2. The Flight

I think we calculated our flight Beijing to be about 13 hours. The extra leg room had me singing my mother’s praises as she lovingly pressured me to go ahead and get the seat upgrade… even spotted me the cash o the condition I pay her back later. Definitely worth it.

Each of our seats had a little pillow and blanket on it, which came in handy because it did get a little cool on the plane. They played some movies… Going in Style, Under the Tuscan Sun, The Batman Lego Movie, and Cheaper by the Dozen and a couple of odd television show throw ins, but nothing that held my attention. 

I did use the lavatory facilities once and found myself having to literally climb past a bunch of kids standing in the narrow aisle. Once past them it took me a few seconds to recognize which door was to the lavatory and how to open it. Once I did figure it out I had to fold myself into the tight space and marveled at how efficient everything was designed. I couldn’t help wonder who had the dirty job of emptying the bio-waste tanks at the end of the flight.

On occasion, because we had so much room in front of us, we were visited by various passengers who needed to stretch their legs, adjust their backs, or shoot the breeze with folk they weren’t seated next to. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t mind. I couldn’t get it out of my mind that I had a receipt for the extra space and that they were helping themselves to it. One guy might as well have made it his own aerobics workout area. I can’t tell you how bad I wanted to be an asshole. I think taking the sleeping aid helped tame those urges.

Maatkara told me we were supposed to get lunch. So when we got a snack and breakfast on top of that… I felt… better. Lunch was… um… what WAS lunch? Oh! Rice and chicken with vegetables, a thing of bread, and a lemon sorbet. The snack was M&Ms, Chex mix and something to drink. But we also had a ham and cheese sandwich, more rounds of water or your preferred beverage, and breakfast was a choice between pancakes and and omelette with chicken sausage with fruit. Mattie is the pancake queen. She didn’t eat hers. I had the omelet. It was edible. My fruit was hot, though. So, in hindsight, when they said we were going to get lunch… I guess that was the only meal worth eating.

I mentioned earlier that we calculated the flight to be about 13 hours. We got a good tail wind, I guess, and made it in eleven. When we landed, I remembered what it was like when we went to Mexico and was glad I had my items in the compartment above me. Dea had to wait a little longer before she could retrieve her items.