thehumansarecoming

I, somewhat reluctantly, flew back into Glasgow this morning.

I’ve been working up for for the last few weeks, returning to London for the weekends. Glasgow is a dreary city. It’s rough, industrial, working class reputation is well earned and evident everywhere you look. Not the kinda place you look forward to. It’s shortcomings however, are more than made up for by the warmth and good humor of it’s people.

This morning is a great example. The flight was sh*t and late, Glasgow was cold and windy and I was cranky. The cab driver though - grey haired, wrapped in a huge coat and funny hat - was in great mood. He didn’t mind me being late at all, as it gave him the chance to drive around the airport and have a look at the private jets. It turns out he’s quiet the enthusiastic plane spotter. He had a radio in the car which he tuned in to Glasgow Air Traffic Control. There are two frequencies apparently, one for planes landing at the airport and anothe for planes passing through the airspace.

The cabby explains all this to me as we’re driving along, pausing along the way to take a call from his wife telling him his breakfast was ready and to listen to pilots annouceing their presense 30 000 ft above us.

Sitting there, listening in, I was struck with the throught, ‘we are constantly surrounded by information. Air trafic control, radio and tv stations, wi-fi, cell phones, bluetooth. Information everywhere!’