WE'RE OFF

WE’RE OFF

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

I am sitting in the Air France seat with no legroom at all, computer awkwardly poised on my lap pushing into my belly. In front of me is a sulking vegetarian. He preordered his vegetarian meal, which did not arrive (of course!), so he refused all food and drink and pushed his seat back HARD, where I, also a vegetarian, sat peacefully picking away at a meal, which contained a dead chicken - better than the alternative, which was a dead cow! He probably dreamed of crispy vegetables done just so with a touch of ginger, but I have ordered and received a vegetarian meal once, which consisted of a plastic tray with a sad collection of watery steamed veggies, a packaged juice and a fruit. Never again.

I have also watched - with the terrible sound produced by the complimentary Air France speakers - a reportage on the shock reverberating through Turkey, a nation of heavy smokers, with the recent ban of all indoor cigarette smoking. I will forgo watching the American movie on the main screen, which is shown with a choice of French or Portuguese sound with American subtitles and try to sleep. We land in Paris at 3am our time.