Fear Of Flying And Yorkshire Lasses
Without Prejudice
Well they say feel your fear and do it anyway. So semi stunned on Valium I shall fly to Britain next Monday. Given that the lead up to the trip will be arduous, ( I'm only going away for two weeks but mentally it might as well be two months.) I am determined not to fall asleep on the first flight out of sheer exhaustion. I tend to drool and snore when asleep, and it can be alarming to other passengers.
Up to now its been a delicious naughty secret, between my Sister and I but now my Aunt, who is turning 92 knows we are coming, it's a secret, no more. No doubt she is stripping off wallpaper and changing all the beds, she loves company. And she loves us, her younger sisters children, we are like her children and vice versa.
I am only slightly tense about the flight, I always feel like I am in a coat cupboard for twenty four hours. But who cares ? I fly to Brisbane next Monday, wait for my family and sister at the airport, then into International. My Sister and I will clamber wide eyed on to an Emirates air bus, with an upstairs and downstairs and I will fall asleep immediately. Ha ha. Once in Dubai we have a two hour stop over, then Manchester. It will no doubt be raining, the joke being that it always rains in Manchester.
Then after customs which should entail a wait of at least two hours, we are hiring a car and driving across the Pennines to Wakefield in Yorkshire. Cannot wait to see my Auntie. My Sister is then taking my Aunt and I to Paris for a mini break and we are having lunch in the Eiffel Tower. I shall be pushing the Aunt and Sister out of the way so I can take lots of selfies, me with a shit eating grin. (Note to self, try hard to not cuss, swear, blaspheme , or be crude ) I have to remember I am British after all.
My Aunt and Sister are down to earth but more genteel than I. I am sure my Aunt remembers me most as a little rebellious teenager, ( after emigrating when I was 2, my parents returned to the U.K when I was 12 and stayed 4 years. ) . She always used to take me to Marks and Sparks and buy me something, make me neat and tidy before I went out, eye my too short skirt critically before we went out and told me to adjust something.
Or she used to,
she now tends to be at the stage of life where she's happy to wake up to another day,
" Every day above ground is a good one " she always says.
Auntie Betty is love on a stick for us Mother starved kids, we lost our precious Mum at 53. Some 37 years ago. Auntie Betty is the only one left of her original siblings, Jack, Betty, Natalie ( Our Mother ) and Pat. The three sisters were teenagers in the days of the Second World War. My mum in the R.A.F., a flight plotter working in London at 19.
Photos of that time show their fashion sense even in times of rationing. Waspy waists and two piece suits called " costumes ". Hats, gloves, stockings, de rigeur. And my Aunt even at 92 still dresses beautifully and trendily for her age. She is a stalwart of British fashion, Marks and Spencer's mostly have everything. She's not a vintage shopper nor op shop shopper like my Auntie Pat was.
Well they say feel your fear and do it anyway. So semi stunned on Valium I shall fly to Britain next Monday. Given that the lead up to the trip will be arduous, ( I'm only going away for two weeks but mentally it might as well be two months.) I am determined not to fall asleep on the first flight out of sheer exhaustion. I tend to drool and snore when asleep, and it can be alarming to other passengers.
Up to now its been a delicious naughty secret, between my Sister and I but now my Aunt, who is turning 92 knows we are coming, it's a secret, no more. No doubt she is stripping off wallpaper and changing all the beds, she loves company. And she loves us, her younger sisters children, we are like her children and vice versa.
I am only slightly tense about the flight, I always feel like I am in a coat cupboard for twenty four hours. But who cares ? I fly to Brisbane next Monday, wait for my family and sister at the airport, then into International. My Sister and I will clamber wide eyed on to an Emirates air bus, with an upstairs and downstairs and I will fall asleep immediately. Ha ha. Once in Dubai we have a two hour stop over, then Manchester. It will no doubt be raining, the joke being that it always rains in Manchester.
Then after customs which should entail a wait of at least two hours, we are hiring a car and driving across the Pennines to Wakefield in Yorkshire. Cannot wait to see my Auntie. My Sister is then taking my Aunt and I to Paris for a mini break and we are having lunch in the Eiffel Tower. I shall be pushing the Aunt and Sister out of the way so I can take lots of selfies, me with a shit eating grin. (Note to self, try hard to not cuss, swear, blaspheme , or be crude ) I have to remember I am British after all.
My Aunt and Sister are down to earth but more genteel than I. I am sure my Aunt remembers me most as a little rebellious teenager, ( after emigrating when I was 2, my parents returned to the U.K when I was 12 and stayed 4 years. ) . She always used to take me to Marks and Sparks and buy me something, make me neat and tidy before I went out, eye my too short skirt critically before we went out and told me to adjust something.
Or she used to,
she now tends to be at the stage of life where she's happy to wake up to another day,
" Every day above ground is a good one " she always says.
Auntie Betty is love on a stick for us Mother starved kids, we lost our precious Mum at 53. Some 37 years ago. Auntie Betty is the only one left of her original siblings, Jack, Betty, Natalie ( Our Mother ) and Pat. The three sisters were teenagers in the days of the Second World War. My mum in the R.A.F., a flight plotter working in London at 19.
Photos of that time show their fashion sense even in times of rationing. Waspy waists and two piece suits called " costumes ". Hats, gloves, stockings, de rigeur. And my Aunt even at 92 still dresses beautifully and trendily for her age. She is a stalwart of British fashion, Marks and Spencer's mostly have everything. She's not a vintage shopper nor op shop shopper like my Auntie Pat was.
