Category Archives: Eric Hall

Saturday 5th January 2019 – IT’S CURTAINS FOR ME …

… here in this apartment.

Liz came round this afternoon with her sewing box and Terry came round with his tools. While Liz was cutting the curtain in the bedroom to the required length and sewing it up, Terry and I measured the curtain rods and cut them to length.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I had bought some curtains from NOZ several weeks ago. We hung the new curtains from the rods, measured them to length and pinned them up. When Liz had finished the bedroom curtain she attacked the new ones that we had just pinned.

And when she had done that, she did the lace curtains in the living room too.

It’s really hard to believe, but this place is actually now looking like a home. If I’m not careful I’ll find myself properly settled in here.

Despite what I said last night, it wasn’t an early night at all. I got deep into something on which I was working and it was gone 01:30 when I happened to notice the time. I have a feeling that I’ll be paying for this in due course.

Leaving the bed wasn’t easy, especially as I was in the middle of a nocturnal voyage. I was in my old blue Cortina – PMB 270D – and driving down Welsh Row in Nantwich to visit a former work colleague. It was all left-hand drive stuff – steering wheel on the right, driving on the right. In the car I had three kerbstones in the car and was going to drop them off at his house so that he could make a parking place in the street but as I arrived he was pulling away in his car with his wife and kids – he’d been parked on a hatched area of the road where normally one isn’t allowed to park. I decided to call back later, and at that point I received a text from the guy saying “nice car” and a smiley. Down the hill I went and had to turn right but down here I had to drive on the left so I cut across the traffic at the traffic lights, just as a Ford Paramount coach appeared. I braked and he braked, but I just touched him ever so lightly and there was a tiny dent – a really tiny, barely perceptible dent on the front of his bus. It wasn’t anything at all but the driver started to make an issue of it, filling in forms and all this kind of thing. This annoyed me – not because of the actions of the driver but of disappointment with myself because it was such a ridiculous thing to happen and it was actually the second accident I had had that day and I was annoyed that the insurance people would start to do nasty things to me about it.

After breakfast I had a shower, a clean-up and a change of clothes. And then I hit the streets. It was a bit touch-and-go though. Caliburn’s battery has been sounding a little weak just recently but this morning it was a struggle for it to start. That will need replacing this week, I reckon.

I had to be quick around the shops because I’m expecting a postal delivery today. The parcels postie always arrives between 11:00 and 11:30 so I need to be back by then.

This morning I did the usual round of the shops – LIDL, NOZ and LeClerc – but didn’t buy anything at all special. In fact, it was probably the cheapest round of shopping that I have done for quite a while.

It was 10:40 when I returned, only to find that the postie had already been and gone. There was a message in my letter box to tell me that she would be back on Monday. But there was some stuff there – the powered USB hub and the powered adapter for the Roland Bass Cube amplifier. And it works too.

One thing that I like about having visitors is that it obliges me to tidy up and clean up. With the anticipated arrival of my visitors I cleaned and tidied the bathroom. It actually looks like a bathroom now.

After lunch Liz and Terry arrived and the first thing that we did, apart from have a coffee of course, was to watch a couple of videos. I’d received a package from the people with whom I’d travelled to the Arctic and included were two videos – the famous one of the iceberg capsizing and then a big one that Garrick Ng had made of the whole trip They made me all nostalgic and I’m ready now to pack my bags and return.

During the sewing bee, Terry and I went for a walk. Liz had been dropping hints about us being in the way and she finally stopped hinting and told us in no uncertain terms to clear off We had a wander around the walls and then went to the bar for a drink. By the time that we returned Liz had almost finished.

After Liz and Terry had left, I had tea. Liz had brought me a pile of home-made soup and some vegetarian chili. So pasta and chili for tea. And delicious it was too.

Rosemary called later. And we were on the phone for over 2 hours chatting about this and that. Rosemary is going back to the UK for her medical check-up next week and not looking forward to it.

By now it was almost 22:30 – too late for me to go for my walk. But there were a few things to do on the computer and no-one was more surprised than me to see that it was almost 02:00.

It’s been a long day, but it’s Sunday tomorrow. No alarm and so I’m going to sleep until I awaken.

Friday 4th January 2019 – WHAT WITH ME …

… not feeling so good yesterday, I heard all of the alarms but I took absolutely no notice whatsoever. It was more of about 09:15 when I awoke, and 09:45 when I left the bed and believe it or not, because it’s not usually the case, I felt rather better.

During the first part of the night I’d been on my travels, but I’ll spare you the gory details as you are probably eating a meal right now.

But having gone back to sleep later, I’d been off to see my friend Rhys in South Carolina. Not out in the wilds but actually an urban setting somewhere. It was election time and I’d seen a few people heading into the Town Hall to vote and so I tagged onto the end. In the mayor’s office some woman there asked me for my name, which I gave. I suddenly remembered that I didn’t know his address (and doesn’t this remind me of an incident not so long ago?) but luckily she didn’t ask me that. She named a few names that corresponded in some degree to mine but I said that it wasn’t me and I could see this dragging on so I suggested that I go down to my truck ostensibly to fetch my ID but in reality to make good my escape, but she said that she wouldn’t put me to that kind of trouble to go all that way to the car park. At this point I began to have a feeling of unease, and I was glad when I awoke.

As a result of all of this, breakfast was rather late. And most of the morning had gone by then. And so I spent much of the rest of it tidying up. I’m expecting visitors tomorrow.

There was a brief interruption though when the doorbell went. Running after it, I found that the postie was there. She brought me a parcel that could only be my new computer screen.

After lunch – just a couple of slices of toast with hummus – I attacked my little project again and did some more research. And it’s not going to be easy as my lifestyle up until recently will cause me a few problems. But I’ll keep on keeping on.

There was a small hiatus in the work while I went out for my afternoon walk.

My route this afternoon took me on my route around the city walls where I could admire the view out to sea.

And despite the miserable weather, which you can tell by looking at the mist in the distance on the photo, there were still quite a few people taking the air on the Plat Gousset

My attention was drawn however to the tidal swimming pool.

It looked as if the tide was on its way in and the swimming pool was in the course of being filled, with a couple of spectators enjoying the proceedings.

It’s a shame though that the pool has a leak somewhere. It doesn’t retain the water like it ought to and empties pretty quickly.

As the tide goes quite a way out, a swimming pool just here close to the promenade could be quite an attraction.

There was a new boat out there that I hadn’t seen before. It’s a speedboat of some description and you don’t see too many of those out here on this side of the headland.

They are usually to be found, if at all, on the other side in the Baie de Mont St Michel where the sea is calmer.

The sea can be quite rough out here, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall. Not the kind of sea in which to go flat-out.

With an hour or so to spare, I unpacked the parcel that I received and it is my computer screen. I assembled it and plugged it into the laptop. it took an age to work out how it works as there was no instruction book, but it seems to work fine. The screen is the wrong resolution for the laptop but eventually I managed to figure that out and now it seems to be fine, if not confusing as I type in one direction and use the mouse in another.

