who is my neighbour?

Two weeks ago, on the night of December 31st we flew to Johannesburg from Vancouver, stopping briefly in London. It's a long trip, some 30 hours in total. We have given up trying for bulkhead seats and seats near the exits, but I do ask for aisle seats to be able to stretch my legs in the aisle. Also, if I am crammed shoulder to shoulder in a row, I watch for an empty aisle seat with an empty next to it and in this way I also gain a little extra room. On the flight to London there was this combination of empty seats and I grabbed the empty aisle seat with en empty seat to its left. However soon after take-off I got up to get a glass of water, and when I returned, another passenger had taken the seat next to my aisle seat, between myself and the passenger to my left. He explained how he wanted to give his wife in a nearby row some extra room, by leaving his seat empty next to her. Duh! Good for her, but not so good for me and the passenger to his left. We were now crowded again.

I was annoyed with this, and decided I was not going to give up the armrest between us. After all he was the latecomer, and the cause of our crowded seating. Why should I now be less comfortable? Unfortunately, I left my seat again, to return and find that he had now taken over the armrest completely. I tried to gain a little of it, but after "armwrestling" for a few minutes, and given his obvious determination to have it all, I gave up. But I was not at all happy with the turn of events, and told him so. Fortunately, a short time later he left to rejoin his wife.

"Who is my neighbour?", asked the lawyer of Jesus. You know, it really was a pretty good question.