Gratuitous carbon footprints

And Lo! Having “gratuitously enlarged our carbon footprint” (although I suspect our share of the total carbon cost of the flight has only been equal to the running of two family sized people movers for a week or the landfill-produced methane from the Christmas rubbish from an average western family of four) we find ourselves in another part of the world thinking “How did I get here?”(as Talking Heads say on their first single). And now that we are here, I say Sod the Planet! Lets burn all the fuel now and let somebody else’s grandkids sort it out! And, yes, I want soft 3-ply toilet paper, not that short-fibred recycled crap! And the New Scientist says that a six-cups-of coffee habit each day for a year is the equivalent in carbon pollution of a flight from London to Rome. Bring it on, I say! I need my coffee fix! However, since it is now official, according to the cognoscenti who contribute to the comments, that Santa Clause is the product of the Evil Empire -- don’t mention CC by name; we don’t want to get sued -- I still draw the line at neon reindeer.

So “how did I get here“? Etihad, for one. Not only one of the cheapest airlines for this route but both flights in and out of Abu Dhabi had one of the best in-flight screen systems I’ve seen. Just a pity that there’s always a prat in the seat in front of you who pushes his seat back as soon as the plane takes off to cut off your air supply. Much swearing and causing of loud ruckus ensues to ensure that the idiot goes upright and is too embarrassed to tilt it back again. Ho ho. And I have it on good authority that all Etihad flights run on organically grown molasses which breaks down after combustion into harmless water vapour; so there, Ginge!

Having left Totton at 1600 on the 3rd we were picked up by mine host at Bangkok airport at 1900 on the 4th with no sleep in the interim 24 hours. I would have thought that going to bed last night at a sensible time after a couple of Singhas would have set the internal clock back to normal but it was not to be. My body clock decided that it was still 7 hours behind so I stayed awake until 5 in the morning to finally wake up at midday today (the 5th). So here I am at 3 in the afternoon on the 5th writing complete drivel on the internet because I still haven’t actually left the house yet and have nothing else to report. Methinks Linda and I will mooch around Sukhumvit Road in a minute and look for a bar with a reasonable happy hour, followed by a slap-up Thai curry to celebrate our arrival, followed by another happy hour, probably, as I doubt having an early night will do us much good.

Tomorrow we might actually do something!