I’m normally exceptionally tolerant of flying, especially of very long distances. I stock up on books, watch a couple of movies and listen to lots of music. Coupled with the meals, walking around, a bit of sleep and the trip, regardless of how long it is, seems to go by pretty quickly. I found out that having decent passengers sharing the same block of seats makes a huge difference, and as a result, my flight to Calgary had to be one of the worst ever.

I had the window seat and the misfortune of sitting next to one of the least respectful passengers I’ve ever flown with. Firstly, he smelt real bad to the point where I wanted to offer him some deoderant. Secondly, he was extremely wide, often invading what little space I already had. He was so big that his belly touched the table when it folded down and constantly squirmed at different angles to sit comfortably. The final straw was how he took it upon himself to use both arm rests to their fullest, and this will sound childish, crossing over into my chair space. Without knowing it, twice he changed my video channel (it was definitely on the wrong armrest), and once, triggered the attendant call.

Let’s just say that I was one happy bloke to get off into the fresh Calgary air.