The Grumpy Old Blog

A letter to Qantas: Dear Qantas I read recently that Qantas is to stop offering meals with pork content on certain Middle Eastern routes for fear of insulting those passengers of Islamic origins, a very noble gesture indeed. However, I feel there are certain other ethnic passenger groups that you now need to consider for the avoidance of insult, although why Qantas has not considered these before now, or at least at the same time as the concern for Islamic passengers, is altogether rather puzzling. Sikh and Hindu passengers - beef foods and foods containing derivatives of beef Jewish passengers - will no doubt welcome the banning of pork foods, but are also concerned about the serving of seafood, fish lacking fins and scales, and the concurrent serving of milk and meat foods during any one meal Vegetarians - any meat or fish foods or those contains derivatives of meat or fish Coeliacs - serving of foods containing wheat Vegans - serving of any meat, fish or dairy foods Reforme...

Well, the Cambodians are lovely and hospitable. The Thai people are lovely and hospitable.  The British, Australian, New Zealand, Russian and American tourists are by and large well-behaved, although to be brutally honest, the Americans can be a little loud both of voice and check trousers.  And the Chinese. Yes, the Chinese.  What can be said about the Chinese that won’t have Chairman Mao turning in his ashes’ pot? They are noisy, rude, inconsiderate, thoughtless, and, if China was to get nuked, all that would remain would be hordes of Chinese people glued to their mobile phones.  They mobile at breakfast. They mobile on the plane during take-off and landing. They mobile while eating, shopping, crapping and probably even in their sleep. They mobile while walking busy streets, an oriental equivalent of the living dead. They mobile on tours, on excursions, when having things explained and while the tour guide is trying to get them back on the b...