Flying… again….
After a couple of years of no flying at all, it was strange to be back in the air…. The lining up among many and time to book in for our busy flight was familiar. The empty hall with no one else in sight not so … Going through customs was really simple with no one around… the very empty shops were sad (for the shop owners), but a slight relief that less unnecessary “stuff” was being bought…
Onto the plane, which was fully booked to Dubai. Very similar feelings of being cramped in economy :-) As one of the first flights out after lockout, there must have been many stories abounding… We were close enough to meet our neighbour - a very lovely Irish man, flying home to comfort his mum after his dad died 10 days before… Lots of babies, flying with their tired parents to many places to meet relatives who were zoom images up till now…
Dubai was busy - a real hub of planes, that enable you to fly directly to wherever you want. Like us to Glasgow, without having to go through Heathrow. It was a quick stopover with barely enough time to do anything, which was nice. Then back onto another plane - this one much emptier. I had 2 spare seats next to me, and Nat had one next to here in another part of the plane. As we took off, the fog almost hid the many tall towers that fill the sky in the city, with new island estates emerging from the water….
Building a city for millions in a place like Dubai always worries me, where the air temperature is nearly always uncomfortable, forcing many to live virtually always indoors, separate from nature - which seems to be always hostile…
So onto Glasgow with no dramas. Unless you worry about the incredible amount of waste that comes from every part of the flight - the plastic covers on the pillows and blankets, the paper, plastic and foil on the food… Thinking about how the world’s emissions did not drop nearly enough while the world was in lockdown and flights suspended, I wonder how these emissions will rise as many make the most of the ability to fly again? Myself included… We all benefit from connections, both personal and business. How can we balance nurturing these relationships with the environmental costs of doing so? We need some really creative thinking about how to resolve these issues :-)
