{"id":2366,"date":"2011-06-25T17:59:04","date_gmt":"2011-06-25T16:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=2366"},"modified":"2011-06-25T17:59:04","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T16:59:04","slug":"i-mount-the-air-in-a-private-helicopter-and-fly-over-the-olympic-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=2366","title":{"rendered":"I Mount the Air in a Private Helicopter and Fly Over the Olympic Site"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday 25th<\/sup> June 2011<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

I won it in a Charity raffle. Ivor Driver, Laura and Matt Driver\u2019s eldest son, accompanied me and was very impressed by the headphones on board. \u2018How much?\u2019 he asked. \u2018About \u00a31000,\u2019 the answer.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve 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\u2019t thought of that beforehand, that we\u2019d 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\u2019s 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.\u00a0 I should imagine rather bleak, with huge flat expanses between low hills.<\/p>\n

The pilot, who is not really a pilot but a businessman and owner of the helicopter, nevertheless had epaulets of a pilot nature. \u2018QVF checked,\u2019 he said to the co-pilot, once we were strapped in, with the blades g-ing up. \u2018Good to go.\u2019 \u2018Clear at the rear, clear at the front, clear above, good to go.\u2019 Airborne, I noticed a mansion in woods below. \u2018Is that Barbara Cartland\u2019s house?\u2019 I asked. \u2018No idea.\u2019 \u00a0A few minutes later he pointed out the White Hart Lane Stadium of Tottenham Hotspur. \u2018Interested? I shouldn\u2019t think so.\u2019 I was wearing my summer scarf by Dries van Noten and an old Prada mac in blue, sold as a \u2018fashion piece\u2019.<\/p>\n

Later I Googled him. He\u2019s been at a boxing dinner to raise money for charity.<\/p>\n

Even so, it\u2019s our world, just a different version.<\/p>\n

\"Absolutely

Absolutely Exclusive View of Inside of Olympic Stadium<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Rare,

Rare, Rare View from Private Helicopter of Our Beloved Capital and National River<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Never-Before-Seen

Never-Before-Seen of Our National River from Private Helicopter<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Exceptional,

Exceptional, Rare Private Aerial View of Our Beloved Capital<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Exclusive

Exclusive View of Top Riverside Apartment Buildings <\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The Royal Naval College and Queen's House as Seen from Private Helicopter<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday 25th June 2011 I\u2019m 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\u2019s eldest son, accompanied me and was very impressed by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2366"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2368,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions\/2368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}