Cold sweat

It's funny the kind of thing that can cause a cold sweat, the uncontrollable body response to the feeling of slightly irrational panic. Today I was intrigued and slightly concerned at the cause of mine. Being sat at 37,0000 feet with my knees wedged against the back of the seat in front of me is not unusual, I have been here before, quite a few times as it happens. I checked my passport recently and calculated that I have effectively flown completely around the world fifteen times, been exposed to more background radiation than Superman and breathed more stale air than a deep sea diver. Despite being a seasoned traveller, I have never really got used to turbulence and if there is one thing sure to ratchet my heart rate up a notch or two it is a sudden drop in altitude followed by a few judders and wobbles and the seatbelt sign being turned on hurriedly. This however does not induce the aforementioned cold sweat it merely reminds me that I am mortal and that I am powerless to affect a safe arrival at my destination, I am reliant entirely on others.

No, today's clamminess was brought on by something seemingly far less important than the discovery of fatigue cracks in the wings or the demise of an engine but, it appears, more important for my general well being. It was a discovery of sorts though, the realisation that I was sat with eleven days of China and Malaysia stretched out in front of me and no mains adaptor plug. In short, no way to charge the tools that I have become so dependant on for connecting to the world and people that I love at home. My reaction frightened me, a moment of panic, despair, sadness, anger that I had forgotten to buy one at Heathrow and cold cold sweat. Mid-movie I entered damage limitation and survival mode and fully shutdown everything that I wouldn't be able to charge: ipad, laptop, psvita. I spent time working out how long I could maintain communication if I rationed the amount of time that each device was switched on each day. I figured I could FaceTime from the ipad until the battery ran out and that might give me three days, the psvita has a Skype app so that might be good for another couple of days and for my laptop I might be able to timeshare an adaptor with the colleague I was travelling with but certainly not a full time thing. He however was asleep at this time of MacGyver-esque behaviour and so not available for consultation. I just had to make it as far as Malaysia where they subscribe to sensible UK plug sockets but that meant nine days. No-one had gone that long before, surely?

Then, at my darkest hour, a glimpse of inspiration. What if maybe, just maybe, the British Airways "On Board" duty free magazine had something. I reached for it like starving man finding food for the first time after wandering for days in the Austrailian outback, a frantic and frenzied attack on a poor unsuspecting catalogue of mile high (shopping) club overpriced merchandise. I didn't care though, I was dying, a man on the edge of reality. Then I saw it, the brightest, shiniest, rescue helicopter of a plug adaptor that I have ever seen. The flight attentent completed my rescue by presenting me with this, the most complicated, overpriced (don't ask) adaptor complete with USB ports and soft red drawstring bag:

It is stupidly over the top but I love it and I feel complete again. MacGyver, you may stand down now.

 

Posted with Blogsy