Auckland Airport Needs a Butterfly Garden

28 May.

I don't like airports. I don't really enjoy being stuck in a loud, crowded place that feels dreary and dirty. I can't go anywhere. It's an enforcd pause. The thing about the word 'pause' is that it implies (at least to me) a kind of relaxation, the same kind of relaxation that is amiss in airports. In Auckland, I always feel that I'm just waiting around for so long, yet when I finlly get anywhere, it's all so anticlimatic. I'm nervous about checking my bags and going to the gate for domestic flights, as though my insecurity and punctuality are warring inside my head. I don't mind flying (except for the lack of legroom but I'm not about to pay an extra 5000 dollars just for some leg space). It's just that airports fill me with anxiety, whether I'm flying international or domestic.

Or so I thought. Maybe it's just Auckland. Although I don't remember Sydney being all that nice. However, Singapore airport seems quite nice. I didn't even go to the mall part. The air-conditioning is a blessing - it's 33 degrees celsius at 7:30pm! The skycars that travel between the terminals awaken the writer and sci-fi fan in me. They're so slick and snazzy looking. Also, the airport is remarkably quiet, save the iPod buzzing in my ears. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's nighttime on a Thursday, this airport is massive and it isn't a holiday of any kind. Perhaps. That said, it doesn't have the claustrophobic feeling of Auckland airport. It's clean and perfumed (smells a bit like Jessie's perfume) and the trolley carts are Segues! Heck, I'd go so far as to say, "It's nice".

Now that I'm slightly more at ease, I must say that "travelators" are silly. Perhaps they're useful for the elderly or small children, but when a healthy adult rides along it and I can out pace him whilst walking on the carpet, it's just silly. Or when people grab a trolley, load it up with their bags and then step on the "travelator", it makes me a little sad to see that people can be that lazy. The trolley is already doing most of the work for you. And what's with the people who get on the things and then proceed to walk along them? If you are going to be silly enough to use them, at least use them properly. Yes I am that contradictory.

The man who was praying in front of the window has just left. If I were a paranoid person (and a racist) I might htink that things were going to go boom.
But I'm not paranoid.
I'm cynical.

On happier notes, on the plane I watched Doctor Who, The Big Bang Theory, and Attack the Gas Station! Read about a third of The Whisperers, the new John Connolly novel. No Gaiman/Pratchett yet, mostly because Connolly's book is less travel-friendly due to being much larger.

More fools on "travelators".

I have an apple in my bag. I'm growing hungry again - gods know why; I ate less than two hours ago and it should be 12:10am on my body clock. Curious to see if I can get it to Germany. Probably get nicked by some hungry customs officer, although it's quite possible that it's only NZ that is that paranoid about bio-security.

Thanks to everyone for the nice farewell texts.

Had enough with th air-con now. I'm chilly.

Silly Hats Abound!

It's getting really close now.

On Thursday I'll leave the only country I've ever really known. 10 days in Japan and 2 weeks in Australia do not compare to a one way ticket to Europe. I don't even know what to think, what to feel. It's all kind of numb. I'm hoping that it's a happy kind of numb, rather than a what-have-I-gotten-myself-into kind of numb. Although, I guess I'll only really know when I'm in Singapore, all far away and by myself.

So until then, there's only the waiting.

Out of the flat and into my Mum's house. It's really quiet here. I watch tv for the sake of something to do. I like my mum and it's nice being at home, relaxing and not going to work (it's the not paying rent part that I like the most). Yet it is so different from the social hub that was my flat. Even when I was home alone, as was common in the week leading up to graduation, it still felt as though I was connected to people. Now I find myself surfing facebook compulsively, for the sake of familiar faces and familiar syntax.

By the by, I graduated last week. I wore a silly square hat and an ungainly gown, neither of which fitted properly and if it wasn't for the family heritage I would have been all the more bothered. As it was, I was just a little irritated.
However, I didn't fall over, my hat didn't tumble off my head, and I didn't sneeze or spray other bodily fluids pre-hand shaking.

'Twas sad. I hadn't really prepared myself mentally to say goodbye to everyone and then we were each being swept away by over-excited family members, and there were only brief hat tips and little gifts and very, very sad cards.

So now I am trying to meet up with people in Aucky, saying goodbye and whatnot.

I think I have forgotten more German than can be good for me, especially prior to a trip to Germany. I have demanded Spaghettieis from my brother and his forgiveness for my sleep-deprivation-induced-uncoordination. That was a great word. Pity the days of academic essays are behind me. Though with all those hyphens, it'd probably only count as one word, and therefore not be of any REAL use.

Well then. I should mention Bones = *tear* and Doctor Who = damn two parters of which you won't be able to see the end.
Anyhoo, Tally-ho and away I go.

In which a lot of clouds and one girl's grief make inspiration.

Patient clouds in slow descent.
Electricity in the air – a clash between silence and emotion.
A grey veil covers the world,
All grief is made equal by a cold,
Egalitarian haze.
Surrender,
Relinquish,
Resurface.