Category Archives: marianne

Sunday 25th December 2011 – A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS …

… to all my readers.

I didn’t get that line from a Christmas Cracker or from an Annual, but from off the back of the door of the Public Lavatory on Crewe Bus Station. That was a good source of reading material for a spotty young teenager and I certainly learned a good deal about anatomy there.

In fact, I reckon that it was thanks to there that I passed my Biology ‘O’ Level with the best result I ever had.

This morning we had a lie-in and so it was about 10:00 when we finally struggled into the kitchen. Breakfast was flapjacks made with flour, soya milk and a little sugar, and then we went to the church at the Abbaye de la Cambre.

I have issues with churches, though.

Someone once tried to drown me in a church, and the next time I went there someone stuck this woman in my hand. I swore that they next time anyone of my acquaintance went to a church it would be over my dead body.

All in all, I’m surprised that I wasn’t struck down by a thunderbolt

I made Christmas dinner as well. We had seitan slices in onions and gravy, boiled and roast potatoes, sprouts (well, we ARE in Brussels) and mixed vegetables, followed by Christmas pudding and custard.

And even though I say it myself, it all tasted very nice.

This afternoon though, we listened to our Christmas Radio Programme on Radio Arverne, watched “Dr No” and that was that really – just chilled out.

But tomorrow we are starting work in earnest. after all, that’s why I’m here.

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Saturday 24th December 2011 – I DIDN’T FEEL …

… much like getting up this morning.

I can’t sleep in Brussels and it’s pretty pointless trying, if you ask me. And so when the alarm went off at 08:30 I was already alive and kicking.

Having fallen off the end of the bed three times during the night doesn’t help much either and so I turned the bed round in the middle of the night. And so tonight it will be my feet that will fall out.

This morning we went shopping at the Shanti – the health food supermarket over the road in the Avenue Adolphe Buyl. Start as we mean to go on, I suppose.

After that I made a start on the work that we had to do. I’m not here merely to pass the time of day or to sit and put my feet up – I have plenty of work to do.

Another shopping trip, this time to the Carrefour at Waterloo (or, rather, Mont St Jean) for the stuff we couldn’t find at the health food shop was on the cards for later and after a coffee, we went to Chi Chi’s, the Tex-Mex restaurant down the road from there, for a Christmas Eve meal.

We arrived much earlier than anticipated for our booking, but there was a table free and so we didn’t have to wait around.

Back here later, we watched the Chronicles of Narnia II – Prince Caspian, which isn’t a patch on the first one unfortunately, and that was Christmas Eve.

And now I’m off to bed. I have to wait until tomorrow to find out what Santa has bought me.

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Friday 23rd December 2011 – I HATE BRUSSELS

Especially when I am trying to sleep and there are trams clanging past, police cars racing by, doors slamming, people shouting.

And here is me, having once complained about being awoken by an owl screeching. I can’t wait to return home and I promise that I won’t ever complain again.

And so this morning Marianne and I went shopping. I was a-hunting for a pair of boots seeing as the ones that I bought in Canada in 2010 have split right across the sole.

But having seen the prices in Brussels, I’ll limp around with soggy feet for the rest of my life. Extortionate isn’t the word.

Better news at IKEA though where I bought one of my “plank-trolley” specials – a trolley loaded up with odds and ends of doors.

This one has a set of bed laths (which was what I wanted), 2 other sets, a baby’s cot, a load of wood that will do for shelving, some heat-treated glass shelves, all kinds of useful and exciting things – and all for €10 too. That was money well-spent as well.

The interesting bit was trying to manoeuvre … "PERSONoeuvre" – ed … the trolley around the other piles of trolleys in the way while several members of staff stood and watched, the idle ghits, and manoeuvring … "PERSONoeuvring" – ed … Caliburn into the loading bay (waiting permitted for 5 minutes only) between the van containing the guy surfing the internet on his laptop and the other van with the guy eating his sandwiches.

Yes, waiting only for 5 minutes, while the staff stood and watched. I hate Belgian shop assistants. Totally unhelpful and thick as slurry.

This evening we went to see “The Untouchables” – I’ve seen worse films than this to be sure but to be honest it’s nothing more than “The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain“, but with Attitude.

