Of course, no trip would be a trip without the usual pre-trip stress. We were our customary 15 minutes behind schedule – something that drives me nuts and after 11 years, something that I still fail to plan for. Now I know why my parents always got in little tiffs on Christmas morning as we were trying to get the family out the door on the way to Grandma's house -- there never failed to be a little spat that was over once we all were in the car and on the way.
So we kept the car service waiting and a bit of traffic delayed our arrival at LAX, but not enough to cause any harm oh er than a few irritated nerves.
But enough for the bad stuff -- on to Africa.
Upon making it through security at the airport, we headed over to the International lounge to hang out for 25 minutes before boarding. A rocker and his wife and two sets of business guys were the only people in there.
And then the fun began.
We boarded our flight, enjoyed a quick glass of champagne and then we were pulling back from the gate. Because Mike and I were in the middle section, our two seats faced inward/forward, while the window seat on either side of us faced outward/forward. Looking to my right was most natural as we taxied toward the runway, given the augment of my seat. I looked past Mike, across the aisle to the window, but all those window shades were closed. And who was sitting in that seat? The rocker guy from the lounge. And his wife was in the other window seat to my left across the aisle from me. Just the rocker guy and his wife in our row, with Mike and I in between the two of them.
Since I couldn't see out the window to my right, I had to crane my neck around to the left to see out as we taxied, then took off.
No sooner had the wheels left the ground than the rocker guy started screaming at me to stop looking at his wife. Huh? “Stop f#*king looking at my wife. I see you checking her out, “ he yelled in a drunken or drug induced rage.
I told him I was looking out the window and that I would happily look the other way but his shades were drawn. I was happy that Mike was in the seat to my right and the barrier between us. Not sure Mike felt the same.
Rocker guy then stood up (and the wheels had just left the ground), slammed all four of his window shades up and started yelling at me again. Drama to my left as his wife started yelling at him to stop it, to sit down. I chimed in that I was gay and didn’t really care what his wife looked like which got a laugh from the people around me.
I motioned the flight attendant who was already out of his seat and basically told Rocker man that he would have the flight turned around immediately if he didn’t settle down.
A few minutes of peace and then rocker man started in again. I motioned the flight attendant who went over and threatened him to stay quiet for the remainder of the flight or he would be forcibly restrained, the plane would be diverted and he would be arrested upon arrival.
He settled down but kept looking at me. The flight attendances couldn’t be more apologetic. Apparently rocker guy was upset because he wasn’t sitting next to his wife but he had requested a window seat of which there was only one. The flight attendant had to explain to him that there wasn't such a thing as two window seats next to each other which got a chuckle from a bunch of us.
So the flight attendants attempted to disrupt the cabin, moving others around to satisfy rocker man once the plane had leveled out. Long story short, the guy had passed out, and hard. So they didn’t end up moving him and he pretty much kept quiet the rest of the flight.
I won’t bore you with the rest of the details like movies and food. Suffice to say, it’s now 10:30am London time (2:30 LA time) and we’re here (and I’m beyond tired), having probably slept about four hours.
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