It finally happened.

So this finally happened. Emergency landing a plane over a couple bits of plastic and a cup of water seems a bit extreme to me (and the only people I really feel sorry for are the delayed fellow passengers of the offenders). I've written previously about how unreasonable people are when it comes to spending a few hours in the air and don't expect anything to change short of a mandatory dose of Ativan for all passengers before take-off.

I'm sure you'll be surprised to know that I have a strong opinion about the Knee Defender. I think it should be banned outright (and on most airlines it is). Most of us know what we are getting into when we fly and I think the Knee Defender is pathetically passive-aggressive and downright selfish.

I would also like to know why tall people get the monopoly on flight discomfort? I'm not particularly tall or large - I'm pretty much exactly average, so I accept that certain aspects of flying are more comfortable for me than others. But. I do get bad lower back pain - particularly when I stand or sit in the same place for long periods of time. On long-haul flights (and I do a lot of 8+ hour flights) I need to put my seat back just as much as the 6'4 guy behind me needs more leg room.

I think I'm a pretty conscientious flyer; I tend not to put my seat back on short-haul flights and I always put my seat up for meal service - but I do firmly believe that should I choose, the right to recline my seat is irrefutably included in the price of my ticket. From a purely logical stand-point, it is difficult to argue that an action that actively interferes with the design of someone else's seat trumps that of a person using their own seat as it was designed.

I'm not going to suggest that tall people either don't fly at all or fly business class; flying is frequently the only way to get from A to B and if flying business class was affordable, we'd all be doing it. I guess what I am trying to say is, can't we all keep our hands (and seats) to ourselves, have a drink and be miserable together?

Home Sweet Home

Having spent the last week traversing 3 continents and traveling over 10,500 miles it feels very good to be home (however you want to define it).  Most of all, it feels good to not have a suitcase constantly trailing behind me. It was a mixed trip back, sad as always to leave Chicago but I did manage not one but 2 jaunts into London, getting the chance to potter around the city a bit and catch up with friends.

London to KL was pure misery.  Two hours late departing Heathrow pretty much wiped out my connection time in Abu Dhabi.  I got off the plane at 2:36 am and my next flight departed at 2:50 am.  Miraculously, I somehow made it from the rear of the plane, through security, to the complete other end of the airport (the next to last gate) and onto the plane as they were announcing final, final call.  Credit to Etihad Airways, my luggage even made the connection - I am still grateful and totally impressed.  (I was however at one point certain that I had actually sprinted to my death.  Abu Dhabi to KL was without the question the bumpiest ride I have ever experienced in my long history of flying - not those gentle bumps you can sleep through, the kind where your stomach feels like it's dropped down to your feet.  We bumped along like this for the last 2 hours of the flight, there were sighs of relief and a round of applause when we landed).

I arrived home to a not-quite-tidy flat that Ian has semi-reverted into a bachelor-pad - no toilet paper but copies of Wired magazine littering the bathroom floor and literally no food.  His reign is over.  He did however redeem himself slightly in that in my absence he managed to acquire some decent wine glasses, two floor lamps and his newfound pride and joy

a lovely little lime tree that set us back a mere $9.00!

I too (after stateside trips to Target, Crate & Barrel and Williams Sonoma) returned with a sprinkling of items that make this place look slightly more inhabited including new bathmats, table cloths, placemats and other kitchen implements.  More importantly I returned with a big bottle of gin (thanks mom and Thomas).  We also have our first visitors, a quick shout-out to Nick and Michelle here from Bristol who kindly treated us to banana-leaf curry and a round of beers last night.

I've been back just over 24 hours and asleep for a good deal of it, but have already acquired a fresh sprinkling of mosquito bites.  It's good to be home.

We made it!

We commenced our journey from Heathrow about 36 hours ago on one of these

I've flown on plenty of big planes in my day, but this was my first experience with A380 superjumbo jet.  It has a capacity of 555 and being seated in the last (88th) row it took well over half an hour to get off (even with 2 exits).  In general, I am of the opinion the bigger the better when it comes to aircraft but Quantas has grounded its entire fleet of A380s at the moment after an engine failure and emergency landing in Singapore the other day . . . so between that and the time it takes to disembark, I was pretty happy to go back to a trusty Boeing 777 for the Dubai - KL leg of the journey.

Otherwise it was an uneventful journey.  We arrived under cloudy but dry skies and it was a blamy 82 degrees.  We were greeted by Flora, the nanny and all-round PA for Ian's boss.  She makes a mean Singapore Sling.

Peter took us for dim sum and beer in Chinatown and we returned full of delicious food and happily exhausted.  Getting ready for some proper exploration of KL later today.  Peter and Rika are off to Thailand for holiday on Thursday and leaving us with their flat, car and even Flora to give us a hand and cook and keep us well-watered with a steady supply of cocktails.  I think I can just about get used to this.