Great Eastern Journey, Mon, 18 Mar 2013 | written by Simon
Simon in Asia, Singapore

Today is another transit day. I left Singapore with a delayed flight to Dubai (incidentally, it’s the same connection from Brisbane that was delayed ten days before when I got to Singapore, though this time the delay was only 1.5h), to board a delayed flight to Mumbai. Emirates, WTF? I know that it’s a matter of national pride and importance, but perhaps the fact that the weather conditions in Dubai cause half your flights to be delayed means that it wasn’t the best idea to choose it as your main connection hub? Also, my bad luck didn’t leave me and once again I was sat right behind a wailing human larva, soon joined in chorus by its slightly older sister. Then on the flight to Mumbai another one was just across the deck. Ugh…

During the flight I was thinking a lot about the world, life and myself. I want this journey to mean something to me, I want to discover new things not only out there, but also in and about me. It was meant to be a challenge, something that will leave me stronger, smarter and generally a better person. Things are unfolding, words were written, though most of them aren’t ready yet. One of the things I’m definitely learning is patience – so now I will wait before I make up my mind, look and listen a bit more before I say or decide anything. Give the thoughts time to ripe.

Today and in the last days I started feeling homesick. It feels like I have been traveling for ages now and I miss my normal everyday life, my partners, friends. I also think that Charlie was right – the reason why all grown ups and old people say that the older you get the faster the years go by is in the lack of new experiences. For kids and young people everything is new, everything is an adventure and a journey into the unknown. Grown up days are all very similar, not much new happens. The subjective passage of time isn’t counted in hours or days, it’s counted in events. New memorable events make time slow down and last longer, and their lack makes time seem to run faster. I had a year worth of events in a month now, and it’s fantastic. I want to make sure that my everyday life is more like that when I come back. I want to share more of this subjective time with my friends and partners.

I think I will come back a slightly better person.