About eight years ago I announced that I was done flying in seats with no leg room, my kneecaps jammed against the seat-back in front of me, dreading the person in front suddenly pressing their recline button. From then on I’ve at least gotten us exit row seats or “Economy Plus” seats in the middle of the plane.
That put us on a slippery slope though, so now on long flights if the planets align we’re not just in the middle but up towards the front of the plane, in the cubicle section.
After a lifetime of riding in Economy Michele are I are both a little embarrassed about this. I know, we shouldn’t be, but there it is. So we try to dodge the subject when talking about “how was your flight?” and when it does come up Michele says it‘s because I’m so tall, and I say it’s because of Michele’s back. Which is partly true and partly a small load of bs, because the truth is that it’s really nice to catch a few hours of sleep when you jump nine times zones. The flight to Europe is almost always a red eye, and that first day can be pretty rough for people like us who who run best on a full night’s sleep.
You all can now bust out some very tiny violins, because I just want to say that that I didn’t have a pillow for most of this flight from San Diego to London Heathrow. I went forward to use the bathroom after dinner, and when I returned my pillow was gone. I thought I had just knocked onto the floor, but I couldn’t find it anywhere in my cube or the aisle, even though it’s a regular sized pillow. I went up to the flight attendant’s area and asked if they had any extras (they didn’t), described the situation, and one of the FA’s eye’s widened - “Somebody STOLE YOUR PILLOW!” I guess so?
As I returned to my seat I surveyed my fellow passengers with a new suspicion. My pillow was nearby, inside this plane… did anyone look like they had extra cushioning 👀? I couldn’t see anything obvious. Someone here 🧐 was a thief. I didn’t press it though. I made do with a folded blanket, which honestly was fine.
We took the the Heathrow Express to Paddington, although what we should have done is take the relatively new Elisabeth Line straight to our hotel in Holborn. I have bad memories from a taking the Piccadilly subway from Heathrow decades ago, so I had ”avoid the Underground” in my head. The Elisabeth Line is pretty impressive though. It carries 250 million passengers a year. That’s a public transport triumph.
We went for a walk after an early dinner. The air was clear, smelled clean, and London looked pretty good. Here’s the view from Waterloo Bridge.
