Friday, August 2, 2013

11/22/12 – The Flight (pre-flight routine aborted)


Tel Aviv by way of Rome aboard an Alitalia aircraft; it was an interesting route.  At least we would appear friendly to Hamas with all the southern Italians on board; they tend to look Palestinian at first glance.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a nervous flyer.  I’ve gotten better in recent years, but somehow that feeling that the pilot is an alcoholic who only manages to fly because he’s a cokehead never seems to abate.  I’ve come to accept that the best remedy for me is to sleep through the flight and to do that I hit the airport bar and to get prepped/drunk.

I must have spent too much time at the magazine rack reading car and motorcycle magazines because by the time I hit the bar I only had time for one gin and tonic.  I made it a double, but only after the bartender made a very convincing value proposition: singles were $7 and doubles were $12.  It wasn’t an entirely new concept but it was true… the more you drink, the more you save.

Which leads me to this sentence, composed over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean after a meal of reheated agnolotti in cream sauce and 3 glasses of “vino rosso”.  Dad is getting some sleep after having watched a movie.  I’m listening to Claude Debussy’s La Mer while the guy in the guy in the seat behind me furiously taps on the touchscreen that happens to be connected to my headrest.  Time to rest.

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