Well it’s the second time that I’m writing a post from Brisbane Airport departure lounge, and it turns out to be at a remarkably similar time. It’s a Friday again, and it’s 3:05, so again I have about 25 minutes to write until the boarding starts. Have just spent another week up here with work, and it now sounds like there may only be a couple more weeks required up here – so that’s great news. I will of course miss the motel where I stayed this week: it was located in the middle of an industrial estate, with 6 lanes of traffic out front (who needs an alarm clock when you have B-Doubles and heavy vehicles waking you up at 4am?), nestled among an Adult Shop and two petrol stations, and the place was absolutely filthy. When I arrived I noticed that the bathroom still had the soap scum, whiskers and a razor from the last person who used it – and that didn’t change for the entire week. It's not a good sign when you feel compelled to pack everything back into your bags and take them with you to work each day, rather than leaving them in the room (yes, I did that all week - and I wouldn't have said that I have any OCD tendencies).
Unlike my last post from this location, I’ve just seen someone famous. Gough Whitlam just got off the plane that I’m waiting to board, and was driven away on a little golf-cart thingo. I don’t often see many famous people out where we live, so my big opportunity is when I travel. Merv Hughes was standing beside me a few months ago as we waited in Melbourne, but he and Gough have been pretty much it so far. I don’t know that you’d call Gough Whitlam a star though, so this doesn’t really qualify as star spotting. To many people, bumping into Gough Whitlam wouldn’t even rate as having bumped into anyone of note: he’s certainly been a polarising figure. (Case in point, I told Mel by phone that I had seen Gough Whitlam, and she asked if I had punched him!)
Just as I type this, some type of alarm has started going off. It’s VERRRRY loud, and there’s no explanation as yet as to what it means. I’m tipping it’s an evacuation alarm that’s been tripped by mistake (an exit alarm was triggered 3 times when I was here last - by the flight crew trying to get onto the plane – so maybe they’re just trigger happy here)....
....OK – well that was interesting. Just after I typed that last line, the entire Brisbane Airport was evacuated. We all made our way along the corridors, down the escalators, back through security check-in, outside onto the grass. A few thousand of us in fact. Everyone was very patient and well behaved, but I can’t say that the airport safety response team covered themselves in glory. It was ages before any announcement was made to clear the building (we were already most of the way out), no staff were where they needed to be directing the masses, and there was no apparent leadership at all. Myself and the people sitting immediately around me only decided to move off of our own volition, after observing one woman speaking to a group a fair distance away, then walking off with them: She didn’t come anywhere near us (must be my clothes).
The slowest part of the whole incident (which they’re now saying had something to do with a suspected fire – despite the fact that the fire department and police never attended) was getting a thousand or so people back through the security metal detectors. Almost everyone was calm and patient and orderly – we only saw one guy push his way past us and jump ahead of about half of the waiting crowd, gesticulating wildly. And that only served to make the rest of us chuckle amongst ourselves at how self-important and ridiculous he was being. Maybe society isn’t unravelling at quite the rate I tend to think it is: if only one guy out of a thousand throws his weight around and pushes through the crowds in an emergency situation, and the others have a bit of a laugh together after he’s gone (rather than coming to blows) then maybe society will last a few more years yet. Maybe.
Anyway, I have to get on this plane now – it’s been delayed well over an hour but it looks like we are finally ready to go. I should still be home by about 8:30. I’ll leave with a couple of photos of just my section of the crowd (I was trying to be discreet, so didn't pan around) – just to prove I wasn’t making it up.
Take care,
Matt
(PS: On the flight home, we watched three selected films from TropFest 2007. The winning short film was really ordinary (in my opinion), and I can’t believe it placed, let alone won. On the other hand, the other two clips they showed were great entries. My favourite was called "Road Rage", and involved an abusive driver slowly making a human connection with the man he had just verbally abused, understanding a little more about the tough times he's going through, to the point that the situation changes completely (eventually culminating in a group hug with men from the dozen or so cars banked up behind them, after they each share a bit about the problems in their lives). Such a great idea for a short film. The other one was set at the time of the Cronulla Riots, and shows two potential rioters arriving early to a deserted beach, waiting for their friends to arrive and for the riot to get underway. They’re each from the opposing faction – and should be enemies – but with nobody else there they start up an awkward conversation and realise they actually have a lot in common. After waiting and waiting for their friends to arrive, they take the cricket bat that one had brought as a weapon and start playing beach cricket together. I especially like their ongoing discussion about when it would be appropriate to start fighting: they decide that just two guys fighting would look pretty pathetic and when one suggests that the proper quorum might be 10-12 guys, the other corrects him by saying that a group of 10 guys bashing each other would just be written up in the papers as a brawl not a riot – since that’s what happened when they got into a fight at the footy club. The clip ends with one of them getting a phone call telling him that he went to the wrong beach, and that he missed the Cronulla riots completely. So they decide to share a ride home. Another great little film.
In light of the calm and orderly evacuation at the Airport, these two short films springing up about relationship and human connection amid aggression, and the lovely conversation I had with a middle-aged couple on the plane (who held hands throughout the flight and even through to baggage claim, beaming about Jessica and their kids and grandkids the whole time), maybe there is still some small hope for the world that Jessica will have to grow up in after all.
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