About travel ...

After having spent far too many hours (days! weeks?!) folded, compressed, and crammed into the vice jaws called 'seats' on airplanes, waiting in lounges competing to win the award 'dullest lounge on the planet', in smokey, sticky taxis whose drivers seem to qualify by missing the driving licence test as many times as possible, at hotel registration desks where the sport of the day is to lose as many reservations as possible, and just trying to make my way to the next conference or meeting, that is really just an excuse to have lots of beer, and socialise as much as possible, I have come to recognise a few warning signs that you're really getting near the limit for travel overdose. Below you will find the most pressing ones.

You know you're travelling too much, when ...

• ... you know your passport number by heart.


• ... you know beforehand which airport gate your flight is going to arrive at.


• ... you find out that your laptop already has a dial-up configuration especially designed for the hotel you just checked into in that city 500 miles from home.


• ... you're stopped in the middle of street by a local resident of the foreign city, who asks for the telephone number to taxi – and you know the answer.


• ... you have a preference on the local brand of bottled water.


• ... you know how much money to save to cover for the airport tax when you leave.


• ... you're on first name basis with the rental car shuttle driver.


• ... you're suprised to see that that airline is trafficking this airport!


• ... the air hostess asks to be friends with you on Facebook.


• ... you realise that your front door key is so rusty, it won't fit in the lock.


• ... the telephone number to the air port taxi is on speed dial.


• ... you recognise the airline agent at the gate, and ask him/her 'Do you always handle this specific flight?'


• ... the answer is 'I know. You've flown it as many times as I have had to handle it.'


• ... the airline site manager at the airport greets you at the gate with a worried look and the words 'Good morning, sir! I haven't seen you for a while. I hope everything is all right.'


• ... you immediately realise that the terminal shuttle bus driver at London's Heathrow Airport makes a wrong turn.


• ... your airline bonus card has a more prominent place in your wallet, than your supermarket discount card.


• ... flight delays force you to reroute through an unexpected airport, but once you stop over at that airport you meet people you know.


• ... home just means the starting point for return trips.


• ... the SMS from the airline telling you that your next outbound flight is now open for checkin arrives before you've finished your previous homebound flight.


• ... the taxidriver to the airport says "Yeah, I remember that from last time I picked you up."


• ... you're waiting in the general seating area at your departure gate and realise that you're within range from the WiFi in the lounge to which you don't have access, but you remember from previous journeys that the password is usually "this, this, or that", and it is.


• ... the keys on your piano are dusty when you get back home.


• ... your occasional vaccination checkup ends with the nurse saying "No, you don't need any refills. You already have everything you could possibly need for the coming 10 years!".


• ... you need to consolidate your living to one town.


• ... you remember when a past meeting took place, but not where.


• ... the hotel staff spontaneously prepares your breakfast in advance.


• ... you plan ahead thinking that "Hmm. I'll be connecting with a long layover at that airtport and then depart from that terminal and I will have to eat. But that terminal has no good restaurants, so I had better eat in the arrival terminal of my first leg before I transfer to the departure terminal."

Should you find yourself suffering from travel OD, and still have your wits about you regarding how it happened – please contact me, and let others benefit from your example.

Cheers!

Special thanks to Patrik Fältström, Dave Crocker, Michael Mealling, Håkan Madsen, Ed Lewis, Kurtis Lindqvist, Suzanne Woolf, Marco Hogewoning, and Eddie Hönig.