inflight blog

Every time I say goodbye, I cry a little

Friday 27/01/04
Ground speed 533 MPH / 861 kph Airspeed: 900 kph
London time: 1520
Altitude: 10100 m 33000 ft
Time to go: 8:05
Outside temp: -72 F - 58 C
Distance to go: 4167(check) mi / 6898 km
Location: Off the eastern coast of Greenland

Short flights are all about the delight of a quick and easy escape. Longhauls, on the other hand, put me in an entirely different place. I grew up in the far east, Kuala Lumpur, to be exact, and being an angloyank (British-American expatriate) - with family in both countries, most of the journeys I was taken on, and which I came to make myself from the age of eleven or so, involved flights of 13 to 20 hours depending upon the direction of travel. They tie me to all that I've ever experienced, all that I know of the world we live in, and while that knowledge might amount to a drop of water in some vast and wonderful ocean, it's mine to treasure.

Short flights are all about the delight of a quick and easy escape. Longhauls, on the other hand, are my perspective. I don't suppose it should be any surprise that they usually make me feel more emotional than usual, but I do know that with one exception, that change in sensitivity, most often towards a brand of sadness, has always been connected with what I leave behind, not what I'm expecting to find. And this time I feel it more than usual; in recent years, my long voyages have been with lovers, and now that I'm a have-not, things feel different. Perhaps it's silly, but it's there; I'd like to be able to share the view.

Some things are clearer up here

Time to go: 05:27
Distance to go: 2874 mi / 4659 km
Altitude: 11000 m 36000 ft
Location: Oh, Canada. Over the only big bay on your map.

I was planning to sleep during the hours that Los Angeles remained asleep, but that just hasn't happened; food and movies and pain in the ass circadian rhythms. I've just seen In America, which was a grounded, wonderful and very touching film, and Freaky Friday, which was Disney's typically good-natured fun. The view outside is stunning; we've flown across northernmost Newfoundland, and are now crossing the vast expanse of the Hudson Bay, now a placid sea of ice, immaculate in its whiteness but for the massive cracks that snake here and there across its surface.
I'll bet that you've looked out of the window at the ground far below and wondered, at least once, be it desert or mountain, lush or barren, what life might be like in that unfamiliar universe down there. Or better, wanted there and then to drop safely through the body of the aircraft to the ground; to experience that miniature world in its true majesty, even if only for a moment. Oh for a change in the physical laws that govern all things; talk about a killer of the imagination.

Time for Runaway Jury.

My, but you work quickly!

Time to go: 02:27
Distance to go: 1249 mi / 2092 km
Altitude: 11900 m 39000 ft
Location: Southern Saskatchewan; southwest of Saskatoon and Regina.

Virgin must be just about the friendliest of airlines flying the UK-US route; practically forbidden on United and American, I've just been standing in the galley for a good while chatting to a veritable crowd of strange people, all tipsy, but none in a bad state. The steward's name is Gareth, he's a poof and he's from Manchester. We've just crossed the border into United States airspace, and the flat plains are starting to take on relief as we make our slow approch toward the northeastern end of the Rockies. Under two hours to go now -- stopped for lunch -- we're approaching Boise, Idaho, and soon to pass into Nevada, after which comes my birth state, and our final descent into Los Angeles.

-----------------------------

Now Saturday 28, 2310 local time; Disney have put me up in the Mondrian Hotel on Sunset this weekend through to Tuesday; they said they had a wireless network, and I've just tested their claims by picking up a network card from the Grove Mall Apple Store; this is the fantabulous proof of that technology.