Flight #9 - the female entrepreneur

Annie's was her name and as fast as I wrote that only men talk to you on flights I realise that I have to eat my words.

I was flying from Heathrow terminal 3 to Arlanda Stockholm on SAS and it was a Sunday evening. The woman that sat down next to me looked to me to be a politician.

I thought she was probably a feminist for some reason or an extremely strong woman. She was nicely dressed and quite commanding.

Just before take off she put her head in her hands and said oh no. She had forgot her iPhone charger. I offered to charge her phone on the flight as I was working on my laptop anyway.

So we got to talking. Great conversation. She was no politician. She was a female entrepreneur. Smart woman. She had started her own Company dealing with company laws. Employment law etc over cultures.

She was very encouraging to me. Asked me what I wanted to do. Talked bout her son and what he does and just told me to keep smiling. So I have and will!!!

Flight #8 - The Managing Director

So flight number 8 between Stockholm Arlanda and London Heathrow terminal 5 was another good flight and another good plane buddy.

His name was Gary and this was one of those trips where I actually spoke to the person sitting next to me. And we spoke the entire time. He was the MD for a Swedish company called SystemAir that does ventilation.

It was an extremely interesting 2 hour flight with lots of insightful as well as funny stories. I won't tell you them on the blog because it has to be told but ask me about it. It includes one story about him wondering about someone he was sitting next to on a train (a bit like this) and making his mind up about them. They were acting in a very strange way and hence he was staring at them but the story ended with her thinking he was the creep. :-)

We're all intrigued about other people.

Gary was well dressed, clearly not a city-dweller (he lived in Oxford) and had an interesting background including being a stutterer, losing his parents at an early age and being a very sympathetic guy.

He was a Leeds fan although he had lived in Oxford his entire life. He is a great sales guy, generally interested, well-spoken, great eye-contact, leant in at times. Friendly.

One trick he used when he spoke in front of big groups of people who were loud and roudy and wouldn't shut up was he would open his mouth as if to speak but would appear to stutter. People all wanted to hear what he had to say so they all shut up. :-) Interesting tip.

He had two young kids (18 months and 4 years old) and had had them quite late (when he was in his fourties). His wife was also in her 40's). He had been working for that company for 25 years.

Interesting how people generally speak a lot more when it is in the evening or lunch time and when they are going home and it's weekend. It's also strange how up until now I've had more conversations with guys.

Very interesting chat and there are some great people out there in this world with great stories and sharing them is fun.

Flight #4 - The Big Boss man

To date, this is my FAVORITE seat buddy or flight partner.

His name was Steve and he was the Head of Sales for Scania in the UK. We were flying a 767, a big plane from Stockholm Arlanda to London Heathrow and the flight was delayed by 90 minutes.

We spoke the entire journey which is the first time in a while I've sat next to someone I've genuinely been interested in and him me. It didn't look like he was irritated by it.

He was a man in his 50's with kids in their teens. He had worked in the Trucking world for 20-30 years and had a lot of great insight. Travelled to Sweden quite a lot.

Well dressed, well spoken and very friendly. It was clear why he was in Sales. We discussed everything from Football to Technology and his only negative was that he was an Arsenal fan.

He definitely looked like he enjoyed life and was a very humble and down to earth kind of guy. So far my favorite.

Flight #3 - I just can't remember.

Flight #3 was from London to Arlanda on a Wednesday morning. It was early and I was tired and I slept most of it. I must admit I've got a very very very foggy recollection of who I sat next to on this flight.

Somehow it rings a bell that I sat next to a couple but it could easily have been a business dude as well. I'm going to leave this one open because for the love of me I don't remember. :-) Sorry

Flight #2 - a young professional

My second flight of the year was my flight from Frankfurt to London City (the second leg of my trip home from Turkey from Christmas).

I flew Lufthansa and it was a small plane. The person I sat next to on this plane was clearly a business man, fairly young, well dressed. And would have worked in the City.

I don't remember all that much more about him as I didn't think about it too much at the time. So that was all for this dude.

Flight #1 - a chubby German woman.

As I hadn't thought of this idea before my flight this week I am writing in retrospect and didn't pay attention as much as now but here it is in retrospect.

Flight #1 for the year was from Istanbul to Frankfurt. I had a window seat for the 3 hour flight and had quite a lot of work to do.

My seat buddy on this trip was a chubby nerdy unfashionable 30-something German lady. She was travelling with a friend who was slightly more attractive in my eyes and an even better looking friend who was sitting behind her.

They were speaking German and I was in no mood to listen to their chat so I had my ear phones on.

This was a case of playing arm wrestling for the divider. She was not going to give up this easily and after an hour of the flight she pretty much had her back to me while she was talking to her friend.

Needless to say I didn't like this lady much.

Once again, here goes a stereotype... my guess is that she worked for some state organisation. Very possibly in education still or some kind of science. She was probably quite a smart girl but her idea of fun would probably be knitting, baking, and reading. Nothing wrong with that but that's the impression she gave me. A 30-something that acted like a 50-something.

I don't think she got a very good impression of me as I don't think I gave a good one - partly because I was fucked off by having to go through 3 security checks in the space of 30 minutes with 3 laptops, a belt, and the jackets and liquids that you normally need to take out.

Flight #7 - the empty seat and the looney in front

My flight AY649 from Helsinki to Stockholm at 2005 was empty. I'd be sugar coating it if I said it was 25% full. Think there might have been 30 persons. So needless to say - I got a seat alone!!!

I was in row 15 I around 25 and I was the furthest back guest.

With no one sitting next to me I guess I still need a story and the person sitting one row ahead and across the isle can do it.

An older gentleman with an awesome moustache. Well dressed but clearly caught in the 60's/70's corporate dress sense. His bag (which i saw when we landed) must have had a ver proud history of travelling!!! It was ancient. His travelling companion had a Finnair sticker on his old school briefcase that must have been handed out on Finnairs first flight.

They were both Finnish and they were some of the last on the plane and spoke finnish with strangers around. They felt like this was the first time they'd flown for a while. Dressed up to the extreme but clearly travelling on Business. They flirted with the flight stewardesses as well.

Funnily enough for an empty flight. The guy was standing up before we'd even reached the gate and was walking around.

All in all one of my favourite characters so far. I will call him Pekka.

Flight #6 - the lumberjack

On Monday i flew Arlanda to Helsinki.

This time I sat next to a Swede. I could tell because I saw his Swedish drivers license and he was reading a Swedish newspaper.

Later in the flight he took out a magazine and although I don't see the title of the mag I did see that every article article was about lumber/timber/ wood.

He was quite a well dressed semi casual looking dude. Definitely in the business of wood rather than a lumber jack.

Flight #5 in 2012

So the guy I sat to on the flight from LHR terminal 5 to Arlanda Stockholm was a tall tall tall guy who could barely fit in the seat he was that tall.

He had a sailing/ skiing jacket and was quite a sporty type. He was working on a presentation the whole trip about sales and team work. To me he seemed to be a motivational/ sales trainer.

We didn't speak many words together as I slept most of the flight. Flight was delayed and only got into Stockholm at 0015.

More news and an update of flights 1-4 soon

A new idea for a new year.

So at Heatrow Terminal 5 with time to kill before my flight which was due to leave at 2010 but is delayed until 2035.

Got the idea that I might write a note on everyone I sit next to this year on flights. Would be interesting. Already have four to write about and will be a fifth. Doesn't have to be long notes but just some observation as I normally don't talk to them:-)