Flying away - 26 October 2020 No1

Today is my wedding anniversary.  Happy 29th anniversary Dianne!   Sorry I’m spending it flying away to my new role in the Falkland Islands. 

In the departure lounge

As I pen this I am 40,000 feet up in the air above the Atlantic coast of Senegal in an Air Tanker aircraft about to make its decent into Dakar to refuel.  Dawn is breaking - and the sky is quickly transitioning from inky black, through deep purple to blue.  There are fiery clouds reflecting the sun’s light.  The outside temperature - according to the telemetry - has been as cold as -60C.  It’s warming up a little - to a balmy -38C.  Its interesting just how cold the air is so close to the equator at altitude.  I’m in window seat 31K on the starboard side where there is little to see other than pale blue sky and cloud.  As the aircraft tracks southward I can concentrate on writing as all the kaleidoscope effects of dawn and perhaps a vista of the African coast are on the other side.  Interestingly, for me at least, the pilot has just announced we’ve had to enter a holding pattern.  The mist I can see from my window needs to ‘burn off’ before the aircraft can land!  I’ve just had my first glimpse of Dakar - it appears to be surprisingly geometric - at least from altitude.

For the last 5 hours or so I’ve been in my own little dark cosy bubble - comfy neck pillow, snood face covering, a surprisingly effective eye mask and for the latter part noise cancelling headphones.  I got some fitful sleep.  Until I put the headphones I’d been in ‘power management mode.’  Whilst I’ve no shortage of gadgets - and felt somewhat embarrassed at security displaying them all - I’ve been in ‘power management mode’ instinctively.  If my children read this I’m sure they’ll laugh - or rather I hope they’Il laugh.  I certainly remember the angst I felt having to pick up the pieces when their gadgets ran out of power and attempting to instil in them the need to predict and manage your energy usage so you were always able to communicate.  You can see why I was a very content electric car owner.  Never once did I get close to running out of power in 3.5 years of motoring in a car that on a cold day only had a range of 85 miles.

I suspect in the ensuing couple of years or so - when I will be largely away from family and friends - I will have plenty of time to contemplate.  One of my mates - Phill - said before I left that this would be an opportunity to be anything I wanted to be.  I could completely re-invent myself.  I would appear to have that opportunity.   Certainly I have been enjoying starting to clear out the clutter of my previous roles and lives.  But that exercise has only just started.  I yearn for the day when my phone simply has family and real friends names and numbers.  That I suspect is some way off though as I find myself, in addition to starting a new job, to be in the midst of two large commercial transactions one of which at least involves the sale of many of these contacts.

Dakar

So will this time in the South Atlantic be transformative?  Dianne’s comment on the potential for a personal metamorphosis was I suspect closer to the mark - “you’re too settled in the way you are.”  We shall see.  

In my quieter moments I do question myself why I leapt at the chance to work in the Falklands.   In the past I feel I have let my reticence get the better of me and turned down chances, opportunities and adventures.  In contrast I’ve seen my son fly off to the Far East and find work (albeit cut short by Covid) and become a legend whilst walking from Frodsham to Santiago in Spain.  If he can do it with youth, penury and inexperience surely I can do it with age, experience and resources?  I’m not going to be roughing it or so I hope!

So why fly away on my wedding anniversary?  It is far from ideal I accept.  However for Dianne and me this time of year is replete with potentially inconvenient dates.  If you made everyone in the family acknowledge each of them we’d do nothing from October to New Year.  In my view it would also be unreasonable to expect my new employer to wait for me to the New Year.  Just imagine the joy of flying away in December!  If it is any consolation I’m heading into a fortnight of quarantine when I land and I’m set to spend my birthday ‘locked up.’  Had I waited until my birthday we would be uncomfortably close to Christmas - hence accepting the 26 October.

We’re still in a holding pattern over Dakar.  The fog - which wasn’t predicted according to the pilot still hasn’t gone.  Twenty-nine years ago we had an eerie even white sky as we were married.  Cold but great for photography.