Pomodoro e Basilico

The Flight Codex is in fact a rather large document. As many important life altering documents (think The Bible, the Harry Potter series or the Argos Catalogue), it goes into a lot of detail. It is also quite repetitive, to be completely honest, and not the best of reads. In it, the 6 major European Airlines have laid out the ground rules of Modern Day Air Travel. It offers a set of detailed instructions for airplane staff, airport personnel and assisting job functions. More importantly, it contains a complete glossary of all processes and procedures on which Modern Day Air Travel is based. The most important rule has been embossed as a watermark on the inside of the front and back cover. It reads: Air Travel will be as uncomfortable as can possibly be achieved under a shroud of inconvenient luxury The rule makes immediate sense to everyone who has ever taken a plane. It explains the following 'quirks' of air travel: Air Travel at first glance seems to offer considerable time s...

Of course I'm aware that there will be people reading this blog who will take everything I write with a pinch of salt. I understand that. It is true that on occasion I may have incidentally bent the truth a little bit for a tiny little practical joke here and there. I even admit that there have been a few times where I may have accidentally exploited some good natured gullibility for the sake of a smile and a good story. Not so with this story though. I've done my research properly this time and have checked and double checked my facts. This Air Travel Master Plan exists and is very real. I'm going to go further than that and will simply put it out there for all of you to verify on your next travels. Once you're aware of the existence of this Master Plan, you'll suddenly put all the puzzle pieces together. I even dare say that you'll experience moments of clarity like you've never known them before. In airports, of all places, which in my view, is an excelle...

As I’ve spent about 10 hours in planes the past two weeks, and many more in airports, I can obviously only talk about my experiences in the air. TJ’s aside, there is another matter that I’d like to raise which has the word WHY? written all over it in a bold 48pt italic font with curly edges. It’s the Trattoria question. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with KLM food, Trattoria is the brand name of the food they serve in economy class nowadays. Or, well… food… sandwiches to be precise. Or… well… miniature sandwiches to be preciser. Don’t worry, you get two in a package, so it definitely meets your needs after travelling for 2 hours to get to the airport, 2 hours waiting for your flight and the 30 minutes you’ve just spent taxiing with the airconditioning turned off for your convenience. Also, it perfectly complements the 5cl of orange juice you were just handed in a tiny plastic cup, so tiny it apparently is very difficult to fill it more than half way, even with non fizzy drinks. Might...

Okay, today I just had to ask. On my flight back from Nice, with KLM, everyone started to order Tomato Juice again. Just like on the flight over. And on the flights to and from Stockholm last week. This time I paid more attention. Of the 25 people around me (3 rows in front, my row and the row behind me) 17 people ordered tomato juice. Now, people can tell me a lot of stuff about coincidence and how it rules the universe, but this is just too odd. It defies all logic. “So what?”, I hear you mumble, “ever heard of a Bloody Mary? That’s what all those people on the KLM flights are mixing themselves”. True, I did think of that. However, the ‘potent’ ingredient of Bloody Marys was not handed out with the Tomato Juice and on the, in my eyes, very disturbing question of the stewardess “Would you like pepper or salt with that?” all 17 people answered with a definite “No, just plain Tomato Juice please!”. I deliberately choose not to go into the entire concept of mixing alcoholic beverages wit...

  Contrary to what some people will have you believe, the Katrina effects on New Orleans were to be expected in a way. Of course, after a tragedy of such scale it would be too easy to say '...told you so...', but still... Read the beginning of this article from National Geographic and then check out the date it was written... October 2004 . Almost eerie... Now let's see if history will teach us something...

Holiday time! Have looked forward to this for many a month. Away from dull, rainy Ireland for three weeks. Where to? The Sunshine State! Florida! Combined with 5 days of New Orleans the perfect way to forget about stress, houses, rain and other dreary topics... So here I am, blogging from a hotel room in St. Augustine Beach, Florida. Why am I not on the beach, you ask? A hurricane is visiting Florida too. So without exageration (and I've seen my share of rain in Ireland and The Netherlands) I can tell you that I've never ever seen so much rain in such a short amount of time. Literally, sheets of rain, or rather buckets full sweep by our hotel window. It's horizontal rain too, due to the wind. So how bad is it? Well, we're stuck. We're not in the center of the thing, so we don't see any rooftops flying by (yet) but we are seeing pieces of the hotel flying by occasionally. The hotel clerk advised us that it was only a tropical storm, so there was nothing to worry ...