Saturday 25th June 2011
I’m just back and only feeling a little queasy. We took off from Potters Bar at 2pm and flew over the Olympic site as well as Canary Wharf.
I won it in a Charity raffle. Ivor Driver, Laura and Matt Driver’s eldest son, accompanied me and was very impressed by the headphones on board. ‘How much?’ he asked. ‘About £1000,’ the answer.
I’ve quite forgot my frock worries, even missing a whole afternoon at Sale time. It really was thrilling. We saw inside the Olympic Stadium. I hadn’t thought of that beforehand, that we’d see inside. We saw the great loop of the Thames around the Isle of Dogs, the map, as it were, made real, then Greenwich directly below, with, again, a strange view right to the bottom of the two internal courtyards of the Queen’s House. As Ivor said, from the air the buildings look like toys, shapes neatly arranged as a child might, with sections cut out apparently, from this point of view, only for decorative effect. At the same time you can see from one side of London to another, the place in its natural setting and all the vast accretion of our capital just a grey fuzz on the landscape. I wondered what it was like before London was thought of. I should imagine rather bleak, with huge flat expanses between low hills.
The pilot, who is not really a pilot but a businessman and owner of the helicopter, nevertheless had epaulets of a pilot nature. ‘QVF checked,’ he said to the co-pilot, once we were strapped in, with the blades g-ing up. ‘Good to go.’ ‘Clear at the rear, clear at the front, clear above, good to go.’ Airborne, I noticed a mansion in woods below. ‘Is that Barbara Cartland’s house?’ I asked. ‘No idea.’ A few minutes later he pointed out the White Hart Lane Stadium of Tottenham Hotspur. ‘Interested? I shouldn’t think so.’ I was wearing my summer scarf by Dries van Noten and an old Prada mac in blue, sold as a ‘fashion piece’.
Later I Googled him. He’s been at a boxing dinner to raise money for charity.
Even so, it’s our world, just a different version.
Absolutely Exclusive View of Inside of Olympic Stadium
Rare, Rare View from Private Helicopter of Our Beloved Capital and National River
Never-Before-Seen of Our National River from Private Helicopter
Exceptional, Rare Private Aerial View of Our Beloved Capital
Exclusive View of Top Riverside Apartment Buildings
The Royal Naval College and Queen's House as Seen from Private Helicopter
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