After tea – a small stuffed pepper – there was a football match on the internet – Aberystwyth Town v Connah’s Quay Nomads in the Welsh Premier League.

You might think that the final score – 6-1 to the Nomads – indicates a right spannering but that was far from the truth. The Nomads’ first goal – a penalty – didn’t look anything like it and a slow-motion enlarged replay showed that the player caught his foot in the ground.

But the big difference included the fact that the Nomads took their chances when Aberystwyth didn’t, and that Michael Bakare was still going like a runaway truck long after the Aberystwyth defence had tired.

So now I’ll have a little play with my new screen for a while and then go to bed. Shopping day tomorrow.

Thursday 3rd January 2019 – EVEN THOUGH …

… it wasn’t as early a night as I was hoping, it was still with a great deal of dismay that I awoke this morning at 04:35. And even worse, I couldn’t go back to sleep again.

So being up and about and on my feet before the second alarm went off is something of a novelty these days and I have a feeling that I will be paying for this.

I’d been on my travels too during the night. At the home of a certain couple who feature prominently in these pages but who for the sake of this discussion were living in Wistaston Road in Crewe opposite where my old taxi depot was. They were moving house and we’d all gone round to help. One of the things that needed moving was an aquarium which was being taken to a nautical park. The guy who came for it had to come and measure up to see if any wall needed knocking down. He worked out that one wall needed to go, but which was in between two pillars so I couldn’t see how knocking it down was going to help matters as the pillars would still be there. And it upset the measurements that I was taking. Meanwhile, I’d put some wood on one side to use as battens but they had gone, so I asked the woman (who shall be known henceforth as W) where they were. She replied that her husband (known henceforth as H) had taken them and had probably burnt them – rather similar to an event that had really happened. She then told me that there had been some threatening phone calls received by H which was upsetting everyone. A little later, the phone rang and I answered it. I just said “hello” and I didn’t hear the reply because of the noise, but the person hung up. It rang again immediately, and it was a young girl who gave some kind of weird message. H asked me who it was, so I replied that it was a young girl round about 14. He asked if I was sure that she was 14 and not 17 (which is also significant) but I remained convinced. Up on the roof, which was a flat concrete roof, I had a look around. H and W were up there along wiht a pile of charred wood that they had burnt and including my battens. At this point I left the house and went across the road to pick up my car. And I noticed a crowd of young people leaving a house down the street. THis was, I imagined, what the threatening phone calls were all about. I could see H on the roof so I shouted up to him, not too loundly as I didn’t want to attract the intention of the people down the street. But H didn’t hear me so I shouted again. he didn’t respond so I decided to phone him or W, but I couldn’t find their phone numbers at the moment, and in the time that it would take me to do so, the people would be here.

An early breakfast and then I had a few things to do. Including typing and printing out a letter that I had forgotten to do yesterday. May as well do it now because I’ll be off to the shops in a minute and the Post Office is only 50 metres off my route.

So having typed and printed out my letter and put it in an envelope, I headed off for town, only to realise after I’d gone 400 metres that I had left the letter behind. As a result, I had to retrace my steps to pick it up.

On my way down into town I had a look down into the harbour to see what was going on this morning.

There was a lorry down there, unloading a pile of stuff at the quayside. And there on the edge of the quay are a couple of pallet tanks that look as if they might be ready for departure.

We have La Grande Ancre down there. It looks as if she might be the ship that will be loading up with the deliveries. Quite probably she has a trip lined up to the Ile de Chausey. That’s her usual route.

Having posted my letter, I wandered off to LIDL for the shopping. And there was nothing there that took my fancy today. In fact, the things that I had bought I could have easily done without. But the exercise did me good. However, I didn’t pick up a little snack like I sometimes do. I wasn’t in the mood for food.

A coffee to warm me up when I returned home, and then I made some plans for what I intended to do in the afternoon.

It was a late lunch – not because I was so busy but because I wasn’t feeling all that hungry. I managed to eat my sandwiches but that was about that – and then I came back here to attack my project.

I’m not all that further forward because while I can find on the internet all of the links that I need, there’s no trace of the link to the form that I need to download. I need to look further into this.

Ingrid and I had a little chat as well, and so did Liz. Telling me all of the news about Strawberry MooseStrawberry Moose and his Christmas holidays.

I went out for my afternoon walk too.

Just for a change I went for a wander around the walls. With it still being school holidays there were quite a few people out there on the Plat Gousset.

There were even some people brave enough to go for a walk on the beach. But I didn’t notice anyone actually in the water, which is hardly a surprise, given the temperature outside.

A little further around the walk, I finally managed to witness something that I don’t remember seeing before.

The harbour here is a tidal harbour but there is a wet dock that is protected by a pair of gates to keep the water in so that larger ships can dock here and remain for as long as they like.

The gates open for something round about 90 minutes before high tide, and close 90 minutes after high tide. I’ve never seen them actually open and close before, but today I was lucky enough to catch them in action

But I couldn’t go on and ended up under the covers on the bed – for an hour and a half too. And then I couldn’t pull myself out for ages.

One thing that I did notice was that my appetite has gone. It’s been going for a while as you have probably noticed, but this evening I didn’t feel hungry at all. Just a packet of crisps later on. It’s certainly a bad sign when my appetite goes.

I did go out for the walk though. Only two other people out there tonight which was a surprise because although it was cold, it was a beautiful evening. Now I’m going to go to bed though, because despite my little sleep earlier, I’m feeling the pinch.

Wednesday 2nd January 2019 – IT DIDN’T …

… work out like it ought to have done last night.

I was so engrossed with what I was doing, as well as chatting to a friend in North America, that it was well after 02:00 when I realised the time. So much for my early night.

Nevertheless, despite any kind of temptation, I still had the alarms set for 06:00 etc and I was there or thereabouts when they went off. But as for rising from my stinking pit, well, I wasn’t quite so prompt.

We had the usual morning procedure of course and then after a brief relax with a few things that I intended to do, I set to work.

By the time that lunchtime had come round, I’d written a huge pile of letters, which involved a great deal of research, and printed them out. I’m glad that I had bought my new printer because it was simplicity itself and the printer did well.

But I’ve put the kiss of death upon it because I’ve ordered some spare ink off the internet. That’s enough to kill off any printer.

In fact, I’ve ordered a pile of stuff from the internet just now. A new computer screen as I mentioned, together with a powered USB hub and a keyboard for the new computer. As well as that, I’ve ordered a new 60-litre rucksack for my trips to Leuven and a power converter for the Roland bass cube so that I can restart the bass-playing.

And much to my surprise, by the end of the evening I noticed that some of the stuff was on its way.

