It's been a long day for me, I'm writing this on the 23:33 train from Luton airport to Bedford and feeling a little philosophical. Might be a pretty boring story so I recommend cutting to the final paragraphs for the point.
Woke up this morning on the bus to university, my morning routine a blur through sleepy eyes. Morning surgery starts at 7:30am, so as usual I was on the 7:18 bus to the hospital listening to the Joe rogan experience podcast. It was episode 764 with Duncan Trussell the comedian and good friend of Joe's. Duncan had a little crazy rant about how people get annoyed so easily and the pettiness of daily life. He was saying how optimism and positivity even for the little things would make life so much brighter.
I was lucky to get to spend the entire morning in the operating theatre, put some stitches did some ultrasound, love it. The last case was gruesome, transmetatarsal amputation of the foot, seeing a toe sawn off (and it's literally sawn off with an electric bone saw) is not terribly easy to watch but the surgeon did a great job (textbook, I read about the procedure before and he matched it point for point).
The afternoon was a rush of packing, lunch (pizza to say goodbye to Italy) and goodbyes (my korean flatmate and wonderful girlfriend). Before I knew it I was going through customs.
My phone buzzed after getting through customs, “you flight details have changed”. My flight was delayed 30minutes, shit. I had booked a train that left an hour after my flight touched down. This was the start of what could of been a very frustrating evening.
Airports are funny places, people from all over the world from all different backgrounds congregate briefly in the departures lounge while they wait for their huge steel transport to fly them away. (Ever thought about planes, how the flip do those things even fly, a 747 weighs 400 tonnes, there definitely some kind of magic going on there). Screaming kids, smokers in their tiny smoking closet, old, young, businessmen, stoners, they are all here like some kind of multicultural Royal rumble.
The flight delay meant I had exactly 40minutes from flight landing to the train leaving. As I passed the lady who checks boarding passes she said the plane was too full and my handluggage and others must go in the hold and my bag was whisked away, I just managed to pull my book out just before it was gone.
The flight was pretty uneventful, well at least compared to the flight where a window blew out I was on once (I'll post about that another time, it's a good story and ends with free pizza ha). The couple next to me were very much in love or something, they spent most of the flight making out. I think she had thing for ears, the guy would turn to read part of his guidebook now and then, but she would just keep kissing in his general direction, mostly in his ear, noisy stuff. The kids behind me must of confused my seat and the couple's as a drum set or punchbag. That was the only moment the lady next to me stopped inserting her tongue in mouths or ears, she turned and gave the two ‘little shits’ (her words not mine) an angry look and they stopped.
The flight landed on time (delayed time) and we bounced down the Luton airport runway to a typical Italian applause, well done pilot for avoiding a burning wreckage. As soon as the seatbelt signs flicked off I was up out of my seat and in front of the rear door, ready to run for my train.
Looking out the rear door window I couldn't see anything happening, the air hostess then told me after hearing my plight that sometimes they only open the front door. This now put me at the very back of the queue to leave the plane. Damn. The front door finally opened and everyone slowly shuffled off with me at the very back. After getting off the plane I sprinted to passport control only to be met by the biggest queue I've ever seen winding it's way left and right to fill the entire room (and it's a big room). With this long queue and the fact i still had to collect my bag and navigate from luton airport to the trainstation. There was no way I would make my train.
Through the airport WiFi (thank God for airport WiFi!) I managed to find out there was another train home leaving in around an hour. After just missing the aiport-train link bus by a second I eventually got to the station and the eight minute delay for the train seemed like nothing compared to my mad rush through Luton terminals.
This whole story is pretty boring perhaps even frustrating but I would like to get to the point now. Optimism. I could of easily have been pissed off with the various delays, the noisy neighbours on the plane, the fact I missed my trains, but I chose to except them and even laugh at them. By stepping back and accepting that there was nothing I could do, I felt so much more relaxed. Admittedly there was a brief surge of panic when I realised I may not be able to get home but focusing on the fact I would make sure I did, alleviated that. I am alot happier with this approach to life. I laugh at the obsurdity of situations and how easy it is to be annoyed in the modern world. ‘Living in the moment’ may sound like some hippy rubbish but there is certainly some truth to it.
Discussing this approach with a friend, an important point was brought up. You mustn't be completely passive with everything happening around you. If there is something wrong it should be dealt with but without the anger or aggressiveness that usually accompanies frustration.
Moral of this story to quote easyjet: ‘you should allow two hours after arrival before connecting trains or flights’ ha.
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