2 Feb 9:35 pm
We are presently flying above somewhere in the middle east (there is a graphically super impressive guide available to where are are right now so we can’t claim that we are being kept in the dark but I find it dazzling and the way that it zooms out to show that we are just tiny specks on a stupid uncaring planet, makes me feel a bit uneasy). We are currently on the second leg of a three-leg journey. Melbourne to Singapore was, if not fine, at least there was novelty; this part, Singapore to Frankfurt, is just fucking gruelling dude. We were blessed with that most rare advantage of having three seats between us, but it is still really hard to get comfortable, as you know, in such a circumstance.
Who knows how we got an empty seat but if it is due to the insane boarding practices at Singapore I wouldn’t be at all surprised – just a huge crowd of people milling around doing nothing at the boarding gate, and someone calling out seat rows and the sign flashing ‘last boarding call’ – like, no-one was in charge (it’s organised chaos, an English woman said to us, which it wasn’t, it was disorganised chaos. But whatever). I said to Laura that it felt like it had the makings of a riot which was as she pointed out overegging the pudding as there weren’t enough people to riot but still. Crowds.
Now we have been on this flight for I genuinely have no idea how long, as I am so disoriented, it seems like a lot longer than it probably actually has been.
So far I’ve read a bad English detective novel, watched a pretty unexciting German film full of 70s morality and stereotypes and not in a good way, watched about 2/3 of The Untouchables, a film which of course I have seen before and might one day watch again from beginning to end, and started unsuccessfully a few other films that just straight up confused me, and watched the ‘Quilloughby’ episode of The Simpsons, which made a (pretty obscure in the scheme of things, but not insubstantial) point that you can really like things from long ago, but the people involved don’t stay the same and indeed might end up horrendous. The storyline is thus: all the kids are obsessed with some spotify-like app (I don’t think its ‘snatchify’ but something like that) and Lisa uses it to find something that doesn’t suck, and happens on Quilloughby and his band whose name I also forget but it’s a version of The Smiths obviously. Quilloughby himself becomes Lisa’s imaginary friend and educates her in withering put-downs. But then she goes to see him irl at a festival and he’s a gross boorish fat ractist who shoots raw (?) sausages at his audience. There’s a second plot running throughout wherein Homer gets a new truck – big fucking deal.
The Quilloughby storyline is pretty terrible but maybe mainly because The Simpsons is really terrible nowadays (I can usually hardly get through an episode). There was certainly nothing to laugh about. I think the fact that there is no recognition of The Smiths in the wider (US) culture that makes it really satire-worthy – they have to set up all the situations to knock them down. If I was any of the other Smiths I’d be very offended that they are caricatured at the end of the show as a reformed group and they are seen as just a backing band apparently happy to go along with whatever racist, pro-carnivore nonsense Quilloughby says. Anyway long story short, I could have done a lot better myself.
It's a bit ridiculous that I harped on about this for so long but what else do I have to do on this flight lol. Still got 6 hours and 23 minutes to go.
So far on this trip I have made the uber driver turn back because I couldn’t find my glasses in my bag (which led to him telling a story about a nurse who made him turn back for something crucial and it turned out to be a cup of coffee – I just hope I don’t end up being his next story about why he never turns back for anyone, because I did find my glasses in the bag). I did something else ridiculous too but luckily I can’t remember what it was. Oh I remember it wasn’t me doing something ridiculous but it was a bit of a farce, my car broke down earlier in the morning. Something to do with the alternator. I don’t know what that means, but I also do know what that means - $$$.
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