On a train trip through country France one weekend, I got talking to a London couple who were taking a quick ‘weekender’ in Barcelona. “But it’s so far,” I said to them, referring to the 15-hour train ride from London to Barcelona, sandwiched between passengers in an overheated cabin with no air conditioning. “And then on Sunday, you have to turn around and go all the way back.”
“Oh,” says the woman, pointing disparagingly at her husband. “He won’t fly.”
I glance at her husband, up against the window, adamantly shaking his head. “Nup,” he says. “Never.”
“You’ve never flown on a plane before?” I enquire.
“No, never, and I never will,” he replies.
Rather than pressing the issue further, I ponder his decision not to fly. My first thought is,
