Changi Airport, 4am

Well, here I am in Singapore. Staying in international territory, of course, since my bag's on its way to Phuket without me actually meeting it on the way.

And for a bustling international airport, at 4am, it's a ghost-town. Only about a quarter of the fabled duty-free shopping precinct is actually open, and those that are open generally have a single staff-member looking hopefully at passers-by.

Well, more like passer-by - me. Did I mention it's a ghost town here? There are other people, but only, like, a hundred. In the entire international terminal. It's like they know something I don't.

So, with four hours to go before I need to be ready to board my flight (I've already walked over there and about halfway back), there doesn't seem to be much more to do than listen to the muzak.

It's gone from almost-but-not-quite 'Lily Was Here' to almost-but-not-quite another saxophone instrumental I don't think I ever found out the name of, then detoured off to what Manowar might have sounded like if they had decided to sell out and get a sound that was real thin (instead of playing on TEN) - and I walked past one of the few cafes that's open (prepackaged food, but I did spy a coffee machine) and there was some funky house music stuff being played. (Oh, look, I don't know electronic genres - it might have actually been acid-trip-hop-washboardboogie, but I wouldn't be able to pick it.) And apart from a guy who's stopped me to ask me what Singapore time is, no-one's talking to anyone else. There's some construction work going on.

Here was I thinking (call me mad, perhaps) that maybe getting away on a holiday from the shiftworker lifestyle was supposed to make me perhaps feel more like a member of the human race (rather than some outsider - Lord, what fools these mortals be!). But no, here I am, drifting along with the other ghosts.

And the Skytrain connection between the terminals (which when I saw, immediately made me think WHEE!) doesn't run until 6am. So it's just wandering this empty mausoleum.

Oh, and if I sound depressed? I'm not, not really - just mellow. But being in a huge, virtually empty building gets to you. Try it some time.