Chasing The Sun

20 September - Despite delays due to foggy German weather (what are the German's up to this time?) I made it to Frankfurt and my connecting flight (which was, of course, also delayed). Luckily for Lufthansa I got my window seat although i've got a really crappy view of the television (to paraphrase John Leguizamo's immortal quip, 'I hope there's NOT a good movie on this flight!') and I've got a rather enormous European lady sitting next to me - doesn't Lufthansa have rules about people like this? I thought they were supposed to buy two tickets! (apologies to any morbidly obese people reading this missive). Whilst i've been sitting here waiting to take off (another delay caused by one of the passengers not turning up and they have to remove his luggage) my big hearted (well, big bodied anyway) neighbour has relocated to another seat leaving me enough air to breath and another vantage point for the TV ... Hurrah. Oh, and another 20 fucking minute delay caused by those pesky Germans with their evil bad weather creating machines. I find it quite amusing when i'm on a plane and the takeoff has been delayed - I don't really know why anyone would get stressed. There's no discernible difference between being on a plane that's airborne or on the ground, it's almost preferable because it's quieter - the total time doesn't really change either as they just go faster when they're in the air in order to make the original arrival time. I suppose one thing is that if you're in 'conomy you don't get any booze until you're airborne. Have also just looked up the inflight magazine and have discovered that the fillums we will be watching are 'Herbie: Fully Loaded' and 'Bewitched' ... Damn those Germans, damn them all to hell!!!
Finally got underway and we are chasing the sun as we go backwards in time - I can see the wrinkles fading and my grey hair is turning brown again - it's amazing ... saw some icebergs whilst we were up in the air (a Canadian guy told me it was near Hudsons Bay - when we looked at a map it showed it was somewhere in between Canadia and Greenland) - I think we were flying at 10km altitude and they were so big I felt I could reach out and grab one. I tried to mentally work out how big they were - 10k up, about 20-30cm wide at the window ... then I realised that it was far too much trouble and went to sleep. Also crossed over some mountains on the east coast that were poking above a sea of clouds - very, very beautiful but it also looked very, very ... cold. Great flight over the land - it became quite clear and I had a great view of the Rockies and other mountain ranges and vast tracts of land. A local guy in the seat in front of me gave me a great running commentary on what was what, spectacular scenery - cannot wait to get up close.
Oh, and I'm here.