I chose The Gambia for my holiday this year, and flew to their capital, Banjul, with First Choice.

It's quite a long flight (five hours 45 minutes) - a bit further than your average Med destination.

I did my usual trick of turning up at Gatwick really early, and was one of the first to check in.

I was a bit annoyed with First Choice, as I had telephoned them two months before the flight, to tell them I was 6 feet 5 inches tall, and please could I book a seat with extra leg room. They insisted that they did not permit pre-booking on their flights. I also booked a vegetarian meal.

So anyway, at check-in I asked for an aisle seat.

The plane was a 757, which looked shiny and clean. Unfortunately, despite my aisle seat, I was very cramped and found it hard to get comfortable. I had to put both my legs in the same direction, and dangle them out into the aisle, retracting them whenever a passenger or a trolley came along. I felt like a crab in a burrow, retracting its legs each time a fish came past!

The flight was due out at 13.00 hours, but the Captain introduced himself and stated that 15 passengers were missing. Instead of offloading their luggage and getting under way, we ended up simply waiting for them. Most eventually showed up, but we pushed back about 40 minutes late.

The take-off run was long, and it took quite a long time to reach the top of the climb, but once we did so, the flight was very smooth indeed. We flew across mainland France and Spain, then down across Morocco and Mauritania, hugging the West African coastline. Eventually the scenery turned from brown to green, and we descended over Senegal for a nice landing in a hot, humid Banjul.

First Choice are not a bad airline, but I do appeal to them to please allow people of my height to pre-book a seat!!