Creative Writing: Out The Window

(An example of fantastic time-wasting on a plane, this was all completed in my nice blue journal with my four colour pen while gazing out the window)

With the excitement of flying a distant memory (that rudely disappeared after the first 10 minutes) one must look within themselves to find a deeper sense of peace to calm the nerves and settle the paranoia. On discovering not a shred of peace within, I decide to look out the window instead.

Auckland to Honk Konk can be fondly described as... black, black, black (it is night time.) However the arrival is something to marvel at. Despite the fact I was rudely placed in a seat next to the wing (I have nothing against wings in fact I think they are very helpful- Id just prefer to be sitting somewhere else), the ugly view of metal conveniently tips towards the land exposing an incredible Lego-land below. I feel my eyebrows lift and suck in the recycled cabin air in an expression of awe. I now have a vivid picture of how so many people can populate one city. Towers of glass reach up towards the sky reflecting the early morning shades of apricot and blue, bouncing white reflections off each other as if the occupants were playing with magnifying glasses at their windows. Each cluster of identical glass buildings weaves its way through the hills and flat land creating intricate patterns which could only truly be admired from above. My mind wanders and images of dramatic Armageddon movies complete with flying rocks mix with the image of the glass skyline of Hong Kong, I can almost see the glass shattering and hear the screams. Hmm, a wandering mind can be a great place for a Hollywood movie script to form. I shake my head to rid it of the movie it was creating and sneak a glance at my neighbour in the seat next to me to make sure my craziness had remained inside my head - she was sleeping (still!! practically the whole flight!!) I snap a few pictures of the skyline to add to my future travel Album and am politely reminded by the air host (lovely guy) that all electronic equipment must be turned off for landing. I had heard the announcement but they specifically said cellphones, laptops and video cameras so I thought I had found a convenient loophole (never one to break a rule but great at locating loopholes!) The plane flies away from the glass towers and begins descending into a more remote valley surrounded by steep green hills. The airport comes into view and within minutes I'm digging my feet into the floor of the cabin to help the pilot slow the plane down on the tarmac. We taxi slowly through a maze of runways and eventually pull up to the caterpillar passageway which sucks itself onto the plane exterior conveniently providing the weary passengers with an air conditioned walkway to the international terminal.

Arriving at an airport without fans waiting is an unusual experience, I follow the crowd of people down the passageway as if I know exactly where I'm going. We end up in a large lounge where everyone expertly disperses down numerous hallways in all directions. I ask a nice looking lady at the transfer desk where to go (looks are deceiving!) she rudely points to her left and without looking at me growls; "over there".

Eventually I decide to rely on my own navigating skills (which I believe are quite good)and find all the departure information is in English (thank goodness!!) 6 hours passes like a slow boat to China (ha!). Sleeping on my carry-on bag on an uncomfortable bench at my next departure gate was likely the riskiest thing I did during my time in Hong Kong.


Thankfully I'm back in my next comfortable aeroplane seat, sitting conveniently next to the window though this time I'm not as lucky and don't have a spare seat next to me. My new neighbours seem quiet and serious (not my favourite kinds of people) so I don't make much of an effort to be friendly. Taking care to spread out as much as possible, I remove my belongings from my pack and stash them conveniently around myself. Take off is smooth, my feet brakes are not needed at all (that's a relief!) - its so odd how such a big metal beast can be so graceful and smooth when launching itself off the ground - pays not to think about such things, my over-active Hollywood script writing brain is starting up again!

Hong Kong is not at all what I expected. Who knows where my images of it had come from but I did not expect to see beautiful clusters of green clad islands wrapped in cream ribbons of rocky beach and dotted with many identical red fishing boats. The murky grey of the water reflected the smog enveloping the land as if to purposely ruin the cities effort to be an island paradise. Man made sand bars jutted out from the islands in unusual patterns like a Hong Kong version of the American crop circles. The islands eventually dissipate and merge into land mass which is mostly green and very ordinary.

