A week in New York - part 1 - travel

The last of our big trips for this year. New York for my birthday! But Aer Lingus cancelled our flights, due to the pilots' work-to-rule. They cancelled our flight on the way over, but we managed to get on the flight the day before. And then, as we were travelling over, we found out that our flight home was cancelled to and Aer Lingus had moved us to travel home on my birthday. Not happy! Thankfully Brendan managed to talk to a service agent who put us on a later flight on the day we had intended to travel. But when we asked if the seats were together, the answer was no, they were not. So Brendan asked if they had seats together, and it turned out that yes, there were seats together.  Which just goes to show you have to keep asking until you get what you need. 

All that to say that it was fraught. I love flying, but I'm not a good traveller until I get on the plane and the plane takes off. I worry about the taxi, and the queues at checkin, at security, etc. So, I sketch to soothe my nerves as soon as I get to the gate. To be honest, that morning, I was pretty anxious. But less than 24 hours later, it's all worth it. So I never let my anxiety get in the way of travelling the world. And yes, I am aware of my climate impact. It's not pretty. I do drive electric, take public transport and eat almost no red meat. I have also significantly reduced the amount of clothes I buy. It's probably still not enough to offset my carbon emissions from flying. But we probably won't be flying those long distances in 10 years time, whether it's because we're too old or because governments will finally take action on climate, I don't know!

Lots of turbulence as we got closer to Canada. No surprises there. If you look at Flight Radar, you see all the planes literally following each other on that route. It has an impact! Also, saw a major fire somewhere over Quebec (maybe?). It's all happening.

Just one sketch at JFK on the way home. I managed to control my anxiety better, although I was somewhat worried with the traffic in the taxi on the way to the airport. If we think we have a traffic problem in Dublin, it's nothing compared to New York. And New York has a great subway system, which we used plenty! You can tap with your Revolut card on your phone. It's capped at $34 per week. Great value, as we used the subway every day.

And here is my supplies for the trip. I used almost everything, so I was very pleased with myself. I cut my Neocolor sticks in two to half the weight!