And Dubai airport does everything conceivably possible to remove the stench of tedium from your travel experience. Unfortunately the substitute is a ubiquitous shopping mall experience, in a vast building that acts as both airport terminal and unique testing station for the bounds of taste.
None of this stops us from travelling. We travel in spite of the endless dreary transitions; overcome 4am vomit attacks on Thai Railways; endure bugs and snakes and dirty underpants; risk life or limb or sanity, and more, because we have a curious ability to reflect an accumulation of trying episodes into an intoxicating, life-affirming experience. If we should be fortunate enough to sandwich the sensations of colour, light, beauty, warmth, relaxation, conviviality, satiation, theatre, even madness in between the bread of life's tribulations, then the travel experience will be enhanced, and for many will become even more addictive and attractive as methamphetamine, if that were possible.
Stephen Fry (pictured left), a sage wizard, made a similar point regarding the relentless beauty 
of Test Cricket in an interview I saw, ironically, because the 3rd Ashes Test at Edgbaston was suffering yet another rain delay. He opined (and I paraphrase, as his underlying point was definitely this) that individual moments of tedium in cricket are inevitable, yet somehow, when viewed along the entire tapestry, with the benefit of knowledge and reflection, a great Test Match is as rich and complex as any wine, as invigorating and brutal as a blob of wasabi up your nose, and as fist-pumpingly exciting as veni vidi vici.
of Test Cricket in an interview I saw, ironically, because the 3rd Ashes Test at Edgbaston was suffering yet another rain delay. He opined (and I paraphrase, as his underlying point was definitely this) that individual moments of tedium in cricket are inevitable, yet somehow, when viewed along the entire tapestry, with the benefit of knowledge and reflection, a great Test Match is as rich and complex as any wine, as invigorating and brutal as a blob of wasabi up your nose, and as fist-pumpingly exciting as veni vidi vici.It is one of the frustrations of cricket that rain can intervene. That sucks. But if you bemoan the lack of action, or the fact that ball after ball will be delivered without any obvious point, then you are missing a trick. If you can understand what it is to spend four days on the deck of a boat with a 30 degree list in 40 degree heat, and the only toilet is ankle deep in fuzzy water, and the only food is boiled rice with 'gravy', but you love it because you can dive off the deck to swim each time the boat lays at anchor, then you will understand that the whole of travel is often greater than the sum of it's parts. You may yet understand Test Cricket. You may yet understand Whispering Death.