After lunch I had a shower and a clean-up, seeing that even I was beginning to notice that I was here. And then I hit the streets – down to the Post Office to post the huge pile of letters that I had written. And it wasn’t easy in the Post Office either as the automatic machine wouldn’t read my bank card.

There was still some coffee left from this morning so I drank that when I returned, along with a slice of my Christmas present from Liz and Terry.

With having had a late night and an early start, I couldn’t keep going and by 18:00 I was stretched out on the bed under the covers. And there I stayed until about 19:30. Definitely feeling the strain, I am.

As a result, tea was rather late. The rest of the falafel from the other day, seeing as it had been hanging around for a few weeks, with pasta, veg and tomato sauce.

Later on this evening, I went out for my evening walk.

The weather outside was really beautiful this evening, even if it was cold out there tonight.

The air was clear though and I could see for miles, all the way down past St Malo and along the Brittany coast.

So how about an early night tonight? This afternoon I made a start on another project and that is going to take a lot of work. But there’s a time limit involved and it’s quite important. Some of the letters that I wrote are in connection with this, but the Lord helps those who help themselves and years of bitter experience have told me that I can’t ever rely on anyone else to do things for me.

And so I need my sleep.

night st helier jersey granville manche normandy france

very blurred night brehal sur mer granville manche normandy france

night donville sur mer granville manche normandy france

Tuesday 1st January 2019 – AND A VERY …

… Happy New Year. Not just from me, but from someone else here in Granville too.

I’m grateful for all of the support and encouragement that everyone has given me over the last year. It’s the kind of thing that has kept me going.

As well as that, I’m also even more grateful to everyone who has given me hospitality over the year during my perambulations around the Northern Hemisphere. I may not have many friends, as I have said … “and on many occasions too” – ed … but those I have are the best friends in the world.

So back to the story.

Having complained about sleep issues for as long as I have, it’s much more exciting to report that today, I left my bed at all of … errr … 11:22. And breakfasting at 12:00 is much more like what I expect to see on a Bank Holiday.

I’d been on my travels during the night too. Into a veg shop in Germany to buy a couple of carrots. I’d pressed the key on the automatic machine and the carrots came down into the scales to be weighed, and then I had to go to the counter to pick them up and pay for them. However, I couldn’t remember the German word for “carrots”. In Flemish it’s wortelen and so I tried that, but the shop assistant didn’t understand me. I pointed to the carrots and she still didn’t understand.

After breakfast, or lunch, or whatever you might call it, I had a task to perform.

There was an upgrade proposed a while ago by my blog host but I put off doing the upgrade. However it was forced upon me and while I was in Leuven I performed the upgrade.

And it’s terrible.

The old interface was a simple text-based interface where I could (and did) add my own handwritten *.html coding which I saved in blocks in my text-ediiting program and which I used for every web site on which I worked.

But this upgrade wants everything done in blocks with the *.html coding incorporated into the site itself, and adding the search indices is next-to-impossible and is the most complicated procedure that I have ever seen – especially on a slow connection.

So while I’ve been trying to figure it out (or find another blog interface that does what I want) I’ve been recording my blog entries in my text editor.

Anyway, I’ve given up. It’s not working, and so I’ll have to go with what I’ve got. And that meant adding 6 days-worth of blog entries and editing the indices manually.

That’s what I’ve been doing today.

At last, I could open my Christmas present from Liz and Terry. And now that you can see it in all of its glory, you can see that it was well-worth waiting for.

And it really is delicious too.

This evening we had football. Welsh Premier League basement clash between Carmarthen and Llanelli. Carmarthen aren’t that good but they ran rings round Llanelli who looked determined to shoot themselves in the foot.

Some of Llanelli’s defending was suicidal. They just couldn’t get the ball out of their own defence and tried to play the ball around, losing possession on several occasions in desperate positions. Carmarthen won 2-0 – both goals coming from Llanelli mistakes.

On this showing, Llanelli look well-and-truly doomed and we’re only half-way through the season. And depending who comes up from tier two in the south next season, Carmarthen need to start to think about what they intend to do.

Tea was a vegan burger with a pile of veg and gravy. Totally delicious, as was the endive that I had as a treat.

Outside tonight for my walk, and there was no-one around at all. I didn’t see a soul.

That was quite a surprise because despite the cold, it was a really beautiful, clear, starry night.

There was some cloud pretty high up in the sky over St Malo, and the reflection of the streetlights was magnificent. The town of Cancale, over there across the bay, was nicely illuminated too.

Back to work tomorrow – I have such a lot to do. So I won’t be hanging around too long. An early night is beckoning and if I’m lucky I might just make it too.

Monday 31st December 2018 – BY THE TIME …

… I get to Phoen … errr … that you read this you’re probably already in 2019, so belated New Year wishes from me.

May I wish everyone for 2019 exactly the same as you wished for everyone else in 2018. And I also send special New Years wishes to everyone who was kind enough to offer me hospitality as I travelled around the Northern Hemisphere.

As I have said before … “and you’ll say it again<” – ed … I don’t have many friends, but those whom I have are the best in the world.

The morning, such as it was, didn’t start until about 10:15. That might sound much more like a reasonable time when I have a day off, but I forgot to mention that so engrossed was I about some things that I was doing during the evening that it was almost 04:00 when I went to bed last night.

A late breakfast therefore, and there was a treat in store for me.

Do you remember from Saturday when I bought the vegan pains au chocolat from LeClerc? This morning I made a start on them. A quick 30 seconds in the microwave to warm one of them up and to freshen it up, and on the table for breakfast

And they weren’t too bad at all.

I didn’t do very much for the rest of the day. After all, I’m on holiday, aren’t I?

Lunch was a couple of slices of toast with hummus followed by some fruit. No point in having a pile of butties when it’s late like this.

A little later on I went out for my afternoon walk.

There were the usual crowds of people about this afternoon around the walled town. And there were quite a few people out on the beach having a paddle in the sea to celebrate the New Year.

And good luck to them too – sooner them than me.

Tea was some falafel and pasta in tomato sauce. Delicious it was too

Rosemary rang me up after tea and we had a chat for … errr … one hour and forty-four minutes. And would have gone on even longer had the battery not gone flat in my telephone.

At 23:30 I went out for a midnight walk. It’s New Year and I wanted to be out on the streets.

My ramble took me down to the harbour, across the lock gates and into town. I took a few pics of the harbour at night and then wandered into town. There can’t have been more than a couple of dozen people around, and some of them were quite noisy.

It wasn’t actually the New Year’s celebrations that I was expecting, an so I came home. It’s not exactly early but it’s not late either. Nevertheless, I’m off to bed.

