The Orange Book

21/10/98 Doha, Qatar
The toughest decision of the day so far has been which end to start the journal from. Since leaving the comfortable and familiar surroundings of Shrewsbury to this moment, all I have had to do is follow signs, queue in queues, and take in the experience of my first international plane flight. I have flown once before, albeit in a small four-seat prop plane with my grandparents, but that was many years ago, and it was far more exciting and magical than this. This is something millions of people do every day.

Getting to Heathrow through the London rush hour with a rucksack and a jumbo kitbag to weigh me down, that had to be borne with acceptance. I had to get to where I was going, I needed a minimum amount of space down aisles and on trains, and there was no way I could physically occupy less space than that of my bags and myself. This was something several city commuters took muted exception to, restraining themselves to the odd ‘tut’ or withering look. I just turned a deaf eye and started the Chuang Tzu, which is undoubtedly a better read than this, so there’s an excuse if you want to stop reading now.

At Heathrow, we were all in the same boat, everybody occupying their own space of varying size, constantly gazing at 15 degrees above the horizontal to take in any relevant or misleading information from the displays dotted around. I followed the signs guiding me towards Qatar Airlines flight QR350, destination Doha. Starting out on an intrepid foot, I decided to carry my bags around, not resorting to the conveniently placed luggage trolleys. Only when well clear of any trolleys did I begin to appreciate their functional, luggage-carrying beauty. My shoulder reminded me of this as I sat in an immense waiting lounge, reading and watching other people waiting. The seats weren’t quite comfortable enough for a proper lounge - they had a peculiar property that made me feel the plane was about to leave. When I had out-waited many around me, my flight showed on the screens as boarding and I moved to a smaller lounge with the same seats, though this time it was the size of the room that suggested that departure was imminent.