People Watching

Last night The Eldest One came home from her trip interstate. YAY!! It's probably not a secret that I missed her a lot! We have a very close relationship and while I've said before I'm a big advocate of being a parent to your kids, not their friend, we are friends too. I missed our little conversations, random hugs and I definitely missed her cooking! I can cook more than adequately, but I'm not really a fan of it. The Eldest One however, thoroughly enjoys cooking and for the most part is really good at it. She's one of these don't need a recipe types who can usually wing it and make it work. And I admit I take full advantage of that!!

Anyway....I went to the airport to pick her last night and I felt the usual excitement driving in. I love going to the airport. More when it's me going somewhere haha, but the airport just has a palpable sense of excitement in the air even when you are just going to pick someone up or drop them off. It's almost like the collective excitement and trepidation of all the travellers and visitors combines to create a vibe that you can feel immediately upon stepping out of the carpark. Call me weird, that's ok.

So I was sat there waiting for the plane to land (or should I say for the plane to take it's place at the gate because it was landed but another plane had mistakenly parked in the wrong gate....). Waiting for her to get off the plane I did some people watching. It is always interesting to me to observe people especially somewhere like the airport. Here in Australia you can go through security without having a ticket and so it's pretty common practice to wait at the gate for people as they arrive. Our gate was right after security this time, so I got to watch people coming through. It was actually really interesting.

The first thing I observed was their clothes. Some people were really super dressed up. I guess people like to dress nicely when travelling, but to me dressing for comfort should be the go. Not saying you can't do both, but the vast majority of the public don't seem to realise this fact. It's either all dressed up, or way dressed down. I saw people in clothing that would easily pass as pajamas, and people who looked like they were in their Sunday best. Their choice of clothing made me wonder where they were headed. Like the girl who was wearing denim shorts and a singlet top, but she had a winter coat on as well.....(it IS the middle of summer here with temps hovering consistently around the mid 90's to 105 or so Fahrenheit.) Her jacket was lined with fur, so I wondered if she was traveling somewhere cold, but she had no carry on luggage at all so that made me wonder if she was a traveler at all or if she was there to greet someone. In which case the winter jacket was really weird......

Then there was the guy wearing shorts so tight I wondered how on earth he was going to be able to bend his legs to sit! He was clearly a traveller, a small satchel bag strung over his shoulder was evidence to that fact. But how he was going to sit for at least 4 hours in those shorts was baffling! There were people in thongs (the shoe, not the underwear!) which make sense for ease of removal, make a cold foot person like myself shudder at the thought......but maybe they had socks in their bags to put on while in flight. People in hats which looked very cool but I always wonder how comfortable that will be for them during the flight if they try to sleep.

Then there was the carry on luggage farce. I swear some people do their absolute best to push  the boundaries of what is allowed to be taken on. I saw one lady who was wheeling a small suitcase behind her, as well as carting the biggest laptop I've ever seen in a satchel style shoulder bag, with another handbag on the other shoulder and a large tote bag full of stuff!! Even if she was traveling business class there is no way all that would be considered one bag and one personal item! Some people had almost no carry on, and I envy these people. People who are confident that they won't need anything on the plane except a purse or wallet, and maybe a book. I'd like to be one of those people. I think the freedom having no carry ons allows you is amazing! No wheeling bags or getting a sore shoulder from a heavy tote or backpack......

It got me thinking more about our trip overseas later in the year. I may have mentioned or not, that I am planning on practicing getting through airports with the children beforehand. Call me crazy but I think when you are traveling with 5 children aged between 1 and 17 it pays to have everyone know what to expect of the airports and of themselves beforehand. The children will be taking a small suitcase (carry on size) each, and The Awesome One and I will share one large suitcase with Little Miss Penelope. They will ALL be checked!! My amazing pram has a travel bag that it fits into which is actually like a suitcase for it's protection, but also means it fits other stuff so more storage! So two suitcases and 4 mini suitcases all checked. Our carry on will be limited to a small bag each. Either a handbag for the older girls, and a small backpack for the younger ones. What doesn't fit, doesn't come along. And we'll be practicing how to go through security, what to take out of bags, what has to come off like belts and shoes etc.....

Hopefully we'll be one of those families that are not frazzled and go through easily and smoothly. And not one of those families that you see where the kids are chaotically running around, we're yelling at each other, trying to juggle too much stuff.....

So there was really no reason for this post, just wanted to have a bit of a ramble. So if you've read through the whole thing, thanks! If not....that's ok, I won't be offended. But then if not you won't have just read this line, hahaha!






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Comments

  1. I'm missing her already..although it has to be said that I do forget what an inordinate time teenage girls take in the bathroom!! Dad got quite used to making sure he got in there in the morning before her.. :o) See you all in 5 days...excitement is building.. xxx

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    Replies
    1. Haha, yes. She does take quite a while to preen herself in the mornings!

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  2. I love people watching at the airport! It is such an exciting place!

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