The A to Z of Airports

A little something I wrote while killing time at Cape Town airport this afternoon. Big thanks to Rebecca Field for reminding me of a storytelling construct I’d forgotten about!

Airports.

Bloody Airports.

Can’t keep track of how many hours I’ve been here but let’s just say it’s been a few. Delays. Excuses so lame no doubt that they aren’t even bothering to communicate them.

Fuckers.

Going to be a long evening that’s for sure. Hire car place closes at 10pm which is when we are due to land. I had the foresight at least to give them a call and let them know I was still coming. Juanita promised me they’d wait for me to arrive but I’ll believe it when I see it. Knowing my luck, it’ll be an Uber from the arse end of nowhere.

Lanseria bloody airport.

Mango bloody airlines.

Neither of them were my first choice before today but it’s a work trip so best I just suck it up and move on. Obviously that would be easier were I actually moving rather than sitting across from Gate C10 counting down some more moments of my life I’ll never get back. Plan was solid to be fair – fly up the afternoon before the conference so that I could get a decent sleep and start Tuesday fresh. Quick drink at the hotel bar and then into the land of nod by half past nine.

Riiiiggghhhht.

Still, could be worse I suppose. Taking the 6am flight would have been a whole different kind of wide-eyed, sleep-deprived horror. Unless you’ve got airport lounge access with a free breakfast like the good old days of contracting in the UK I’ll take the extra hours in bed thank you very much.

Venting has helped. Where would I be without the ability to throw out words into the ether and the knowledge that at least one or two people will read them and have a laugh with or at me – I don’t mind which.

Xanadu it isn’t but it’s a rung up from Purgatory.

You won’t believe this, but during the time I’ve been scribbling this the boarding gate has opened and I can boldly step into the night air to get on a bus to take me to my much-delayed orange-winged chariot.

Zealous I am not…but there is a frisson of pre-flight excitement at least.