02DA0: Monday Airport Stress

Monday - Dougie

Remind me never to fly out of Manila on a Monday morning ever again. This may just be anecdotal data based on today's events only, but I haven't had this much stress other times I've flown out during the first flight of the day on other week days. I typically try to fly out mid-week, and I think that wisdom holds true for now.

Despite a very busy weekend of activities that included very poor sleeping habits starting Friday night, both Tobie and I did not sleep last night so that I could get to the airport at least 4 hours before my flight to be extra sure that I wouldn't miss my flight this time. That part was okay since Tobie and I got to finish watching Culinary Class Wars and generally had a nice night before it was time to go.

Being 4 hours before your flight for Singapore Airlines means that you arrive an hour before the check-in counters open for the day, but at least you can queue outside. I never have issues at check-in - the drama always begins with immigration. 

When I joined the queue for Immigration just before 05:00am, the line was already at the door to the immigration area itself. I don't officially know what it is about today that had so many people at the airport so early and I can only assume that there's an above-average number of OFWs leaving the country on a Monday morning as many people had the classic OFW envelop of all their documents. It took me over 90 minutes to get through Immigration including some tense moments with people who had asked to cut ahead because their flights were boarding, which resulted in other people complaining about how many people jumped ahead in line. I barely had time to go to the bathroom before rushing to my gate and just catching the beginning of the boarding procedure. 

Given my lack of sleep and extra stress from the Immigration delays, I had just managed to load Dune: Part Two on the in-flight entertainment system as comfort watching and immediately fell asleep before the plan left the ground. I woke up randomly in the middle of meal service and found that my seafood meal had been left at the (thankfully) empty seat between me and the other passenger in the row we were in. I stayed awake long enough to eat and then drifted off to sleep, only really wake up once we were on the ground in Singapore. I didn't even get any reading done on the flight.

As is typically the case when I travel to Singapore, everything was a lot calmer on this side. I didn't have any issues with the automatic immigration gates and my bag came out within a reasonable time frame. I even managed to get a Grab out of the airport quickly enough, so that's a win. 

The rest of the day had me drifting in and out of consciousness. I cleared my more immediate work tasks and then fell asleep on the couch. I woke up to the nephews arriving home from school and the older one shouting "Uncle Surprise!" as he jumped on me. We got a decent amount of quality time in before it was time for their bedtime and that's all I really wanted after the stress that was today.

I really need to catch up on sleep now. Things should be better now that I'm safe and settled. 

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