Ireland: the flight over
June 17th 2008 -
Despite a brilliant reversion on Sunday, in which I slept in until 1pm, I’m just about over the jet-lag. I think.
We flew to Ireland via Abu Dhabi with Etihad airways which was great except for the very silly entertainment control unit, which is embedded in the armrest in such a way as to make it very easy to accidentally turn the screen on or off, or press the overhead light button. The unit spent most of my flights dangling from its cord over the edge of my seat. Oh, and the theoretically brilliant inflight noise-cancelling headphones (!) also had problems – if I nudged the plug, it would reward me with an ear-splittling crackle and several minutes of absolute awakeness. Between the headset and the control unit, I was encouraged to sit *very, very still*.
It used to be a fairly reliable rule of thumb that movies watched on planes would be awful. Reasons included the noisy environment, small screen, airline censorship, fixed film schedule, and limited choice of mediocre films. Nowadays, that’s changed completely – with the larger selection and better environment I really look forward to watching films on planes, often because it means I watch films that I normally wouldn’t. So it was that I watched “Enchanted” (lovely), “Meet the Robinsons” (excellent), “7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug” (very silly, surprisingly fun), “Vantage Point” (daft), and “Penelope” (sweet, rambling). I’m beginning to wonder whether the rule of thumb should be reversed.
I know that Claire likes Bundy rum, so I asked at the duty free area whether I would be able to buy a bottle of bundy rum and not have it confiscated at Abu Dhabi. They said “Yes, that’s fine”, and I bought a nice expensive bottle of Bundaberg Rum Distiller’s No. 3.
It was, of course, stopped at Abu Dhabi. Apparently it *is* possible to get a bottle all the way to your destination, but you need a security bag and they forgot/didn’t know to give me one at the Sydney Duty Free. I put the bottle of rum on top of a garbage bin in Abu Dhabi airport (they didn’t confiscate it; they just wouldn’t let it through the security gate) and seethed with frustration until I fell asleep. Sydney Airport duty free now have the full story, and I await my refund with folded arms and tapping foot.
Nobody caught on fire on the flight over. That was later.
Marco Parigi Says:
June 18th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
So, could you see the rising Burj Dubai building from the plane? Should have been sticking out above the smoke haze :)
Kate Says:
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 am
I have spent many a flight with one of those silly remotes left dangling by its cord.