Flying

What's the deal with carry-Ons?
I had always heard that flying during the holidays was hectic in the `States...now I understand. My flight from New Orleans to Houston on a Sunday afternoon (DURING a Saints game, no less) was sooooo packed with people and carry-on luggage that I had to sit with my laptop bag half under the seat in front of me and half in between my feet. It was a fairly uneventful flight, just like I like it, thank GOD.

We touched down in Houston and I walked to my departure gate. It was a fairly short walk to an adjacent terminal. No trams, no travel to the other side of the airport.

I get on the plane and there is no room for my small duffel bag! Even though not all of the seats were full around where I was sitting, all of the overhead storage was. One of the flight attendants found an empty bin about halfway back in the plane on the other side. The result was that I had to wait for everyone to depart the plane before I could get my bag to leave. This wasn't a big deal, since it was around 07:00 local time and my next flight was not until 13:20.

New Vest
My new vest worked out well. I came up with the idea that if I got a vest with a lot of pockets, I could store everything I needed in the pockets of the vest, remove the whole thing at security, and take less time going through. I can also carry 3 bottles of water in the back pocket, a hard case for my glasses, my phone, passport, cash, medicne, etc.

Garnering Attention
When I fly, I like to wear my "travel" shirt. It's a shirt that my wife bought me that says "Just another sexy bald guy". It always gets some kind of attention, eliciting giggles and laughs. I do this because it gets me noticed. One thing I learned when I was a bartender is that unless people have a reason to notice you, they will ignore you, and by extension, give you bad service. so if the flight attendant thinks my shirt is funny, she/he will pay a little better attention to me than if they had not noticed anything about me at all. This especially helps since I tend to travel in comfortable clothes that gives me the least amount of trouble at security. The afore-mentioned t-shirt, crocs (with socks, for dirty security floors), jeans without a belt, and now my travel vest. Flight attendants usually view this as bum clothes. (At least I think they do.) So the shirt helps to endear me with them.


Well, my plane should start boarding for the final leg of my trip in a few minutes, so I'll sign off. I'll be able to go to sleep in about 6-7 more hours! 


Cheers, Mate! from London Heathrow.




***Addendum***
Just after I posted this, my flight was delayed for another 2 hours. So I will now be departing (touch wood, fingers crossed, saying a prayer) at 15:30, which will put me in Baku at 12:35 or so on Tuesday.