The life of a long-distance relationship partner – Part 1
Being in a long-distance relationship is like living multiple lives. Part one is about the life of a nomad, settling in in the world of airports every 4 – 6 weeks.
How do you know that you are living the life of a new-age nomad? Now, as all good things in life, there’s a list to determine this answer:
Dead give-away point 1: You are a self-proclaimed travel agent employed elsewhere.
You are like the Wikipedia of flying between your home and your heart’s home. You know what time all 7 daily flights are, you know which airline has what special, have multiple frequent flyer accounts and know which flights are sold out first and which are most likely to be overbooked or cause any other problems. Yeah, you should definitely add this experience and very useful superpower to your CV, do it now!
Dead give-away point 2: You know where the toilet paper is stored and that the third cupboard door hangs slightly.
OK, so you don’t literally know where it is stored, but you are directing the less frequent travelers and should probably get a cap with a huge neon yellow “i” on it and a reflector jacket… You know what is sold where, what’s on special this month and exactly how long it takes from the entrance to your boarding gate, these vital bits of information. You also know which airline is making an announcement even before the attendant can announce the name. You basically know the store staff by name and could draw up a floor plan. Dead give-away point 3: Home is where the Wi-Fi connects automatically. I am sure that you have heard this saying before. And if you find that, as soon as you walk into the airport, your phone is buzzing or ringing for attention only to find that it requires your username input for the complimentary Wi-Fi, you should probably have a good look at how many hours a month you spend at the airport and could possibly get away with giving up that small apartment that you only see between 2am and 6am anyways.
Dead give-away point 4: You are a zombie reader. It’s true. If you can walk through an airport at one of the busiest times of the day (and week for that matter), reading your book or that message on your phone and getting to your destination while hardly looking up, you are probably from a long line of airport zombies or simply a new-age nomad, probably dating someone a 1000 miles away.
Dead give-away point 5: You are the master hand on the clock, the same clock that runs the GPS.
When being picked up at the airport, you casually send a message to your loved one. That message would read something like “Sedrick just picked me up, be there in about 27 minutes”. The same applies when you book your trusted cab driver, you don’t ask what time they will pick you up, oh no! you tell them what time to pick you up. And if it’s a new driver, you argue for about 20 minutes explaining why they need to pick you up at that time and that your address isn’t on the GPS, so provide them with alternative details such as the co-ordinates or the address of the little diner down the road.
Dead give-away point 6: Final countdown. You are getting preference on seats, know the air hostesses by name, you have been to every restaurant and coffee shop on that airport, you have seen every movie or inflight entertainment reel that all the airlines that fly your route has to offer, you have tasted all the variants of airline food, you have finished roughly 321 books, you are on first-name basis with the check-in counter staff, you seem to be learning new languages somehow and are up to date with the latest international news. Yes, your list of new things to do at, in and around the airport is nearing an end. You find yourself wishing that you could try new things while you wait another 2 hours for that flight, another 2 hours before you can get back into the real world. As you can see, the signs are very clear. So, next time you see someone walk by, casually avoiding chaos and the masses of people, at a speed normally associated with the general New Yorker on a mission, glancing up only to assist those travelers who are obviously lost, give them a shout. Your new-age traveler friend might just appreciate meeting someone new in the small world of airports.
