Flying to the Other Side of the World

At the last minute I decided not to bring my CPAP Machine. It’s just too much for me to carry. On and off trains. So I have my suitcase, and two backpacks. One is filled with all of my medication. I’m starting to think why am I doing this to myself? Lexi dropped me off and hugged me and told me she loved me. That’s a first (or maybe a second. She’s not demonstrative like Keeley.) She doesn’t like flying so she’s concerned for me. Keep wiggling your toes is her advice. It’s 11pm and Caelin refuses to sleep, Keeley texts me. She wrote a story that had me blubbering.

After a long wait upstairs for someone to push me, I breezed through security and passport control. I didn’t have to take anything out at all. No liquids or batteries or injections or laptop. Winning! All I had to remove was my hat to check my passport photo.

As I expected, the plane passengers were mostly from Hong Kong or China as it is now. And there were lots of babies. We needn’t worry about decreasing population numbers from the one child policy which I believe, has now been scrapped.

Every baby reminds me of Caelin. A fair toddler about Caelin’s age started saying “Hello” to me in the same way Caelin greets strangers. A lump rose in my throat and I struggled to keep it together.

I have visions of me walking around Europe smiling and saying hello (or the equivalent) to every toddler I see.

They say, “ Necessity is the mother of invention.” When I boarded the plane and found my seat, I was initially disappointed. It was one of those with the solid steel sides. I squashed my ample posterior in with no wiggle room at all. I tightened my seat belt and immediately fell asleep. I have a vague recollection of taking off but it could have been a dream. Well, obviously not, because I’m currently in the air.

I was awoken by meal time. An after midnight snack maybe? Nope, a full meal. I ate chicken, veggies, bread roll, prosciutto and rice and even had a small glass of white wine. No bubbles for plebs although I had seen them being offered to business class passengers a few feet away from me. I’m glad I didn’t pay for business! My seat is better!

After the meal, I noticed my legs were like tree trunks already so I clicked the baby bassinet stand down and elevated my legs. Ah! This is more like it. I stretched out and fell asleep. A few hours later, I woke to use the loo and was so happy the swelling had all but disappeared. I will survive this flight.

 

PS I’m writing this lying down in Hong Kong airport from a quite private sleep pod. Quite civilised. 8 hours down, 14 to go on the next flight to London. Here’s a pic.

You know the law of evens Stevens, right?

If you read my story of getting the best economy seat on the plane for the first leg of my trip, the 8-hour segment from Brisbane to Hong Kong, then you would expect the one for the 14 hours from Hong Kong to London to be nowhere near as good, right?

But would you expect it to be the very worst seat on the plane?

I didn’t. I knew which seat it was but I thought they had given me the middle seat of the middle row of three and the seats on one or both sides of me had been left vacant.

Unfortunately, the flight was completely full.

I kindly asked the guy on my left if he would mind swapping seats. He answered, “No, I have long legs.”

It was then I detected a South African accent. If he had had long legs, I would have understood. My son is 6 foot 7, but this guy was no taller than I am. I wished I was a witty person with a comeback like, “What do you think these are? Stumps?” pointing to my very own long legs. I must have a shorter-than-average body because my legs are the same length as my eldest son who’s 6 foot 4.

What an asshole! The lovely Chinese girl on my right side said, “I can swap.” I almost kissed her. Wherever you find negativity in the world, you also find kindness.

 The meals were all delicious!