So while you all admire the photos, I’ll clear off. See you all next year.

fishing boat granville manche normandy france

beach plat gousset granville manche normandy france

night steps staircase granville manche normandy france

night port de granville harbour manche normandy france

Sunday 30th December 2018 – I DON’T KNOW …

… where I’d been during the night but when I came back I was running my taxi business again. In a wooden hut of some kind that was quite cold – but when I noticed how tall the hut was and how poor the heating was, this wasn’t a surprise. The phone hadn’t rung at all for the hole shift so I was puzzled as to how we could keep going. But at the end of the shift a large envelope and chart was pushed through the door. “Ahh, the Post” I said, but the girl dispatcher said that it was the work detail of whoever had been working the shift. So we did have a driver and the driver had done some work. I needed to visit the bathroom and so went outside to water the plants. This was in Vine Tree Avenue by now, and I noticed that the front garden had been planted with leeks and lettuce. Just as I started to do the necessary the woman next door came out of her house so I turned my back to her as if I was watering the plants. She came over to me so I had to hurry, and she began to chat. I noticed that her car, a Mark IV Cortina, had strange white numberplate so I asked her about them. “They are German” she said (which they aren’t). I told her that I was in Germany a few days ago. She mentioned that her trip to Toronto shortly had been cancelled due to insufficient bookings. By now we were in a hotel and someone, clearly the organiser, came over and started to usher us to the door. I told him that it’s a sad reflection on the state of affairs of his company that they cancelled the trip to Toronto, but he said nothing, except to continue to usher us towards the door. I asked hi if he was trying to throw us out, and if so, what was his authority to do so. So he began to push me – and I grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket and said that if he wanted to ask me to leave he could do so politely. This led to quite a confrontation, including mention of the police, which carried on back into the taxi hut that I had mentioned. he started to look at my books and papers so it was my turn to insist that he left my premises.

That took me up to about 07:15 but there was no chance whatever of my leaving the stinking pit at that time. 09:45 was much more reasonable.

A late breakfast, which is fine for a Sunday, and then a day spent doing almost absolutely nothing.

News from the UK is that Strawberry Moose has made a couple of new friends and is spending his night tonight in a different bed. He certainly has more luck than I do.

I’ve been talking on the internet to Liz and Alison on line too. They had a good Christmas and are having a nice relaxing time. Alison and I made a few plans for my next visit to Leuven.

For lunch, I just had two slices of toast. I’m trying to cut down on my food right now. I’ve definitely been eating too much just recently.

We had the usual two walks today too.

There were hordes of people around this afternoon enjoying the holiday atmosphere. The beach was quite popular too, with people down there scavenging amongst the rocks for shellfish.

Which, presumably, they would share with their friends because you mustn’t be selfish with your shellfish.

One of my neighbours was out there too. He was telling me that at Donville-les-Bains they had a sea dip today and he took part. All of them in fancy dress. They are braver people than I am. Mind you, I wouldn’t have minded being there to see them.

Tea tonight was a vegan pizza. And for some reason the crust wasn’t cooked as well as it might be. But it was delicious all the same.

There will be an alarm tomorrow so tonight is an early night. Last day of the old year. And I’ll have to make a list of the things that I have accomplished.

Saturday 29th December 2018 – SO MUCH …

… for my early night. It doesn’t do any good if you end up lying in bed tossing and turning for as long as I did last night. And then awakening at about 04:30 and not being able to go back to sleep for ages doesn’t help much either.

When the alarm went off at 06:00 I wasn’t in much of a mood to leave my bed and it took me a while to come to my senses, which seeing how few senses I have these days, is rather astonishing.

We had the medication and then we had breakfast, followed a little later by a shower. And then I hit the streets, having set the washing machine off on a cycle. Quite clever, my washing machine.

LIDL didn’t come up with much, except a new pair of slippers. My old ones are starting to fall apart and they had some cheap ones in at just €4:99. And they had some cheap sheets on offer too. I don’t have really enough of those and I would have bought another one, but all of the blue ones had been sold. White is no good for me.

NOZ was pretty good and I would have spent a lot of money in there had I had the space and the inclination. But some orange-flavoured digestive biscuits, an Arsène Lupin DVD, a baking tray for mince pies and the like and three glass dessert coupes were amongst the things that I bought.

LeClerc didn’t have anything special on offer, although I did have a surprise. There on the shelves in the Industrial Bakery section was a pack of 6 pains au chocolate – the type that kids like to eat for breakfast. And the packet was clearly marked “VEGAN – 100% VEGETAL”.

I’ve been complaining about the lack of vegan products here in France – how they are 50 years behind the times – so this was an impressive find.

People making vegan products on an industrial scale need as much encouragement as they can receive, so I bought a packet of solidarity and support. It’ll be good to vary my breakfast habits here and there.

Back here, I had a coffee and then slowly unpacked the purchases. It took me a while and it’s still not done yet. I’m definitely slowing up these days.

After lunch I didn’t do too much at all – downloading a pile of stuff that I had tracked down on the internet and then organising a few directories so that everything is stored correctly. I want to have this computer organised ready for whenever the new one might come.

I was also following the football on the internet. And just for a change, the clubs that I follow all managed to win today. That’s not likely at all. Usually they all fall apart.

As for tea, I didn’t bother tonight. I’ve eaten rather a lot just recently and going without a meal for once won’t hurt me. I had a nibble on some Bombay Mix that I had left over from my trip to Leuven.

It was gone 22:30 when I went out for my evening walk. There was no-one around at all at that time of night except for the kids on the car park.

So now I’m off to bed. It’s Sunday so a lie-in is appropriate. But whether I would ever get one remains to be seen. I’m not doing too well right now what with one thing or another.

Friday 28th December 2018 – WHAT A …

… horrible day.

It didn’t start off too well. I was in bed early enough and away on my travels too.

I shall spare a few blushes by mentioning no names but it concerns someone who went away from home in the afternoon to see a friend and I didn’t see her after that. So I locked the door and went to bed. She turned up at some time during the night, well the worse for drink which would have been quite an unusual thing. Although I knew really what had gone on, I had a member of my family round and so she explained that she had gone to meet a friend at the Wistaston Manor Hotel who was crying in her cups about a failed relationship. This had led to something of a consolation drinking session, which then overflowed into the evening. Consoling her friend took much longer than it seemed so she came back home late, found the house locked, thought that I was out and so went round to my parents’ house in Davenport Avenue – but they were out. So she went across the road to the Social Club which was still serving, and so waited in there until my parents returned home. But of course, she couldn’t wait there without making use of the facilities of the club, such as the bar. A load of nonsense of course, but it wasn’t in my best interests to contradict her in public.

The alarm went off at 06:00 and again at 06:10 and 06:20, and I was up and about at some reasonable time. But it ended up being a late breakfast as I was sidetracked by a few issues.

After breakfast I started to work but at about 08:30 I started to yawn again. And from then on, despite a second coffee, I couldn’t keep going. A short time later I lay down on the bed and the next thing that I remembered, it was 10:45. All in all, it was sometime after 11:00 that I managed to haul myself out of bed.

That wasn’t all either, because this afternoon I had another trip away into the wild. The stresses of the journey yesterday are proving far too much for me.

