Tag Archives: Union St Gilloise

Friday 13th April 2018 – MY LANDLORD …

… back at the place d’Armes is going to die of shock when he sees how much the kitchen that I want is going to cost him.

Yes, I went to IKEA this morning to have a good nosey around. And it’s only the second-ever occasion – I think – that I’ve been to an IKEA and come away empty-handed. But that was more down to the logistics question of carrying away the stuff than a lack of willingness or of money.

On my travels last night I was dealing with giant worm, or snakes or something. Or, rather, I wasn’t – someone else was. it was all happening at a small rural railway station and this snake in the grass was upsetting people so my reckoning was that the easiest way to tackle it was to send in Terry on The Beast of Beaugut, his ride-on lawnmower, to mow the grass and if possible shred the snake. But it proved much more difficult in practice because for one reason or another the snake was refusing to co-operate.

Having had breakfast and the usual morning rituals I walked up to the bus station and leapt aboard the 358 that took me all the way to IKEA. and eventually managing to buttonhole a salesman. We sat down, had a discussion, drew up a few plans and costed it all out, and it came to … errr … a couple of coppers short of €2,000.

But that’s including a fridge, an oven and one of these two-burner ceramic hobs.

It’s not the cheapest range that they had (you really don’t want to buy that) but it’s next to it. The only concession to what I might call luxury is that there’s a brown oak-coloured work surface rather than the horrible cheap and nasty white one.

But whether he will pay for that is another story, isn’t it?

There was a massive crowd at the restaurant for lunch and it took me hours to be served. And then I wandered off for the bus, horribly late (both me, and the bus).

With not knowing the route of the bus into Brussels I ended up going round the houses and had to take a metro to the Bank.

But here we came up once more against the staggering incompetence of the bankers that I have. And it’s not like the BNP Paribas to behave like a load of bankers but even they seem to be managing it now.

They hadn’t ordered the replacement card for me like they promised (twice now) and having had the issues with various forms of proofs of address, they didn’t like the electricity bill either. They reckon that there’s some complication from their point of view about me living in France with a British passport, but I’ve been doing it now for 11 years so it totally bewilders me.

I was so taken aback by all of this that I forgot to mention the two other things that I wanted to do.

Afterwards, I went for a good wander around the city centre. I had planned to finally make it to the railway museum at Schaerbeek but once more with having had all of this messing about I ran out of time.

There was a football match this evening in Tubize – a bottom-of-the-table relegation dogfight between AFC Tubize and Union St Gilles. And for once, the trains were running kindly for me.

At Tubize, having grabbed some cash, I grabbed a bag of fritjes from the fritkot opposite the station and wandered down to the ground where I picked up a ticket.

And here we had a complication that I had not foreseen – they wouldn’t let me in with my backpack. But after a good deal of negotiation and discussion a friendly, helpful (in Belgium???) security guard offered to guard it for me at the gate and with no other option available, I accepted and in I went.

For once, at Tubize, there was adecent crowd. None of this “crowd-changes to the teams” stuff as is usual. And most of the supporters seemed to be from Union St Gilles too, for if they win they are saved from relegation and Tubize go down.

The match itself was dreadful. We had the first foul right at the kick-off and the first yellow card after just 29 seconds. The final score was 12 (I think – I lost count) yellow cards and one red and I do have to say that I didn’t disagree with any of them.

But the game was woeful. Tubize were inept and despite having many good chances they couldn’t hit the nether regions of a ruminant animal with a stringed musical instrument. Only one player, Jae-Gun Lee about whom I have commented before, looked to be of some good use, so of course they withdrew him after about 70 minutes.

And Union St Gilles were even worse. They had a couple of players whom I wouldn’t like to meet down a dark alley late at night, one of whom was the centre-forward – a big bustling, burly type. He looked quite useful as a battering ram but his team never had possession up front long enough to give him the ball. They managed just one shot on target all night – and scored!

