Because I am jet-lagged, this post will be weird. I apologize in advance.
I’m having my morning tea right now. This will hopefully help my jet-lag. (I just returned from England, which means an eight-hour time difference). Plus, the night before the flight, I only got about three hours sleep. Why? Tea. I had a lovely afternoon tea at Richoux in London, but I guess the afternoon caffeine was too much for my system. So tea hurteth, and tea cureth. Tea giveth, and tea taketh away.
Did I mention this post will be weird? Yes, it’s a tour of things Cara drank while in England. Or, in some cases, didn’t drink.
When I was in England, I drank a lot of cider. I love hard cider. I don’t know why. I can’t drink wine (it gives me migraines.) I hate beer. I never liked hard liquor. But cider is just beautiful. Cider dances in the brain and on the tongue.
I did say I was weird today, right???
Speaking of things Cara didn’t drink…
On the flight back, for some reason the flight attendants tried to dehydrate me. And this was on Virgin Atlantic, which in that past I’ve always been very impressed by!!! But this time, instead of coming around frequently to give us liquids to drink, they instead came around with food accompanied by NOTHING to drink. No water. No soda. No nothing. And no liquids in between. They did this multiple times. I still have the headache.
So, what gives, Virgin Airlines??? Did you suddenly decide that water costs too much???
I did complain. The flight attendants took this as a personal criticism (which I found very odd) and just told me that there was water in the galley. They told me this eight hours into the flight. Telling me this earlier would have been nice. And they never did tell me where the galley was. Or explain the logic behind giving one a tray full of food, and then expecting one to somehow get up (which is impossible with the tray table down, of course — and where am I supposed to put the food???) and get water from the galley. And if we all did this, think of the chaos!!! No, not a workable system.
And so I say again: what gives, Virgin Atlantic??? Are you trying to make me switch my loyalties to British Airways or American Airlines, despite your cool seatback entertainment systems with twenty movies to choose from??? Because it’s working. Watching movies is cool, but having no headache is still cooler.
Cara (who had a very good time in England, actually)
what? No Guiness???
Actually, I told the stewardesses to withhold water. Out of pure envy, of course!
I’ll bet it just made you wish you were back in England drinking hard cider!
Welcome back, Cara.
I can’t believe you hate beer. Wow. More for me, then, I guess.
And that is weird about the water thing. Air travel is VERY dehydrating.
Not everyone has to like beer. Tastes vary. For instance, an acquaintance of mine once got me a can of some Chinese beverage (whose name I have thankfully forgotten). He said, “Try this. They make it out of grass.” I thought, no way would people drink something that actually tastes like grass, so I tried it. It tasted like grass. Bleah. But apparently enough people drink this stuff of their own free will that someone bothers to put it in cans.
A very weird thing about the lack-of-water-on-the-flight thing is that, in my experience of international flight, they are constantly wandering around and offering you water. They wake you up in the middle of the night to ask you if you want water. You have to beat them away with a stick if you don’t want water. So it is very strange.
Todd-who-is-not-a-ruminant
Now I am really afraid to fly. No water with the food! No water the entire flight! I don’t drink the *spirits* but on a plane, I’d probably want the toxic stuff. Straight whiskey, unless you ladies have recommendations for the best *nerve-numbing* drink for flying across an ocean. I so want to go to Europe one day.
Okay, so I cannot spell this morning. I need to go out and garden.
Jane, I’m sure this water thing is not normal for airlines! But I think from now on I’m just going to bring a big bottle of water on with me, just in case. So you can always do that!
And Megan, you can definitely have my beer.
Speaking of strange drinks, a Russian I once knew threw a party at which I foolishly asked for a glass of a weird beverage (I’ve forgotten what it was called) which was basically nonalcoholic beer. That is, it wasn’t so much a beer for someone who didn’t want alcohol, as just a drink made like beer without the fermenting bit. It was a sort of soft drink, I guess, but I thought it was really horrible. And I had a whole glass of it I had to do something with… Ack!
Cara
Last time I was in England I went on a Guiness jag. Next time it’s going to be cider. Apple and/or pear. Beautiful cider… 🙂
I’ve never had water witheld from me on a flight (that’s just weird!) but I do always carry a big bottle of water. Just in case. And a bottle of moisturizing mist, which is great for the skin.
I’m not much of a beer drinker either. That is why I like cider. It is like beer, only good.
But tea is my true vice. I knock back tea morning, noon, and night. One time I was in Italy, where coffee is the state religion (just ahead of Roman Catholicism), and I asked for tea instead of coffee after dinner. The waiter looked at me in a bewildered fashion and asked if I was sick.
Todd-whose-day-begins-like-his-name-with-“T”
I do admit, I have a sneaking fondness for Guinness, though. How can you not like a drink that looks like motor oil?
Todd-who-doesn’t-actually-drink-motor-oil
Well, you all know how I feel about ale. Lucky for me I like American microbrews a lot, too, or I’d be even more jealous of Cara. 🙂