A Geek's Life

Waiting at Schiphol, faces blurred by Gemini

A few times a year, due to work travel, I end up in the Schiphol vortex. In three years of travel, I still haven’t worked out how it happens beyond it being usually in the Dutch Summer holidays.

It is a bad end to a meh day, one which began with an early call to an Eastern hemisphere site followed by a laundry list of items to resolve. It is also only the second time since last October that I am travelling alone, leaving S outnumbered by L and F.

The line inches along slowly. I help the old lady in the line ahead of me with connecting to the (free) Wi-Fi. She proceeds to make a Whatsapp call in a language I assume (for no real reason) as Arabic. The steady hum of the air-conditioning is punctuated now and again by a little child’s cries. One suspects he is at his wits end, as is his mother. Everyone shuffles along, poking at phones, looking studiously into the distance. It is yet another day to revel in the delights of Brexit.