| If you let them, airports can give you an electric | | | | corridors of Singapore terminal 1, on their way to |
| feeling that few other major buildings can. The | | | | Bangkok to the north, or Jakarta to the south. |
| airport is constantly on the move, serving a | | | | Late arrivals in Amsterdam hurtle towards the |
| conveyor belt of holidaymakers, business people | | | | soon-to-close flight to New York. The thrill of |
| and those simply moving from A to B. Airport | | | | people going to places continues 24 hour a day. |
| transfers mark the beginning of your flirtation | | | | Never resting, the airport is impossible to pin |
| with air travel, delivering you to the busy | | | | down. Its temporary residents finally settling in to |
| entrance, garnished with taxis, space wagons and | | | | their aluminium tubes, handed their glossy in-flight |
| cars - each spilling forth families, suited men and | | | | magazines before failing to heed the safety |
| excited weekend breakers. | | | | demonstration for the Nth time. Sated by |
| The structure of airport terminals may not | | | | shopping and expensive airport food, they sit |
| change significantly, but the lifeblood is moving all | | | | waiting for take off, surging up into the blue or |
| the time. The airport is the skin and bones, and | | | | the grey or the black - waiting for the experience |
| the passengers are the pumping blood - | | | | at the other end. |
| ceaselessly arriving, waiting, buying, eating, drinking. | | | | The red wine from flight 209 and black coffee |
| Airport transfers, luggage porters, baggage | | | | from flight 803, the compact lasagne from Milan |
| handlers, security details - all these contribute to | | | | 222, the mini spring rolls from the Shanghai 406. |
| the buzz of the airport. | | | | The rich experience of air travel will take many |
| A school or a hospital or a hotel - they have a | | | | hours to leave the traveller's system - and many |
| liveliness about them, but nothing like that of an | | | | more to adjust to the time difference. Jet lag is |
| airport. Transfers between different terminals, | | | | the come down from this heady world of plastic |
| each serving different continents - heading to Rio | | | | mini cutlery and little yoghurt pots - endless red |
| or LA or Toronto, to London, Glasgow or | | | | wine refills and tiny bottles of whisky. |
| Edinburgh. All take the form of mini trains or | | | | And what at the other end? More airport |
| people carrying conveyor belts - internal airport | | | | transfers to other destinations - or perhaps |
| transfers have never been so slick. | | | | simply airport transfers to familiar homes and |
| Coffee fuelled, twitchy businessmen clutching | | | | familiar beds. But first the process of exiting - held |
| bottles of perfume for their neglected wives, | | | | up by passport checks and luggage which fails to |
| heavily laden Canadian backpackers eating the | | | | appear on the conveyor belt. But, bag or suitcase |
| previous night's leftovers, nouveau riche | | | | retrieved, its time to exchange final Euros or |
| pensioners treating themselves to the Spanish | | | | Dollars or Pounds, time to find your way through |
| south - the whole patchwork of the human | | | | the throng to the exit, out into the cold chill of the |
| travelling quilt is sewn into the constantly shifting | | | | stationary taxi rank. At last the earth is still - until |
| fabric of the airport. Transfers hurry along wide | | | | the next time. |