Here I am in some place I cant pronouce on the way to the United Kingdom. Its the capital I think of Brunei, having been spat out here temporarily by Royal Brunei airlines on transit to the United Kingdom.
After that deeply symbolic graduation ceremony I needed a deeply symbolic journey, and what better than Ol' Blighty.
The trip so far has been uneventful, no doubt the extremely thorough prayer the plane received prior to taxiing off was effective though profoundly obscure to me. The prayer temple next to the toilets (and the toilets themselves) were a cultural wakeup call - I must write a page AboutReligiousPracticePenetratingSecularLife.
I watched Chronicles of Riddick on a tiny screen that folded out from under my feet. Seems the style book from Lord of the Rings combined with Buck Rogers, and some neat shots of Vin Diesel doing rope tricks does not quite a Cannes winner make. But lovely to look at.
Dont know if I had been able to order some alcohol if that would've made it better, but it was interesting.
Their in-flight entertainment system seemed to run on Linux, according to some messages I saw scuttling past while loading a part of the comprehensive entertainment menu. Allah must approve of GNU/Linux.
Now I've got another quite-a-lot hours ahead of me in a plane seat, and then the UK!!! History!! Culture! Old friends! Can hardly wait.
Next: 18 October - London