Right at the death, Tubize won a penalty – and as is their usual form at moments like this, the St Gilles keeper saved it. Last kick of the game of course, and the jubilation from the players, officials and supporters as the ref blew for time told its own story.

It was a slow stopping train back to Leuven, packed as far as Brussels with St Gilles fans. But I eventually made it back here by about 00:45 and that’s my lot for now.

See you in the morning.

Sunday 26th February 2017 – IT WAS HARD THIS MORNING …

… to get out of bed, what with my very late finish and my usual early (like 07:00) start – how my habits have changed since I’ve been living in digs.

I was alone at breakfast too, which is just as well because as you all know, I don’t do “company” first thing in the morning. Anyone who tries to chat to me just receives a collection of unintelligible grunts in reply.

Back down here, I had a brief (and only a brief) relax while I drank my coffee, and then I set to work.

And by 10:00 I had another couple of bags packed to take down to Caliburn. Now my room is looking much more like TS Eliot’s Wasteland..

Having done all of that, I came back and had a shower, and the last of my clean clothes (in fact, I didn’t have a clean T-shirt). So this obviously meant a visit to the launderette in the Ridderstraat. There were so many clothes that some of them didn’t make it into the machine and so they will have to go into the next load, whenever that might be. I’ve clearly not been keeping on top of things like I should and I’ll have to organise myself much more than this.

Once all of that was done, it was lunchtime. I had a packet onion soup hanging around and two of these half-cooked half-baguettes. One of those was for my garlic bread tonight, and so I cooked them both and had the other one with my soup. Followed, of course, by some fruit.

Plenty of time left yet, and so I loaded up another big pile of stuff, and by 15:00 I was ready to hit the streets. I dropped off everything at Caliburn yet again, and then carried on my little walk

football stadion den dreef OH Leuven union st gilles belgium 26 february fevrier 2017Today is the last match of the regular season for OH Leuven. Long-since condemned to a place in the relegation play-offs with no escape, due to a few insipid results, they were playing for pride.

Union St Gilles are a couple of places above them and if other results go their way, a victory for them could haul themselves out of the relegation dog-fight and into safety. It’s therefore vital for Union St Gilles to win today

All of the matches in the Second Division are kicking off simultaneously at 16:00 this afternoon so that no-one can be assured of their place until the final whistle.

mascot football stadion den dreef OH Leuven union st gilles belgium 26 february fevrier 2017It seems that this mascot craze is spreading to all football clubs in Belgium right now. OH Leuven looks as if they have managed to acquire one too.

Somehow I thought it appropriate to take a photograph of him behind a sturdy wire-mesh fence – almost as if he was in a cage.

But never mind acquiring mascots – when is the club going to acquire some cheerleaders? That’s what I want to know.

away supporters football stadion den dreef OH Leuven union st gilles belgium 26 february fevrier 2017The “away” end was heaving with fans. So packed out wasit in there that they had to open a second bay behind the goal. They were a noisy lot too, and kept the noise going for the whole 90 minutes more or less.

There was a huge crowd in here for the match too (for Leuven, that is). 4,263 spectators and that’s the largest crowd that I’ve witnessed for a match here at the Den Dreef Stadion, and it’s not ALL accounted for by the huge away support. Everyone else must feel the urgency too.

football stadion den dreef OH Leuven union st gilles belgium 26 february fevrier 2017As the teams took to the field the away fans started some kind of synchronised sign-boarding display. I’ve absolutely no idea what it was supposed to signify, but they were clearly quite happy to do it.

But anyway, the teams took to the field with OH leuven in their usual all-white strip, and Union St Gilles in their usual yellow shirts and blue shorts.

And as the match kicked off, the first question that I asked myself was “how much longer can they keep on going at this pace?” because they shot off like rockets.

And one thing that I’ve noticed about Belgian Second Division football is that wingers are very popular. We know all about the wingers that OH Leuven have, and Union St Gilles were well-supplied too.