Most of the day has been spent in debate on a group in my Social Networking account. The affairs of Doctor Beeching and Ernest Marples crop up quite regularly and lead to a huge chasm between the participants, depending upon which side of the political fence one sits. And my regular contribution is to post a pile of facts into the argument, which don’t fit too well with either party. It rumbled on for most of the day until the group Admin closed the debate. That was a shame because everyone was (for a change) conducting themselves with respect and dignity and all in all, it was quite enjoyable. Harks back to the days of OUSA Debate.

The rest of the day has been spent in editing photos and tidying up a pile of directories on my laptop. I’ve freed off a huge pile of space on the laptop by doing that.

We had our usual couple of walks of course today.

It’s obviously “that” time of the year because there were loads of people out there on the beach with buckets and spades and the like, presumably searching for seashells among the rocks and in the sand.

Flexing their mussels, one might say. Still, it keeps them out of mischief.

It wasn’t just at Granville that they were doing their Neville Shute impressions.

Down there at Donville les Bains it looks as if they are bringing in a boat. There are some oyster or mussels beds out there and it looks as if they have been out there servicing them.

They have certainly picked a nice day for it.

Remember last night when there was a fog that had descended over the Baie de Mont St Michel?

It’s still here this afternoon. The pillar with the marker light for the entrance to the harbour is swathed in mist. That puts visibility down to about 800 metres, I reckon.

When you consider that a modern supertanker required several kilometres to pull up to a dead stop, it’s not the kind of day to be out there on board ship without a radar.

Tonight’s meal was a pepper, sweetcorn and mushroom curry from 15th January. And it was just as delicious as it was when I cooked it.

later on after tea, I was out again for my evening walk.

The fog has lifted pretty much, and there were a good half-dozen or so fishing boats already in, tied up at the fish-processing plant and unloading.

Not only that, there were about another dozen fishing boats loitering in the vicinity waiting to come in on the evening tide for their turn to unload.

So now I’m going to have an early night. It’s shopping in the morning of course, being a Saturday and I need to be on form.

people on beach plat gousset granville manche normandy france

winter fog haze baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy france

night fishing boat port de granville harbour manche normandy france

Thursday 27th December 2018 – THE ONLY PROBLEM …

… with going to bed early is that despite all of my best efforts, I end up waking up early.

But no danger of me leaving the stinking pit at 04:50. Instead I turned over and tried to go back to sleep until the alarm at 06:00.

I’d been on my travels too. I was making some coconut macaroons so I’d deep-fried the mandarin oranges and I’d assembled a pile of desiccated coconut but I couldn’t remember what else to put in them. And so I was scratching around trying to find a recipe.

When the alarm went off, I was up quite quickly and finished the packing. I left some stuff behind but all that I could practically take, I brought with me.

It was a good plan to come home today because there was almost no-one around. At the station, I arrived just as the express from Genk pulled in. And it was still there by the time I had bought my ticket so I leapt aboard. Usually it’s packed to the gunwhales but today it was quite empty as the commuters have another day off.

No-one in the queue at the Carrefour supermarket on the station where I bought my raisin buns for breakfast, and I forgot AGAIN about the chemists – to see if the one on the station would be open.

Our train was our old friend 4304 – one of the Thalys PBKA (Paris, Brussels, Köln, Amsterdam) trainsets from the mid-90s. Nice and comfortable but starting to show its age like most of them.

There were a few spare seats on board too so we weren’t too hemmed in. I sent the journey to Paris reading a book in comparative comfort.

At the Gare du Nord I stepped onto the Metro platform just as a train pulled in. And that was empty too. I had a seat all the way to Montparnasse which was just as well because this lt in my luggage was heavy.

As I negotiated my way around Montparnasse, Rosemary rang me. And we had a little chat for a few minutes. Then I had to nip down to Vaugirard for my train.

It was already there so I had to shift someone out of my seat before I could make myself comfortable. And it was cold on there too. Ice and frost everywhere and as we left the station we rolled into a thick bank of fog that came with us all the way to Granville.

Not that I know all about it because I had a little doze along the way.

Outside the station I was almost squidged by a woman driver who doesn’t seem to understand the principle of a zebra crossing.

It was a struggle to come back here. I was definitely feeling the strain of all of my exertions. But I eventually made it back and I was glad, even though it was cold in here.

I haven’t done much since I’ve been back. Just some unpacking (but not all of it) and made my tea (a burger and the veg that I brought back).

Later on, I went for my usual evening walk around the headland.

By now, the fog had come down and closed in and it wasn’t very easy to see anything. Everything outside was swathed in a surreal orange glow thanks to the reflection of the street lights.

It wasn’t thick enough to dissuade the fishing boats from working. There were plenty of those unloading in the harbour tonight.

So now I’m off for an early night. I’ve earned it, and I need it too. But whether I’ll get it is another thing. You know how things are these days.

night fog fishing boats port de granville harbour manche normandy france

Wednesday 26th December 2018 – STILL NOT HAVING …

… to manage the dreadful mess that the new upgrade that my blog-host has forced upon me, wiped out all of my essential features and added piles of new features that do nothing but add total confusion to my site, and not having found a new, more suitable host that I can bring into my site, I shall press gallantly on regardless.

God help us all!

Luckily I was recording the entries into a text file so I can simply copy/paste, but that’s the least of my worries.

So, on with the Motley.

With it being another Bank Holiday, I had another lie-in. And although after all of my efforts this last few days, it wasn’t all that much of a lie-in either. Something of a disappointment in fact because I was rather hoping for another 10:00 session.

But it was a late breakfast anyway and then I had another day of doing very little. It’s what Bank Holidays are for.

Mind you, there was one thing that I wish that I had done, and that was to go out for my medication. You’ll remember me saying that the chemists were closed on Monday. They (or at least some of them) planned to be open today and I had intended to be out there to stock up as I’m running low.

Instead, I was crashed out on the bed, under the covers, for a good couple of hours. I remember 15:00 coming round but the next thing that I remembered was that it was 17:12. And that’s not to say that I was out of bed by then either. But regardless, I’d forgotten all about the chemists and that was that.

Tea was the rest of yesterday’s meal, including the half of Christmas pudding that I didn’t eat.

Later on, I went for a good walk around the town again.

Not with any purpose in mind, but simply to see what was going on, and to admire the Christmas lights that were illuminating the Town Hall, or Stadhuis of Leuven.

We’ve seen them before … “and on many occasions too” – ed … but they are still impressive.

And the temperature has dropped outside too this evening.

It was cold enough yesterday but it’s freezing now. Gloves and hat and everything.

But nevertheless I still stopped off to take a photo of the Universum tavern on the corner of the Herbert Hooverplein and the Tiensestraat. That was looking quite impressive in the dark too.

Back in the apartment I started to pack ready to leave. And I seem to be taking home with me more than I came with. It’s going to be a crush to make it fit into my luggage.

