I thought id make this a seperate post as it kinda deserves it. I left Sydney this morning at around 7:20 to fly back to Rocky. I flew with jetstar who dont actually allocate seats. Instead they give you a colored tag depending on when you check in. You use this tag to board the plane when they call the color. Effectively meaning that if you book in early, you get to pick which seat you sit in before other people.
Anyhoo, i check in and get a silver tag (last to board – buggers me how early you have to check in to get a different color). Made my way to the gate and waited for the call. Eventually got called and wandered onto the plane. So im walking down the aisle of the plane and notice an old guy sitting by a window with 2 spare seats next to him, i figure if i take the aisle seat then chances are that someone will prefer to take another seat then sit between me and the other guy.
So… my assumption was correct, i didnt have anyone sitting next to me, but i didnt take into account the chance that the guy in the same row as me by the window is Mr Chatty. Yep… no sooner had i sat down then he extended his hand and introduced himself, from that moment on he didnt stop talking once till we came into land in Rocky.
Not that im complaining for anything, it was interesting talking to him. He told me all about when he was a kid, and how he now works as an electrical guy fixing things like computers and stuff. He lives in gladstone but only moved there maybe 10 years ago, before that he had a shop in a small town wouth of Rocky somewhere and one day he got to work and noticed a bit eagle lying in front of his shop dead. He motioned that the wingspan on the bird was at least half the size of the cabin we were sitting in. Anyway, he was looking at this bird and his mate drove past and offered to buy the bird off him for $100. In the end his mate had the bird stuffed, after going through the proper authorities and filling out oodles of paper work and ended up getting a quote on the finished stuffed bird of around $8000.
He asked me what i was doing in sydney and i explained that i had gone home for a funeral. He then proceeded to tell me about people he knew who commited suicide including one chap he knew when he was 25 who was a biological engineer who actually helped him to reverse engineer the cannon bubblejet printer ink in order to create the correct bubblejet printing ink for his printer so that he didnt have to spend a fortune on ink. *takes breath*
Skipping ahead, he then diverted on to telling me how the ink thats used in computer printers isnt all identical and the Cartridge World place that refills cartridges actually does use the correct ink and after a while it will cause your printer head to clog up. He mentioned that you could take them to court for false advertising as they say their inks are 100% identical, BUT if you were to compare the two biologically and take that to court you could easily sue them for at least $100,000. Chances are the Cartridge World people wouldnt have that money so would settle out of court by giving a few free cartidges. *pause*
Then, back on story. The guy that helped him reverse engineer the ink and helped him create a heap more ended up getting involved with a ‘piece of ass’ (his words – meaning ‘girl’ i assume) who took him for everything he had. Anyway, one day he mixed up a heap of chemicals and drank them and killed himself.
The conversation then went onto the topic of suicide and how he doesnt think its fair for people to commit suicide and leave everyone else behind. In his words the people that commit suicide are somewhat ‘cowardly’ and take ‘the easy way out’ and all they do is leave lots of others in dispair.
Right, so yeah, imagine this going on for 2 hours… and that my friends was my flight back to Rocky. Very entertaning to say the least. I wont go into detail her anymore but he also covered topics including politics, sex, marriage, the old days, books, holidays, family, rotary club, etc, etc, etc.
Made the trip go pretty fast 
)