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December 31, 2007
A Note to Those Planning Trans-Atlantic Air Travel
As you prepare for your trip, take a moment to consider the needs of your fellow passengers and shower before you get on the small steel tube you will be sharing with them for the next nine plus hours. Contrary to what you may be thinking, Eau de Natural is not appealing. Especially when it appears to be several days' worth of "natural". The woman in the seat behind you and your aromatic companion is not enticed by your odors, either individually or as a team. Your personal musk does not make me wish to fuck you, rather, it makes me wish to fuck you over, much as you have done to me this flight. I'm thinking maybe by tying a towel dipped in skunk over your nose and mouth. In order to share with you the same sort of experience to which you have treated me.
(Excerpt from my personal journal dated 12/30/2007.)
December 30, by the way, thanks to the miracles of modern air travel, lasted a full 25 hours for me. And that was just the part I was awake for. I slept through the first seven hours. Then again, December 20 was only 16 hours long. Of which I slept roughly 40 minutes. I love jumping halfway around the world or almost that much. And this time it only took me three days to adjust to GMT, unlike the two weeks it took me when I moved there for a semester in 1988.
I should point out that I was feeling a bit guilty about judging people based on my snooty American standards of hygiene until I heard the two guys in the row ahead of us talking. At which point I realized that they were American too. I can judge them all I like. And really, when you're going to be in an enclosed space for that kind of time, it's just not right to smell that bad. I kept cringing every time the guy ahead of me moved, because it would send more horrific B.O. my way. Even though I had my little air vent blower thingy going full blast the whole time. It was really awful. If he'd reclined his seat, I might have had to barf on him.
To change the subject (sort of) and as a little tease while I go do things like pick up the mail and buy food, here's a couple of shots of what we walked by every day of our trip. The second one is a bit out of focus because, as I explained to Dave, I am not a biathlete and so am not capable of stopping my heartbeat in order to hold the camera perfectly still to take a longer exposure. And there wasn't any place to rest it on that side of the embankment.
Posted by sally at December 31, 2007 11:14 AM
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