Great info anotherthing - very helpful in understanding what the bigger picture is - particulary with the altitude changes - some which come seemingly within mere seconds of each other (climb to 9 to 100 to 110 etc.). From your explanation though I can see at least a glimpse of the rhyme or reason behind what is being worked and frankly I had no idea who much was going on in this airspace.
On another note, thanks to the good work of your colleagues I was able to make it in when they re-opened 9R the morning of the snowstorm a couple of months past Thought for certain we were going to have to nip off to Manchester and the fun that would have entailed
, but we were eventually worked in without the hold at OCK. Now that was an interesting morning!