Anyway tomorrow promises to be a little more exciting, and so I’m off to bed. Although whether or not I’ll have sweet dreams is another thing entirely.

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Thursday 22nd December 2011 – NOW HERE’S A THING!

And this isn’t something that happens every day, is it? And it was so astonishing that it deserves to be reported.

As Caliburn and I roared up the steep winding hills around Clamecy in the early morning mist and rain, a French lorry actually pulled over into a lay-by to let us fly past. That has never happened before and it won’t ever happen again

I was right about the night though. It was most uncomfortable and I tossed and turned for practically all of it. I don’t think that I had much in the way of sleep at all.

It was probably well that I made an early start because I wasn’t going to be doing much else. And the coffee in the flask from yesterday was barely warm. That kind of thing won’t put me in the best of humours either.

On we shot to Brussels, and apart from our lorry-driver friend, the trip was fairly uneventful – that is, until I reached Charleroi.

I’m now in Brussels with a hiccupy Caliburn because, having been distracted for a few moments, I ended up putting a few litres of petrol into him by mistake in Charleroi before I realised.

It’s the ethanol-based fuel that has the yellow handle, not the diesel fuel in Belgium so I hope he won’t have too many ill effects.

Arriving at Marianne’s, I had a steaming mug of coffee thrust into my freezing cold mitt and that made me feel a lot better.

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Tuesday 26th July 2011 – NEXT MORNING …

… saw me in IKEA where they had sold out of everything interesting and so instead I went to Marianne’s.

After lunch we took a pile of my old stuff down to the Charity Shops and then we went to Brico to buy a pile of cable to rewire all of her internet connections, and that took me most of the afternoon.

At 19:20 precisely I left Brussels, maybe for the last time as I now have no reason to be back there, and headed off home.

And I was glad to leave, I can tell you. Charity shops refusing goods, and refusing them with a sneer and an offensive remark, large vans deliberately turning into your path when they can see you coming, and the final straw was the brand-new Range Rover that tried to run me down on a zebra crossing. Yes, by that time I had really had enough and now I’m wondering how that Range Rover driver will be explaining the large size 9-sized dent in his rear wing.

Yes, I was in a bad mood when I left.

The journey home was exciting. The Lady Who Lives In The Satnav predicted that I would arrive home at 03:51, and I was home at … errr …. 03:50 precisely.

And that was quite a surprise, and for several reasons.

  1. She took me down a completely different route – the Mons by-pass, then the N2 via Soissons to the Francilienne, and then round via Melun, Fontainebleu and the RN7. She also wanted to send me via Nevers and Moulins but I took the short cut via Bourges.
  2. old cars panhard levassor franceI made a few unscheduled stops along the way. One of the stops, not too far beyond Mons but in France was this absolutely gorgeous thing that I saw.

    It’s been absolutely ages since I’ve featured any nice and interesting old cars in my postings, so it’s high time that we showed you another one. This is an original Panhard-Levassor and I think that it might be a CS model from the early 1930s – not that I know too much about it. But whatever it is, it is beautiful – it really is

  3. Another unscheduled stop was at Melun where at the ELF garage there – the cheapest in France, diesel was at 129.9. That called for a major fuel-up.
  4. and then we had the road works. The way out of Brussels was full of them, as was the Francilienne. I calculated that I lost about 15 minutes at least in that lot. And there were also road works on the roads between Gien and Bourges and that slowed me down quite a lot as well. In fact, along that stretch of road I started to fall asleep. It had been a long day

But apart from that, I didn’t stop at all – not even for food or coffee (luckily at Marianne’s I had made a big mug of coffee in my thermal mug). I was in a hurry to return home.

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Sunday 24th July 2011 – THINGS TO DO …

… places to go, people to see. So I had better get a wiggle on as i don’t have much time.

This morning, I started off by emptying the garage downstairs and packing the contents into Caliburn. And it was all swept it out , done and (quite literally) dusted within 10 minutes. I didn’t hang about.

I finished off by having my final shower on the premises – I don’t want to dirty the place up any more than I have to. And then I cleared off and that was that.

marianne orban brussels belgium july juillet 2011I’d been invited for lunch round at Marianne’s, which was very nice of her. She cooks some really nice food and it’s a pleasure to go round there.

