The joys of travel

So, no need to pop down and give the bull a tickle for Kim after all. She gave birth to a 7lb 10oz - as yet unnamed - baby boy yesterday. I got the news via text last night when I landed back in NY after my 3day business trip to Florida. I'm looking forward to meeting the little fella when I'm back in England for Christmas in a couple of months time. Speaking of which, can you believe my sister emailed me this week to ask if there's anything in particular I'd like for Christmas? Um....hello, it's still OCTOBER!!!! Honestly!

The business trip went well, although I am happy to be back in New York. We were all a bit worried that we might get stuck down there an extra day, due to the heavy storms that had been forecast for the north east. The weather types seemed very concerned that the storm which caused a freak tornado in Pensacola would travel up to the New York area and cause problems for our flight, but thankfully we dodged that particular bullet and only had a couple of hours delay.

It's hard to believe these days that air travel was ever considered glamorous!! The flight home wasn't too bad, but the flight *to* Florida was not the most fun I've ever had. There were some...um...interesting characters, including the actor Joe Pantoliano - Sopranos, Memento - who I noticed making himself very much at home in the front seat of business class while making my way through to economy. You couldn't miss him in baggage claim at Fort Lauderdale; he was wearing a HUGE stetson. Clearly trying to travel incognito, so that no-one would recognise him ;-)

We also had the full complement of screaming babies - 4 of them, all sat very close to me. I sympathise with the poor little mites I really do, but my God it was quite a cacophony. I almost lost the will to live when they didn't calm down for even a second during the flight. The older guy across the aisle from me dulled the pain by drinking heavily and cranking up the volume on his iPod, occasionally singing along at full volume - Petula Clark's 'downtown' seemed to be a favourite - clearly oblivious to the fact that he was shouting over his headphones. I think even Joey Pants all the way upfront must have heard him roar his drink orders to the flight attendants. And then there was the woman behind me who thought it perfectly acceptable to put her feet up on my armrest so that her toes - not the prettiest - were inches from my face. Um...hello! Manners!! She then huffed and puffed her annoyance when I asked her to move them.

Unbelieveable!!

After that experience on just a 3hour flight I am seriously considering prescription drugs for my 16hour flight down to Chile in a few weeks.