I must admit I was never particularly enamored with flying and only ever saw it as a means to an end, so making a list of things I like about ferry crossings could easily be renamed “why I prefer a boat to a plane”. After an almost 10 year hiatus from starting every holiday with the drudgery that is plane hopping, I bit the bullet and last year together with my Ban-Cheile, Marian, my youngest child and her boyfriend, I embarked on a two week trip to Thailand with the very nice people from Etihad Airlines. I can’t in any way fault the Etihad people, they were everything I didn’t remember from previous holidays – friendly, courteous and most importantly on time and the planes themselves were about as comfortable as an economy class flight…