Skip to main content

Seat 14C

I have found a writing competition that is open to anyone [http://seat14c.com/]

I thought that I would share my first couple of paragraphs with everyone, so here goes:

====================

I was dozing when we went through the turbulence, I've been through a lot worse before. I hardly notice it any more. it's just part of air travel. I did wake up though, so I asked for a cup of tea and went back to reading my book.

This was the last leg of my round the world trip. I had started in London, traveled around europe, then on to asia and australia. Now I'm off to travel across America for a few weeks, then back home and back to my final year of college.

it was night as we approached our destination. I was surprised that I couldn't see many lights on the ground. It was a little after that that the captain announced that he had been told to descend quickly and warned us make sure we were seated and had our seat belts on. While the flight attendants were  walking the aisles making sure that people were belted up, the plane seemed to start diving towards the ground. I looked out the window and saw a fighter jet along side us. it seemed to be tracking our descent.

The captain came over the tannoy again "please don't worry about the planes following us down. they are just there to help us with our descent". So at least this descent was intentional. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking we might be crashing, we were descending so fast.

I was surprised how close the jets were to us. any closer and I'd have to give up my seat to the pilot. Normally it takes a while to actually get on the ground once we start approaching an airport, but today we must have been given priority as we just continued to descend and I saw some lights ahead of us. I could just make out the airport and landing strip, but everything seemed a bit dimmer than I remembered.

It seemed like we were only a few hundred feet from the runway when the escort jets finally pulled away. It was as though they were making sure we actually landed and didn't fly off. The landing was a bit rough, we hit the tarmac quite hard and the captain applied the brakes much harder than I've felt before. I was pushed forward into my seat belt. it seemed to all be a bit rushed and as we taxied to the gate there were lots of military vehicles on the ground. when the steps were in place and the door opened, an armed military figure entered the plane and ordered everyone to leave quickly. we all grabbed our bags and got off the plane.

====================

This is the first rough draft and hasn't been edited at all yet. before I submit this (by August 24th) I will edit it quite a few times.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Triathlon Training in the new year

So, my 2019 training has got off to a good start. I'm running regularly and my knees seem to be holding up. I've got a training plan to get me to a middle distance triathlon in September and I am managing the run distances I have set myself. I need to find some longer cycling routes to work and ones with a few hills too, but that shouldn't be a problem. my weekly cycling distance is okay, I just need to move to get my ebike to be doing less of the work. last week I did use my normal commuter bicycle and managed the whole four days as well as my runs, so that was a really good sign. Swimming won't be an issue, I have always found that to be the easy part of a triathlon (not that I'm fast, but I can keep going, and I did manage to swim the distance within the cut off time when I tried the ironman 70.3 last time) The main worry about going longer is my knees. I've got a 10K booked in late January which will test my knees out and I'm hoping that they hold ...
Post a Comment
Read more

First race of 2019

As I am aiming for a middle distance triathlon in September, I want to make sure that I can complete it before shelling out the (rather high) entry fee. my main concern is that my knees cope with the run section which will be 21 Km (a half marathon). In the past, I have had a bit of trouble with my knees playing up. I thought it was because I had run too much (increased my training too quickly, too many races close together, that sort of thing). So for the last 8 months, I have been trying to acclimatise my knees by running around 5km three times a week To take stock of how my knees are with running, I decided to enter a 10K race. The race I entered was the Bristol Race For Chocolate 10K. It sounded like a fun race and was on 27th January, which would give me plenty of time to train for my main race in September. I wanted a 10K as it is just under half the distance of my target middle distance and if my knees cope with that then I have plenty of time to increase the distance...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wales 500 Post 2

Day -1 (of the rally) So, tomorrow, Patrick and I will be riding up to set up our campsite ready for two days of (not quite off) roading. I've got my camping gear packed, but I've been getting confused about how to pack things that I will want whilst riding vs stuff to leave at camp. Then I realised that I've never done that before. whenever we've gone on a trip we've always stayed a night and then moved on to the next place. Only once have we set up and stayed in the same place for more than one night, and that was at Assen to watch the MotoGP. Guess I'll get it sorted today. I think I've got everything I need, except a way to pump up my tyres if I have a puncture. I have a puncture repair kit, but no pump. hmmm, will have to think on that. I think I will be taking a rucksack so that I can carry stuff out on the rides with me, but I may try to attach it to the back of the bike instead of wearing it as it might get too hot. Today is wet and rainy...
Post a Comment
Read more