I am gigging in Edinburgh and have to take a flight. This presents a bit of a problem. I just don’t like flying. Most people will say it is just the taking off and landing that is the problem. Nope, it is being in the air. It isn’t a fear of heights it is a fear of Flying. Even as a child when most kids would be excited about the thought of getting on a plane I would be petrified. It might be because I never got on one until I was twenty one. Whilst kids at school went off to Spain and Greece every year we only went to one place. We always went to Ireland on the Boat from Holyhead or Liverpool. My schoolmates thought it was because we were poor, but it was more sinister than that. We were sent back to Ireland to find a partner to breed with. It was every Irish parents dream that they would have little Irish grand children running around in Celtic football shirts. Like Salmon facing a perilous journey to the breeding grounds, we too had to have an arduous experience on the journey to make it worth while. The boat was the civilised way to travel. On the news there were never stories of ships sinking, only planes crashing and we feared flight! My dad used to wind us up by threatening us with the airport. He would then relent and say “ok you been good we’ll take the boat”. Read the rest of this entry »