Let's take international travel.... Ooooh, yes please, I'll take it anyday.
I've flown to America a few times. Brisbane is a 4 hr flight from Wellington, and then to get to the States, it's a 14 hour 'Virgin Australia' journey. The dilemma is always.... will I have a window seat, or an aisle seat on the plane? With a window seat I can perhaps-maybe sleep with my head resting against the wall. The downside is that when I want to do my promenade around the plane every hour or so, I have to push past two people to do so.
With an aisle seat, there's no wall to cuddle up against, but I can zip up at any time without waking people, stumbling over their bags, shoes, magazines, blankets, feet, or legs. I don't block their tv screens right at a plot's crucial moment as I try to exit the row, or end up sitting on some guy's lap when the plane lurches.
With an aisle seat in the middle block, the betting is that there's a "pair" sitting beside me who know each other, and they'll both exit the row at the other end. Or, if I'm truly lucky, there'll only be someone at the other end of the row and nobody in the middle.
The true downside with an aisle seat, is that it's pretty hard to sleep in. I blame it all on there being no footrest. I have this truly deep feeling that if I only had a footrest on a plane, I would sleep as sound as a bug in a rug.
I toss, turn, sit up, slouch down, lean to the side, put my chair up, put it back, try self-hynosis and will-power, count sheep, sing songs, watch tv, drink endless free colas, prowl around the aisles, want to throw something at all those folk who are actually sleeping .... Well, you get the idea?
But last time when I flew, and in total desperation - wait for it! - I bought a neck pillow! Now, I've always looked snootily down my nose at neck pillows. How sissy, I figured. Neck pillows were for wusses. No red-blooded kiwi should be caught dead with a neck pillow.
Last year, with my neck pillow in place, I slept for five hours. Repeat, five hours! On the return journey I slept for seven.
I was so thrilled that I even bought a souvenir top-of-the-line neck pillow in Las Vegas. . I think I'll start a collection. Maybe a church in their honour. How about I should get a neck pillow tattoo?
***
Oh, Helen, will you please forgive me for intimating that Cliff Richard is, eh ....old? It's just that in my head he's still that 21 year old rock'n'roller I ran screaming after at Wellington Airport in November 1961. Then I suddenly see a picture of him taken recently, and I'm shocked that he's not that kid anymore. I tend to forget that our idols grow old, just like us. (Hey, do you think he does wear a wig nowadays?)
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