it's 4/20

4/20 la la la la.

of course, instead of writing about the befok political situation here -- and so much has gone on in the past couple of weeks, that it's just been crazy -- i am going to shamelessly plug something from fly brother -- he explains it quite well, so open his review and results in another tab. i spent most of this afternoon filling in information on flightmemory.com, only filling in the flights that i absolutely remember, and not just flights that i've taken.

it was funny -- it was fairly easy to absolutely remember a lot of flights i've taken; all i need to do is open up my passport. through my mentioned flights, i've covered 87% of the miles that ernesto has on less than half of the number of flights (100). [full disclosure -- there is one more transatlantic flight whose details i know, but i like having the round number of 100 flights].

my domestic flights are appalling. all but three sets of them are, in fact, flights to get me to the real airport for the intercontinental flight. one set of flights is for my sister's graduation from high school; another set of flights is for my brother's wedding. the third set of usa start and finish flights is for a family reunion in columbia, south carolina -- where i ate at the waffle house on the wrong side of the tracks [ie, i was the only black person there].

of course, the real flying is elsewhere. my top two flight routes? IAD-LHR and back. close behind is DCA - JFK, which, like i said, is basically the flight to get me to the real airport. rounding out the top five are JNB-CPT and back.

which brings me to how i have 87% of the miles on less than half the number of flights that ernesto has done. i suppose this is where i channel chris rock from bring the pain. africa is far. real far. it's like a 25-hour plane ride..... and there are three african airports in my top 10. there are also three european airports in my top 10 as well. toronto is also in my top 10, and amsterdam is 11th, i think. wow, look at the time....

american airlines gets the nod for the airline most used [see, it's flights to the caribbean plus DCA - JFK to get me somewhere interesting]. LHR is my most used airport -- which shouldn't be a shock to anyone who's heard me rant about the decade-old remodel of terminal 2 where they yanked the burger king out, not to mention purposely taking the heathrow express train because there is a burger king just on the other side of the gates in paddington. after eating steers down here, you sort of want the real thing.

oh, i can throw in my intra-europe flights. to be fair, the only destination flights are the ones to amsterdam and las palmas. i still need to do ibiza before i turn 40. actually, i don' t think that will happen; i think that will be when i *turn* 40, as i'll be already in london for the olympics. being an 80s-era club kid, i'm trying to figure out how i missed out on ibiza, ayia napa, and rhodos. [i actually know the answer to this; it mainly has to do with dating extremely jealous west indians. bah.]

there's a ski trip to austria that i need to throw in also. living in england, i went to austria to go skiing with people from zambia [that happened to be related to the malawian dictator].

but overall, in europe, i've mainly been a train guy. i like trains. you get more legroom, for starters. and to be honest, if i were to turn my train rides in the northeast usa into flights, there would easily be another 20,000 miles added. when i lived in washington and had new york as the destination, i would take the train, not fly.

i'll have to do some more checking into my 70s and 80s era flights. i don't think i can put the dates, but i will be able to mark the routes. none of the flights i've taken on air afrique are posted, for example.

i will get back to the political silliness going on here before work gets really busy for me. i promise.