Passions: The best things come in pairs when it comes to the in-flight freebie

The opportunity to eat free food should never be missed even if you are feeling sick. Picture: Tom Hussey/Image Bank

I recently took a trip by plane. Somehow, I got myself to the airport on time only to find all of humanity had arrived before me. The queue was legendary; the inappropriate clothing mind-blowing; the noise level ushered tinnitus right in; and it was way hotter than any of the countries anyone was flying to. I shuffled through the seventh circle of hell - aka security - and before long found myself up in the clouds with the air hostess offering me a complimentary tea and biscuit.

You can’t beat a complimentary snack. It’s what made those long-haul flights bearable back in the day before electronic devices existed, when the only source of inflight entertainment was a book and however much free drink you could manage. Because there is a certain optimism about serving food and drink on a moving target. I mean they advise you not to undo your seatbelt due to turbulence yet consider it perfectly acceptable to bandy around boiling hot liquids and solids up and down the length of the aircraft. What’s that all about? Did the health and safety officer feign death the morning the plan was cooked up?

Not to mention another type of turbulence – travel sickness. I mean it can’t be just me who has a long, if not proud, history of throwing up on journeys in cars, boats, planes, whatever. I even get sick in lifts. But no matter, because the kindly airlines are the giver of great gifts and in addition to the complimentary scran, provide a sick bag alongside it. They really do think of everything.

I was on a flight once that ticked all the boxes. It was from Thailand to neighbouring Cambodia, an after-work flight on the fantastically named Air Cambodge. Only a handful of us boarded in Bangkok and we watched an amazing sunset, the sun spreading into a fiery orange line and disappearing into the dark as we munched our way through our journey across the sky. The flight was only about 50 minutes yet the hostesses served us up a beautifully presented three-course meal and a coffee to finish in record speed, coming in well under the time. All was good until we were dropping to land at Phnom Penh. I looked down into the void. There were a few hazy dots that could have been the lights of a runway but that was it, just darkness. How could a city of a million people survive with so little electricity? It was like landing in a black hole. Terrifying. But land we did - and at least I got to use the sick bag.

Emma McGarvie is Production Manager of The Scotsman