Flying High
In spite of the sometimes 4:30am starts and 9:30pm finishes on the days when I'm flying interstate to go to one or two meetings, I love that air travel is a part of my job. I don't love the crowds and noise in the airports (though I suspect QANTAS club membership is really going to help me feel better about that), or the often crappy food on planes. I really don't like it when the plane is delayed because they have to replace a part right before takeoff, as per yesterday morning.
What I love is the idea that I'm actually flying. Not that long ago, relatively speaking, this would have seemed like magic to a whole world of people. I think it says a lot about ingenuity and unexpected turns in the way we function that this is now a common part of life. It makes me wonder what will be happening in another fifty or a hundred and fifty years that would seem like total magic right now.
Um. It's also probably got something do with the fact that turbulence just makes me think: "Cool! A bumpy ride!"
I don't remember the first time I flew in a plane. That's because I was flying from the time I was very small; we lived eight hours' drive away from the nearest paediatric heart specialist and the government paid for Mum to fly down with me for check ups until I had the operation which fixed the problem. My first memory of flying is probably around the time of that operation when I was four. I remember we got to the airport and it was raining steadily with nothing but grey clouds in the sky. When we got in the plane we flew up above the clouds... and there was the sun! I hadn't been expecting it all, and I remember so clearly how happy and amazed I was.
Last night's journey was a delight because I got the opposite. We came back into Melbourne weaving through thick grey rainclouds and the sun above was that deep golden colour it sometimes goes before it hits the horizon. The plane tilted down so we had the grey and gold and then the city laid out below, all those little houses where everyone's lives seem so big when you're down on the ground. It was beautiful.
The other reason I like flying is because it reminds me of one of my favourite Harry Potter quotes. They're in a state of heightened security because the Death Eaters are impersonating people, and Molly Weasley is checking that it's really her husband outside the door.
Molly ...what is your dearest ambition?
Arthur To find out how aeroplanes stay up.
It always makes me grin when I remember it, even though I'd rather not know myself. I could look up the science but somehow it's much better if I feel like I'm hanging in the air by magic.
What I love is the idea that I'm actually flying. Not that long ago, relatively speaking, this would have seemed like magic to a whole world of people. I think it says a lot about ingenuity and unexpected turns in the way we function that this is now a common part of life. It makes me wonder what will be happening in another fifty or a hundred and fifty years that would seem like total magic right now.
Um. It's also probably got something do with the fact that turbulence just makes me think: "Cool! A bumpy ride!"
I don't remember the first time I flew in a plane. That's because I was flying from the time I was very small; we lived eight hours' drive away from the nearest paediatric heart specialist and the government paid for Mum to fly down with me for check ups until I had the operation which fixed the problem. My first memory of flying is probably around the time of that operation when I was four. I remember we got to the airport and it was raining steadily with nothing but grey clouds in the sky. When we got in the plane we flew up above the clouds... and there was the sun! I hadn't been expecting it all, and I remember so clearly how happy and amazed I was.
Last night's journey was a delight because I got the opposite. We came back into Melbourne weaving through thick grey rainclouds and the sun above was that deep golden colour it sometimes goes before it hits the horizon. The plane tilted down so we had the grey and gold and then the city laid out below, all those little houses where everyone's lives seem so big when you're down on the ground. It was beautiful.
The other reason I like flying is because it reminds me of one of my favourite Harry Potter quotes. They're in a state of heightened security because the Death Eaters are impersonating people, and Molly Weasley is checking that it's really her husband outside the door.
Molly ...what is your dearest ambition?
Arthur To find out how aeroplanes stay up.
It always makes me grin when I remember it, even though I'd rather not know myself. I could look up the science but somehow it's much better if I feel like I'm hanging in the air by magic.