No, I’m not referring to the reckoning that I faced with my father when I came home with a bad report card or mouthed off as a kid. Rather, it’s a tell tale sign that you are traveling on a US bound aircraft when the belt and shoes are forced to come off when clearing security. The paramount concern when clearing security in Australia is that your laptop gets taken out and put in a separate container. “No, I don’t want to see your boarding pass nor do I care if your face matches the photo ID in your hand. But for the love of God put the laptop in a separate bin!” Oh easy Australian travel, how I will miss thee. Australia is in the rear view mirror, again. Let’s see if the forces of nature bring me back there anytime soon. And now I’m heading home for a record two times in one calendar year! Stuck in Abu Dhabi at the moment because of “technical difficulties” with the aircraft’s maintenance. We actually boarded the plane but sat at the gate for two hours. The repairs that they were doing shut down the air conditioning. So there we sat….200 people on an airplane…with no air conditioning…under the mid day sun…in the Middle East…for two hours. It got a bit ugly before the airlines came to their senses and let us disembark. They gave us free lunch vouchers for the airport food court when stepping off the plane. Funny thing was, in order to arrive at the food court to use the voucher we had to clear security again even though we had just stepped off the plane. But hey, anything for a free greasy airport lo mein meal. At least there is free wi fi in the terminal and hence the random streaming of thought blog post.
I’ve never been to the UAE before, nor the Middle East for that matter. But I had no idea that the official language here is Tagalog. I feel like everywhere I look all of the flight attendants, ticketing agents, and duty free retailers are Filipino. I’m hearing more “f’s” pronounced like “p’s” that I am boarding calls to gate 29. “This is the pinal boarding call por Plight 427 to Prankpurt, Germany departing prom gate Pipty-six.” Tongue and cheek jokes aside, it’s easy to detect from the army of Filipino service workers here, Australia, and elsewhere throughout my travels that remittances make up staggering 10% of the Philippine GDP. Fascinating desert view coming in for the landing. The clear blue skies slowly descended on an ocean of light brown sand and skyline of low level housing units. The trip back home takes me the “other way”: Northwest over the Indian Ocean and then traversing the Atlantic – rather than the more conventional route over the Pacific – for back-to-back 14 hour flights with a God knows how many hours layover in Abu Dhabi. All the travel’s worth it for my man Freddy T, however. On Saturday he and his sweet little lady Jamie will exchange nuptials and I ain’t gonna miss it for the world. Big ups Fred and Jamie!
