Land of the Brave

It has been a hectic time of the last couple of weeks which sadly has impacted my blogging time. But now normal service has been resumed.

At the start of July I took a trip to Scotland for our Annual sales kick off event. I really enjoy visiting Scotland and the highlight of the week for me was a visit to the wonderful steak restaurant at the Champany Inn situated in Linlithgow. Last time I went (some years ago) I ordered a rather immense Porterhouse that was still on fire when it arrived, however this time I went for a rib-eye and it was a much more manageable size and just as tasty to boot. The restaurant while small, has a real sense of occasion with wood paneled walls and Scottish hunting artifacts hung around the place. I like walking in and looking at the live lobster and oyster pool and on our arrivals the steaks were being rested:




A few years ago I went on a Stag weekend to Edinburgh and I vaguely recall having a fantastic night out in a pub called the "Three Sisters" I went back to reminisce:



This time it was a much more sedate affair, I left the twenty rugby boys and fancy dress at home. We had an enjoyable evening in Edinburgh and I certainly enjoyed all the new (to me) bars in George Street particular Tiger Lilly where there super cool atmosphere made a great accompaniment to delicious Mojito's.

The return to Dubai via Glasgow airport was hectic through the all the holidaymakers and the Emirates flight was totally packed. As a gold skywards member I was impressed that they had a list of us and we were treated especially well and we even got upgraded. With the number of families with young children I thought the escape to the haven of the Business class cabin would be bliss. I could not be more wrong.

As I sat their enjoying the latest podcast from David Pogue I could hear a very distinct high pitched wailing from a young child which continued for the whole flight. Now I do not really mind this but me and my fellow business cabin travelers had a few other things to contend with. Two hours into the flight a passenger collapsed in the cabin. The Emirates staff to their credit, were excellent in their response got him the medical attention he needed (he was smiling and joking by the time we landed) and even located a doctor on board to check him out.

While this was happening and the cabin crew were dashing around ,the chaps in the seat in front of us decided to recline. However a strange clicking sound indicated the in-seat motor had broken and the chair back nearly ended up on my seat-mate's legs:




The staff were unable to fix it, so the passenger who had reclined ended up in the rather unusual position of being full reclined for landing - probably not the best thing to have happened.

At the end of this week I will be boarding another Emirates flight back to the UK for a small vacation. I hope to have a much more restful flight this time - even in economy.