...waiting for my flight back to the UK, which doesn't depart till 11.30, and I figured it's time for a survey. Oh, and I've only got 10 minutes of internet time left, because I can't be bothered to buy more, so it'll have to be a quick one.

1. Have you ever been on an airplane?

Yes, many times.

2. Where did you go? Or if you fly too much to say all, where do you go most of the time?

My first flight was at the tender age of one (minus a week) to Lesotho via Paris and Johannesburg.

The first flight I remember was to Kos, in Greece.

The place I've flown to most is Edinburgh, once we found it had become cheaper to fly than take the train.

Other significant places include America, Turkey, Amsterdam amd Norway.

3. Do you like flying? Why (not)?

Provided the flight isn't too long, I don't mind. What's exciting isn't really the flying; it's the anticipation of getting where I want to go. So if it's up to school, then that's not the most exciting thing to anticipate out of all the possible destinations by plane...

4. Don't you just love sitting at an airport waiting for your flight? I know I do. So many people to watch, so many things to see....

I don't mind it. Watching the world go by keeps you occupied, at least, and allows you to turn your brain off. Always a good idea to turn your brain off when you don't need it, and save power for later, that's what I say!

5. Any funny plane/airport related stories?

See Nebhead's reply above!

Also, I once found myself WAAAAAY over the baggage allowance and had to pay about forty quid – and that was with the check-in lady being generous and fiddling the reported weight in my favour as much as she could!

6. What do you usually do during your flight? Just sit and wait? Read? Sleep?

All three of those – not a lot else.

7. Window or aisle seat?

Aisle. Always aisle. I was the one that booked our family holiday to Lesotho for this Christmas, so I put "Aisle" for myself and "No preference" for the rest of my family! Hee hee hee...

8. Have you ever missed a flight? If so, what did you do?

No, but I've come damn close a couple of times. One time we had a flat tyre on the motorway driving to Stansted (someone in the next lane made a hand signal to tell us) and it took us forever to find a place to change it, phone my dad to tell us how to change a tyre (my mum was driving), decide we couldn't do it, find a guy to help us... and all this in the pouring rain. Another time, in Norway, Silje directed her friend through a short-cut which she used to take on her moped when she worked at the airport – unfortunately, she'd forgotten that there was a large bump in the road, just before it met the main road again, designed to stop cars going over it (not a problem for her in her moped, obviously). The car floor rose beneath my feet with a loud crunch. We eventually managed to rescue it and get me there on time, and the car still worked afterwards, but it was damn close.

9. What's your favourite airport? Why?

Gatwick, because it's the nearest one to my house and there's plenty to do there if you get bored.

10. If money wasn't an issue, would you travel by plane more often?

Damn right! If money weren't a problem, I'd visit every country in the whole damn world! Apart from the ones where you can't walk down the street without getting shot at...

11. If you could take a flight to anywhere you want, but you'd have to leave right now, with just enough time to pack a suitcase, where would you go?

Australia. I'm sure we know someone out there that I could stay with...

12. Has the airline ever lost your suitcase? Which airline was it?

Yep. Bloody idiots. I was flying with EasyJet (unlike my bag ) but they denied responsibility because their ground handling agent was a separate company subcontracted by them – this is the problem with everything being privatised: companies doing different parts of the same job don't bloody communicate with each other. Within a day they found out that my bag hadn't boarded the plane in Edinburgh and was still there – all good. Usually what they would do is put it on the next plane down. So, naturally, it flies down two whole days later . So now it's sitting there at Stansted, and the courier company that are meant to take it to my house won't deliver it because they're only allowed to do overnight deliveries if it's a medical emergency – this didn't stop GroundStar Baggage Handling telling me that it would be delivered overnight. This made a total of five days before I got my bag back – and I was only coming down for a five-day half term! I got the bag delivered back to my house two hours before I left for the airport to go back again! If we'd had to leave without it, I would have been so pissed off with them! This bag contained school pipe band kit worth £800 (~$1500) that I hadn't asked permission to take down with me (they'd given me permission at Christmas, so it still held in March, right? ) and books I needed for school.

13. It looks like I'll be flying a lot in the years to come. What airlines should I avoid?

jmc [sic]. They're like EasyJet, only worse: they have the most disgusting lime-green colour scheme, they wake you up at four in the morning when you're blatantly asleep to ask if you'd like some breakfast, and they write their name in small letters.

That was a fun survey – thank you!

Yours, Tim .


You must chop down the tallest tree in the forest with... a herring!


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