why wy?

"Please put your reading material down. This is a big plane with many doors.''
how else do you get passengers to pay attention to the safety video that they've seen a zillion times?

The british airways flight crew also announced that they were screening the bbc news, in a slightly apologetic tone: "'not the latest i'm afraid, it's a few days old.'' It was as if the steward was offering slightly squashed scones to a homesick englishman.

This is way too nerdy - blogging from a plane, even though it's not live. Thankfully I didn't pack the camera, otherwise the food pictures will be up at airlinemeals.net. It was butter chicken with basmati rice, by the way, which is, i guess, what english food is all about these days.

Interesting facts I've learned from the inflight magazine:

- a really old fashioned hot water flask, the kind you associate with ck tang and old shanghai, is selling for 14 pounds at the conrad shop, which is uber designer and uber trendy. mum says the flask is so old that it's before her time. Think double happiness symbol and gaudy flowers.

- a group of people cycle nude in seattle. it started out as a creative protest, then became a way of embracing health and ''promoting a positive body image''. Of course, they are not really nude - cyclists have to wear a helmut or cop a $30 fine.

- the osim idesire (i hate all these copiers of the imac) looks like it could be a shoe-in for 1) designer torture chair with arm manacles 2) darth vader's or dr evil's seat of power 3) my prefered airplane seat instead of this elbow-bumping 30cm by 50cm cube of a seat. plus the veneer of evil is always attrative.

- a pub in chelsea, london serves pigs ears. as a dish, not a handbag. deepfried. look for pub pig ear if you're in the area.

- stockholm is pretty sexy, like top sexy for hotels and getaways. according to a guide - mr and mrs smith: europe.

- the competition for the greatest liar in the world takes place in santon bridge, uk. entrants have to convince the judges in a 5 min speel. the contest is not open to politicans or lawyers.