THE DANGERS OF LONG HAUL TRAVEL

We all know about the obvious dangers of long haul travel. Every airline now shows you one of those silly videos showing a smiling man or woman doing a variety of preposterous exercises to keep the blood going while you're shoehorned into your miniscule cattle class seat, lest you suffer from deep vein thrombosis and sue the bastards.

There are other dangers however.

Last night I decided to imbibe a spot of festive spirit with Genghis in the perennial favourite - Stormies in LKF. While there I had the (mis)fortune to bump into fellow blogger Shandyman. He was with undoubtedly the biggest man in HK, a huge Aussie, who I shall call Bruce for anonimity's sake. They were both off to Mud Island for Christmas on last nights flights, Shandy to the bosom of his family and Bruce to the bosom of his girlfriend. Both had packed and, in a burst of efficiency, had checked in much earlier in the day. They were in LKF to have a couple of rum and cokes each to set them on their way.

All well and good.

Except that before their pre-flight refreshments they had been to lunch in Dot Cod.

For 8 hours.

Shandy was upright, but only just.

Bruce was upright for a while, but then decided he needed to rest his eyes for 15 minutes or so by lying down in the middle of LKF, where he was the source of much amusement to the snaggle-toothed mainland tour parties who seemed to be out in even greater numbers than usual.

Bruce was eventually roused, but then Shandy realised he had forgotten something vital for his trip, the Little Madam.

Yes she was going too but had sensibly opted out of the pre-flight drinkathon.

Panic phone calls ensued and LM was eventually located, hopefully for her she was at a check-in desk getting her seat changed.

God knows if either of them made it to the flight, but my heart goes out to the poor people who had to sit next to either of them for 13 hrs.