Food is served conveniently distracting me from the now boring landscapes sliding past the window. My neighbours still look serious so I choose not to make small talk during lunch. It's not long and the distraction of eating is over, the window still reveals a boring slide show so I turn to my bag of goodies for entertainment.

12 hours in a plane is exceedingly boring, I was considering writing 12 hours worth of boredom but that would be a cruel way of sharing my pain with you so just imagine how it feels to regularly look at your watch when you're sure at least 2 hours has passed and discover its only been five minutes. Then add to that feeling of dismay the restriction of being stuck in a seat next to two serious non talkers, the seat in front of you is fully reclined, the view out the window is bland and you're bored with all the goodies in your carry on bag. aghh! What we need is a little excitement. Enter the bloodshot eyed NZ boy...

It's a story line straight from a soap opera or sitcom. I'm sitting in my seat gazing out the window and I hear my name. As you do when this happens you turn around expecting to see someone you know. A tall guy (about 25yrs old I guess) in a bright yellow T-shirt says in a very kiwi accent - "are you Rachel from New Zealand?" I stumble and have to think if I know the answer to his question "ah yeah I think so" I answer after a pause. My two serious neighbours seem quite interested in our odd conversation (who wouldn't be after numerous hours of nothingness?). Yellow T-shirt guy explains that he is sitting in front of a NZ girl I had met earlier in Hong Kong and she had remembered my seat number. They thought it would be fun to hang out so I was cordially invited to follow him up to the front of the plane where they were sitting. My serious neighbours were now not so thrilled as this meant they had to get off their tooshes to let me out. We meet up the front of the plane and squat in the aisle chatting about nothing in particular as you do with total strangers. Finding we are entirely in everybodies way we move to the air hostesses area where my New Zealand buddies ask for more alcohol (being that I am rather naive I had not made the connection between yellow T-shirt guys blood shot eyes and inability to walk in a straight line). Yellow T-shirt guy proudly launches into conversation explaining that he had been caught smoking in the toilets and will be taken into police custody when we arrive in Germany. (That explains the announcement earlier from a rather annoyed sounding captain that smoking was not allowed on board and we were all lucky we were not landing at the nearest airport in Russia to kick off the culprit) Yellow T-shirt guy spills his beer all over the floor in mid conversation and watches it trickling down the aisle with a grin on his face. An exasperated air host comes over to clean up the mess. At this point I'm starting to feel somewhat uncomfortable, however it was when yellow T-shirt guy stole the bottle of red wine, broke a glass and spilt NZ girls glass of wine on the floor that I decided to make a swift exit. Backing away I said good-bye to my NZ buddies who were disappointed I was obviously out of my comfort zone. As I walked past a disapproving air hostess I heard myself say "I'm not with them they are Australian" hee hee, funny what comes out of your mouth in a tricky situation. I was entirely relieved to get back to my serious neighbours. Deciding they weren't so bad after all I began chatting with the Chinese girl next to me who surprisingly had a strong British accent. We didn't swap names but I did find out she worked for World Vision in Hong Kong and was on her way to London to visit her family. We were able to chat here and there for the rest of the flight. There's a good lesson for me against making judgements about people based on how serious or fun they appear to be!!!

Ahh, so I had heaps more creative writing about the beautiful sights I later saw out my window including drunken winding rivers, bald mountains, miles of snowy mountain ranges which dissappeared into sandy desert and hours of observing uninhabitable lands from the comfort of my safe aeroplane seat. I must have drafted at least 5 Hollywood movie scripts in my crazy mind during the flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt. Which reminds me, I have said nothing about what Germany looked like from the plane, in 30 words: imagine a luscious tree-laden land where all of the houses looked identical (red roofs, cream walls) and were nestled in suburb sized groupings with larger buildings here and there. That's exactly what I saw flying into, then out of Frankfurt, though I seriously doubt it is all like that.

Anyway, there is some creative writing for you, most of which I drafted on my flight, taking up at least 2 - 3 hours of flying time!!

until next time...Farvel!