Well, it's been suggested I resume my travel... journal, not-blog, journal. This is a comparatively short trip to San Francisco and back for a job interview at LinkedIn.
I sit here at Auckland International Airport, drinking a beer, and awaiting my flight. Alas I am flying United, and so the AirNZ lounge is not available to me. I see the entrance from where I sit - it mocks my economy non AirNZ ticket. The metaphor pokes its tongue at me.
At the airport, the passengers who aren't sitting at a bar never stop moving, from the time they enter the airport there is this magnetic pull, drawing each along. The only refuge from this tug is a seat at a restaurant, a cafe, a bar, or perhaps a visit to a shop - but never for long, even in a shop, the force reaches in and reminds you that your time here is temporary.
Eventually the flow unceremoniously dumps you in the departure lounge for your gate. A Boeing 777-200 seats around 320 passengers. At the gate there are 140 seats. It is the final insult given by the airport to this stage of your travel experience.
Your only respite is your desire to reach the other end - assuming you are lucky enough to be heading somewhere you want, and that you have no connecting flights.
Fortunately, after that grim analysis of airport travel, I am sitting down, drinking my beer, and I have a direct flight to San Francisco, a city that I am very much looking forward to visiting again.