I'll have the sole, please

First, there was Amsterdam.

From the wild:

To the caged:

Then came Dubai.

From the extraordinary:

To the bizarre:

Now, Brussels.

Simple:

For lunch, I had the most exquisite fish I have ever tasted: sole, grilled with a wedge of lemon, hot, peeled potatoes, more tender than I imagine any potatoes ever having been, a side of spinach, and I was thinking, this is what I want; this is what I crave; this simplicity: this perfect hot fish on this cold, cloudless day.

After lunch, Thorn's business colleague drove us in circles around the town, and we saw the Atomium:

I have been thinking of atoms ever since:

how they are indivisible

(I cut my thumb on the red-eye from Dubai);

how the human hair is a million carbon atoms wide

(I am wild with frizz on this side of the sea);

how they were there at the Big Bang,

right when it all began,

they were there,

just dashing around, flying about, looking for each other,

trying to make matter,

trying to make it all matter.