Take-off

The trip to Florida had begun. It was a beautiful morning, sun out, birds chirping, and it was a strong farewell from the usually muggy London. It seemed like it was promising us sweet days of summer and heat, but we knew better than to listen, and we had some non-refundable flights to catch. 

In terms of flights, usually there is not much to talk about. You sit in an uncomfortably tight space for about 8 hours, try to sleep with varying degrees of failure, and eat some food that, even in terms of sustenance, is seriously questionable. 

This particular experience, however, was actually one that far exceeded my expectations, and defied my ever pessimistic predictions. 

Firstly, we asked for an aisle seat (due to my incessant fidgetyness) and were granted the request. We then discovered, to some serious amazement, that the seats we had were front row, leg-room to boot, screen further than a hand’s width away beauties. Winner. And then, to top it all of, we saw Adam and Chloe sauntering over, and discovering that, despite having made separate bookings days apart, despite them having pre-booked seats and used a different check-in counter, we were sitting together! Add this to the hilarity of darling Charlie being sat five rows back, and we were off to a solid start. 

Movies? Watched Murder on the Orient Express first. Love me a murder mystery, love me a piece of Agatha, and love me a little Poirot. It was beautifully shot, great colouring, but in terms of content and script, very average. Still enjoyed it though, and hey, it was free. Then followed Coco. Now. The whole time I had been watching a disappointingly not-bold Poirot solve mysteries, I’d been eyeing up Chloe’s screen next to me. Colours, beautiful animation, creative and imaginative characters…. To say that it drew me away Orient Express would be accurate, so as soon as the credits rolled I was onto the animated gem. 

Oh. My. God. I have not cried that much in an movie for a long time. It is very much a children’s movie, and as such the message is hearty and optimistic, but it hit a chord I did not could be hit, and opened up a flood of tears. It took about twenty minutes of crying, an episode of Modern Family and half of Justice League to bring me back town to my nihilistic self. Gorgeous, and I recommend it whole-heartedly. 

Landing in Florida was effortless, and other than the sometimes dead-eyed stare and aggressively inaudible mumble that I encountered on border control, it was the smoothest American crossing I’ve ever experienced. We got picked up by Adam’s angel grandad Roger, who proceeded to take us to his palace, displayed the two ridiculously delicious looking tequila bottles (Cozumel tequila nonetheless!) and letting us settle in. Amazing dinner, and then, at 21:30 local time (02:30 home-time) I ran out of people steam, and rushed to the safety of the bedroom to recharge, do some memoiring, and curl up and, not drift off, but completely zone out into lala land. 

Beautiful. Read more