I never imagined I’d spend my three hour Virgin Blue flight lying on the kitchen gully floor of the aircraft with my legs up the emergency exit wall. However, my pain peaked whilst sitting in my prime ‘window’ seat in 38C and although desperate to move, turbulence meant that we “had to remain seated until the seatbelt light had been turned off”.
So I spent 25 minutes, trapped by the two passengers to my left and my pain, trying to distract myself with the ‘already completed’ crossword in the flight magazine and trying to stretch out my limbs and circle my ankles in the red vinyl seat. As soon as the light had been turned off, I lifted the silver buckle of my seat belt and escaped- riddled with pain.
I monkey-barred between the headrest, copping glares along the way, the air hostess walking in reverse style in front of me, arms outstretched in case I fell.
I needed to stretch and quickly. With nowhere to walk, lying down to stretch was my only choice.
“Do you mind if I stretch on the ground here?” I asked the hostess in desperation (already resuming a kneeling position)
“Oh… um.. well…really? We can’t block the aisle due to safety reasons but you can lie on the gully floor if you like?”
So she pulled the light brown curtain to “give me some privacy” and I lay between the silver food trolleys on the black duplo-like rubber floor with my legs both up the aircraft wall for the remainder of the flight.
Whether my actions caused immense frustration amongst my fellow passengers or inflight entertainment, my pain eased and I returned to my allocated seat.