London
10:12 am.
I'm now sitting at the Pret A Manger at Heathrow terminal 4. This is my first time flying out of terminal 4, and it is largely disappointing. It feels as if I were at Luton or Stansted. Even Gatwick is better than this place. There aren't even any fast food restaurants here. Just ready made sandwiches and an vastly over priced gourmet fish bar. Where is the McDonald's, the Panda Express, or the Emporium of Grease when you need it?
Update: The staff at the duty free shopping centre in Terminal 4 are incompetent. It is crucial that all liquids purchased in the EU be packaged in sealed bags prior to reaching the final destination. I asked them if my purchase needed such treatment, and they said no. They assumed that Amsterdam was my final destination. They should have asked. They should have sealed it anyway, just in case. Their service is irresponsible and pathetic.
At least the ready made sandwich joint I'm at is pretty good. And I can only find the Emporium of Grease at American airports anyway. I'm sure I'm better off without it.
The most annoying thing is that KLM are rather asinine when it comes to their weight policy. They seem to really stick firmly to 20kg for checked luggage. Too bad I don't have a companion coming to the airport. I was at 26 kg, and forced to pay an extra 66 Pounds. I don't even have anything particularly heavy in my suitcase. In fact, if I had everything packed into my smaller suitcase, the total might have been 3 kg less. They might have turned a blind eye to that. Oh well. This is probably still cheaper than shipping the extra weight. And I would have still paid more to fly on Korean Air with their greater weight restrictions.
My next stop is Amsterdam which I feel rather ambivalent about. The airport is quite fine as a structure. It is comfortable, has amenities, places to sit. It even has a Macdonald's, thought it lacks an Emporium of Grease.
But all this aside, the Dutch staff are the problem. I have several Dutch friends and colleagues, and am myself descendent from immigrants from the Netherlands, so I don't have any particular grief with the Holland, The staff are generally fair and generally efficient. However, they are not warmhearted to strangers (and I don't mean foreigners, I just mean anyone they don't know) and they don't respond well to unexpected situations. Since such problematic situations occur or less frequently for international travelers, this can be trying.
Update: In a very stressful situation caused by the duty free shop in Heathrow Terminal 4, the people at Shiphol have been wonderfully helpful. The information desk staff are friendly and willing to be flexible. My prior experience is now confounded. I feel like paradigm shifts may be underway.
Amsterdam
3:54 PM
I'm now sitting in Shiphol airport. As you can see above, World duty free has caused me a bit of a mishap. What will be will be. It tests my resolve, ingenuity, and eye for fine details. Luckily, the people at Shiphol may be a bit colder, but they aren't screw ups (sorry Mom).
Now I'm enjoying a larger table, a more comfortable seat, and a generally far more pleasant airport. Heathrow has improved in the last few years, but it is still antiquated and overfilled. If I have to go by KLM again, I think it would be far better to go via Bristol. BAA doesn't operate Bristol's airport, and that makes a huge difference. Usually the workers there are more flexible and customer oriented. But even when they aren't the place is small, clean, pleasant, and easy to manage. One never finds the massive crowds one would at Heathrow.
The Dialectic of Grey:
Hear in the northern world things are already almost dark. There is still light in the sky, but it is cloudy. The clouds hide a certain dynamism though. They are filled with power. Each one bears subtle gradations of colour from deep grey to misty blue. Highlights of white clouds which seem like they might just possibly bear just a touch of yellow.
This is a starkly different scene, to the one I saw when I was on the coach this morning. I woke from sleep at just a little before 8, and the sun was just groping above the horizon. The structure of the coach prevented me from seeing the whole expanse, but what I could see was glorious. Fuchsias and oranges dancing together in lines of cloud which cut across the sun's rays. The sun itself was largely obscured, I think because it was still too early.
The view here is one that requires more subtlety to appreciate. It is somber. The glory is sedate but present. There is a stunning potentiality about this greyness. But this is not what I want to say about it. One need take only a glance at a thunderhead on the horizon, and its power and magnificence are apparent. These clouds would seem to be far more pedestrian. Most people would look at them, dismissively and come to the conclusion, "it's an awfully dreary day today."
Perhaps such thoughts are conceived purely in terms of sunlight and its effects. They are affected by our star. But what of the cloudy day. The sun is subsumed, although not removed. It is not night. Does this mean less happiness? Some people feel dreary. But why should happiness by tied to sunlight. What is the emotional content of clouds. Is there even a right wrong question here? Surely the feelings on a dreary day simply well up inside many people. They are not the products of forethought.
However, I do not share that feeling today. Today it is grey that is right. Sunlight would be strangely inappropriate for a journey of this length. For me grey is a comforter. It soothes. It calms. What more could I want. And the shades of grey give depth to all things. The colours of the sun would give us no sense of shape and proportion without the shadow of grey shades.
Hegel said that it was at twilight. Between night and day that the owl of Minerva flew. There is wisdom in the mediation of differences. That is the core of his dialectical method. It is the source of my appreciation of grey today.
That doesn't mean I'm forswearing sunlight.
Signing off
The first leg of the journey, and by far the most laborous is now over. I'm in the plane, have pushed and have been pushed by Korean's who don't believe in lines. The funniest thing was a business man who had almost pushed his way into the front of the queue for economy class so he could board right away. Then when they called out business class first, from a new queue, he had to walk all the way back through the line to get out. Not to fun for him, but extremely amusing for me. He still got in before all of us, but had he been less pushy, he wouldn't have had to wait for everyone in business class either.
We are scheduled to depart in about 6 minutes, but that looks to be unlikely. The plane was delayed coming in, but it looks like the hold up now is simply the fact that many people weren't at the gate when they were supposed to be. When my fellow passengers delay my travel, especially when it is to see Ahreum after three months, I am none too happy.
But the point is that I will soon be in the air, and on the way to Seoul. Ahreum will be waiting for me at the airport! Until then, I need to get some rest.
Once more into the breach,
Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment