This post was written on Sept 12/19, just after boarding the Dublin leg of my flight.

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I just boarded Air Canada flight 818 to Dublin from Montreal. I boarded early as my seat is in Zone 2 – one of the special zones. Not zone 1 – I seriously couldn’t afford that – but still: Zone 2. We had our own special line and everything and were able to board when the folks with little children could! Whuuuut???! We even had our own path and entrance to the plane. Livin’ the life, I tell ya. Livin’ the life.

Mind you, I’m in row 1. There isn’t anything in front of me besides the loo, kitchen stuff, storage and the cockpit. So I don’t even know what Zone 1 could have been.

I know there was one because they called out for Zone 1 people and 1 guy came forward, showed his boarding pass and was let on. But I have no idea what he paid extra for.

I remember (from booking my ticket) it was double what I paid. So I’m definitely glad I didn’t go for that. Maybe someone comes to his seat and rubs his feet or sings lullabies to him. It is an over-nighter, after all.

You know what it doesn’t have, though? The twisty-turny air blowy thingy. I love that thingy. Oh well – I’m sure I’ll be fine. 😉

And in any event, it was fun to trot up early.

I normally wait till the very end to board – when most of the squishy, crowded hoohah of “Excuse me. Pardon me. Uh. Oh sorry.” has subsided. I also usually get an aisle seat, which is even more reason not to board early and have to play the get-up-sit-down thing as the people in the middle and window seats by me arrive.

This time, though, I got a window seat. It’s a red-eye, as I said, and I wanted the wall to clean against. I didn’t want to be the one climbing over someone or making them get up so I boarded early. Plus, I knew the seats would be bigger and more comfy – more so than the airport seats – so I boarded as soon as I could.

I will add now that I thought the seat next to me was going to be empty, but a woman came and sat there a few minutes ago. Sluiced in perfume. Oh joy. But maybe it won’t give me a horrible headache and sinus congestion this time – I mean, a 6-hour flight will just zip by, right?

There was a glimmer of hope that she’d move when her travelling partner (spouse, boyfriend…?) came up and said there were two seats together in the back.

She didn’t even hesitate in her refusal. And, really, who could blame her? I don’t think there’s anyone I could possibly love enough to trade “up front” comfy seats for “in back” cramped seats for 6 hours. If our relationship couldn’t survive 6 hours apart, well, that’s even more reason not to make the comfy-cramped trade.

So, while her perfume (which is a lovely scent in and of itself) is rather irritating, I definitely gotta give her serious props for sticking where she is.

Ok…the flight attendant just took my order of beef tenderloin (like how I just slid that in there?) and I’m going to read for a while.

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