Ginger and Fred...

I have to confess after what seemed like an eternity spent in an airport yesterday, my return flight to the UK was far more adventurous.

I pretty much twiddled my thumbs waiting for my flight home, and even managed to watch a whole film while sitting in the not-so comfortable chairs at Barcelona Airport.

However the flight home was a blast.

I met a great couple who had been celebrating her birthday in Barcelona, who were more than happy to sit and chat for the whole flight home. I'm not sure whether they took pity on me for my lack of a speedy boarding card; however they saved me a nice exit seat and we managed to find something to talk about for about 2 and a half hours after a long wait on the tarmac before take off.

Ginger and Fred (not their real names) were living in London. Ginger was bubbly, warm and gregarious where Fred had a bit of a hippy quality, attached to an incredibly chilled attitude to the world and was from the good old US of A.

No sooner had we sat down and started gossipping about our lives when 50 Shades of Grey came into the conversation; it came about from a brief discussion with the flight attendant about whether there were any MOB's on the flight, (Millionaire's on board) as Ginger was intending to try and set me up with one with a spare seat and a silk tie.

"Oh," said Caroline the flight attendant overhearing, "I have heard about this book."
"Just finishing the first one," says another.
"Is it any good?"
"See for yourself." I suggest fishing out the third one in the series out of my bag.
We then managed to attract a buzz around of us of men and women alike who had either heard about the book or read about. I appeared to be the only one who had actually read the whole trilogy, (or at least the only one admitting to having read it) so it only seemed appropriate to enlighten the ones who hadn't. I found them a decent paragraph to read, and about 6 other passengers took their turn in reading it.
You could actually feel the atmosphere in the cabin change. Everyone suddenly became a little bit flirty, a little bit silly - it was fascinating to watch. There was even some discussion that it seemed unfair that the rest of the plane was missing out, and perhaps Caroline the flight attendant could read it over the in flight microphone with a passenger of her choosing.

Alas, that was more than her job was worth - but a shame nonetheless.

The whole crew on the flight were warm and up for a laugh. I don't know if every late night flight from Spain is like this, but it was a stark contrast to the more serious flight I had come in on earlier that day. It was so nice to chat to strangers who were all so open and friendly.

Ginger and I sat there drinking wine from mini bottles, chatting about everything and bonding over the possibility we may have inadvertently killed someone by accidentally introducing an opened packet of peanuts, that I had purchased earlier, into the cabin atmosphere.

We had already been warned by the flight attendant at the beginning of the flight that someone on board had a nut allergy, therefore no nuts were to be served on the flight. I conspiratorially informed Ginger that I had an almost empty packet in my duty free bag. Whats should I do? Report it to the attendant and delay the flight further by having myself and the nut packet removed from the craft.
"No," Ginger reasoned, "it's fine, it's safely in the bag, don't worry."

However twenty minutes into the flight the bag was tipped upside down and life threatening peanut particles were thrust into the air. Like any good mum who knows how to clean a food covered seat, I hurriedly brushed said nuts onto the floor, and we spent the rest of the flight worried that someone in row 32 was currently swelling up from nut dust in the air.

Saying our goodbye's at the end of the flight, we swapped numbers, emails and agreed to meet in London for Cocktails before the year was out. They really made a sad day into something better, so thank you Ginger, Fred, Caroline (real name) the flight attendant on the Easyjet flight from Barcelona for making me feel so much better - and for reminding me that good things are always just around the corner.