World's 5-Star Airline

If I can summon up the courage, I might one day describe our nightmare plane journey from Dubai to Paris aboard Qatar Airways, the proudly proclaimed "World's 5-Star Airline". (I notice that airlines, like hotels, award themselves stars with rare abandon. And talking of stars, I note, too, that the unique Tom Jones "live" concert to which I alluded in an earlier post was billed as an "intimate" occasion at Abu Dhabi Hall. Intrigued, I discovered that the Hall holds 11,000 people...)

On the other hand, travel horror stories are two a penny so one should think twice before inflicting them on others.

On a strictly culinary note, however, the flight was a great success. I was well pleased with my Chicken Balti sandwich supplied courtesy of Monty's Bakehouse and was impressed by Monty's pledge that "we only use ingredients from the kitchen cupboard". To accompany my main meal, I chose some red wine from Chile, "often equalled but never imitated", on the strength of its guarantee that it was "grown on the estate". Not bad at all, but did it bear comparison with the wine offered to the captain and his crew fore and aft? I somehow doubt it.

Almost before I knew it, we were approaching London's Heathrow Airport (instead of my preferred destination of Paris Charles de Gaulle) and it was time for another delicious Chicken Balti sandwich supplied courtesy of Monty's Bakehouse to whom I am indebted for the following item of information: "Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned his wife or mother because they were both deaf".