Las Vegas Journals: Departure

This is a guest article by MG

The trip had been planned for months. And for numerous weeks I had been putting it off. But then, as work pressures mounted nearer to the time of departure I was actually beginning to look forward to this holiday during my last few days in the offices at College. I somehow felt ready for a break… Somehow felt ready just to leave it all behind and explore a new part of the world for a couple of weeks without any constraints – something that on reflection with the latter, had me bound to a far too significant degree before the day of flying.

We had planned to leave HQ in and around 5AM in the morning in the attempt to check-in 3 hours before we boarded the aircraft that was to transport us over to the States. This seemed like an awful long time – moreso after deciding to have a few pints of Double Hop with a couple of mates on the night prior. I slept all the way to the airport, but failed to do so both in the long waiting period between arriving and boarding, with the plane journey also providing little opportunity for restbite.

The car park we eventually found was easily the most secure I’ve ever seen, and that includes the Manchester City Centre car parks that I have left my Corsa in during nights out in the past. There were all-sorts of authorisation and monitoring procedures that were in place, before our Grandad’s Primera was whisked away to another location. We ourselves were then swiftly ‘whisked away’ to Manchester Airport where the inevitable wait loomed.

We initially decided to wait in the main lobby, which was highly infuriating at the time due to some crappy US ‘comedy’ being broadcast at high volume within close vicinity. You know, the ones in which the ‘live studio audience’ basks in laughter for 80% of the show, whilst people such as my Mum just sit there silently whilst taking it all in. I’m not a fan of these. Moving away from this position was totally desirable at this time, and thankfully, Martyn had found a whole host of seats in a far quieter area, which subsequently allowed me to read the day’s edition of the Times in comparative peace.

As the time of boarding loomed, we made our way to the queue for our aircraft. Everyone seemed eager to board, which always makes me ask the question of why people are inclined to act like this when it doesn’t particularly increase the speed in which our transportation vehicle begins to move – especially when you also consider that unlike many other means of public transport, your seat has already been reserved for you. ‘Steady progress’ in opposition to ‘mad rush’ seemed far more logical, here. In light of this, we 4 all sat patiently until the queue was near-devoid of people.

Take off was sudden. At one point, we were moseying along, the next, the pilot opened up the jet thrusts and whoooosh! We were hurtling down the runway at high-speed. I wasn’t ready for that! Once in the air and following multiple attempts to swallow in order for my ears not to go totally crazy, everything seemed calm once more. Mum and Dad iterated that the take-off would be the most exciting feeling we’d have for another 10 hours… That seemed a long time in the future.

Our seats each had monitors built into the back of the headrests, giving those behind the visuals to an on-board entertainment system. Of course, in the nature of this set of people it was inevitable when I looked around to find that everybody was fiddling about with the options in double-quick time. Me being me, I decided to lay off it for a while before messing around. Instead, the on-board staff were swift in serving up breakfast, which was certainly a good idea. What I found most interesting about this was not the actual content of the breakfast itself (it wasn’t bad, but nothing to go out on a limb and start praising), but the descriptions strewn across the packaging. Words such as ‘Enjoy’ and ‘a light refreshment’ etc (I’m missing some of my notes) were branded across just about everything that was served. Is it me, or are advertising slogans, corporate branding and consumer messages getting way too simplistic? As much as these slogans are likely 100% fail-safe, I just can’t help but feel that there must be another way to do this… Another way to communicate with the consumer in instances such as these. It all seems lifeless, monotone and bland – much like the cuisine that was served, I guess… Hell, even the bog had the word ‘refresh’ next to the sink – it’s as if the method of turning on the tap should have had ‘F5’ splattered across it.

During the flight I was primarily a) trying to solve a 'Killer’ Sudoku puzzle that began with no numbers, which was deemed to be crackable in 35 minutes and not the 3 hours 35 minutes that it likely took me to complete and b) playing a Pokemon puzzle game (ala Columns) on the on-screen Gameboy Colour (Pokemon? Me? Ooh, err!). I had been playing Mario, but had died approximately 6,435,893 times and subsequently got bored of utilising the infinite continues at my disposal.

This is a guest article by MG, imported from Wordpress. Please ignore the 'author/contributor/posted-by' tag on this post, which is incorrect.