People watching~

A tall, slim woman with a bob and far too much make-up sat down next to me. By now, I'd taken my earphones out. Since I've traveled alone, I've realized that people are likelier to talk to you if you don't have music blaring in your ears (duh!). I was running out of coins to call my brother ...naturally to have him call me back on the pay phone!, and I was wanting to just TALK.

Anyways, this woman turned to the man on her left and asked if he knew why there's been a delay. He shrugged his shoulders. I noticed she had a thick Afrikaans accent and didn't smile much. Being me, I offered to tell her the news I'd heard... "Apparently there's a delay with the catering company."

She turned to me and gave me a look as if to say, "Excuse me...was I talking to you?" Wow! What a b*tch, I thought! So... went back to my reading. A few minutes later she started talking. I looked up and she was talking to me. Small talk...can't even remember what exactly. I guess she was getting bored just sitting around not talking to anyone either.

She works for Emirates and was flying to Dubai where she was going to work on the flight (as an air hostess) to London. I asked her questions like - what would happen to people who missed their connecting flights in Dubai? Of course, they'd be compensated.

After about 3 hours of our flight being delayed, I asked her (never got to know her name) if she wanted to take a walk with me to the coffee shop a few meters away. She agreed. But I wasn't hungry, or thirsty - and the prices of basic snacks like Simba Chips & chocolates were like R10 each. Hell no!

When we walked back to our seats, they were still vacant and some people who we were making idle chat with were still around. There was a bald man who seemed to be making friends with many people around him. He came and sat next to me. Asked where I was from, where I was going to and spoke in an accent which made it a biiiit difficult to distinguish where he was from (although he was South African).

He was on his way to Italy. He was in the shoe industry and was going to buy some leather, but was stopping over in Dubai to spend a few days with his friend. "Ay, you know when I told my chommie in Dubai I was flying thru der he reckon...hey, Neelesh - you haf-to spend some time with me". His name was Neelesh and I immediately picked up that Neelesh was indeed... a "shooter".

For those unfamiliar with this term, a "shooter" is someone who speaks as though they are VIPS...they make themselves out to be very well-connected and are always openly 'busy' on their snazzy little phones, which sometimes suddenly breaks out into an AWFUL downloaded ringtone.

"Aaahhh... so you in Koo-ree-ah, ey? Lukka! What's it like there?"

His phone rang. Just like magic, his tone changed... "Hullo?" he answered. "...nah man, I'm still here...ya ya.. ok.. ya. ok lukka. Ciao" And just like magic, he changed again when he turned to continue his conversation with me.

Ohhhh... how am I going to get out of this? I was so tired and really not in the mood to discuss how much RENT is in Korea. *sigh...

I was saved by the Emirates bell... there was a further delay.

Now, people were really pissed off, mostly 'cause many of them (like myself) were missing their connecting flights.

A woman dressed in black came to stand near where I was. Her arms folded across her chest, nostrils flaring and looking over her glasses that were perched on her nosetip... darting looks at the Emiratest groundstaff. She caught my gaze and I smiled at her. I was weary to speak. This woman was FUMING.

"Have you missed your connecting flight?" I asked cautiously.
"YES, ...this is fucking unbelieavable... I mean I have fucking things to do you know and these people aren't even giving good fucking excuses."

I turned on my heels and walked away!!! ....as if she was the only one~!