Flying high

Our eldest son lives in Australia. He is a vet, and his lovely wife Jane is a hospital administrator.

The last time my wife and I went out there to visit them was 12 years ago, when we had to endure a 26-hour flight, with a stopover in Singapore. Never again!

There is no more boring form of travel than flying at 38,000ft, as one can't see anything down below!

I remember we flew over Moscow to avoid the Iraqi air space, but for all we knew, we could have been flying over Birmingham!

Whilst we were flying over India, the stewardess told me that the pilot had noticed that a farmer was on board. Turns out he used to have a farm himself (in Australia) and fancied a chat with me!

The stewardess asked me if I could climb up some stairs into their cockpit. I told her that I would be delighted!

When I arrived in their cabin, the pilot and the navigator had their backs to the window. I asked them hadn't they better look where they were going in case another aircraft was coming towards us! "No problem, Cobber! If there is anything within 80 kilometres of us we will be told over the radio!"

As a computer was in charge of actually flying the aircraft, they were very bored, and grateful to compare notes of farming in the UK and Australia.

In fact, all the Australians we met on our trip were everso laid back and easy going.

I haven't been out there since, but my wife has been back a couple of times. The last time she was there the temperature was over 40c, so I was glad that I hadn't also gone with her!