"I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again"
…actually I do. It's about two weeks time.
The day has finally come! At 7:30 this evening I fly out to Japan!
The rather loud (and brightly coloured) WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! that's in my head is suddenly silenced as I remember that I'm not that keen on flying. And for someone that's not that keen on flying, eleven and a half hours is a very long time to be stuck on a plane at 35000 ft ("Don't worry" I think to myself, "the three hour wait at Narita airport before the connecting flight to Sapporo will give me plenty of time to calm myself down"…...That's if I'm still conscious")
After a few final preparations:
Passport: Check!
Money: Check!
eTicket details: Check!
Teabags: Check!
I say my goodbyes and head off to the airport (luckily my brother and sister in law had offered to drive me to Heathrow, which I am eternally grateful for! - Thank you!!! :D)
I reach the airport and find the check in desk, where the very helpful (and very cute! LOL!) ANA lady confirms my details and hands me my boarding pass. Unsure as to whether my flight case would be put directly onto the connecting flight, I ask while keeping my fingers (and any other part of my body that's flexible enough) crossed. Unfortunately this is not the case (boom boom!) and it looks like I'm going to have the fun of collecting it and checking in again for the last leg of my journey to Sapporo. Bugger ><
With an hour or so to kill, it's decided that some tea would be a good idea. This is followed by a trip to the toilet. Some more tea, another trip to the toilet (and as my flight moved up the board, activity just centres around going to the toilet as the nerves really start to kick in) before it's time to say goodbye and head off through security and to the departure lounge, where after a bit more sitting around, the flight is called and I board the plane.
As I settle down into my seat, I feel surprisingly calm. No more thoughts of wings falling off, exploding fireballs or flashbacks to selected scenes from all of those 70's disaster movies involving planes and death. Nothing.
The plane taxis away from the terminal, which seems to take forever (it reminds me of a drive through the park on a Sunday afternoon when viewed through the little camera on the underside of the plane) and as it finally lines up at the end of the runway, I grit my teeth and grip the chair just that tiny bit harder...
As the plane hurtles along the runway picking up speed, one last nervous thought flashes through my mind ("Shouldn't the pilot be going a bit faster than this?") before we gracefully lift up into the sky...
The day has finally come! At 7:30 this evening I fly out to Japan!
The rather loud (and brightly coloured) WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! that's in my head is suddenly silenced as I remember that I'm not that keen on flying. And for someone that's not that keen on flying, eleven and a half hours is a very long time to be stuck on a plane at 35000 ft ("Don't worry" I think to myself, "the three hour wait at Narita airport before the connecting flight to Sapporo will give me plenty of time to calm myself down"…...That's if I'm still conscious")
After a few final preparations:
Passport: Check!
Money: Check!
eTicket details: Check!
Teabags: Check!
I say my goodbyes and head off to the airport (luckily my brother and sister in law had offered to drive me to Heathrow, which I am eternally grateful for! - Thank you!!! :D)
I reach the airport and find the check in desk, where the very helpful (and very cute! LOL!) ANA lady confirms my details and hands me my boarding pass. Unsure as to whether my flight case would be put directly onto the connecting flight, I ask while keeping my fingers (and any other part of my body that's flexible enough) crossed. Unfortunately this is not the case (boom boom!) and it looks like I'm going to have the fun of collecting it and checking in again for the last leg of my journey to Sapporo. Bugger ><
With an hour or so to kill, it's decided that some tea would be a good idea. This is followed by a trip to the toilet. Some more tea, another trip to the toilet (and as my flight moved up the board, activity just centres around going to the toilet as the nerves really start to kick in) before it's time to say goodbye and head off through security and to the departure lounge, where after a bit more sitting around, the flight is called and I board the plane.
As I settle down into my seat, I feel surprisingly calm. No more thoughts of wings falling off, exploding fireballs or flashbacks to selected scenes from all of those 70's disaster movies involving planes and death. Nothing.
The plane taxis away from the terminal, which seems to take forever (it reminds me of a drive through the park on a Sunday afternoon when viewed through the little camera on the underside of the plane) and as it finally lines up at the end of the runway, I grit my teeth and grip the chair just that tiny bit harder...
As the plane hurtles along the runway picking up speed, one last nervous thought flashes through my mind ("Shouldn't the pilot be going a bit faster than this?") before we gracefully lift up into the sky...
posted by Colin at 3:00 AM
2 Comments:
Oh, you don't like airplane?
I like it but being stuck on a plane for a long time is a pain for me too.
If it's less than 8 hours to London from Tokyo, I'd like to visit England more often!
It wasn't so much flying that I didn't like, but the thought of the wings falling off and the plane dropping like a brick from the sky!
I'm ok now, but still not that keen on landings!
:D
Post a Comment
<< Home