My Own Personal Up in the Air

In the morning, the thought of trying to get all of my stuff with me on the night bus to the airport just seemed ridiculous, so since I knew that my company would pay for the cab as a business expense, I rang my usual cab company at 5:30 AM to find out how much a cab to the airport would cost. For £23, I was sold! They even already knew my address and sent a cab straight away, so before I knew it there was a cab waiting outside and it was time for me to leave my flat for the last time. Left the keys on the table and closed the door behind me, although I could hardly believe I would never be coming back!

I got to the airport ridiculously early (as the cab obviously took less time than the Tube), checked in for my flight, and eventually managed to board. I was excessively excited when I started talking to my seatmate, who turned out to be a real-life version of George Clooney in "Up in the Air", in that he had flown over 10 million miles! He even showed me his "Executive Platinum" card with the "10 million" in the corner to prove it. (And, as it turns out, they're nowhere near as rare as the movie makes them out to be. He said he asked and found out the group is much larger than 7, more like around 100 of them. And they don't get any special privileges for making the milestone). It was actually a super-cool flight, as the entire cabin crew seemed to know this guy, with one stewardess claiming, "This guy flies more than we do!" One of the coolest seatmates I've had in a long time. We exchanged cards, and I wonder if I shall seem him on a flight again sometime soon. (Alas, he did not look at all like George Clooney, but just like a guy who spent way too much time sitting on an airplane and eating airline food). Even as we landed, he warned me not to eat the pizza they'd offered as a snack, and after realising how bad it tasted, knew that he'd been right to warn me!

When I landed, my parents were waiting for me, which was great. Got loaded into the car and drove home, where we had some lunch and just hung out, although I was so tired (should have slept on the plane, but watched "Salt" instead), that eventually I had to lie down for a nap. Woke up in time to go out for dinner at Patio, my favourite local restaurant, which was nice but we had a sort of push waitress, in the end I wish we'd just gotten pizza and eaten at home.

The best part though was going to sleep in my own bed, which was just marvellous!