Lately, I have this incredible urge to get on a plane to just about anywhere. A new city or somewhere I  have been 10’s of times, hotel rooms with freshly laundered linens and towels. A weekend that looks different from the one before it and that has been bringing a smile to my face these days.

Maybe its my mid life crisis or I’ve realised that time is moving ridiculously fast and travel is my slightly expensive attempt at slowing it down.

So this weekend it was Dubai! Dubai is fascinating because it can make you feel like you’ve made it and failed spectacularly at the same time. You check into a beautiful hotel, have a lovely meal, feel rather pleased with your life and then someone half your age pulls up in a car worth more than your house.

The goalpost moves.

No matter what you do, there is something better in Dubai! A better hotel, a bigger suite, a rarer handbag, a reservation you didn’t get and a life that looks shinier than yours. Perhaps that’s why Dubai is such a perfect metaphor for ambition. Just when you think you’ve arrived, someone buys 10 villas because its “offplan”.

Between all that ridiculous luxury, I loved what I actually went there for. Time with a friend who is also my co-worker, family, celebrations, cuddling and kisses for my nephew who is growing up too fast and tall in equal measure, conversations, work banter, food and laughter. A weekend away from the sameness of ordinary days.

And then, suddenly, I was at the airport again. The high point of my return was meeting Sunita Williams at the airport. She has travelled further than all my lifetime travels and yet she seemed remarkably unassuming about the whole thing. Seeing her brought a sense of calmness that Dubai’s glitz had taken away from me and just like that, everything started to feel normal as I was boarding my flight back.

My own journey home was slightly less inspirational. My seat refused to recline. The airline offered to move me to economy and compensate me but I stayed put because I would rather sit upright for three hours than accept some money and think about all the fun my husband is having alone while I sat next to a stranger. We all have our principles and mine are just financially questionable.

And now, less than a day later, I’m home on my lounge chair which reclines beautifully! Sitting here, I keep thinking about how long I waited for this weekend and how quickly it became something I did instead of something I was going to do. Maybe that’s why I keep wanting to travel, not because I’m trying to escape my life but maybe I’m trying to create little punctuation marks in years that otherwise keep flying past in meetings, Mondays and increasingly alarming AI redundancy warnings.