Weeknotes #109

Having boarded our flight to Türkiye (estimated flight time of three and a half hours) with a two- and a four-year old, E—— received a text from the airline telling us our flight had been delayed two hours.

We deployed every form of entertainment we had on us before the plane had even left the gate: a “scratch pad”, two magnetic “doodle pads” and my Nintendo Switch.

As I walked down the aisle of the plane, every tray table had some sort of tablet propped up. I’d wager more than half were showing one of the ten Fast & Furious films.

We had hoped A—— (the two-year old) would sleep given we didn’t land until midnight UK time but no, she only grew more and more restless as time passed even as her older brother nodded off next to her. Eventually, after a rousing medley of nursery rhymes in the taxi to our accommodation, she drifted off in her car seat.

We spent ten days with my parents, swimming with the kids and eating a diet of mostly chips and ice cream.

We’re now on the flight home after a shorter delay of half an hour (A—— spent it by mostly shouting “Hello!” at every passenger in sight). I’ve disabled C——’s usual 30 minute time limit on the Switch even though I discovered he has overwritten my save for “A Short Hike”.

Upon boarding the return flight, there was a commotion behind me as a grandmother realised with great displeasure her young grandson had left his iPad in the airport bathroom (“what did I say to you before we got on the plane?!”). Miraculously, she managed to negotiate with the airline staff and go back into the terminal building to successfully retrieve it. Still, young Jaden is unlikely to forget the absolute drubbing he received from nana today.

Before we left, I downloaded several hours of podcasts and a new book on my Kindle. The unbridled optimism of doing so is staggering to me now. Who was this imagined father of two staying with his elderly parents, able to take in some light tech news, bad film reviews and the final book of the Cicero trilogy?