On Tap

It’s amazing how travel can be so exhausting. I travel a fair amount, but in relation to some of my colleagues and friend who travel a lot, my travel burden is relatively light. Somehow, though, when I am called upon to hit the road, it often seems to come in waves.

This week, I’m in the midst of one of those waves.

On Saturday, I flew to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. From London, where I live, it’s an eight hour flight. Which means overnight. Which means I only get to sleep two or three hours if I’m lucky. Now, when road warriors hang out together in bars, we talk about all the different ways we beat exhaustion and jet leg. It’s modern man’s tale of the campaign. But instead of recounting men stricken by our swords and wounds narrowly avoided by a swift parry or a thrust of our shield, we brag about being able to fly all night and deliver a superb PowerPoint the very next morning. As much I would wish it were so, it isn’t. It can’t be.

I flew home yesterday (Tuesday). That’s an eight hour flight heading west. Which means an entire day in the air, and arriving home looking forward to only one thing: collapsing into a familiar bed.

I’m writing this today (Wednesday), en route from London to Warsaw. By distance, it’s akin to flying from Washington to Memphis or Dallas. I’ll land at half past ten in the evening local time — assuming we’re on time — and head for my hotel. But my body will think it’s 9:30 p.m. Or perhaps, given my trip to the Middle East, 1:30 a.m. And that’s the point. It won’t know. Sleep cycles are disrupted. Mealtimes thrown off. And the body wears down.

So I confess: I’m tired.

Maybe someday, Scotty really will turn up with his transporter. Because right now, I can’t imagine anything more exciting than the idea of being “beamed” from one locale to the next, even if I lose a molecule or two along the way.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at April 24, 2008 - 3:29 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.