As a Christmas present it beat a pair of argyle socks, conceded Darren Darker before boarding an aeroplane from Dublin Airport en route to, well, Dublin actually.
His mother, Dorothy, had bought him and his sister two tickets for Dublin Aerial Scenic Tours, an airborne version of an open-top bus tour that soars over the city traffic instead of being stuck in it. Pilot and entrepreneur Mr Colm King of First Flight Aviation greeted his customers with the satisfied smile of someone who has found a gap in the sightseeing market. Yesterday saw the eighth flight since he began the tour just three days before.
The mainly Irish passengers waiting patiently for the half-hour sightseeing trip were a motley crew of children, first-time flyers, and aviation fanatics. Most had received the tickets, costing £35 each, as Christmas gifts.
Masochists and absolutely nobody else took pleasure in the fact that participants in the aerial tour of Dublin did not get to purchase duty-free. There is something quite sacrilegious about going through all the usual airport motions without the obligatory goody bag swinging by one's side.
To add insult to injury, the feat of aviation engineering that greeted the intrepid sightseers looked suspiciously like a Ford Estate motor car with wings. The Short 360 craft is a boxy-looking thing that was built in Belfast about 10 years ago.
But the novelty of its old-fashioned appearance thrilled both young first-time flyers and those seasoned aviators already bored by boarding jumbo jets. There was just time for a stomach-settling boiled sweet before the propellers started to whirr.
Then it was up, up and away. The first thing you noticed was that from a vantage point of between 1,500 and 2,000 feet the soon-to-be-demolished Ballymun tower blocks resembled rows of rather weary dominoes. Then the oh-look syndrome set in.
Across to Dun Laoghaire, down to Bray and back to the airport via Howth before the pink-tinged sky began to darken and all anyone could say was "Oh, look, there's the runway."
Mr King is expecting packed flights when the schedule is limited to trips every Sunday afternoon. The reaction of yesterday's air tourists was encouraging. "Brilliant", said plane-mad Warren. "Deadly", said first-time flyer Jason. "Romantic", agreed John, whose girlfriend, Veronica, had bought him the tickets as a surprise.
The only complaint was that due to air-traffic control restraints yesterday's flight was 20 minutes and not the half-hour advertised. Some also grumbled about the airborne commentary, which they said could have been more helpful.
The aerial guide did improve when the numerous tennis courts and swimming pools of the Dalkey and Killiney areas moved into view. "We are now over Bono's house," said the voice over the speakers. Only some passengers waved.