On airports...

Airports are strange places. Mostly designed to be places of transit, most airports are void of any personality or character. Sure, some aiports are beautifully-designed (take Chek Lap Kok for example), and others are just plain horrible (Heathrow, anyone?), they're most designed to be functional--to get people in and out as fast as possible.

Recently (and for most of this year), I've spent a lot of time in a variety of airports (SIN, KUL, LGK, HKG and SFO, for any junkies keeping track) and I've also noticed a very human and sentimental side to airports. Airports are where people sever ties, or rekindle relationships; where families reunite, or young couples say farewell. They're places where ordinary folk mix with the extraordinary--mostly incognito, of course. But at the same time, airports are anonymous places. You can go around all day without ever introducing yourself to anyone, without anyone figuring out who you are, where you're from, and where you're going (unless you happen to be an immigration official, of course). My conclusion? Okay, I don't really have one. Just that I've spent way too much time in airports of late. And that at the end of the day, you really just want to have a a familiar face waiting for you when you walk out into that arrivals lobby so you don't have to be anonymous any longer.