Arrival

He was in such a rush, mentally. He would be looking at the sunrise out the airplane glass, or taking his first steps in Amsterdam when the thought would occur to him, "I would have taken a picture of this a year ago", but times have changed. In those brief moments where he debated the idea of taking a photo the chance would slip by. Any attempt to capture what he had just witnessed would only serve to self-justify that he "still had it". What resulted was the realization that a photograph with purpose would say much more.

Overall, the plane ride had been a smooth affair with little reason to complain, which he was glad about. At one point restlessness overcame him as he struggled to adjust to the natural timezone of his destination. Coming prepared he had had his boots off, earplugs in, head in U-pillow, eyes shut and legs stretched out into the emergency exit, sleeping as a Dutch person would be on the other side of the Atlantic. With only the occasional elbow-jostle, turbulence, and garbled muttering through the earplugs his mind was left to pursue sleep in near-silence. Tending to his garden, he weeded out thoughts of tomorrow and slowed his breathing.

In this near tranquility he ignored any broaches in the silence and only got up when the person behind him needed to eat. He ate none, but drank the red wine. Never finding sleep, he lasted until a voice announced they would serve a continental breakfast before landing in and hour and a half. He saw the sunrise then.

Waiting for his luggage, he realized that he was quite hungry and decided to wait until he arrived at his new home. Thus, he took the train to Leiden from the Amsterdam Airport which cost 5,90EUR. Making a few friends along the way, and with very sore muscles, he found his way home. The house was a mess, as he expected.

Taking in his environment he inspected the house, the rooms furnished by IKEA, in dismay until at one point a roommate returned home for lunch. Phillipe was leaving the following Monday and incidentally studied astronomy. In the mood for further adventure, before crashing, he accompanied Phillipe to the observatory and got a tour, listened to Phillipe's final presentation, and made friends with some shady cats.

Stumbling home on foot he wished he had a bike, and slowly a schedule assembled itself before him. The next day would see solutions to many problems.

Some sort of heron standing on a smack of land in the moor.

Takes flight at the scratch of my sleeve on some bark.