Oh by the way did I mention that I’m back? I am, I’m back. It was a looooooooong trip. Jane and Michael picked me up at 11:15 yesterday (Tuesday) morning and I got home at 7:30 the next morning Dublin time. That’s 20 hours. Lordy.
I had a bit of good luck though, that made it a little shorter than it might have been. I looked on the board at JFK to find my gate and saw that there was an earlier flight in half an hour. Ooh, could I get them to put me on that one? Could I get there in time? It was a long shot, especially when I found I had to take a shuttle bus that trundled around the airport pausing to wait while planes oozed by – but I got there in time, and there were apparently seats open. There’s a $50 charge, they told me. Oh, never mind then, I said. Ok so they put me on it anyway. I guess they just try the $50 thing in case they get someone easy, or too rich to care. I figured I would get the most miserable seat on the whole plane, so imagine my surprise to get an F seat, and my even greater surprise to find that row 35 has a partition behind it and massive leg room in front with a pull-out leg-rest. Best seat ever.
Just as I stepped onto the plane I had a violent gasping can’t-breathe tears pouring sweaty coughing fit. That was a lot of fun. But then to make up for it I saw Captain Keith Colburn of the Wizard, from the absurd but oddly fascinating Discovery show Deadliest Catch, among the toffs in first class. Very amusing.
We crossed the mountains and turned south just at and after sunset (from the plane’s height), and the view of Puget Sound and the islands was spectacular. Best view ever.
So that’s not too bad. Best seat ever, best sighting of a crab captain from Deadliest Catch ever, best aerial view of sunset over Puget Sound ever.