Long connecting time in Hong Kong between the flight from Helsinki and the one to Cebu. Had a shower in the pay-per-visit lounge and slept for four hours in their capsule rooms.

Found an Illy caffe which is good to start the day with a nice cappuccino Italian style.

I sit at one of these small round bar tables which you would find outside a bar in Italy. One big difference is that I am not surrounded by buildings dating back to the middle age middle age. A second big difference is that I can take the cappuccino at the bar and bring it  with me at the table for the same price (2€). In Italy there is the bar (al bancone) official price and the table price where it is possible to charge whatever.

Taste the creamy foam with the spoon. Breaking the leave which is designed on it. The first sip of coffee. The nice cup. No sugar for me.

Two pilots are sitting on a table nearby. One is Asian and had two golden strips on his shirt. The other is a Westerner, maybe Australian or  maybe British. He has three golden strips so he must be the commander.  He has a Apple PC open on the desk and is trying to make a phone call with a mobile. The Asian pilot looks a bit bored. they both had cappuccino as well.  The call goes through: ‘Hi, what’s up?’. ‘Yes, I am near the gate 27 having a coffee. How about yesterday night? Where did you go?’. He listen for few seconds. ‘I got to go now, we have to walk about a kilometer to the flight. Yes, I will be in Shanghai ….. Not much more flying this week. Bye’.

I think that listening to other conversation is not polite, isn’t it? But I find that when i am jet legged my senses are much more alert than usual.

The call finishes. He closes the laptop. They stand up and leave. I think about these pilots. They fly almost every day. Moving so many people around. Sitting in their deck with hundreds of lights to be checked, screens, levels, security procedures. How do they do they go through a blue period? How do they manage with the jet leg?

I tell to myself that it is better not to think about these things and the same moment I think this I remember the sunrise this morning when we were way above China on our way to Hong Kong. Black night one second, broken all of a sudden by the dim line of the horizon in yellow, orange, green, blue and the first ray of sun to hit our plane.  Up there one may be able to forget for a moment his or her blue period. It is just that moment when the sun rises that matters.