How Was Your Flight?

Whenever you take a trip, on an airplane, everyone inevitably asks you, "How was your flight?" Now, unless your travelling companion is Dr. Who or you have accidentally fallen into a time warp and are flying in the heyday of PanAm or you are not the consummate budget traveller (me) and can afford the luxury of first class or even club class, your honest answer would probably have to be, "It was hell.".

Granted there are varying degrees of hell depending on the length of the trip, the size of the plane,the weather, the time of year (planes are always filled to capacity during peak holiday times), and who you are stuck sitting beside. I chose my seat with strategy this time. I picked the middle row, aisle directly behind the seats by the bulkhead that have extra leg room. When I chose my seat the other two seats beside me were empty. My rationale with this choice was that maybe both seats wouldn't be assigned and I would be able to stretch out a bit or one of the premium, paid for seats, ahead of me wouldn't be taken and a kindly service attendant might let me move up. This has happened to me in the past, but unfortunately my strategic planning was to no avail. I remained in my 22 inch, width seat next to a rather weepy preteen young girl, who obviously was not happy about her return to Glasgow, and looked longingly at the lucky sots who had managed to get spots with empty seats next to them.

As usual, I picked the entree dish that had pasta (not my favourite) and wished I'd picked the other choice. Managed to eat the whole meal with my little plastic utensils and my elbows squished to my sides and only dropped a bit of sauce on my white hoody. Started to watch the movie and all I can say is I hope The Mysterious Island was in 3D at the theatres because it sure didn't have any redeeming qualities as an engaging 2D cinematic experience.

I then decided to invest in one of Air Transats comfy bags. Now being rather of a thrifty nature I have always resented paying $7 for a little blankly that in the past was handed out for free. I also suspect that air Transat has instructed their flight crews to make sure the cabin temperature reaches something equivalent to a chilly Arctic winter evening, in the hopes of squeezing a few more dollars out of their patrons. I was pleasantly surprised as I reached into the convenient cloth tote bag, however, and started to pull out little treasures. It was almost like Christmas opening a stocking. First I pulled out one of those horseshoe shaped necky things that could be blown up. I never understood how putting one of these devices around your neck could help and so I have never purchased one in the past (that thrifty thing again) but since it was in my bag I started blowing and placed it around my neck. Next out of the bag came a little plastic capsule containing two of the most comfortable earplugs ever designed. Being a frequent user of earplugs due to rhinally challenged sleeping partners, I am definitely a qualified critic of this particular apparatus! A cushiony little eye mask and a snugly fleece blanket that actually wrapped around my toes and came up under my chin, completed the ensemble. About a minute later I was happily drooling away into my neck pillow (what a great invention!) Unfortunately, what seemed like about two minutes later, but was actually about two hours, I was awoken by a maddeningly cheerful sounding pilot loudly announcing that we would be landing in two and a half hours. I guess he didn't want anyone to miss the cardboard box breaky of yogurt and a stale Danish.

 More later....