Airport number 2
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2006
1
106
188
Trip End
Ongoing
Los Angeles,
California,
United States
Sunday, December 9, 2007
So then the first flight, 6 hours to get back to LAX and the first bit of time travelling. It didnt work in my favour as the hours I gained I just had to sit about in LAX waiting for the flight to NZ. At this point I'd managed to eat a marathon (snickers? pah) and so I was starving and at first thought I'd struggle to get anything as there's not the usual array of shop and places to eat in american airports. Luckily an overpriced place was open so I sustained myself for long enough to get on the plane for the delights of plane food. Mmmm rubber with side servings of plastic.
After the disastrous flight to LA I was keeping my eye out for any spare seats and just behind me was an empty row of four. My bag of flight entertainment was sat ready and I was prepared to pounce when the seat belt signs went off. But we weren't moving. We were waiting and it became clear why when a family of 4 got on from their connecting flight and filled all those spacious comfy looking spare seats. I'd been stitched up again and didn't have much legroom. I was at the back in the bit where there's only 2 seats but this meant that the TV box thing was stuffed right where my feet should go. Operation Gain Comfort kicked in to full flow. There was a bloke to my right that appeared to have a row of 4 to himself so I fancied a bit of that and thought that 2 seats a piece would be fair. I used a combination of guilt and politeness and it worked a treat. I asked him in such a way that if he said no he was essentially replying 'I'm a complete shit'. I asked him if he'd be kind enough to move across as due to the box I've no legroom. I might have even had a tear in my eye for the full effect. Anyway, it turned out he was under attack from both sides as a fella on the opposite side had asked the same thing. Hmmm, although an improvement it was still looking like I'd just have the one seat. In effect all I'd be doing would be improving the comfort of the lad sat next to me as I'd move and he'd get two seats. Didn't seem fair for the effort I was putting in. Step 2, convince the lad that was perfectly comfy in his window seat to shift in to the middle of another row. Easy, he was already dozing a bit so it was clear that he could sleep anywhere. I'm sure he was chuffed when I woke him up to ask him if he'd be happy moving once the seatbelt sign went out. Again, the old look at my legs I'm too tall trick worked. He said he was happy to move and so off he went and I had the luxury of a couple of seats to myself. Winner. After that test of my influencing skills, my latest career option is diplomacy.
Unfortunately I think the level of comfort worked against me though as I settled in to watch Ratatouille. It was going to be the first of an evenings entertainment. I leaned a bit too much in to my arm rest and must have accidentally pressed a few too many buttons at once and managed to break the inflight on demand system. I asked if it could be fixed and a reset didn't work. I then just kept my head down as I noticed a section of tellys nearby had the same problem and it was probably my fault. Oops. I eventually got to see the end of it as it reverts back to the old skool system where films are on a loop, but it meant trying to watch other ones that were out of sync a nightmare. By the end of the flight I was sick to death of Ratatouille as it seemed every channel seemed to have it on whenever I looked for something else to start. I eventually found Superbad but we ended up landing and I missed the end. Rubbish. The rest of the flight was taken up with a variety of contortions in the hope of sleeping. I possibly managed a few winks before some part of my body would either ache from being twisted or go dead and fall asleep on it's own.
