Macadamian Follies

Christmas is here again, bringing with it the urge to go places. As a result, the mind wanders west, south and eastwards from Toronto, a city that, at other times, remains one of the best places on earth.

So online I go, surfing for bargains to places where seasonal festivities are not likely to include snow or ice. Credit cards at the ready, I clicked on to a site famous for expeditiously arranging cheap flights everywhere, but here, there was nothing but disappointment.  The next “discount” site, was no better and was just bad enough to evoke bitter laughter. That wasn’t the worst, either. Content in the next site was nothing short of eye-watering, which led me to think that perhaps I might have left it too late... At prices like those I doubt whether I’d even be able to afford a trip round the block.

Flying to a western Canadian city, for example, was being quoted at around $850.00, US. To Miami, Florida, $676, and to London $1190. Perhaps going to Sierra Leone may not be too expensive, I thought. There were no options to there, though. The journey had to originate from a European point and only the Belgian capital, Brussels offered anything viable, starting at around $3000 and not including the price of the Toronto-Europe leg either. Besides, these are just coach prices.

While marvelling at these outrageous numbers, something unexpected, but related popped up, as things tend to on the internet. This one was a story about a Korean Airline exec, Heather Cho, who had got herself into trouble for demanding that a Korean Airline plane turn around just so she can eject a flight attendant who had annoyed her. What was the crime? The attendant had had the impudence to serve Ms Cho her inflight snack of macadamia nuts still wrapped in cellophane instead of on a plate. I expect the lady executive was travelling in a class befitting her station for which, ordinarily, she would have had to pay top dollar. Never mind that she was the boss’s daughter, and would probably have been travelling on a voucher. But first class is first class, and however you get there it must cost quite a bit of dosh. I know that whenever I managed to make executive or first class myself, whether through my own money or by other means (which we don’t need to go into here), I got the full treatment: starched linen, bespoke china, not to mention the fine wines and gourmet hors d’oeurves. Expectations mount, the sense of entitlement becomes bloated, even when the bill is not on your tab. And if you have to ponder the ruin on your bank balance, the last thing you need is anything to discomfit you further. What with the added stress and all of checking in at the airport these days, passengers are bound to be in bad humour by the time they reach their seat, anyway. It takes just the merest hint of disrespect to tip the most placid of dispositions into fits of air rage. For me, macadamia nuts are not that enticing anyway and Ms Cho could very well be another for whom macadamia doesn’t do much as well. I don’t suppose the cabin staff were in a position to know that these nuts were not among madam’s favorites, but sitting in the front of the plane must have provided enough of a clue that whatever nuts are served they must be presented with all due pomp and ceremony. I am not surprised that the lady blew her top. What is the world coming to? 

 However the blame for the fiasco overall must fall on the captain.  He was too easily influenced by the executive lady and should have been man enough to have disobeyed her command to turn the plane around. What was he thinking, I wonder? Isn’t the cockpit supposed to be protected from outside interference these days?

And here we are at a time when I can’t get to Sierra Leone,  grown people fool around over a few indigestible nuts and Ebola Virus Disease steals Christmas from millions in West Africa.

Tell Fren Tru