Defrosting

I'm sure no-one expected me to resume blogging last night after such an early start for the return journey from Iceland. Everything in its own time. A lovely if rather hectic few days, the holiday equivalent of "Supermarket Dash" for those of you who remember the TV show. In five days of travel, we boarded 4 planes, 4 coaches, 2 buses, 2 mini-buses and 4 taxis. However, we eventually got to see a subtle display of the northern lights despite the cloud cover and the light from a full moon. We brought enough clothes for an Arctic expedition, but in the end the temperature did not drop lower than 2 to 3 degrees Celsius. Ironically, it was colder in Leicester when we were shopping for cold weather clothing.

It was strangely moving, a reminder of our insignificance as individuals, as a species, as a planet in the eternal story of the universe, kindling feelings redolent of those I felt when watching the Hale-Bopp comet in1997 - a sense of cold isolation and desolation, doomed to hurtle through space for eternity unless rescued by a collision with a larger object. Maybe there is a message here about life itself as we follow our respective paths and orbits under the illusion of  having control and choice.