Plane crazy

I love plane travel with kids. I love the whingeing as you wait in the departure lounge. I love paying $18 to buy pancakes to stop the whingeing for five minutes. I love when they have two mouthfuls of the $18 pancakes, announce they taste funny and refuse to eat the rest. I love when they announce they’re “busting” at a climactic moment during your first plane movie. I love the weird things airlines serve in kids’ meals (fancy macaroni cheese in a puddle of honey soy chicken Sprog 2? Why on earth not?). I love them needing to wee (again) just as your glass of chardy has been placed on your meal tray. I love juggling two food trays while simultaneously untangling two seat belts and sets of headphones plus the handball on a string you thought was such a cool idea in the airport gift shop. I love getting to the toilet and finding someone has left a dirty nappy on the floor. I love it when you get back and they spill their cup of apple juice all over their meal, tray, clothes, shoes and comfort blankie, burst into tears and refuse to eat anything. I love that the airline serves ice-creams for dessert but only has enough for the adult passengers. I love that the airline doesn’t understand how important Diet Coke is to me during times of stress and will only serve drizzles of the precious stuff in plastic cups because they “might run out”. I love that Husband can have whole cans of beer whenever he feels like it.
But there’s one thing I absolutely hate: when Husband offers me his seat across the aisle and I’m forced to watch hilarious back-to-back instalments of Episodes (Matt le Blanc’s new show, loving his “third arm” riff) while drinking endless cups of chardy and Diet Coke, as Husband assembles various origami dog breeds from a kit I bought the Sprogs. Yep, that bit was terrible.
LAST NIGHT’S MENU: Chucked our bags into the hotel room in Singapore and headed straight across the road to our old-favourite Fatty’s for Indonesian prawns in a spicy coconut sauce, beef kway teow noodles and salty, crispy roast chicken. Yum!