And I didn’t eat one of the packs of frozen veg either. I’m going to have to work out how I can get that home too.

But not right now. I have an early start so I’m going for an early night.

night monseigneur ladeuzeplein leuven louvain belgium

night town hall stadhuis christmas lights leuven louvain belgium

night eikstraat town hall stadhuis leuven louvain belgium

Tuesday 25th December 2018 – A MERRY CHRISTMAS …

… to all my readers. And I’ll refuse to make any comment about Crewe Bus Station toilets, because regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I make the same remark almost every year.

While you admire a photo of the buildings of the Hogeschoolplein, taken during my evening stroll tonight, let me tell you about my Christmas Day.

Or, rather, starting off with yesterday night’s affairs.

t wasn’t that much of an early night – being in bed at something like 01:00. But I had no intention whatsoever of leaving my bed when I awoke at 04:30. Nor at 07:00 either.

While you admire the Town Hall, or Stadhuis, last night I was on a crowded railway station waiting for a train called the something-or-other express. At the time it was due to arrive, a train pulled in, but this was called by a different name, so I didn’t go for it. And neither did a few other people. Our train didn’t appear so after a while I went to find someone to ask about it. They told me that the train that I had mentioned – that was our train but it was now known by a different name. Eventually I tracked down one of the station supervisors and told him of what had happened. There was a similar train due in in three hours time so I asked him to make sure that the other name of the train would be called too so that there would be no confusion. He replied that he couldn’t arrange for an unexpected train to stop in the station regardless of the circumstances – and was then called away to attend to someone else. I eventually caught up with him and explained that he had misunderstood the situation. The train wasn’t unexpected at all – it was simply a question of the name. Anyway, the train did stop, the name was called and we all climbed aboard. It was a double-decker so I went upstairs, and we set off. By now our train had transformed into a bus coming from Southwest London near where I lived once upon a time in Wandsworth. We went around a square something like Trafalgar Square and the bus was swaying dramatically about and everyone was gasping. It turned out that there had been a heavy snowfall, the ploughs had shifted the snow into banks at the side of the road and our bus was driving up and down over these snowbanks.

09:00 was a much more realistic time to come to my senses (such as they are these days) and from then on the rest of the day was spent in gentle leisure. I didn’t do anything.

Lunch was nibbling on bits and pieces here and there, and straight after lunch I started to make tea.

I fried some onions and garlic, added the tempeh cubes that I had bought, and when they were fried, put them in some water with a stock cube and some frozen veg. They were then left to simmer for an hour.

I had a shower too and washed my clothes to date. I need to keep up-to-date with my clothes.

Following that, in accordance with usual procedures just recently, I ended up having a crash out on the bed.

Later on, the lazy day continued, with a pause for tea (and there’s plenty left for tomorrow) followed by half of the Christmas pudding in a creamy soya sauce.

Round about 22:30 I went for an evening walk into town.

To admire the Christmas lights, see if there was anything going on and to stretch my legs. There were a few more people around than yesterday but still not the crowds that you might expect.

By midnight I was back here loitering around again and by 01:00 I was in bed. One of the quietest Christmas Days that I’ve had.

But I don’t care. It does me good to relax every now and again.

night town hall stadhuis christmas lights grote markt leuven louvain belgium

night christmas lights bondgenotenlaan leuven louvain belgium

night monseigneur ladeuzeplein library leuven louvain belgium

night town hall stadhuis christmas lights leuven louvain belgium

night christmas lights mechelsestraat leuven louvain belgium

night hogeschoolplein leuven louvain belgium

night quo vadis muntstraat leuven louvain belgium

Monday 24th December 2018 – WHAT A DAY …

… to have a hospital appointment.

But despite being in bed rather late last night I’d had a good sleep. I’d even been on a little ramble. Somewhere and I don’t remember where, and there was a black policeman, a big guy, going to move on an old, wiry vagrant from somewhere or other. The policeman pushed him and the old guy grabbed hold of the policeman’s arm, twisted it and pulled it up and you could hear the break from where I was standing. This policeman’s arm was in a dreadful, really unusual position and it quite put me off my supper. I felt that I ought to go over and help the policeman, but seeing as how well, how quickly and how efficiently the old guy had dealt with the policeman, I’d just end up as another casualty without accomplishing anything at all. The old guy suddenly announced “there can’t be many people in that police station. Why don’t I go and sort them all out? It won’t take me long”. So off he went but I ran there first to warn them about what was heading their way.
Despite the alarm going off, I wasn’t in too much of a hurry to leave my stinking pit. There was just enough time for my medication and breakfast and a quick wash before I scrambled off up town. At least the horrendous rain frm yesterday had stopped.

I was at the hospital in plenty of time and at first I thought that I had mistaken the day. There wasn’t anyone about at all. But they were expecting me and when I was registered in, I was sent down to the treatment room. Just one other person in there.

Much of the morning I spent asleep. It’s been a hectic few days as you know, without too much sleep so it was odds-on that I would need to catch up one way or another. And it’s not as if I have much else to do while I’m here.

The bad news is that this last four weeks I’ve put on another kilo of weight, despite all of the walking around that I have done just recently. And even worse, the blood count is down. From 9.8 to 9.6.

It’s not the end of the world of course but it could be so much better and I wish that it was.

Eventually I was thrown out, and I went to check my appointments. 21st january, 18th February and 18th March. At least they are letting me know well in advance which means that I can do some kind of long-term planning. But wouldn’t it be nice if it were once every three months instead?

Time for a coffee but despite the notice in the café that closing time on Festdagen was 19:00, they were closing up the shutters. I expressed my surprise, but the lady replied that “we are closing at 16:00 today”.
“But it’s not 16:00 – it’s only 15;50”
“Well, we’re closed anyway”

As I have said before … “and you’ll say again” – ed … I’m fed up of people who are too bone-idle to earn an honest living.

Even worse, all of the chemists were closed. That’s no good to me, because I need my medication and I won’t be able to collect it tomorrow either.

Back here, it was coffee and mince pie time, and then I had a few things to do. Not that I was in any rush because I’m now officially on holiday.

Tea was a vegan lentil-burger with potatoes and frozen veg, followed by pineapple and ice-cream. I’m looking after myself as far as food goes, anyway.

Later, I had a little rest for an hour or two, and round about 23:30 I went off out again for a stroll around the streets.

Much to my surprise there was no-one around. Well – maybe notquite no-one but the streets were pretty deserted. I took a few photos of the Christmas lights all around the Tiensestraat, as well as the photo of a foreign tourist who asked me if I would take one of her posing against the lights of the Stadhuis.

By 01;00 I was back here and five minutes later I was tucked up in bed. It might be Tuesday tomorrow but it’s also Bank Holiday of course. So no alarm tomorrow and about time too.

night christmas lights tiensestraat leuven louvain belgium

jingle balls at Balls and Glory tiensestraat leuven louvain belgium

You can write your own caption for this

Sunday 23rd December 2018 – SO THAT’S ANOTHER .

