Arriving into Adelaide

Now I have always found one of the interesting things about flying is who you find yourself seated next to and whether or not you end up speaking to the person. On one hand you are tempted to talk to someone to pass the time as boredom sets in and the sick bag instructions suddenly become interesting. However, I have often found that talking to the person next to you can also led to you opening 'Pandora's box' when you realise that either a)the person is extremely boring and making that sick bag attractive or b) a complete pshyco!

So on this flight I found myself seated in the worst possible seat in the middle between two gentleman. Now I hate this particular seat as you don't have enough room to put your arms down and don't get the benefits of either the views (window seat) or the ailes (aile seat). In the end I often find myself feeling like piggy in the middle with no where to go!

The funniest thing is that it is almost, no not almost, always impossible to read the paper in this seat without annoying either person. So here I was on the plane trying, and failing, to read the latest edition of The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald. Arm up, nope, down, nope,' oh this is hopeless' I uttered to myself, raising the eyebrows of the two unfortunate men I was seated next to who had endured five minutes of a restless pomme struggling with a paper. In the end I gave up with that whole idea as it obviously wasn't going to entertain me for the two or so hours I still had of the flight. So I took a risk and started chatting to the person to my left hoping that he wouldn't end up being boring or a pshyco, either of which I didn't particularly fancy at this time.

Fortunately the man turned out to be a really rather interesting. Well dressed and in his late 50's or early 60's Larry was going over to Adelaide for just the day on business. He had retired a few years back but still did training events every now and again, I think more or less to keep himself active. He had led a fascinating life as a trainer and marketing manager for IBM Australia. What was amusing was that he shared many passions of my own, inparticularly photography, although he probably had more ability in his small finger than I had in my entire body.

The other gentleman who I spoke to briefly as we departed the flight had a strong Scottish accent and had clearly just returned from the UK this morning. So all in all I was rather fortunate, this time!