...a conversation with Giggles
Yesterday I spoke with my friend Giggles. Her alarming pretty children were down for quiet time, so we got a chance to catch up which was very nice. We had a conversation regarding my trip to London and Paris and upon reflection, I realized that it really gives you a glimpse into who we are and how we think...also, after recounting the conversation to Godric, he laughingly told me that we were both pretty messed up.
So today, I offer you...
Giggles, JulieU and the Chunnel
JU: ...so we're taking the Chunnel to France after London.
Gig: The what?
JU: The chunnel.
Gig: What's that?
JU: It's a train that runs through a tunnel under the English Channel that separates Britain and France. I'm pretty excited that I get to say that I've been in a chunnel. I like the word chunnel.
Gig: But to go on it, you have to go under water. Right?
JU: Yep. But Godric tells me that we're only underwater for about 30 minutes.
Gig: And you're not freaked out about that?
JU: F*ck yeah I am. I am pretty convinced that someone is going to b0mb that thing while were on it. So even if I survive the b0mbing, I'm going to drown. Even though Godric and Mr. Mexillent have assured me that the chunnel is made up of several tunnels (including escape tunnels)*, I mean come on, you get a big enough b0mb and you can wipe out everything.
Gig: No kidding, well, how deep is it underwater?
JU: Godric says about 75 ft.*
Gig: Could you swim that?
JU: I dunno. I doubt it, I can barely hold my breath anyways. I freak out in 10 ft of water so I think 75 ft would be too much. I think you have to be a cliff diver or one of those deep sea divers to swim that.
Gig: Are there sharks in the English Channel?** I'm not too afraid of being blown up or drowning but a shark attack scares the crap out of me.
JU: Nice. So I could potentially survive a b0mbing, perhaps survive drowning, only to be eaten by a shark? I can't even think about this because I think I'll go nuts.
*(From the Chunnel website) The tunnel consists of 3 interconnected tubes: 1 rail track each way plus 1 service tunnel. Its length is 31 miles, of which 23 miles are underwater. Its average depth is 150 feet under the seabed. The channel crossing time for Eurostar is only 20 minutes. 
**From this website:
Perhaps a better question than "why would there be White sharks off the UK?" is "why have we not come across Great Whites off the British coast before?" The water temperatures off the south coast of England (during the summer months, at least) are perfectly within the seven to 26C (44.6 - 78.8F) tolerance of the Great White and we have a decent population of seals. Indeed, specifically why we don’t see Great Whites off the UK is something of an enigma. Really, encountering a White shark off the South Coast of Britain would be no biological surprise at all.
...Thus, to sum up, there is currently no conclusive evidence that White sharks are to be found in British waters, although why this should be is rather baffling. Several anecdotal reports exist, some with very compelling accounts, but there is a sad lack of definite proof. Clearly, absence of evidence doesn't necessarily equal evidence of absence, but until we have conclusive verification, UK Great Whites are resigned to the selachian equivalent of the X-Files! Also in this group is the usually tropical Nurse Shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum), which was allegedly seen on the seafloor near Alderney (Channel Islands, UK) by two divers in July 2001. Excluding the aforementioned report, the most northerly East Atlantic records for the Nurse Shark, of which I'm aware, are sporadic catches from the Gulf of Gascony, France.
JulieU's Conclusion:
Looking at the graphic, I see that the chunnel isn't just laying across the bottom of the English Channel, rather it is in some from of rock. This makes me happy because if there is a b0mb, it would have to be a huge rockin' device to do serious damage and I hope that the Brit's TSA would have the ability to catch such a thing.
However, if they don't, and something happens, I now know that I can't swim my way out of danger and if I do, I'm sure all the Great White Sharks that are hanging out with the Loch Ness Monster in a magical body of water...will eat me. Thus providing conclusive proof that there are sharks in the English Channel.
So I guess if I gotta take one for the team, I'll at least serve as a warning to others. Nice. Just what I wanted out of a European vacation.
posted by JulieU. at
6:38 AM
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