“Mad Max……….”
or
“A pleasure to find such good mischief at 30,000 feet!”
We had booked our flight at the last minute, which meant we were all separated.
Julius and I were squished between two strangers in the middle row of four and the three boys were a few rows in front of us.
Thankfully all together.
I excused myself to the hooded gentleman at the end of our row and apologised for having to make him get out of his seat to let us sit down.
I popped on my headphones, closed my eyes and listened to Mumford and Sons Wilder Mind, up loud and on high rotation for the first couple of hours.
It was a day flight so pretty easy.
After lunch it was time for a Gin and Tizzle. I asked Jules if he wanted a beer and then turned to the gentleman to the left of me and asked if he’d like to join us for a drink.
He said he’d love to!
His name was Max and he was delightful.
A quick-witted Englishman who had run a pub in England and had been crowned Britain’s top bangers and mash, or something along those lines.
We didn’t stop drinking, laughing and telling stories until flight SQ279 hit the tarmac at Adelaide Airport.
Quite literally.
We had a ball!
It was as though we had known him all our lives.
We exchanged emails and phone numbers and organised a catch up as he was working at Penny’s Hill winery just a kilometre away from where we would be staying at Maslin Beach.