I have flown more times than I care to remember and on more airlines than I can remember. I don't think there are any hard & fast rules about which are crap and which are not. I've been on excellent charter flights and piss-poor scheduled flights (even in business class). Much depends on the cabin crew and ground staff that happen to be working that day. The best steward I have ever seen was on an AC flight. The worst cabin crew I have encountered were also on an AC flight.

I can now usually tell what the service will be like as soon as I board, just from looking at the cabin crew.

Females: the older the better.
Males: the gayer the better.

Actually, the cabin steward on the said BA flight was, to say the least, camp.

Imagine Julian Clary telling everyone to calm down and you get the picture - very funny.

Biggles & Ginger

My best flight was with Quantus 2 years ago, one of the stewards gave me a nice big bottle of 1996 Don Perignon, but I don't know why?!

I believe that with BA being an absolute screamer is a condition of employment.

Good job we're all perfect then.

Simon

Not quite sure what you mean there. If you are suggesting that I'm anti-gay, you're wrong. I've been on more BA flights than I care to remember. The male cabin crew have almost always been very light of foot. And very good at doing what they are being paid to do.

Far from it young sir. I wasn't suggesting that at all.

However, I've always found it rather sad that any man who shows the slightest bit of care and concern for others 'must' be gay.

Having said that, I'm not sure that BA make being gay a 'genuine occupational requirement'.

Simon

It's not a question of "must be". In the case of BA stewards, however, the ones that I have met have either been definite or nudging the closet door open. Anyway, enough of this. There is no purpose to be served by turning this thread in to a gay-bashing fest.

Quite right. I didn't think either of us was doing so.

So much for violent agreement, eh?

So what's it like in Gatineau? I've never been.

The women are all old and the men all gay.

There's no pleasing some people.

Pretty uninspiring. Fairly large population, at about 225,000, but spread over a wide area. There is no town centre. Close to nice scenery.

Ok. Are you there for work?

Old or reconstructed. There are some very big tits in Gatineau. The men also seem mainly to be muscle-bound and tattooed.

Most amused yesterday. Souvette, who had cycled to work, rang me up and suggested we meet for an after-work drinkie at a bar with a terrace. We'd never been there before. We both cycled there. It was most pleasant on the terrace. Me, a 10-stone drip dressed like something out of It Ain't Half Hot Mum. Her, a comely and well-engineered bird in Lycra. The other 50 or so customers? Mostly muscle-bound and tattooed construction workers.

Did I feel cocky? Not at all. Ish.

Yes. Hers, not mine.