11.30.08
The Red Carpet Club
The move is complete - I guess. I’m in Oxford at any rate… But all my stuff is still sailing across the ocean as we speak.
 I got to know my tiny pillow real well. (No, this is not me…) |
The flight across the pond was calm and a good chance for me to catch up on some much-needed sleep, but it was the random meeting before the flight that was most unusual.
I was sending a last-minute text to a friend - one of my last chances to text in the US - when I heard a voice say, “Matt?…”
I looked up - as I usually do when I hear my name - and there was a face from the past looking back at me. Keith, a friend from my freshman dorm at college, was standing there, suitcase in hand. “Wow Keith! I haven’t seen you in years, what are you up to?”
“I’m going off on a business trip - you?”
“Moving to England.”
This was obviously not the answer he expected, but he had one for me in return.
“Wow! Are you on the 10 o’clock to London also?…”
“Why yes! Yes I am!”
 If it were anything like this, I would fly first-class all the time… |
So at least I had an old friend to hang out with to while away the time before my flight. For the record, the airport is a really empty place on the day after Thanksgiving… But there was more in store for me, as Keith and his boss were flying business class, so they were going to the Red Carpet Club.
This is where I had to reluctantly inform them that since I did not work for a bio-tech company, and rather was an out-of-work chef, I was naturally flying coach.
“No problem, you will come as my guest,” said Keith’s boss. And so we all went in together to drink away our wait in the quiet, comfortable lounge.
I had only been in one Red Carpet Club before, and this was in Bangkok. Indeed, this is a different way to fly for those of us who are not accustomed to it. The return to the “regular” lounge when our flight was boarding was quite the shock to my system. “Is this where I always hang out before flights?” I thought to myself. “With all these screaming kids and large families running around at full volume?”
Then I remembered, “Of course I do - it’s why I hate airports.”
Well, the rest of the flight was rather uneventful, and soon I was reunited with my lovely wife in London. But there is more story there that I will save for another time… In the meantime, I still have to track down Keith’s email so I can thank him for my time in the Red Carpet Club. The funny thing was, he and his boss disappeared after the flight, and I couldn’t find them no matter how hard I looked.
Had I dreamed the whole thing?…
Stumble it!
