Flight

Jeremy paced up and down in the departure hall near the gates, anxious to leave on the plane back to the US and annoyed that there were many people who felt the same way fro the flight. He had spent summer earlier in Singapore, enjoying the sights and sounds of the famous Gardens by the Bay, Sentosa island and even the zoological and bird parks, but they felt tiresome after a while. All the places had ranked well in a guide book to the region, but in his opinion, the novelty wears out the moment one actually visits the place. He couldn't believe that he had spent nearly two thousand dollars, and a whole day of travel just to partake in such local and petty attractions.

But he had to admit one thing -- for all the boringness of it all, things were run almost to clockwork precision as much as they could. Not at the level of sophistication of course. no one could do that expect for the Japanese -- but at a level high enough that made him grudgingly accept that efficiency was a worthy title for the city-state to hold.

But efficiency and holidays don't mix well, he decided.

Jeremy tried to take his mind off the terrible holiday by distracting himself with observing the people around him. Like always, all the passengers were of a varied and motley lot. There were the backpacker adventurers who went everywhere with their towering frame-enhanced backpack that they always checked-in place-side. There were the soldier types, these often looked like they were just released from camp, with their close-cropped hair and searing love for all things in the camouflage motif.

And there were the families. Jeremy recoiled instinctively from the visceral horror that was the travelling family. They were the worst form of passengers, especially if they had young children or god forbid, toddlers on tow. Absolute nightmare to be riding a plane with them. Often, it take longer to get them settled down on the plane, what with their griping about who sits where. Sometimes their own stupidity in picking seats meant that he got propositioned to swap places with them so that they could sit together, an altogether ugly proposition considering Jeremy always hand-picked his own seats. And those with children were the worst of all, what with the consistent high-pitched shrieks and cries and the monopolising of the stewards' time. Absolutely dreadful.

At long last the officer at the gate opened it up for boarding.