Ah, the wonders of modern life...where you can now go from one part of the planet to another in mere hours. That's what I thought to myself, when I recently went on a long weekend trip to visit relatives. After booking the flight, I had visions of being in one of those modern jets, where, as you see in the print and TV ads, the seats are very wide, you have a TV monitor and the food is real, not a plastic imitation and so on.
Sadly, the reality was otherwise. First, I wound up practically on the last row at the back of the plane. And to add insult to indignity, this plane had a seat arrangement of eight people seating across. The configuration was two seats, a very narrow aisle, four seats, another very narrow aisle, and then two more seats. I'm not kidding when I say that the aisle was so narrow, that only a skinny child could walk normally on it, the rest of us had to walk sideways. To say that we were packed like sardines would not have done it justice, sardines have more space between them than we had.
also, the seats were so narrow, and arranged so close to each other, that even when not reclined, the seat in front of you was practically in your face. Which made trying to view anything on the monitor in front of you, kind of like a challenge. At least they gave you plenty of water and snacks for free! Wow, what generosity!....after I had to pay a hefty prize for the ticket.
Luck was with me on the seating arrangement, because even though I was placed on the middle four seats, at least I had the aisle, thank goodness for small bits of luck. To kind of complete the picture, the flight was very rough, as the plane ran into turbulence. The pilot kept reminding us to stay seated and to keep the seat-belt on. As if that made any difference on the roller-coaster ride the plane and my heart were taking.
At least we made it in one piece to our destination, and everyone clapped when the plane landed safely, I'm always thankful for small miracles, and to me landing a plane safely, qualifies as such. Although I must admit, my fantasy of a glamorous flight, remains that: a fantasy --- don't believe the ads, they only give you that fantasy if you are willing to pay a small fortune, and frankly, I'm not paying it.
