A Big Round Of Drinks...!
Anadi I are on a plane at Malta airport...
We boarded at 12.30pm. We have just been informed that there is thick fog at Gatwick and that because of this we are not going to take off until 3.58pm because of the backlog of planes...
The news was received calmly by us passengers... There was a clickety click sound as we all undid our seat belts, and folk started to wander about; a mother nearby got out a colouring book for her son and I saw a good blog writing opportunity....
Everyone seems to have accepted this change to departure time, except for one man...
He is not happy... He has been to speak with the pilot, and he is now standing in the aisle telling the air steward, and anyone else who cares to listen, that it is unacceptable to board us, particularly with children....
The air steward explained that we have to be aboard to claim our take off slot, but this did not ease his dis ease....
In the end, he was heard, the captain announced that he had organised for us to disembark... But that it had to be all of us off the plane and we were then to stay near the departure gate. The reason for this was that when a slot became available, take off might be quite soon, and we would need to be belted up and ready to go....
I was quite happy on the plane, getting on with things, and reflected how one person had influenced all of us...
If we all had a great big workshop together, and looked within, my hypothesis is that there is something in all of the people on this plane that was open to being influenced by the desires of the one who shouted the loudest...
This was reflected initially by the equanimity with which the news we would be on the plane for four hours was received... Perhaps energetically we were a plane load of souls whose adaptation is to be accommodating...!
Who knows...?
But disembark we all did into a packed airport with long queues for loos and food....
We had been there about half an hour, when suddenly it was all 'go' again...
An announcement was made that we must be at gate 12 immediately, and urgency from the air stewards as we climbed aboard.... 'We have a slot in ten minutes, please hurry, we need you all sitting down with seat belts on....
And we made it...! We were waiting for the one late person, but even he got a cheer not a boo...
The stewards raced through the safety procedure... I have never heard it done so fast! The engines started to roar and we were off.... The captain came over the tannoy as we reached our cruising height... 'Thank you all for being so patient, I would like to buy you all a (non alcoholic) drink on me...'
When the steward came round to give us our drinks, she was writing every item down on a piece of paper, so I asked... 'Is the pilot really paying for all our drinks...?'
'Yes, she said 'It is coming out of his own pocket...' 'How many of us are there...?' I enquired
'170..' - 'That's a big round' I laughed... 'Please will you thank him...' 'A very big round' she responded laughing too...
And so soon we will be in Gatwick, and I will be seeing Athena Jane; we thought we might have to re arrange, but all is well!
How brilliant is that.
