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A life in the skies. A life that is more than a little less ordinary. A life and career that transports me from city to country, but rarely to home. Along the way I get to live the dream, discovering a myriad of new and wonderful things. I love all things fine. Deluxe. Quite possibly ostentatious. But always with style. And I am zealous for life, love, people and friends and all the quirky nuances that all of that brings. Enjoy the ride!

Friday 11 February 2011

Home, James!

It’s a fair assumption to share that, for those of us who lead a life of travel, we would get accustomed to the highs and lows that this entails and get used to the distinctive public transport systems that keeps every city in motion – the fights for a New York yellow cab, the queue turned squeeze on a London double-decker bus, the faceless efficiency of the Tokyo bullet train, the mexican-wave payment up a Jeepney in Manila... Well...no. Not quite. Not I.

As with every proverbial pleasure in the world, there closely follows a proverbial pain and, just as I embrace life in the skies as my daily commute, my pain factor is administered in full dosage on the ground. This week has been a double dosage and, as I cringe yet again at the wave of perspiration that surrounds me in another train station, I wonder...is the pleasure of a sky-life-high-life doomed to be a go-slow-low-life when back commuting on terra firma?

Most of my friends will attest to the fact that I am not a great one for public transport. In fact, being frank, I rarely succumb to its economical charm at all.

I will happily share a plane with a few other hundred people (although I do much prefer to be up front where the purse strings permit it….who doesn’t?).
Rail makes me frail - trains I just can’t explain, bewildered from the moment I enter the station, worse when I am on a seat facing reverse to the direction I am physically travelling in.
Fuss over a bus? I won’t even waste words - buses just don’t happen and haven’t done since I passed my university entrance exams and left school...

Already this year I have been on 17 flights and, by the logic of my travel math, 17 flights in 41 calendar days equals at least 34 cab rides. Allow a ballpark 20% uplift for casual back and forths, and we can safely call it a round 40.

Yes, taxis are my guilty pleasure, maybe my innate need for speed, but today as I switch on my air-con I really do wonder….is there anything to warrant the bus chase with a suitcase, or isn't it just better to leave it to the experts to flap about maps and get stressed over GPS...?

‘Til next time, Pandora

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