And after lunch we went for our usual walk around the lake in the Bois de la Cambre followed by a coffee at one of the cafés here. It wasn’t really a sunny summer bary, despite it being towards the end of July.

And it’s hard to believe that this is probably going to be the last time that I shall spend a pleasant, relaxing Sunday afternoon quite like this one.

Later that evening I cleared off and now I’m parked up on the lorry park behind the RTBF tower at Schaerbeek. The irony of this is that it was here that I spent the night the day before I signed to buy Expo. What a strange thought to remember.

Anyway, let’s see what happens tomorrow.

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Sunday 17th July 2011 – NEXT MORNING …

… after a good lie-in (well, it IS Sunday!) and a leisurely breakfast, I drove round to Marianne’s for lunch, which was very nice of her to invite me.

bois de la cambre belgium july juillet 2011It was heavily overcast today just by way of a change, but it was reasonably warm and so in the afternoon after lunch we went for a walk in the Bois de la Cambre down the road.

It’s been a couple of years at least since I have been for a good perambulation in the park and there have been some considerable changes here in that time. They seem to have been spending their money quite considerably.

But the most important change is over here.

chateau robinson bois de la cambre belgium july juillet 2011The old pie hut on the island that burnt down a while ago has now been completely rebuild and is now a magnificent chalet – the Chateau Robinson – doubtless named for Robinson Crusoe.

Access out there is by a boat, which you can see mooed up to the quay just to the right of centre. It costs €1:00 to take the boat out there, and the return trip is free, which is just as well given the price of the coffee out there.

prince laurent chateau robinson bois de la cambre belgium july juillet 2011I would very much like to say that I took my coffee this afternoon with Price Laurent of the Belgians, and I bet that you are thinking that I’m joking too.

But far from it in fact.

Although he wasn’t acually sitting at my table, he was close enough – and he wasn’t surrounded by armed policemen and crowds of bodyguards either. Just out en famille for his Sunday afternoon cuppa.

Mind you, I bet that the two or three people at nearby tables who stood up discreetly to leave just as he was leaving “had some interest” in the matter.

Then Marianne came back with me to the flat, I dismantled the bed in Caliburn and Marianne helped me load the heavy stuff that was remaining.

We had a really long chat and what with it being Sunday we went out for pizza, seeing as how she had given me a useful hand. However we were sidetracked by a new restaurant advertising, would you believe, a Vegan section. And I had the most magnificent penne al arabiatta that I have ever eaten.

rue de la loi brussels belgium july juillet 2011Dropping her off, I was back on the road. The plan was to head home as rapidly as I could and go as far as I could before stopping for the night somewhere, but I was rather side-tracked.

I’d noticed once or twice over the course of the years that the Rue de la Loi in Brussels looks magnificent at night with all of the street lights and vehicles that flood the street.

One of the things that I had wanted to do was to take a few photos of the place before I left. So off I went, and took about half a dozen. Here’s one of them to titivate your palette

Having done that, Caliburn and I bounced happily all the way to near Auxerre where I crashed out for the night at some silly time of the early morning.

And wasn’t that uncomfortable? It seems that Bane of Britain had forgotten that he’d left his sleeping bag and pillow back at the apartment.

GRRRRRRRR!

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Sunday 3rd April 2011 – ONE OF THE THINGS …

… about staying in a hotel, especially a cheapo hotel like this one, is that when everyone else is up, then so are you.

Consequently, at 8:30 (on a Sunday?) I was up and at work, finishing off the work that I needed to do on my book about the Trans-Labrador Highway, which I posted to the internet, if you would like to read it.

And so back to Brussels where I fetched Marianne and we went off to the apartment and spent a pleasant hour or two stuffing some of the contents into Caliburn until it was full to the gunwhales. At 16:30 the daughter of the owner of the garage that I rented came round and inspected it and I returned the key to her, so that was that and I’n now €49:97 per month richer.

Spend, spend, spend, hey?

Off to pick up the trailer and the Minerva next and we towed that back to Brussels. And then while we were eating tea (Sunday is pizza day of course) we worked out a programme for Marianne to come down and see the Auvergne during the Easter school break.

Armed with a big flask of coffee I then set out for home again and it all went fine with no problems at all until leaving Auxerre when there was a mighty crash from the back. One of the restraining straps (luckily the one that stops the load shifting forwards) had broken and the Minerva had rolled forward into the headboard of the trailer. This had the effect of slackening off the strap on the front which had then become detached and there was nothing then to stop the Minerva sliding backwards (and then off the trailer into the roadway).

