Who's next to you?

When I was a kid, they used to show an ad on TV, where this beautiful girl enters the aircraft and a guy sitting in his seat thinks, "Kya meri kismat jagegi?" and then the girl walks over to him and says, "Excuse me, shaayad aap meri seat par hain." ("Excuse me, I think you're on my seat.") It probably meant that the girl did indeed sit next to the guy, but I used to laugh my guts out thinking that the guy was in the right seat but the wrong flight.

Back then, I laughed at the ad, not realising how crucial it is to have the right kind of person sitting next to you, especially on long flights. There are the hot babes, the hot guys, the screaming kids, the rude aunties, the drunk middle-aged men, the old guys, and many many more. Usually, when I am seeing someone off or am taking a flight, I try to guess who's gonna be sitting next to the passenger in question. Once I freaked a friend out by correctly predicting his co-passenger two flights in a row. The next time he asked me, "So who's gonna be sitting next to me this time? Who do you see?" I had no answer. I felt this blankness. Fact is - I did not see anything. So I told him I could not tell him this time. Turns out - the seat next to him was empty. Freaky, huh?

So I was telling my sis all this, and then asked her to guess what I was gonna get during my flight back to Singapore.

"Handsome young guy on one side, really old guy on the other."

"Oooh! As long as I have the handsome guy..." I said happily.

We reached the airport and the adorable lady at the SQ check-in counter - I think she was Russian - asked me, "How many passengers?"

"One." I replied.

"You?"

"Yeah, me."

"Just you?"

"Yeah, just me."

"Oh dear! How old are you?"

"Errr... 26?"

"Really?? I thought you were too young to travel alone. I thought you're 17 or something."

I decided to do my victory dance in my head - after all I was a composed and mature 26-year-old.

(I also thought in my head - in Singlish no less - "Too young to travel alone? Got such a thing meh?")

Anyway, I turned my attention back to the sweet lady who was now frowning at her computer screen.

"Darling, why do you have such a bad seat?" She asked.

I was sandwiched in the middle in the middle column of seats. Worst place to be in, if you're gonna take a long flight, and if you're gonna be drinking lotsa orange juice to keep your skin alive in the dry environment of the flight.

"Well, that's the only seat that was available..." I replied.

"Hmmm... let me see... I think I have a cancellation...."

She got me a window - in a two-seat row. Yippee!

Just then, my sis called on my bro-in-law's mobile. (She could not come to the airport cos baby Aish is not allowed to go out of the house yet.)

"Hey, all set to go?"

"Yeah... hey, sis, listen..."

"Yup..."

"Change of plans... I'm only gonna have one person sitting next to me. So which one of the two will it be?"

"Hmm... the handsome young guy."

"Cool. Awesome. Call you when I reach Singapore. Bye!"

"Bye!"

I hung up, looking forward to handsome young guy's company over the next 21 hours, and boarded the flight.

All right man, I have a bone to pick with my sister.