… thing crossed off my list of things to do.

Back in the early 1970s when I first started coming over to Oostende, I was always puzzled by the train that was waiting at the station for the passengers. Its destination was always Welkenraedt and I didn’t have a clue where Welkenraedt was.

A little later I had a look for where Welkenraedt might be. It’s a small town nestled in the Ardennes miles from anywhere.

That puzzled me even more as to why the boat trains from Oostende would be going there.
I eventually found the reason. It’s a junction station where lines from Spa and from Eupen come in.

But more importantly, it’s the last station of any importance before the German border. The electricity current in Germany used to be different to that in Belgium, so that was where the Belgian engine came off, and then a German locomotive would be attached to take the train on into Europe.

Alison and I went to Welkenraedt on one of our excursions out back in July to see what was going on. But it was always my ambition, strange though it might seem, to change trains there.

So here I am, on a windswept, soaking wet freezing platform huddled under a tiny shelter at Welkenraedt in the middle of winter waiting for a train to come in.

And no coffee for miles around either

Despite it being Sunday I’d left the alarm connected and at 06:00 it duly rang. No breakfast, no medication, just packing my backpack and then out into the dark, stopping off on the way to take a few photos of around the station area because I had plenty of time..

At 07:24 the train to Eupen came into the station and I leapt aboard. And at Welkenraedt I hopped out. These days the trains don’t go on into Europe but go round to Eupen.

We had to wait for a diesel multiple-unit to come rattling in from Spa.

We didn’t have long to wait until this filthy, dirty disreputable ancient thing came staggering into the station.

Old, covered in grafitti and all kinds of things, and the train was even worse. I’d be ashamed to be seen in something like this, and the idea that the SNCB would be content to send such a machine into a foreign country where it could be compared with the pristine stuff on offer over there is an absurdity to say the least.

But here it was and here I was. So I climbed aboard and rattled off into Germany.

Here I am finally in Germany, in Aachen in fact, at the Hauptbahnhof.

I have to change trains here, and there’s a wait of about 20 minutes for my connection, so there is plenty of time for breakfast.

German bread is probably the best in the world and so a couple of bread rolls of different varieties and a coffee were just what the doctor ordered.

My next train was already in the station. A newish double-decker that put the SNCB offering to shame. This rolled off out of the station, 10 seconds late, and an hour later, I was in Koln.

That was where I took this photograph, by the way.

Interestingly, the announcements on the train were in German followed by English. I imagined what might be the response from the xenophobic racist Brexiters if this kind of cosmopolitanism were ever to happen in the UK.

It’s years since I’ve been to Koln. About 2007 if my memory serves me correctly.

Looking for something to do to pass the time, I’d been idly scanning through the SNCB website and I found that a voyage by train from Leuven to Köln and return would cost me a mere €68:00 – that’s a four-hundred kilometre round trip.

With nothing much happening in Belgium, I decided to come for a day out.

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the city, visiting all of the places that I had visited on my previous trips. But at midday I had to return to the cathedral.

When I was chair of the North European Regional Forum of Open University students, one of the committee members lived here in Koln. And by coincidence she was a big friend of my old friend Liz. Hence the regular visits to Koln. Jackie and I hadn’t seen each other since those days, but she had heard that I was coming to Koln and we were going to meet for lunch.

It was at that moment that the heavens opened. As I picked my way through the crowds I was becoming wetter and wetter, and so I was glad to meet Jackie and go for a coffee.

When the rain eased off a little we headed off into the town and an Italian restaurant. It was a strange place for an Italian restaurant. They wouldn’t do me a plate of vegetables with pasta and tomato sauce. I got the pasta and the tomato sauce, but they couldn’t do the vegetables. That can only mean one thing, as I’m sure that the more astute readers will realise.

By now the rain was coming down even worse, but we headed off regardless. Down the main shopping street and through a couple of the Christmas markets, looking at the products on sale.

We ended up at a hot drinks stall. Jackie had a gluhwein and I had a hot cocktail. The mugs were beautiful so we forewent the deposit and I took them away in my backpack.

Jackie’s partner came down to meet us. They were off to a carol concert at the end of the afternoon so I said goodbye

Now on my own, I retraced my steps back through the markets and down to the River Rhine, thinking that I could have done with a good Rhinecoat.

I walked up along the side of the river and then up the steps to the Hohenzollern Bridge – the huge railway bridge with a pedestrian footpath that straddles the river.

It was a dismal dreary walk in the dark and the rain but even so, it’s good to stand there in mid-stream and watch the fleets of barges and cruise ships passing by underneath.

Eventually I found myself back at the railway station. And to my dismay, the rear of the station has all been cleared up and modernised and the excellent fritkot that I remembered from the past has been swept away.

Nevertheless I did manage to fit myself up with some food. Back inside the station, I found a Thai restaurant in the subterranean shopping gallery that had a range of vegetarian and vegan food.

I had a stir-fry tofu with rice and it was really good.

My train was a few minutes early and already in the platform. To my surprise it was pulled by the same locomotive that had brought me out.

I hopped aboard and grabbed myself a comfortable seat. And here I had an interesting encounter with a German ticket-collector. It had been so wet that the damp atmosphere had caused the ink on my rail ticket to run and he couldn’t read it.

In the end, reason prevailed.

Another wait at Aachen for an even more disreputable Belgian multiple-unit. And which, surprisingly (or maybe not) it was likewise the same one that had brought me out.

There was graffiti all over the inside of the train and rubbish strewn all over the floor. Not a very good advert for the SNCB, sending atrain like this across the border into foreign parts.

And then another wait on the cold and wet at Welkenraedt for my train back to Leuven.

So now, I’m back home, looking and feeling like one more haggard, drowned rat, although I had no idea where I would find one more haggard drowned rat at this time of night.

And straight off to bed because I have the hospital in the morning and I need to be on form.

On my travels today, I took well over 100 photos. Some are in the text and some more below.

But if you want to see the rest, I’ve prepared a web page where you can see them in all their sodding and dripping glory, such as it was.

christmas lights tiensevest leuven louvain belgium

martelarenplein leuven louvain belgium

railway station war memorial martelarenplein leuven louvain belgium

war memorial railway station martelarenplein leuven louvain belgium

war memorial martelarenplein leuven louvain belgium

railway station martelarenplein leuven louvain belgium

train station leuven louvain belgium

hauptbahnhof aachen germany

automotrice sncb 644 653 hauptbahnhof aachen germany

Saturday 22nd December 2018 – IT’S ALL VERY WELL …

… going to bed really early at something like 21:00 or whenever it was, but it counts for nothing at all if you are wide-awake again at about 23:20.

