Where on earth are we?

Hilarious… I’m sitting on TOM76 flight from Gatwick to Mombasa, sitting in seat 23E.  The Kenyan forms have all been passed around, and whilst people are filling out the forms I’ve switched on the inflight entertainment to watch a movie to while away the nine hours the flight takes.  I don’t know whether it’s a sign or not but the obvious choice from the list of 6 or 7 films is… wait for it… We Bought A Zoo!  For those regular readers, this film is based on a book Benjamin Mee wrote about his experiences when buying Dartmoor Zoo… the zoo I go and teach at, and where a photo I took of their cheetah, Sita, has pride of place as the entrance sign to the park. 

Oh… it turns out there’s an issue with the entertainment system, it’s playing the homeward bound movies rather than the outbound films so it looks like I’m not going to be able to watch the film on the way to Mombasa… I hope that’s not a sign either!  I’ll let them off though as on the new select is a film a bout bird watching… The Big Year (also based on a true story).

2.17am…. Malta Airport… bet that surprise you?  It surprised us.  Five hours into flight and the plane had to divert from Libyan airspace back to Malta as a passenger had to be removed from the aircraft due to abusive and dangerous behaviour.  Information was sparse to ensure the passenger was remained subdued; word had got round what was really happening so that when the individual was escorted from the plane by Maltese police a round of applause was given, however this was short lived when we were told that the due to air flight regulations the crew now had to have 12 hours rest before the journey could continue and you could see passengers calculating how much of their holiday they were now loosing due to this one individual.  It’s also caused us issues with our Safari, and several text messengers have been sent to our contact in Kenya to inform him of our predicament.

Three hundred (not Spartans) passenger are now decamped to the departure lounge in the airport, but as of yet we have not seen a representative from the holiday company, in fact there aren’t any officials visible, neither are there any places to get a drink, food and there certainly isn’t any way of getting any rest.  It could turn into Lord of the Flies any second though as one set of passengers have just taken a birthday cake in the shape of a caterpillar and are cutting it into slices.  With the general unrest (due to lack of rest) it could all turn very ugly if anyone gets a whiff of the chocolate cake… and it will certainly become riotous if and when someone from the airline arrives.  More news as it happens… andrew skelton.. malta airport… news at 2.30am.

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