You know your holiday is off to a good start when you get upgraded to Business Class. It was very welcome after an eight-hour first leg in a seat designed for midgets (and whose big idea is it to stick the airplane equivalent of the interactive TV set-top box under seats? it means that you can't stretch your legs out in front of you) and a three-hour layover in an airport that's stuck in the 70s (ie, no Internet and no hot showers).



I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't already fatigued by the previous 10 hours. I actually fell asleep between the courses of the meal. Yes, courses. You ordered from a menu and are served course by course, on fine china, glassware, set on crisp, thick table linen.

But the cutlery was still plastic. I suppose just in case terrorists get upgraded too.


High tea took on a different meaning at 15,000 feet altitude.