I NEVER TRAVEL WITHOUT:

My small pillow. You can`t buy one. They`re considered dangerous to infants. It`s a tiny pillow I took off a Philippine Airlines flight. With this soft little cushion, I can sleep anywhere. And have done so. In hotels when the pillows were hard as concrete. On a customs bench in Morocco. Deck class sailing down the Red Sea. It goes wherever I go. I`ve lost two on my travels. One left behind on a coach trip to Paris. A second blew into the Bay of Bengal, when I stood up from my deck chair to escape a tropical squall. I found replacements on other airlines. I don`t feel bad about taking 3 little pillows in a lifetime`s flying.

The second item I make sure is packed is my personal cake of soap in a plastic container. This is Roger & Gallet which comes in a variety of heavenly perfumes - tea-rose and gardenia are my favourites which bring a scent of home. Especially when the bathroom is horrid.

The third item I never forget is a pareo. Also known as a sarong, a kikoye or simply a cotton wrap. This is a patterned length of cotton material, worn to great effect in Polynesia. But also in East Africa, coastal India and Dhofar in Oman. The pareo, which I wore daily when working at the Club Mediterranee in Tahiti is a multi-purpose garment. It can be worn in a variety of different styles as a wrap; used as a towel after a shower or a swim, as a sheet, when the night is hot, or stuffed with ice and placed on your head for a hang-over.

Item number four is my swimming costume. I pack this as hand-luggage with my pillow and pareo so if stuck somewhere warm, I can always swim. On two occasions, once off a flight in Singapore, another double-booked in Bombay, I was the only passenger able to enjoy a dip.

Finally, I always pack a small bottle of scotch. This used to go in hand luggage but with the 100 mill rule, it now travels in my case. Whisky acts as a reviver when you reach your new hotel room. Or in event of drama on your travels. It can be drunk neat if you haven`t water and the Scots would say it doesn`t need ice. Delayed 36 hrs at Khartoum Airport, my small flacon of whisky kept body and soul together when the only alternative was tinned mango-juice.

Images: www.copix.co.uk

IS AN OBESITY TAX UNFAIR?

There has been much debate following the announcement by Air France that it proposes to charge what really amounts to an obesity tax: the requirement that hefty air travellers buy an extra seat on the plane.

But while I sympathise with people suffering from a glandular disorder, I have no truck with big eaters hoisting the discrimination flag.

It has not been an isolated occasion that I`ve observed obese people, in an airport café, stuffing on burgers with chips and ketchup, washed down with 1600 calorie thick shakes.

And try standing behind a big person at check-in when they sail through, and you pay excess on a few schoolbooks for children out in Africa.

One blogger asks us to imagine the experience of being seated next to a 300 pounder on a 3 hour flight from Vegas to Minneapolis. Well, imagine this on a 22 hour journey from London to Sydney!

But it`s not just the discomfort of someone overflowing into your space: it`s the security aspect when an aircraft must be cleared quickly in an emergency.

I`ve been on a flight when the engines caught fire, and lucky to make it back to the airport, we were ordered to evacuate via the emergency chutes.

If that fat person photographed by the American Airlines flight attendant had been blocking the aisle, lives would have been put at risk. Including his own.

Just as smokers are advised they may not be eligible for medical treatment if they continue the habit, so persons who are overweight must accept, without taking umbrage, that if they wish to fly, it may cost more.

The solution is a weigh-in for everyone at the check-in desk. Scales exist for weighing luggage; why not use similar scales to weigh passengers, and add a height measure for a fair and accurate BMI calculation?

Anyone over a reasonable limit should be required to buy two tickets. And if the flight is not full, which is usually the case, the cost can be refunded at the destination.

The alternative is continuing discomfort: the obese person not being excluded.

WHISPERING THROUGH THE SKIES

Missed my blogs? I've been flying. In fact I'm a member of the esteemed Guinness World Records club for having flown on the greatest number of different airlines (today's figure is more like 80).

Colourful memories include flying with falcons on Gulf Air and goats on Ethiopia Airways. Of tackling the hazardous routes through the Karakorams on PIA and helping out when Tunis Air was a stewardess short on a flight to Djerba. Of performing CPR on a KLM passenger as we landed in Amsterdam. Of the time I had to fly as a wheelchair passenger on Air India when all the wheels fell off at Bombay International Airport.

Some flights stand out. How could I forget the night of 21/9/71 when the engines on our BOAC VC10 caught fire and we hurled ourselves down the emergency slides. 'Lucky to be alive,' a ground engineer informed me. Or the occasion when Sudan Airways overflew Cairo because they said I was the only boarding passenger. 'Don`t be silly,' I told the manager when he said it had left: the point being that it hadn't landed!

Do I have a favourite airline? Malaysian, JAL and Qatar Airways are very good, but after my recent flight to Sydney and back, I would have to single out Singapore Airlines. Not just for the superb in-flight service, but for the spacious, whisper quiet, fuel efficient, A380-300.

Since 2007, the six A380-300s operated by Singapore Airlines have carried over one million passengers on the London-Singapore-Sydney route.

72 m long, the giant planes are designed to accommodate 525 seats, but Singapore Airlines carry only 471 passengers, thus ensuring more space for long legs like mine.

The position of the galleys, located well away from the loos, is also a big plus for both the convenience of the crew and the comfort of passengers. And the A380 is kinder to the environment since it burns around 20 per cent less fuel, on a seat-mile basis, than similar jumbo aircraft.

I paid my own fare to Sydney and back to London so this is not a puff for Singapore Airlines but a genuine compliment from one who has made the 20 hour journey `Down Under` some twenty times over the years.

My only complaint of the 24,000 mile round trip is that the charming 'Singapore Girls' could not make a good 'Bloody Mary'.