And so for a couple of hours I had to free off the handbrake so that it would work, mess about with the gearbox to lock it in gear, and then hunt down some more straps (not easy when you have a van full of rubbish) and then fasten it down.

While all of this was going on, a tin of paint and a container of oil became dislodged during the struggle and so that’s another mess I’ll have to clean up when I’ve emptied Caliburn.

Finally, to the chirping of the early dawn chorus I had the Minerva strapped down properly, locked in place, and by some judicious manoeuvring of straps and fasteners I could get the tailboard of the trailer in position as well – so that the Minerva won’t fall off again.

caliburn ford transit ifor williams trailer belgian land rover minerva les guis virlet puy de dome franceThis is an excellent trailer and well-worth every penny that we spent on it, but it’s not a proper car transporter and its high centre of gravity makes for interesting cornering on mountain roads when you have a high-sided vehicle like a Minerva and there’s a cross-wind.

On a couple of occasions the trailer wanted to go in a different direction than I did and when you aren’t expecting it to happen it’s guaranteed to get the adrenalin flowing. If I’m going to be moving the Minerva – and other vehicles – about on a frequent basis (and that is the plan) I need a proper low-loader trailer.

The sooner that I have one, the better.

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Sunday 6th March 2011 – Today was exciting.

Manure Knighted were well and truly stuffed by the Bin Dippers this afternoon. Seeing them have a good stuffing is something that always cheers me up and I always feel better afterwards. Even if it is Sunday and I’ve had a decent sleep for a change.

And so a leisurely morning listening to Terry cheering on the Barmy Army also made quite a change.

belgium brussels park chateau robinson ferryLater on Liz and I went round to Marianne’s and ended up going for a walk in the park. We took the ferry over to the island (cost €1:00 – no wonder the Flemish are good swimmers) where I had the coldest cup of coffee I have ever had in a restaurant while Marianne and Liz had the poorest excuse for a cappuccino that I have ever seen.

And all for €8:50 as well, plus the fare on the ferry to cross over to the island. It’s not been a very good afternoon from that point of view.

Marianne came back to the apartment where Liz cooked another one of her specialities – spicy Shepherd’s Pie (made with real shepherds, so I am assured) and then I ran Marianne home again.

In other news, in writing up my epic voyage around Canada I am just about to have my first glimpse of the sea and of Newfoundland. It’s getting to the climax and the tension is unbearable. I need to make quicker progress as the suspense is killing me. I must know what happens next.

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Sunday 13th February 2011 – We’re having a change …

… of plan about this apartment.

The idea was, as you know, that we would come here, spend a couple of weeks tarting the place up, and then sell it on without putting a great deal of effort into it. I’ve a rough idea what the place might be worth and I would be happy with that.

But Terry, Liz, Marianne (yes, Marianne came round to lunch and it was nice to see her after all this time) and I went for a walk around the area after lunch and we noticed a couple of apartments for sale around here, exactly the same as mine. They were quite nicely finished and some amount of additional investment had been made in preparing them, and we could see what the estate agents were hoping to get for them. And if I could sell mine for a figure approaching that I would be absolutely delighted.

So we’ve decided to put some more effort in to the place – basically work until next weekend as planned, go home to do our chores as planned, and then come back and carry on doing more stuff.

wild parrots brussels belgiumAfter lunch, we went off for a walk in the woods down the road to look for the wild parrots who live there. You probably think I’m joking, but it’s true. There was a small zoo near the Atomium and it had a collection of exotic birds. The area was bombed by the British in World War II and the zoo was badly damaged, allowing the parrots to escape.

They have established themselves now in the wild and there is one very successful breeding colony in the woods just down the road from here. The Government does what it can to encourage the birds and they have their own schools – the Polly-techniques, their own hospitals, the Polly-clinique, and their own cemetery, the Polly-gone. Gilbert and Sullivan wrote an opera for them, called the Parrots of Penzance, and the council encourages citizens to make life easier for the birds by installing parrakeet flooring in all the council houses.

Life is extremely interesting, if not exciting, in Brussels. You never know what you are likely to encounter next.

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