The Aeroplane
After years and years of overseas travel, I hit 21 and started to question how things work.
How does a plane stay in the air?
Does the pilot really know what all of those little buttons mean?
Am I really comfortable with the fact that I am stuck in this little sardine can with my life in the hands or the pilot, the engineers and traffic control? What if they are having a bad day or if they just found out they are being laid off?
All of these questions led to me becoming claustrophobic. They also ended my international modeling career because, although I am aware that I will have to travel in life, 3-4 days a week for the next 4 years is not an option.
Now, because this is just a recent development, I often forget that I am in a confined space until a little later. For example, I may be sitting in a sauna with other people from the gym when all of a sudden I get a vision of Jennifer Love Hewitt being trapped in a solarium in ‘I still know what you did last summer.’
This vision will send me running and panicking for the door, and in turn, everyone in the sauna mistakes me for a psycho.
This week did nothing to help my fears.
Tuesday I had a job on the gold coast. This is just a 1 hr flight however, it is too short for valium and I had to work when I arrived so I couldn’t get drunk.
I woke up Tuesday morning doing all I can to not think about the flight ahead. There was no escaping it.
I looked out the window and see tree branches, umbrellas from the cafes, chairs etc. flung all over the street. There had been a bad storm the night before and the wind was still strong. Immediately I being in panic.
I walk downstairs and the guys at the cafe are telling me its dangerous to fly and they bet that the flight will be cancelled. I panic more.
I get on the aeroplane and take as much stress remedy as I can and try to sleep. It was bumpy and horrible, but I got through it because it was early morning and thankfully I was tired enough to sleep.
A few hours later I am in Jupiters casino. I get in the elevator with 12 other people, and as the doors are closing I realize something is wrong.
I tried to get through everyone to get to the door but I was too late and the door closed on me. Sure enough, 5 seconds later, we are trapped in the elevator!! Talk about the worst day of my life.
So there are 12 people, the elevator is not big and god it was hard not to panic. Unfortunately, the elevator was non negotiable for the rest of the trip because I stayed on the 19th floor and the staff would not allow me access to the stairs.
My flight home was even worse, partially due to the stress I was still feeling from being trapped in the elevator. I was alert because it was the afternoon so I couldnt sleep, I ran out of my stress remedy and I didn’t have valium. Luckily I was sitting in the back row, the closest to the attendants.
They begin to come through the cabin and I ask for a glass of wine. They wouldn’t serve me because it wasn’t my turn and they had to start at the front of the plane.
I try my hardest to distract myself. I played my ipod on full volume to distract me from the bumps, but it ran out of power. I started watching the TV, but then it turned off just so I would have to pay for it, I tried drumming my fingers on the little table, that didn’t work either.
20 mins later when they finally get back I am borderline freaking out. I ask for wine and they guy told me that he had to do other things first and would be about 10 minutes. I start breathing heavily and trying to hold back tears. Have these attendants never seen someone stress on a plane before?
Then, as luck would have it, all of the guys sitting in my row demanded that the attendant stop being ignorant and give me alcohol. They each bought me one (so I had 3) and I skulled them so fast that I didn’t even taste them. I fell to sleep immediately. Then when the plane landed I could hardly walk and needed to be helped out of the plane.
In conclusion, to all flight attendants out there, if someone is stressing and wants a drink, just give it to them. It will save speed drinking, a hangover and an inability to walk out of the plane by themselves.
Talk about the worst days ever!
