Being fortunate to only pick up a slight delay on our flight back from the Netherlands, Amsterdam Schipol Airport to London City, yesterday. I was delighted to watch and be captivated by the skill and grace and resulting snow and ice drawings that the runway clearing team were creating for a bemused audience of weary travelers.
An act of necessity. Clearing the several inches of snow and compacted ice for passenger safety. However there seemed a delight in all of those watching not simply of the reassurance that they will be getting home now. But of a joy of witnessing proficiency in a skill, a servicing of a collective need with a generosity of showmanship; like a main stage Christmas ballet.
The ploughs, sweepers, heavy plant machinery danced across the taxi ways and circled amongst flashing lights in tighter and tighter rotations, circles-of-eight until mounds, causeways and marks in the subtle shades of greying whites revealed an environmental sculpture on the stage.