High oil prices twist the knife into the airlines

With oil prices lingering between the $100 and $130 a barrel mark, airlines around the world are on red alert as fuel costs soar.

On Monday Ryanair announced it's profits has plunged by 85% and blamed the high oil price for doubling its fuel expenses. Last week easyJet admitted that fare increases were inevitable in order for them to counteract the issue of fuel costs. At easyJet the increase in fuel price is costing around £7 a seat on every flight.

In addition, both Ryanair and easyJet have anounced cut backs to their winter schedules, whilst British Airways and BMI are expected to deliver timetable cut backs over the next few weeks.

Coupled with an ever slowing economy the outlook for the airlines looks bleak. With many airlines in the US falling foul of the fuel crisis, easyJet CEO Andy Harrison said that continuing high fuel costs will undoubtadbly cause some European airlines to go out of business;

"If oil prices remain high a lot of airlines will cut back capacity or go out of business, leading to higher fares."

Many airlines are also looking at other ways to offset the high fuel costs. easyJet for example is attempting to offset the £7 per seat rise through their introduction of hold baggage charges earlier this year. On a different strategy Brussels Airlines announced it is slowing flight speeds and lightening loads on some of its aircraft in order to reduce fuel costs.

This 'go slow' strategy has also been adopted by many other forms of transportation in the UK. Planes, trains, ferries, buses and cars are all starting to travel at slower speeds, according to the Guardian.

Lost Time Loop Theory

A while ago I wrote a blog post about watching LOST. Now Lost has just finished it's fourth series, and I can't wait for the fifth. Lost is one of those TV programmes where people either love it or hate it. For the latter, they usually get bored and confused by the third episode and never watch it again. More fool them.

Early last week I was passed a great website which attempts to shed a little light on the theory behind Lost - and it's a superb read. As a synopsis, Jason Hunter (the author) believes LOST is based on a time loop theory.

The illustration of the time loop theory can be seen here, but for any Lost fan I would strongly advise giving his site a read. It can be found at Losttimelooptheory.com.

His theory is based around time travel, with the island at the centre of a time loop - hence the time loop theory. Ben and Richard play centre stage is all this (as does Locke later on).
It provides insight into the black smoke as a means of 'course correcting' and provides a good explanation as to why people are 'healed' from illness when they are on the island. Here's a time loop theory example - how Locke can walk on the island.

Locke's 'father' pushes him out of a window. He is crippled and cannot walk. This is part of a real world timeline. Ben and Richard travel back in time to 1996 to kill off the Dharma Initiative. Once Ben and Richard start a time loop (the reason the island can't be found) the plane crashes on the island in 2004 - real world time. BUT, because of this second time loop the crash survivors are actually living life in island time - 1996. So when the plane crashes, Locke can walk again because in his orginal timeline, Locke's spine wasn't crushed until around 2002.

Genius. Bring on series 5.

Bothies in Scotland

I recently tooks a weeks holiday to go and discover the Scottish Highlands. Although I've lived in Edinburgh for the last 4 years, I have never travelled to the West of Scotland, or up North towards Aviemore and Inverness. That all changed when I took part in Maggie's Monster Bike and Hike in May and I decided to explore some more of the Scottish wilderness.

Key to the plan for our week of walking was to stay in a bothy, usually found in the middle of nowhere. So what is a bothy? A bothy is a basic shelter usually formed from old farm buildings or ruins that have been restored to a simple standard with maybe two or three rooms and a roof made from corrugated iron. They were once provided shelter to farmers and shepherds to look after livestock.

A bothy is usually waterproof and windproof and provides simple accommodation. There are no beds or mattresses provided, no tap water and no toilet. Staying in a bothy means you go back to nature. Bothies usually contain candles, a spade (shouldn't need explaining), a fireplace and maybe leftover pasta from previous guests.

We decided to explore the 'Mammores' area of Scotland, a series of mountain ranges which lie to the east of Fort William, and north of Kinlochleven.

The first bothy we stayed in was the Meanach bothy in the heart of the valley and 10km from the nearest tarmac road. A very useful base if you want to conquer The Grey Corries.

A couple of nights later we stayed in the Staoineag bothy, which is another 3km east of the Meanach bothy. On a good day, this bothy provides stunning views....thankfully we were there one of those days.

The last bothy we passed on the walk was the small Lairig Leacach bothy.

I confess I was a bothy virgin before this trip, but it really was superb. BUT, some advice.....

If you are planning to stay in a bothy, be aware there is a Bothy Code and 'etiquette'. Bothies should be respected and not abused. Volunteers look after the bothies and misuse can lead to disrepair. For more information, visit the Mountain Bothies Association website.