Night Flights

On my way to South Africa, I decided to do an 8 hours lay over in London, which gave me a day in a fun city for no additional travel cost, but did require TWO overnight flights to pull off:  one from Philly to London, then one from London to Johannesburg. I fall asleep fairly easily so thought this would not be a problem. I forgot.

• I forgot that I snore a bit more now and wake myself up with my own noise and with the guilt of disturbing my neighbor. "O no," they always say, "I didn't hear a thing." Well. The rules of being an intimate stranger on a place require such a response, so I never believe them. 
• I forgot that I now use the rest room at night in the way that men over 50 use the rest room at night. That combined with the fact that I like window seats to lean against when trying to sleep mean that the contortionist dance of getting to the smallest room with plumbing ever is particularly horrid.
• I forgot that flying economy as a man who is 6'2" means that sleeping is something that happens in tiny intervals between aches and interruptions. I can't imagine it at all without the ibuprofen. 
• I forgot that flying overnight will almost certainly involve serious disruption of whatever internal clock I have, and I don't even have much of one.
• I forgot that even though the flight looks like a good price because I did everything right, somehow getting a decent seat is a coordinated gamble of how comfortable I want to be vs. how full the flight will be. At every juncture, the airlines want to sell me a better seat, even after paying for a pretty good one. Normally, I don't pay much attention to this, but when imagining an 11 hour flight and the forementioned issues, I get a little nervous, and they know this. I wonder how much of travel culture is based on relieving the fear of the unknown at the very moment that you are paying for the refreshment that travel to new places brings.
• I forgot that I am worried about forgetting things.  Night flights are filled with the worrisome management of the gadgets and gizmos of my life in the dark of a cramped seat. I sometimes even forget the hard earned rule of "Never Put Anything in the Seat Pocket."
• I forgot that not everyone cares about what I forget and yet I am writing this.  :)

I close with a quote from Amelia Earhart “Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.”  We all know what overnight flying did for her.