Today I find myself in the UK, but not for long as I will travel this evening to Milan, Italy, to give co-present on a Society of NLP Practitioner course.
The flight back from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was much the same as another flight, well a little more uncomfortable.
I like a window seat, and the nearer the front the better, as I can usually get off quicker, thus get through immigration at the front of the other passengers, plus the ride of the flight is smoother, there is less aircraft movement than in the tail section. By having a window seat, I can usually rest my head on the bulkhead of the plane, and thus sleep.
The problem of a window seat is that if a pee pee is required, the passengers sitting in the aisle and or mid seats have to move so that I can get in and out. This can become difficult if the flight is long haul, and the fellow passengers are asleep, or as yesterday, the passengers are old, overweight and are invalids or disabled, and find moving difficult and painful.
The MAS Boeing 747 flights to and from the UK and Malaysia do not offer much leg room or seat area, and the fights are always full, with passengers taking advantage of the cheap flights from South East Asia, and Australia and New Zealand. The service is second to none, and the stewards always ready with a smile with any request.
The aging Asian sitting next to me, needed help in getting in and out of the seats, walking to the toilets, opening the food packaging. The lady was so overweight, the drop down table could not fully fold down because of her tummy being in the way, so I offered my already crowded table for her drinks, holding her meal tray as she tried to get comfortable, helping to adjust the pillows, fasten her extended seat belts, not easy when she was sitting on it.
I was last off the aircraft, as I was locked into my seat as they waited for wheelchairs, always the last people to be unloaded.
I was not concerned, my situation was far better than the aging couple sitting next to me now faced in their life, and the situation I had felt in Malaysia, and guess what, as I use the eye recognition system, IRIS, in passport control, by-passing the long queues, and my suitcase was one of the first to be delivered on the conveyor, so I was one of the first out of Heathrow.