There seemed to be plenty of choice of programmes on the China Southern entertainment system which meant I had a lot of difficulty in deciding which one to go with. It was hard to try it and see however, because starting one and then changing your mind meant having to sit through the ads at the beginning each time and, as I was unable to find an easy way around that, I realised early on I would have to take the plunge and stick with my choice.
I started the flight with ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and after an hour being mesmerised by this extraordinary saga based on the real life story of Jordan Belfort, performed with charismatic zeal by Leonardo Di Caprio, I soon had to admit defeat. Scorsese as director, bombarded the viewer with caricatures of the people – presumably to convey something of the crazy mind sets that drove people to behave in the way they did. And yet you could not help feeling that in a certain sense the craziness could only have come out of an ethos that was something like this. Any way it proved to be insufficient to make up for the tasteless fishmeal I was served- a taste that was soon to become familiar as every choice whether fish or meat seemed to be the same. Even the wine did not dull my suffering taste buds.
For about five hours after I gave up on 'The Wolf", I slipped in and out of sleep until breakfast appeared and I then summoned the strength to resume the entertainment. It was a surprise to me that I had never seen ‘The Wolf..” before because it was so familiar. I supposed it’s a bit like thinking you have read all three volumes of Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ when in reality you might have only read a review or seen a movie clip, or started it once and never reached the end. This time I did reach the end. And then we landed in Guangzhou where you could taste the yellow smog as you entered the exit zone to board the bus. Four hours in the lounge drinking water and emailing and back on board but this time with a difference. Hello to the Airbus A380!