From Tullamarine to Dubai with noise cancellation and babies....
I've been in Venice two days now and it doesn't disappoint!
But let us start at the beginning!
Saturday: Mr and Mrs Potato-head at the gates of Hell
I left Sue (mia moglie) at the entry to the gates of hell - well really the automatic doors at the international terminal at Tullamarine on a Sunday afternoon, but they always seemed like the entrance to the underworld to me because when I was at university I'd seen so many friends swallowed up by them apparently never to return.
In away, I was relieved to be behind the doors because the morning and the afternoon had been so frantic. Our friend, Sue Bryant had said she could pack in two or three hours - an impossible task for me! Indeed, Sue and I were running around all day like Mr and Mrs Potato-head in Toy Story II: "Have you taken your angry eyes? Your complete map of Venice? Three pairs of shoes or two? Should I borrow a tuxedo for the cruise? etc. etc. That was passed now but new challenges awaited me:
The antiseptic "style moderne" of modern airports when combined with grime on the wall and the fundamental discomfort of packing and unpacking for securit,y is something most of us have experienced and all of us loathe but once on the plan I gradually started to relax a little. You see I'd snaffled one of the emergency row seats and the extra space was a revelation: "As much space as first class", I said to myself, "but without anything like the cost - or the worry of having wasted all of that money on a first class seat." So, I connected up my noise-cancelling headphones (which work a treat - thanks Neville) and settled down to sleep.
The unreasonable noise of babies and the irrational giggles of Mr Iggle-Piggle.
However, if something seems unreasonably inexpensive it must be so (i.e. unreasonable) and I quickly became acquainted with the disadvantage of the emergency row - babies! The middle row adjacent to the emergency exits seems to be where you deposit nursing mothers. I suppose this is because there's a bulkhead that they can attach portable bassinets too. The little one adjacent to me was obviously teething and afraid of heights because he kept up his crying well into the stratosphere. His little brother - Iggle-piggle (for those of us acquainted with "In the night-garden") - sat behind me when he wasn't running u and down the aisle in front of the stewardess's food car.s "What a pip!"
As you can see, the noise cancelling earphones really did come in handy (for various obvious reasons) and for all my whingeing, the emergency row is an excellent place to sit in an international flight.
But let us start at the beginning!
Saturday: Mr and Mrs Potato-head at the gates of Hell
I left Sue (mia moglie) at the entry to the gates of hell - well really the automatic doors at the international terminal at Tullamarine on a Sunday afternoon, but they always seemed like the entrance to the underworld to me because when I was at university I'd seen so many friends swallowed up by them apparently never to return.
In away, I was relieved to be behind the doors because the morning and the afternoon had been so frantic. Our friend, Sue Bryant had said she could pack in two or three hours - an impossible task for me! Indeed, Sue and I were running around all day like Mr and Mrs Potato-head in Toy Story II: "Have you taken your angry eyes? Your complete map of Venice? Three pairs of shoes or two? Should I borrow a tuxedo for the cruise? etc. etc. That was passed now but new challenges awaited me:
The antiseptic "style moderne" of modern airports when combined with grime on the wall and the fundamental discomfort of packing and unpacking for securit,y is something most of us have experienced and all of us loathe but once on the plan I gradually started to relax a little. You see I'd snaffled one of the emergency row seats and the extra space was a revelation: "As much space as first class", I said to myself, "but without anything like the cost - or the worry of having wasted all of that money on a first class seat." So, I connected up my noise-cancelling headphones (which work a treat - thanks Neville) and settled down to sleep.
The unreasonable noise of babies and the irrational giggles of Mr Iggle-Piggle.
However, if something seems unreasonably inexpensive it must be so (i.e. unreasonable) and I quickly became acquainted with the disadvantage of the emergency row - babies! The middle row adjacent to the emergency exits seems to be where you deposit nursing mothers. I suppose this is because there's a bulkhead that they can attach portable bassinets too. The little one adjacent to me was obviously teething and afraid of heights because he kept up his crying well into the stratosphere. His little brother - Iggle-piggle (for those of us acquainted with "In the night-garden") - sat behind me when he wasn't running u and down the aisle in front of the stewardess's food car.s "What a pip!"
As you can see, the noise cancelling earphones really did come in handy (for various obvious reasons) and for all my whingeing, the emergency row is an excellent place to sit in an international flight.
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