[🏔️ yodel ⛰️] Day 1: About airports
Hello from Changi Airport, where humidity doesn't exist and your wildest dreams will come true, duty-free.
I'm writing from an airport lounge. It's my first time ever in an airport lounge of any sort and I'm honestly feeling very bougie right now. I used to think that airport lounges were an extravagance. Why pay (by a credit card or thanks to the privilege of owning credit card) to sit around a stodgy place filled codgy people? Do I even have that much time to indulge in a complimentary meal or take a shower? I never could understand why this was sought after.
But after a day filled with first and second-hand anxiety, I can see why places like an airport lounge are a great place to just be.
(I won't bore you with the details but there was still a lot of housework to be done, and I was mostly out of it, so tensions were running high.)
This particular lounge is nothing luxurious. There is no airflow at all and I'm stewing in my high-back chesterfield armchair. They're good chairs. Strong back, firm bottom, supportive arms. I almost want to stroke the plasticky leather and go, "That'll do chair, that'll do." But don't get me wrong. These chairs don't want you to settle in. The arms kind of cage me in, and the entire seat isn't conducive for any sort of intense work. (You'd have to go hunt down a work pod for that.) Luckily, this is just a tiny warble from Changi Airport and not the next Pulitzer.
You can spend up to 3 hours here, showering, eating, napping and working. Everything's taken care of. There are two huge drink fridges behind me, fully stocked. And the food they've got up on the buffet counters smell pretty good. The internet is brisk, and there are so many universal power sockets that would make a digital nomad would weep with joy.
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I wanted to talk about how airports are a liminal space, but I honestly don't know where to take that thought. It's such a cliched idea that I'm not very sure how my personal observations would be interesting at all. But I suppose airports and airport lounges are a liminal space. The Indian couple a couple of seats down have disappeared, while the old man (who looks super comfy with his soft cardigan and warm hat) sitting diagonally from me is still here. He's fidgeting — his right leg is jumping up and down non-stop — and he's looking around. Our eyes just met.
OK, back to the screen.
There are so many orchids here. Is it because we need to remind people that we're in Singapore? I wonder if lounges in other countries have different flowers. Do people from other countries even associate orchids with Singapore? I've been fed so much national rhetoric that Singapore's the capital orchid cultivation and that it's something recognised all over the world — but does someone from, I don't know, Boise, Idaho even care? We rip out native rainforests and instead spend millions on manmade orchids. We trample on ancient undergrowth and replace them with housing blocks with vertical farms. We try to feed ourselves but we starve Singapore.
Is this the effect of the airport lounge? Is the orchid pollen getting to me?
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I used to love airports. Made any excuse to hop on a bus or MRT to just visit. Even before Jewel. Even just to find a quiet corner and study. There was something very satisfying about wrapping myself up in a thick hoodie and being in a space where no one would remember who I am. I would have never become a regular. With the revolving staff shifts and the constant flow of tourists, I would never see the same person in the same place twice. The background chatter was the perfect soundtrack to O Level and A Level textbooks. Listen to the droning and get into the zone.
These days, I'm not so sure. I just want to get in and get out. I want my departures and arrivals to be smooth and efficient. I want somewhere else to be here and now.
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Much of today felt like I was walking backwards on a moving walkway. A lot of things have been done, some distance has been travelled, the knot in my stomach has shifted, but I'm still here.
The next update will be from there: Lucerne. After an 11 hour flight, a train ride, and a day out in the city.
Everything is only just beginning.