Just human

Ever wished the earth would swallow you up? I’m pretty sure everyone has had that feeling now and then. At least I have.

I had it again on my last trip. As I was standing in the lift with a colleague one night, a lady entered wearing a dress that was just a little too colourful. Assuming that we were the only ones who spoke Dutch in there, we both commented on it.
“Just look at that!”
‘Wow, I wish I’d brought my sunglasses. That hurts my eyes!” Whereupon the lady took hers off and handed them over to us, replying in Dutch, “Well, you could borrow mine”. We felt very, very stupid. Especially since the dress was actually kind of pretty and we secretly envied her courage in wearing it. Our remark made no sense at all. So for that seemingly never-ending trip down in the lift, we smiled sheepishly at her and apologised, admitting that we actually liked her outfit. She took it with a smile, but the damage was done.

Sometimes I make a fool of myself by being a smarty-pants without meaning to be one. Like the time when I was still in my trial period and was sent to Muscat on stand-by duty. During the flight, a passenger asked me whether the crew would be staying in Oman. “Oh no sir”, I replied. “We get off at Muscat”. And then, on arriving at Muscat Airport, I read ‘Welcome to Oman’. Needless to say, I flushed crimson.

I was also rather embarrassed when I made that classic blunder on a full flight: shaking a carton of tomato juice that had already been opened. In front of about fifty pairs of eyes, the whole contents of the carton ended up on me, turning me from blue to red.
I envy those people who can take things like this in their stride without blinking. Like that colleague, recently, whose heel broke off while we were making our way to the gate at a very busy airport. She just picked up the heel and walked on like a lady, as if nothing had happened.
Oh well, aren’t we just human too?

Caroline