stop-off point for Americans flying on to Europe, India and the Middle East just as it is for Brits living across the UK.

The key distinction between a hub airport like Heathrow and point-to-point airports like Stansted is that long haul flights are sustained through ‘feeder’ planes that bring in passengers from around the globe. This makes Heathrow’s 180 destinations economically viable, since seats would not be full if used just by Londoners.

While travellers come to Heathrow from across the UK, domestic flights from Heathrow have declined due to capacity constraints, with carriers choosing more profitable routes.

But as one of the most competitive and profitable around, six major airlines operate flights to New York every day from London – American Airlines, British Airways, Continental and United Airlines (now merged), Delta, Kuwait Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.

Improving business confidence is reflected in business travel between the two financial centres. A total of 758,000 business passengers travelled the route during 2010. The latest figures from MergerMarket suggest that a total of 4,107 cross border M&A deals were announced in 2010, up approximately 34% on 2009

But whether it’s a shopping trip to Macy’s or Bloomingdales or a stroll through Central Park (which is bigger than Monaco), New York is also popular with leisure travellers. Around 9.7 million of the 48.7 million people who visited New York last year were international visitors and of a good proportion of those are British. Around 80 percent of flyers between London and New York are leisure travellers.

With the upcoming royal wedding, however, the tables are set to turn as London gets ready for an American invasion with thousands of US tourists expected to fly into London.

Sir Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, said:

“The London to New York route is a very special one for Virgin Atlantic, as the airline was launched with our very first commercial flight to Newark back in 1984. As a business route it has been crucial in connecting two of the world’s most important business hubs, and as a leisure route it has enabled British and American holidaymakers alike to enjoy the culture and excitement of the respective cities.

“Twenty-seven years on this remains our strongest route, with five flights to ‘the Big Apple’ a day operating out of Heathrow. We look forward to welcoming many thousands more passengers onboard in the coming years and to helping business and tourism flourish.”

Andrew Crawley, British Airways’ commercial director, said:

“New York has long been a vital destination for us and it’s no surprise that it has become the most popular long-haul route in the world from our home hub of Heathrow. From a BA perspective, it’s benefiting from our joint business with American Airlines and Iberia. Customers now have more options to suit their schedule or budget and the ability to mix and match prices and flights. With fourteen flights a day we effectively offer a transatlantic shuttle service on the route. It’s a winning combination and proving extremely popular with our customers.”

Frank Jahangir, Delta’s vice president of sales, said:

“The London Heathrow and New York route is the leading business route on the transatlantic and was actually the first flight that Delta operated from Heathrow following the EU-US Open Skies agreement in 2008. Access to Heathrow is a key priority for Delta and the popularity of the route means that after just three years we now fly three times daily with lie flat beds in our business cabin between the two great financial centres of the world.”

Colin Matthews, chief executive of BAA, Heathrow’s owners, said:

“New York is Heathrow’s top route. Family ties and friendship, trade and tourism link our two great cities. London is also a staging post for many Americans travelling to Europe and the Far East and it’s our goal to ensure Heathrow is the preferred hub against stiff competition from Europe and the Middle East. Passenger surveys show that investment in Heathrow is paying off in improved service and we look forward to welcoming visitors over Easter and the royal wedding.”

Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said:

“The importance to the UK of trade with the United States cannot be underestimated. They are our largest global trading partners and we are their biggest investors. LCCI issued ATA Carnets – passports for goods – for use in America with a total document value of over £800m between April 2010 and March 2011. Trade with the United States is a vital facet of the UK economy.”

Danny Lopez, Interim CEO, London & Partners said’:

‘The London – New York connection is extremely important to the capital as the USA remains the largest investor and inbound visitor market for the city. London is already the world’s most visited international destination, and as we look forward to the exciting events of the next two years, including the Royal Wedding, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Games in 2012, we expect to see even more visitors coming from the USA whether it be for work, study or pleasure.’

NEW YORK TRIVIA

New York City was the U.S. capital from 1789 to 1790

More than 47 percent of New York City’s residents over the age of 5 speak a language other than English at home

According to Crain’s New York Business, the average sale price of an apartment in Manhattan during the Q4 of 2007 was a $1.49 million.

The Federal Reserve Bank on New York’s Wall Street contains vaults that are located 80 feet beneath the bank and hold about 25 percent of the world’s gold bullion.

Some Yellow Cab stats (source: Time Out New York)
Yellow Cabs are yellow because John Hertz, the company’s founder, learned from a study that yellow was the easiest color for the eye to spot. This is also why signs at Heathrow have black text on a yellow background.

Average trip: 2.74 miles
Number of trips per hour: 2.69
Average net income per hour: $20
Number of licensed drivers: 48,220
Total trips per day citywide: 503,969
Total fare-box yield per day citywide: $5,555,741.00