Darling, must keep reminding yourself that the dazed feelings – euphoria or despair – you feel when you get off the plane in new country are not real feelings. They seem real, but it’s just that potent combination of jetlag, exhaustion, joy and worry that the passport control people won’t let you in (truth to tell, I still get teary-eyed when they say “welcome home”!)
Moments from travel:
Beauty at 35,000 feet: on one 14-hour flight, sat next to woman with no face cream or face spray or refreshing spritzer, nothing! I was longing to offer her some of my (many!) supplies, but it felt intrusive, but Darling, never do this – it’s like laying in the sun for 6 hours without sunscreen
Trust at 35,000 feet: on another flight, the woman next to me asked if I had any aspirin. I said that I didn’t live in the States so I had another kind of headache medicine that worked as well as aspirin, and handed over some tablets still in their foil packet. And she took them, without even knowing what they were. Brave? Fool-hardy? I suppose I have an honest face.
Happiness in the airline lounge: men in suits trying to work on laptops while sitting on the floor of the kids playground area
Sadness in the airline lounge: woman drinking white wine at 9am, standing up and saying “carry my purse” to her teenage daughter (who I really hope will write a tell-all book when she’s 30)
Happiness while shopping:
Salesclerk: Barbiecore! I love it!
Me: (looking down at my raspberry pink dress which is 5 years old) Thanks – I think it’s important to be on trend!
Sadness while shopping: Darling, there is no sadness while shopping (unless you are being ridiculous and go seriously over your budget, which I never would, even when confronted with the Ponte Vecchio, the Ragamuffin store in Edinburgh, Jim Thompson’s or a good spice souq.)
Someone I met during vacation made fun of this website (sigh) and of course that got me a little down. “How can YOU write about telling other people how to behave?” is not a welcome question. I pondered it for a few days, but then something interesting happened.
I had 3 flights in a row, 2 different airlines and of course we know the rule: 2 carry-ons only. But I had a small, 4-wheel roller bag, my large purse and a tote bag. And at check-ins and security, I heard sales clerks and security personal telling others to re-pack because only 2 carry-ons were allowed. No one said boo to me.
At one gate, the person who was checking boarding passes sent the woman ahead to me back to the seating area to repack her 3 tote bags into 2. But not a word about my 3 (larger!) carry-ons. And that woman and I were around the same age and same ethnicity so I didn’t think there was any particular bias. How did I manage to navigate with 3 carry-ons? Upon reflection, I think it’s my natural glow of virtuousness that works as a force-field which blinds people to my lesser transgressions.
That’s my story and I am sticking with in.
How To Behave - Etiquette Central 