Back in the UK
Back in the UK and a normal update schedule. Well, I say normal, but it's 6 in the morning and I've already been up several hours. Jet lag is a strange thing - you somehow end up feeling incredibly tired and unable to sleep at exactly the same time. Of course, the 23-hour flight might have something to do with it as well.
Airline travel is also a strange thing. First of all, there's the food. On each leg of the flight, we were presented with a menu, detailing all we would be given at the various stages of the journey. Not one of these times did we end up receiving all of them. The meals were generally okay - it was the items marked as an unspecified 'later in the flight', such as a fruit salad I was quite looking forward to. The first time it happened, I assumed I had been asleep when they were given out, but the second time I made a point of staying up and ticking off the items, just so I could get good and worked up about it but say nothing to the airstaff or anybody that might actually matter. The missing item on the second flight was cheese and biscuits. I like cheese and biscuits, but it's normally the item on the menu which I would avoid in favour of, for instance, a cheesecake which is a much more appropriate use of cheese and biscuits. This time, however, I was devastated not to receive my vacuum packed pair of crackers and slightly sweaty sliver of processed cheese.
Choosing from the menu is also slightly odd. If they're going to give you a choice of items, it seems reasonable to actually have those items available as to opposed to playing the fun game of 'guess which meal we haven't run out of'. Of course, I fully understand that they can't afford to stock enough of every choice to feed every passenger, and some items will be more popular than others. In which case, why not ask me to select my meal when I check in. For anyone with slightly stronger food preferences than chicken vs lamb, such as vegetarians, vegans and muslims, this is already the case. A system has been designed and implemented so that you can check through the twenty or thirty different options, from gluten free, to pescatarian, to ovolacto, select the one that matches your food preference, and then be given strict vegan anyway, since the staff can't be bothered to make the distinction. We should all have that ability.
While I'm at it, what's the deal with reclining seats? It sounds a lovely idea that, on a long haul flight, you can move from your rigid upright position to a more relaxed, laid back attitude in which you might actually get some sleep. Unfortunately, the person in front of you can also do this, and it turns out your food tray is attached to the back of their chair. Nothing is less relaxing than a lapful of lukewarm rogan josh while a video entertainment screen approaches your forehead at high velocity.
Still, it's good to be back, and it's been a lovely holiday. Hopefully, I'll get back into the UK timezone soon. In the meantime, enjoy your early morning update. And I'll enjoy eating my breakfast on a table that doesn't actually move.
Airline travel is also a strange thing. First of all, there's the food. On each leg of the flight, we were presented with a menu, detailing all we would be given at the various stages of the journey. Not one of these times did we end up receiving all of them. The meals were generally okay - it was the items marked as an unspecified 'later in the flight', such as a fruit salad I was quite looking forward to. The first time it happened, I assumed I had been asleep when they were given out, but the second time I made a point of staying up and ticking off the items, just so I could get good and worked up about it but say nothing to the airstaff or anybody that might actually matter. The missing item on the second flight was cheese and biscuits. I like cheese and biscuits, but it's normally the item on the menu which I would avoid in favour of, for instance, a cheesecake which is a much more appropriate use of cheese and biscuits. This time, however, I was devastated not to receive my vacuum packed pair of crackers and slightly sweaty sliver of processed cheese.
Choosing from the menu is also slightly odd. If they're going to give you a choice of items, it seems reasonable to actually have those items available as to opposed to playing the fun game of 'guess which meal we haven't run out of'. Of course, I fully understand that they can't afford to stock enough of every choice to feed every passenger, and some items will be more popular than others. In which case, why not ask me to select my meal when I check in. For anyone with slightly stronger food preferences than chicken vs lamb, such as vegetarians, vegans and muslims, this is already the case. A system has been designed and implemented so that you can check through the twenty or thirty different options, from gluten free, to pescatarian, to ovolacto, select the one that matches your food preference, and then be given strict vegan anyway, since the staff can't be bothered to make the distinction. We should all have that ability.
While I'm at it, what's the deal with reclining seats? It sounds a lovely idea that, on a long haul flight, you can move from your rigid upright position to a more relaxed, laid back attitude in which you might actually get some sleep. Unfortunately, the person in front of you can also do this, and it turns out your food tray is attached to the back of their chair. Nothing is less relaxing than a lapful of lukewarm rogan josh while a video entertainment screen approaches your forehead at high velocity.
Still, it's good to be back, and it's been a lovely holiday. Hopefully, I'll get back into the UK timezone soon. In the meantime, enjoy your early morning update. And I'll enjoy eating my breakfast on a table that doesn't actually move.
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