One day last week I saw a tweet by my friend @CultureDoctor that immediately resonated with me. It said 'I love arriving, but travel nuh good again!' I quickly replied with a tweet saying 'I concur, but I prefer the sweeter synonym for arriving'. How about you?

Don't you think that the best part of any journey is the sweet satisfaction of destination? Yeah man, I'm sure you'd agree with me, that the most rousing part of a climb so to speak, is the thrilling climax of reaching the peak. But look here nuh friends and peoples, don't get too aroused or agitated, I'm really talking about travelling.

I've had some recent experiences with international travel that really serve to support that position proffered by my friend's tweet. Travelling really nuh so good again! Travel, especially air travel, takes a toll on one's patience and confidence. First of all, it involves too much joining of lines, and I hate lines. Lines to enter the airport, lines to get to the check in counter line, lines to get your stuff scanned and your body patted, prodded and probed, and lines to go to immigration checkpoints. And you sometimes have to join other lines to get into those different lines!

As for privacy, forget about that when travelling. You have to stand up and pretend you're not offended as some surly security personnel rummage through your intimate clothing, ruffle through your reading material, and scrutinise your medical supplies as they search your luggage for concealed contraband. The extent of the lack of privacy really hit me the other day after I passed through security screening at Miami International and sat on a bench with three other men - all of us were there, three complete strangers, putting on shoes and belts, and generally 'getting dressed' together in a public space. Then when I tried using the bathroom, horrors of horrors! Any of you ever really stopped recently to check out airport toilets? If you're not comfortable with having an audience while relieving yourself, you have a real problem.

airport mix-up

There's always a crowd in the airport toilet. The walls and doors on the stalls are so high, and the space between the partitions so wide that even with the doors closed, you can clearly see who's there and what is being done. I guess they figure, that since everybody can already hear and smell what you're doing, they may as well see you too. My recent travails with travel also included a terrible airport mix-up that ended with me missing my original flight.

Yes people, I went to the wrong airport. I was supposed to depart the DC area from Washington National, but I ended up going to Balti-more/Washington International.

In truth, travelling is not all horrors though. Sometimes even if the trip is bitter, the stop can actually be sweet. Travelling took me to Gaithersburg, Maryland, last Friday, and I had a whale of a time. I enjoyed an exceptional evening with the lovely well rounded ladies of Merl Grove High School Past Student Association (North Eastern America Chapter) at their eighth annual fund-raising Dinner Dance.

I shared a table with some radiant and resplendent ladies. The bevy of beauties included the association's head Andrea McDonald-Black, president of the Jamaican chapter Dr Liz Watson, and distinguished Merl Grove alumnae, educator, writer and motivational speaker Andrene Bonner. I also enjoyed an inspirational and informative keynote speech by our lovely Minister of Information the Hon Sandrea Falconer. And look here nuh, I would have had the ladies all to myself if it weren't for two other fortunate gentlemen. One was the affable MC, President of Professional Jamaicans for Jamaica Inc. Mr. Horace 'Shad' Daley. The other was prominent Jamaican-born lawyer, Ambassador Curtis Ward, who was recently been appointed chairman of the first ever Commission on Caribbean Affairs in the United States. Yes, travel is tough, but when it takes me among such distinguished peeps, I'm anxious to come a second time!

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'Travel, especially air travel, takes a toll on one's patience and confidence.'