I did not want the time to pass. The pleasure I took from this journey should have no end. It was an experience more wonderful than I could ever have imagined. In those days, of course, I could never have predicted that I would spend the better part of my life flying. Or indeed that I would sometimes want those flights to pass quickly and be over in the twinkling of an eye... With a flight record of thousands of hours now, there is not an airline in the world that I don't know or haven't tried. From the supersonic Concord to the army helicopters used by the Russians for transporting passengers around Africa, I have been on almost every form of aircraft there is. I have enjoyed first class seats on the world's top airlines, I have squatted on the low stools squeezed between the seats on flights from one tiny Soviet republic to another, I have even endured the discomfort of travelling with chickens and goats. There is no disputing the importance of the ways I found of beating jet lag when I was serving in diverse regions tens of thousands of miles apart during my years with the Sipa Press Agency.