The landing at Gatwick was a huge relief and for more than the reasons of general wellbeing. My son and I had settled into our seats (albeit slightly undersized seating for two 6’2” guys).The flight was full and next to me on the aisle was a spare seat; wouldn’t you know it I hit the jackpot! She plonked herself down next to me and immediately started to talk. The next 5 hours was a non-offensive barrage of unfiltered topics which were relevant to her, her boyfriend, her mother, her brothers, her father and her fake Burberry handbag which she was very uncomfortable about leaving under the seat in front of her. It was her first time travelling alone and she wanted me to know that at 21 years of age maybe her parents had been a bit protective (or, as I imagined, they were afraid to unleash her onto an unsuspecting world who would not tolerate such incessant chatter!). We covered many topics regardless of how much I responded; sometimes I just stared ahead and nodded in agreement and other times I would say-‘oh really’ or something equally interesting. It wasn’t a great hardship but I would have liked a few moments to myself just to, maybe, close my eyes for fifteen minutes. As we’d approached our landing pattern my eyelids had started to droop and I’d informed her that I wanted to sleep but this didn’t dampen her desire to continue talking. The quest for some good old fashion shut-eye had been well and truly trampled on and all that remained was to let her pray for a safe landing; thankfully she did this in complete silence and it was two minutes of absolute bliss!!
We disembarked through the flexi- tunnel and the chatter continued. I stopped momentarily to readjust my hand luggage and expected that she would just continue and somehow disappear into the freezing fog of Gatwick; alas this was not to be and she waited for us to catch up- oh the joy!
At the carousel I was wondering whether or not she would latch onto us and want to come home with us but I needn’t have worried- as soon as she grabbed her distinctive case she turned and said “It was great meeting you guys and we had a laugh, thanks and have a nice Christmas.” Then she was gone; in a strange way she had made the journey go quicker and in all honesty did provide some laughs on the way. I always say that if you can make somebody smile and moreover make them laugh then that is a gift- Happy Christmas Little Miss Chatterbox!
No comments:
Post a Comment