My Captain!

This morning I found myself back at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on my way to catch a flight south to Krabi. The last time I was here was with you two weeks ago to check in to our flight to Penang. You will remember that well I am sure as through some misunderstanding about the departure time and some very long lines at immigration, we came close indeed to missing our flight. I have to admit, I have a bad and longstanding habit of cutting it too close when it comes to airport departures. I have even missed flights because of this, more than once actually. You know this well as it happened to me in London when I was with you, enjoying our last minutes together over a plate of pasta at an airport restaurant before heading to Berlin, and I missed the cut off time to go through the security gate. It was an expensive lesson for me, costing several hundred pounds and a fair bit of inconvenience to re-book the flight for the next day. You were kind and came back from the tube platform where you were about to board to to return home in order to spend the night with me at the airport hotel and to see me off at the crack of dawn the next morning.

With the flight to Penang, you proposed we leave home earlier and I told you there was no need. You sighed but went along with me, however in the end, you were right. You who is always very early for every flight and train and appointment, must have been frustrated by my utter lack of urgency. But then when we really almost didn't make it this time, I think you had quite enough of it and told me that I can be the boss (patroa) of many things in our relationship but that when it came to airport departures, you would be firmly in charge and the captain. I had no choice but to agree, knowing you were right and that you really are better than me in this department. And then I had fun trying to pronounce the Portuguese word for captain, 'capitão', as you say it, with that distinct nasal intonation which is so tough for non-native speakers.

This morning I had to manage getting to the airport on my own, without my captain, and I made it. You were with me throughout my journey though, telling me in my ear all along  the way to 'hurry up'!