Intermission

An uneventful day. I was in the curious position of having to decide what to take home, for a stay of 6 days. What clothes did I leave there, will they last me long enough? Toiletries: usually on the way home you pack everything you have; the biggest concern is not to forget the shampoo again. Now it's rather a matter of taking as little as possible, so I can't forget to take it with me again next week. Do I have a space comb at home?

Once underway, you are in the hands of those you trust to transport you according to their own timetable. It is well known that they do not always perform as promised, so you build in leeway all over the place. The air companies want you there a ridiculously long time before departure, that's not to be taken seriously (especially after having checked in online and travelling with hand luggage only), but neither British nor Dutch railways have a fabulous reputation for punctuality. Have enough leaves fallen to stop the trains? Are the raindrops perhaps of a size to expose a hitherto unsuspected defect?

After not running this morning (I had a moment of self-conflict, then I realised with relief that this would only create more smelly washing that would be lying around for almost a week) and not going to the university (a brief shock when I thought I might have left the laptop charger there) I actually got a fair amount of work done before taking the bus, the train, the plane and another train. That's where I am right now: if all goes as planned Elise will pick me up in Hengelo. The trains were well-behaved on the whole, delays not worse than usual. Right now an announcer in a wonderfully thick Surinam accent is telling us that we are arriving 5 minutes late in Apeldoorn.