Updated: Never — Philip's Blog

Before:

Exhausted, sweaty, smelly, disgusting, sticky ... sore-footed geek.

After:

Still exhausted. Feet are feeling a bit better.

And all it took were a hundred or so litres of water, and copious volumes of soap. bliss

What is it about "travelling" that causes filth to pile up on the human body? Is it the country you're leaving trying to put as much of itself on you so you don't forget it? Or are airports and airplanes really that dirty? Regardless of how long the flight or how thorough the shower before getting on the airplane, I always arrive at my destination so filthy that I would pretty much want to run away from myself. Think "homeless".

In addition to the ablutionary rituals, I finally got new contact lenses! It only took about eight weeks for them to arrive too. Usually I am very happy about my dealer. In fact, this is the first time it's taken them more than a week to get me my supply. I hope this is not going to become their standard practice.

I can see!

With all the goings-on in Copenhagen, I just realize that I've only posted about half of the postcards I wrote. Whoops. I'll put the ones I forgot into envelopes and post them from Belgium later this week. After I wake up.

I am writing this on the train from Brussels to Antwerp. This morning, I woke up around 04:00, took a very brief shower and walked to Hovedbanegården where I took the 05:03 train to Kastrup to catch my 06:40 flight.

Just in time, I remembered that marmelade (yes mum) is a liquid according to airport security physicists and moved my shopping from my carry-on to my checked bag. Too late I remembered that my hat contains a copper decal on it, which earned me slightly more attention from the security droids. Ugh.

Got off the plane at 08:00ish for a brisk twenty minute walk through the drab, boring corridors that make up Brussels airport. Surprisingly, my checked bags were waiting for me when I got through to them and I managed to jump on the 08:26 train to Brussels to catch the 08:44 train to Antwerp. Which is where I am now.

The next stages of my commute will be to drop my bags in a locker in Berchem and to hop on a bus to Edegem, hopefully getting there around 10:00ish. You can say what you like about me, but not many people will suffer a five hour long commute to go to work. I hate taking idle days after conferences though. I find it easier to just jump straight into work and to deal with the sleep deprivation over the weekend.

Speaking of sleep deprivation: from the looks of my neighbour on the plane as we got off, I think my snoring probably managed to drown out the roar of the engines. It's a talent. Really. :-)

And now for catching up with email...