QF494

I was on the usual QF494 tonight, the 2100 from Melbourne back to Sydney. As the plane was taxiiing out I was engrossed in a magazine as the cabin crew were going through the usual safety spiel, and I could have sworn I heard them say something about a "sly draft". This has an agreeably whimsical tone to it, for sure, and also for me has a nice echo of something my late father used to say. He had been a farmer and had a lot of fairly agricultural turns of phrase, and a cold and especially biting wind was usually described as "a lazy wind", the idea being that it went through you rather than around you, and I momentarily had an idea that the cabin crew were telling us to rug up a bit; next thing you know we'd be singing songs.

But a second's reflection was enough to realise that what they'd said was actually "slide raft".