The big difference today though is that OH Leuven had Casagolda up front instead of Kostovski. Casagolda is technically a far better player, but he has his “days”. Kostovski is like a big battering ram, a bit short on technical skill but plays at 100% for every match and the kind of player I would like to have up front when the team has two wingers.

But as I said, Casagolda has his “days”, and luckily enough, today was one of them, even putting in a ferocious performance in the centre of defence at set pieces, and this made a great deal of difference.

As the game progressed, despite the barrage of noise from the Union St Gilles supporters, it was clear that OH Leuven had the “up”, not that it means very much in football because I’ve seen superior teams well on top in a game be undone by one single moment of magic, and OH Leuven can have some notoriously fragile moments. And when they missed a penalty, I really did fear the worst.

In the first half, they had hit the post twice, had about four shots on goal kicked off the line, and the keeper had made two outstanding saves. And much to my surprise, they were 2-0 up too. Both of them breakaways from out of defence, wingers racing off down the field, and crosses into the centre. And Casagolda had scored one of them.

As for Union St Gilles, they pressed well down the flanks and their n°20, Aguemon, particularly impressed me. But their problem was that they lacked a centre-forward who would throw himself about in where it hurts – someone like Kostovski for example.

I reckoned that whoever scored the first goal in the second half would decide where this match was going to end, but the players, clearly exhausted, played at a much slower tempo. Storm, this new winger that they had signed who had such a good game the last time that I saw him, he fell away quite rapidly – clearly not match-fit for this level – and I reckoned that he’d be one of the first to leave the field – which he was.

Casagolda had the ball in the net, sure enough, but was given offside – a decision with which I agreed, by the way – and the Union St Gilles keeper made a couple of other full-length saves to keep the ball out.

But Union St Gilles couldn’t find a way back into the game, even though this new keeper, Henkinet, made a brilliant one-handed save from a point-blank header that had “goal” written all over it.

And that was that – a huge sigh of relief at the final whistle as Leuven finally register a win. And if only they had played like this in a couple of other matches, they wouldn’t have to be pitting their wits against clubs like Dessel Sports and Deinze in the relegation play-offs. In fact, either of these clubs could have taken on KSC Lokeren and KAS Eupen from last night in the Premier League and disposed of them quite comfortably

begijnhof hotel Leuven belgium 26 february fevrier 2017On the way back I found a new short-cut that I hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t that short, in fact, but it was certainly a prettier way to come home.

This by the way isn’t a medieval building, but it’s fairly modern and is actually a hotel, the Begijnhof Leuven Hotel. And if modern architects in Belgium can come up with buildings like this, then there’s no reason whatever why they can’t do this anywhere else either.

I’m going to make further enquiries …

Back here, I hadn’t been sitting down long before I was overwhelmed with hunger. It might have been only 19:00, long before tea-time, but nevertheless there was nothing for it – I went and made my pizza. And for once, everything was cooked perfectly and it was thoroughly delicious.

Now, it’s 21:00 or so and I can’t keep my eyes open. I have a lot to do over the course of the next few days, so I’m planning on going to bed.

Saturday 7th January 2017 – I HAD A NICE …

… afternoon out this afternoon. But before I tell you about that, let me tell you a little about the morning.

And it was a morning too because although I had an early night, I couldn’t drop off to sleep again. In the end I put on one of the films that I had downloaded from archive.org and as you might expect, that did the trick. In fact it did so well that I can’t now remember which film it was.

Nevertheless, I was awake before the alarm and although it took a good while to find the strength to leave the bed, I was up there quite early. And I wasn’t alone either because my housemate came up there. She left the house shortky afterwards and it seems that I am now on my own again.

snow kruisstraat leuven belgium january janvier 2017After breakfast I had a peek out of the window and sure enough, we did have another fall of snow during the night and early morning. It’s not a lot but just about half an inch or so and it’s freezing cold.

Minus 3°C in fact and heavily overcast. I was planning on going to watch the football this evening at Brussels, OH Leuven against Union St Gilles, but it didn’t look as if it would be hopeful.

