World traveller

I think there are a number of airlines; British Airways come to mind foremost, that describes their customers in this vein. Increasingly, I am feeling this label describes me more than ever. At most first time introductions to business acquaintances, the conversation naturally drifts to how much I travel.

Here's a typical year of air travel

- once a year to the US (worst of all, east coast cities mostly: New York, Boston, Washington)

- twice a year to Europe (this being a favored global meeting location)

- quarterly to an major Asian capital (Mumbai, Delhi, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney, Tokyo, etc)

- monthly to Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam each

- weekly to Malaysia

That's nearly 200 flights.

Growing up, I wanted to fly around the world. Heck, my first job was even in the aviation industry to get closer to this dream. Even then, I did not dare dream of taking a flight every other day!!!

I am presently on another trip to the US, Washington DC to be precise via London. It's a relatively long layover of more than 3 hours. The Virgin lounge, cooly dubbed The Clubhouse however makes up for this. It's funky and sassy. I even planned for and got a nice haircut here, and my bushy hair is now looking stylishly 'Oxford Street' chic.

The flight back is even longer, but after all that traveling one sure hopes I have figured out how to make this painless.