Out and About Costa Blanca Magazine - June 2021 Issue -188

28 | OUT AND ABOUT COSTA BLANCA DEE’S TRAVELS
DEE’S TRAVELS
LIVING ABROAD –
GETTING THERE
I
started my globetrotting life in 1974,
yes, I’m really that old, just as I began
my writing career using a manual
typewriter – and I still can’t type without
looking at the keyboard. On social media
I’m known as the queen of typos. But
back to the travel, even in those mists of
time we left one country and arrived in
another by air.
I know some people are scared of
flying, but I love it. In fact, I can be very
badly behaved on aircraft, reacting like a
kid in a candy store.
My first experience was a trip from
London to Dublin for my grandfather’s
funeral. I’m sure, if there had been
enough time, we would have floated
over the Irish Sea by boat as before, but
time was not on our side.
My mother was absolutely terrified, I
think it must have been her first flight,
but I loved it and remember feeling very
superior as I sat calmly holding her hand
as I described everything I could see out
of the window. For some strange reason
she didn’t appear to be enjoying my
travel commentary, and my hand was
sore and bruised for days after.
My next airborne trip was to France,
where I was wedged into a tiny seat on a
Dan Air prop plane, next to a generously
proportioned lady holding an equally
large cactus on her lap. I arrived covered
in tiny pin pricks all over my hands and
wrists. It was my turn to sit rigid as the
plant life attacked me with every lurch in
the turbulent air pockets.
Flying to African of course, they
provided much larger aircraft, with dogeared
magazines to read, as much to eat
and drink as you could consume and
delightful packages of goodies. They
gave you socks, an eye shade, mouth
freshener, eye mist spray, ear plugs
and an assortment of creams and nice
smelly stuff to plaster all over yourself.
And too, they thoughtfully provided
a tiny toothbrush and paste and moist
refreshing wipes.
Before you even took off, they offered
a range of free newspapers, baskets of
boiled sweets, a steaming hot towel
proffered in tongs and, in those days
they hurried back to collect them, they
didn’t leave you immersed in a pile of
rubbish until the end of the flight. These
days, if you miss that black, plastic bag
as it speeds down the aisle, you’re out of
luck. On a bad day it’s like sitting in the
local rubbish dump.
I remember having the ability to open
the dinky food containers and eat before
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