The sweet sound of (man-made) silence

AIR travel is one of mankind's greatest achievements of the modern era. Until space travel is plastered over the walls of a travel agency like a Contiki tour for as little as S$500 ("5D4N stay at the Clavius crater on the Moon with accommodation at the world famous Apollo resort!"), nothing comes close to the joys of being whisked through the Earth's atmosphere at 90 per cent the speed of sound.

But I'm a little jaded about the supposed joys of modern air travel. See, I'm happy to be alone with my thoughts during a commute. Our seats might be next to each other, but that's simply not a good enough reason to tell you my life story.

Which brings me neatly to what paradoxically gets me excited about air travel - you get to make your own zone of zen! I'm talking about, of course, the magic that is noise-cancelling headphones. Those three words tell you everything and nothing about the technology which underpins man's finest invention.