The Age of Anticipation

Anticipation is a thing of beauty.
It has the power to make the weekend feel months away or stretch the excitement of an impending event out of proportion and into the weeks prior. Any retiree will lay testimony to the importance of having something to look forward to, something to pencil into the calendar, brag to the neighbours about and meticulously prepare for in the chance of unpredicted weather.
I use this reasoning to justify my next statement.
... I love aeroplane food.
That is to say that I loved the aeroplane food we had on our flights back to England. Now I should explain that I am judging it on consideration of past experiences with these high flying lunch boxes and with respect for the cooks who have to prepare 350+ meals to be taken 30000 ft into the air with sensitivity to allergies, cultural differences and costing. But lets be honest, the real reason I enjoyed my meal so much was the sheer anticipation of an activity outside the mundane 14 hours of small screens, limited leg room, crying babies and duty free shopping. Where the most exciting thing you experience after take off is when the kid next to you barfs into a bag and the elderly American lady with the headphones up too loud, releases a deafening roar with laughter having first experienced the hilarity of grown men dressing like women in Little Britain (true stories).

There's no denying it. When the first squeaks of that clunky food trolley echo through the cabin, sleeping masks are lowered, bodies stir, necks arch and little heads poke there way up the corridor all trying to pretend that this event isn’t the most exciting thing that has happened to them in the last 12 hours. Long haul travel is a bit like retirement isn’t it? New aches and pains, dressing for maximum comfort, a heightened level of impatience and general intolerance and the all important anticipation of an event involving food.
To all this the taste takes a back seat really. We could be served old porridge and we would still be excited.
Our meal was however not porridge but a tray of shiny individually packaged items including a bread roll, 'Thai' salad with coriander and chilli, fruit salad consisting entirely of melon, a tim-tam and a rice dish with some sort of satisfyingly sweet and sour sauce next to grey bok choy. All in all a satisfying way to kill an hour and fill that hole that has remained empty since you woke up at 3am, was too tired to eat and then too emotional about saying goodbye to even notice you were hungry.
The real culinary adventure is when you set foot in that new country you arrive in. Stay tuned.

x laura