Sylvia's Journal

Worst it is, indeed. Although the flight is not full I am seated in a middle seat of three. Luckily I am separating a couple and end up with the aisle seat after all; so much for having platinum status. Yet the flight attendants keep coming by to see how the couple is doing (“you are travelling a lot with us!” she exclaims to the reunited couple, and asks if they are seated right, and I wonder ‘What about me?’ but then I remember I am a code share guest, a NW frequent traveler albeit on a KLM plane).

There appears to be a new subservience from the staff to the frequent flyers and I wonder whether directives have come down from the top to treat the most frequent flyers extra special, what with the economic downturn, you don’t want to lose those.

The seats seem a little closer each trip I take. Now even my small computer no longer fits on the tray table once the gentleman in front of me reclines. I try to type in a rather contorted way for awhile and finally ask him to un-recline. He is nice and sits straight.

I read more about the Khmer Rouge and thank my lucky star for having been born half a world away. The book gives me a new perspective on sitting in a crammed space and I realize it is not so bad after all.

I am no longer grimy because I took a shower, washed my hair and put on clean clothes for the last leg of my trip. After 14 hours in the sky and 8 hours of waiting in various airports I needed that.

The last 7 hours seem not so bad anymore. This assumes that we will depart on schedule – not entirely to be taken for granted as I look at the snow flurries and dark clouds hanging over the polder and moving in fast with heavy winds.

Now it’s time for some phone calls and then back in line.