I didn't write the book proposal on the plane.
But I did manage to get packed in time and as usual was over cautious about getting to the airport on time and arrived three and a half hours before the plane was due to leave.
But it didn't matter - it was exciting to be going on holiday and the time passed quickly and we were soon on the plane, heading for Thailand. I had said to my girlfriend as we headed towards the gate that knowing our luck we'd end up sitting to a fat man who farted throughout the whole nine hour flight to Bangkok. In fact, I stated that I was 100% certain that my girlfriend would.
As it turned out some clever online checking in from me had ensured we had a spare seat to the left of us and the aisle to the right. We'd been assigned seats next to a couple, but I noticed that there was a single seat taken in the row behind and guessed that if we took two of the other three seats then it was unlikely another solo traveller would take the one inbetween us. My plan worked brilliantly. I am an evil genius. Although the real issue with international travel is the amount of room you get in front of you, not to the side and once the man in front of me put his seat back to his full extent, I was, like a character in a sit-com stuck trying to read in a tiny space. I put my own seat back, to the chagrin of the woman behind me, now finding herself in the same situation I had just been in. Why can't we all just keep our seats upright? Then this wouldn't happen. Or better still, why can't there be a rule that only I can put my seat back.
The flight passed relatively quickly though and I got some reading done. I read
Decoding the Heavens by Jo Marchant, an interesting examination of a complicated piece of machinery found in a shipwreck from the 1st century BC, involving technology that it was not thought that people at this time possessed. I worried this could all have been Erich Von Daniken territory (though predictably that author did claim that the artefact had been created by aliens) but it was a more reasonable and scholarly look at how scientists worked out what this mechanism was and what it probably did. It's a pretty interesting story, though the rivalry between different men trying to work out what the device was for and their desire to be the one who cracked the enigma did set back the pace of their research slightly.
I then started on Stephen King's latest book
11-22-63. I have never read one of his books before (though have enjoyed the films based on his work) and was interested in the time-travel aspect of this one. Anyone who follows this blog will know how fascinated I am by the TV show "Goodnight Sweetheart". As it turns out this book is much more similar to that show than I could have imagined. There's a very similar plot device of a portal in time which takes the hero back to 1958, though it's different enough for me to pretty sure that King is not a fellow fan of the disappointing 1990s sit-com. I haven't got too far into the book yet, though it suffers a little from the usual trouble of time travel books, even though it discusses the issue. Even if you change a tiny event in the past (especially one such as saving a girl from being shot as happens early in this book) then that would have devastating effects on the future. Not just on her life, but on everyone around her, changing who lives and dies, who is born, Fifty odd years later the world would be a very different place. Not just for her.
We all have the power to completely alter the future. Tomorrow night if you were meant to be going out, then stay in (or vice versa). The evening will be slightly different for all the people you wouldn't have encountered (or vice versa) and everyone they encounter. Just slowing someone down a few seconds by chatting to them or bumping into them would change their life. If you were able to see the result of both time-lines the world would be completely different thanks to you and your amazing time changing powers.
But I am enjoying the book though. I think the latest Woody Allen thing is a similarly Goodnight Sweetheart style homage. Maybe Gary Sparrow has more influence on great art than we know.
I did manage a small amount of sleep, which was lucky because my girlfriend said that while I was asleep someone had done a really horrible fart. I can't imagine who it was. She had no idea.