But I did have a nice surprise. A message from Alison. She’s in town and so did I fancy a coffee?

Accordingly I went and had a shave and shower, and changed my undies. After all, I have to look my best and smell nice. And having accomplished that, I went off uptown in the freezing sleet to do my shopping.

The town was empty and there were only a few stalls on the market. And that wasn’t a surprise as the weather was thoroughly dreadful. I did my shopping at the Delhaize and that was all that I could stand. Freezing cold, with freezing hands, I came back here.

Alison and I had a coffee (or two) and then adjourned across the road to the fritkot for lunch. A bag of chips each did us proud, and then Alison came forward with a proposition. She needs a new ski-suit for a trip she’s planning and did I fancy going with her to help her choose?

We hit the road and headed for Wavre and the huge Decathlon sports shop. It was crowded with people, mainly kids preparing for the classe de neige. Although there was a huge selection of clothes, there was some kind of issues about sizes. Either very small or very large and very little in between, which was a disappointment for her.

There’s another big sports shop, the Intersport, at Herent on the other side of Leuven and so we headed off there, calling at the English Shop on the way where I could buy some more Dandelion and Burdock, some more Linda McCartney pies and, at long last, some vegan sausages. We stashed the pies and sausages in the freezer in the kitchen with the left-over croquettes, and then headed out to Herent.

They had some beautiful clothes there but as you might expect, the stuff that I liked and that Alison liked was by far the most expensive, and the more affordable ski clothes were, well, of …shall we say … lesser quality. Entertainment was provided by a two-year-old boy trying on a ski-suit and trying out the toboggans.

We went for a coffee afterwards and then Alison brought me home. By now it was too late, and too cold to think about going out to the football. I warmed up instead and then went for tea.

I’d remembered to buy the pasta so I had a second lot of my kidney bean stuff and, as I predicted, it was even nicer tonight. And now I’m going to have an early night and take advantage of the fact that I’m on my own.

But it was a really nice afternoon out – all in favour of a “change of ideas” every now and again and it’s always nice to be with friends. If I had more friends, I’d do this more often.

Friday 12th August 2016 – I MUST BE THE KISS OF DEATH.

This evening, I went out just for a change. To the Den Dreef Stadion here in Leuven as OH Leuven were at home to Union St Gilloise in the Belgian Second division tonight. I managed to find the home fans’ entrance too and had a grandstand seat right behind the goal.

OH Leuven played really well up and down the park and totally monopolised the first half. It was really good, exciting football for what it was, but it all fell apart in front of the goal. As for St Gilles, they weren’t able to leave their own half for the first 35 minutes, and then, as you might expect, in their first attack they roared up the field and scored the most unlikely of goals.

The second half started as the first half finished – with OH Leuven laying siege to the Union St Gilloise goal, and so after 5 minutes, St Gilles roared off up the other end and scored a second goal. That was their second attack.

After that, the heads of the OH Leuven players went down and even bringing on three substitutes couldn’t stimulate the team. The St Gilles players grew in stature – the two centre-halves were very impressive – and a third goal, which had been on the cards for 20 minutes, came with just 5 minutes to go.

From such a bright and energetic start, OH Leuven were a rather sorry group of players by the final whistle.

The walk out there, armed with a bag of chips from the fritkot, was very pleasant, and the walk back, in the cool evening air, was very relaxing. And I managed it all there and back at a brisk pace without any problems. I must be feeling better.

I had another bad night too. Although I was in bed reasonably early watching a film (and dozing off in the middle of it) I was wide awake again at 01:15. And I don’t remember going back to sleep after that, and it was so light by 06:15 that I went off and had breakfast.

The cleaner came round to do the room later on and that disturbed me. I went and had another coffee before going off to the supermarket on the corner for my baguette. My lunchtime butty was beautiful, and then I crashed out good and proper for about an hour and a half.

This evening I went off to watch the footy and collected a couple of phone numbers on the way. I’ll have to give them a ring this weekend to see if I can sort something out.