Above the Clouds between London and Lisbon



Partially written during a flight in 2015

Airports. I love them.
 The feeling of endless possibilities, a portion of land that belongs to no one and to everyone, to nowhere and to everywhere, browsing books, creams, magazines while killing time waiting for my gate's number, wondering where people go and why and most of all, the adrenaline, the funny feeling in my stomach when we're about to take off.


They are asking us to put our devices in airplane mode. Time to take a break from my digital self. There's a gentlemen next to me, the business passenger type, and he already opened his laptop and set a whole office in his cramped airplane seat. 

Look at his fingers!  He types like crazy! Normally pianists play Liszt Transcendental Etude No.1 in fifty seconds. Well... Judging by the speed of his writing,  I bet he would play it in less than ten. Actually, what surprises me the most is the speed of his ideas, of his mind. 

I always dreamed of being the business passenger type who opens the laptop and gets sh*t done! But I get so sleepy after the take off!

 Between London and Lisbon, I do plan to have two or three very productive hours above the clouds but it never happens! 

I remember taking a flight to Porto and these two guys seated next to me ordered a bottle of wine and, kindly enough, offered me a glass or two (a9 am !!!!!). 


- Guys, I only start drinking wine past 10 am! But thank you very much!

They partied hard! Terrible neighbors! I slept anyway! I sleep over turbulence, over babies crying and over people kicking the back of my seat.

The gentleman keeps typing. I need to go to the toilet. That's exactly when I punish myself for keep buying the window seat. A friend of mine tells me the window seat is good for spotting UFOs during overnight flights. I honestly prefer to have free access to the corridor and to the toilet than spending my time waving at alien spaceships.

- It's time to rest those fingers Sir! Step aside: you, your whole office, your novel or whatever you're writing on that screen. I've been holding as much as I can to not interrupt your business but now it's time for me to do my business! And don't give me that look!

We'll be landing soon. People will be clapping soon too. 

- Oh no!!!! Clapping... no!!! 

Why do people clap on plane landings? 
They say airplanes are safer than cars but people never clap when they drive to work, to the supermarket, to Caparica (a portuguese beach). They never clap when they drive safe to their destinations. They never clap in buses either!!!!

We've just landed!

People are queueing to leave the plane. Everyone is on the phone at this point.

- Hey! I just landed! 
-Can you hear me!? Hey! Can you hear me? I landed! Where are you? Late? There's nothing sadder than having no one waiting for me at the airport. How dare you? 

I love airports. 
I really do.


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