First Flight - 22nd April

This is my first flight. Before I left, every experienced flier supplied me with a little nugget of what to expect, and what to do, but all this carefully logged information naturally went up in smoke, or ash, as everybody ‘played it by ear’. But as I said …… jammy, - we’re airborne.
Oddly, it didn’t feel that strange, looking down on the world. London looked amazingly beautiful in the morning sunshine, a fact remarked upon by several seasoned travelers. I think I've spent too much time on Google Earth to find the bird's-eye view that unusual.
So glad I opted for a window seat. Hundreds of miles of barren tracts of land below, as Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan morph into one. Mountains, rocky outcrops and sand form fantastic geographical features, outlining gorges and tributaries - and I wish I knew how they were all formed. I could be looking at the surface of mars, but this is the same planet from where I started and I’m looking down on my global neighbours. They must be down there somewhere, although they leave very few signs. Two straight apparently parallel lines run below; roads going to somewhere, from somewhere, but no sign of habitation or life in general. Then, suddenly, there's a patchwork of green & brown quadrilaterals; for somewhere in this wasteland is water, and this is a farm. These enclaves appear sporadically, and then peter out after less than 300 miles. And the 2 roads weren’t parallel – they met, or maybe we’re flying over infinity now.

It was all going so well, but then airport congestion had us pirouetting 150 miles east of Mumbai, making us an hour late. My first landing was a horrendously bumpy affair which caused the odd scream and a ripple of nervous laughter throughout the plane. Maybe the pilot was as tired as I was.