After that, it took me an absolute age to go back to sleep. And when I finally did manage to drop off, I wasn’t out for long. By 04:30 I was awake again and by 05:00 I was up and about.

None of the aforementioned stopped me going for a little nocturnal ramble though. And wherever I was during the night, I was somewhere that bore a resemblance to the north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence. And I don’t remember what vehicle I was in either. But there I was in some kind of small town with some kind of rural business park out there but with buildings so well hidden that they would take some tracking down. There was an ice-cream parlour there somewhere and I was on my way. I had to negotiate a few barriers and ended up in a field that was being used as a car park, but then I couldn’t even see the sign for the ice-cream place, never mind find the buildings. And so I found myself back on the road, heading to the end where there was a huge car ferry that would press onwards. The road to the ferry terminal turned a sharp left right by a series of small lakes and ponds. By now I was accompanied by a young girl who was going to an interview. This was taking place at a modern building near the turning. When we arrived there we met someone who was going to take us thereand we noticed a couple wading across the pond to meet us. I remarked that I wouldn’t like to do that in winter, to which the guy replied that in winter they walked on the ice. Even so, just before the ice formed it would still be far too cold for me. This girl went off with these two people and I was obliged to wait for her. I was shown around the ground floor of this building and while this was happening I saw my ferry steaming… “dieseling” – ed … out of the harbour down the road. Something had to be taken to the theatre, which was upstairs, so I volunteered.This place was much bigger than the ground floor, quite modern, clean and tidy. The bar was in a strange place, down at the end, and there was a woman there. She thanked me for what I had brought and invited me to watch the next production. I explained that by then, I would probably be a very long way away from here.

First thing that I did after I joined the Land of the Living (and believe me, this was at a moment not exactly adjacent to 05:00) was to have a shower. There were clothes ti wash, of course, but I wasn’t up to dealing with those right now. They can wait until the next time.

Second thing that needed doing was to write up my notes for yesterday. Going to bed at 21:00 meant that I hadn’t even thought about that last night. What with an interruption for coffee and a couple of others too for various purposes (including a little relax), it took me quite a while to deal with it.

By now it was 10:00 and I have things to do, so I hit the streets.

It wasn’t very cold at all outside – rather disappointing in fact, because I was hoping for some kind of Arctic weather for Christmas.

And so instead I went for a wander for a good view of the Pope Leo XIII Seminary, nicely framed by the new student accommodation blocks off the Tiensestraat.

And the Christmas Market wasn’t open either. They were still setting it up. Instead, I went to FNAC but there was nothing there that caught my eye.

Moving on, I went on to the Delhaize to buy what I couldn’t carry home yesterday.

My route took me through the Grote Markt where I walked past all of the strange Christmas cabins that they have erected here. They certainly go to town when they tart up the place.

Delhaize came up with what I need, and I now have almost everything that I need, especially as on the market outside was a stall selling Brussels sprouts.

No Christmas meal of any description is complete without Brussels Sprouts.

And so with nothing else to do and nothing else going on, I headed home for lunch.

But not before I took a little diversion onto a car park in the Windmolenstraat to admire a vehicle parked in one of the spaces. I shall leave Strawberry Moose to sum up the situation perfectly.

By the time that I returned it was almost midday so I had a mince pie with my coffee. That’s the official declaration that the Festive season has arrived. Although I don’t really feel festive at all, with a hospital appointment on Christmas Eve.

And being away from home doesn’t help. I do like Leuven, make no mistake, and if I had to be anywhere away from home them Leuven would receive my vote any time. But all the same, it’s not my home.

After lunch, I headed back out again.

This time, the Christmas market was open and I had a good stroll around. But there was nothing that interested me. In fact, it didn’t seem to be anything like as good as last year’s when there was an ice rink and all of that.

First stop was to Kruidvat for some of their gluten-free and gelatine-free sweets. And that place was heaving

Next stop was the Sports Shop. I went in for a look around and saw that they had the trousers that I like on special offer again. As one of my pairs was torn and I seemto have left another behind in Canada, I bought two pairs.

But here’s a shock! Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I went to Africa earlier this year. And I had it in my mind to go to the Travel Agent’s – just across the road – to see if there was anything else coming up in the near future that would be exciting.

But SHOCK! HORROR! It’s closed down! That’s no good to me at all and it’s very disappointing.

Another thing that was very disappointing was that the supply of vegan food in the Loving Hut has dwindled almost to nothing. None of my favourite cheese, none of the spray-on vegan cream. Stocks have been running down in there for quite a while and it doesn’t look as if there’s much more to go.

Instead I wandered off to the Bio shop – the Origin’O – across town in the Vismarkt and they did the business. Well, sort-of. They had pouring cream, not spray-on, but they did have some decent cheese and also a slice of vegan walnut-cake. That’ll do me for Christmas Day.

On the way back, walking up the Muntstraat, I came across a restaurant that I hadn’t noticed before. It was advertising vegetarian and allergy-free meals so I stuck my head in to enqure about vegan and gluten-free. And much to my delight, they could indeed cater for us. So I’ll invite Alison there next time I see her.

Back in my little room, and another mince pie, with vegan cream this time. What they call “pushing the boat out”.

Another little relax, and then 18:15 saw me back on the road again.

Idly scanning through Livescore, I noticed that there was a Belgian Premier League match on in St Truiden this eveninf. STVV v KV Kortrijk. I’d seen STVV play in Oostende earlier this year but I’d never been to St Truiden. It’s only three stops down the line from Leuven and the kick-off time corresponded nicely with the trains.

So there I was, at 18:44 leaping aboard the train to Genk.

At 19:15 I was leaping off it in St truiden and decanted myself into the fritkot right outside the station. Being in Belgium, fritjes are always on the menu and eating them while walking down the road to a football match is always a good plan and typically Belgian.

It really WAS a good plan too, because these were some of the most delicious fritjes that I have ever eaten. And they were quite generous too. It took me all the way to Het Staaien to eat them.

But as for the football though … What can I say?

I’ve seen some rubbish in my time but I would have to search deep and long into my memory to see anything quite like this. Apart from the fact that both teams were too slow to move the ball about and wasted numerous chances by taking one touch too many – something that seems to be a modern trait – the quality was dire.

I don’t know what was up with the STVV keeper but he couldn’t kick to save his life and his antics, especially in the first 10 minutes but here and there throughout the match – as he received back-passes from his team was like watching in slow motion an accident waiting to happen.

Both sets of attackers must have suffered from vertigo or have had lead weights in their boots because I only counted two high balls into the penalty area in the whole match. So clueless were they that from one short corner, the player taking the kick somehow managed to kick it out for a throw-in.

We had dozens of misplaced passes, dozens of players falling over the ball and, even worse, dozens of shots from excellent positions blazed hopelessly over the bar.

STVV were roundly booed off the field at the end of the game (and no surprise either) and had there been more than 100 or so fans from Kortrijk, their team would have been booed off the pitch too. 0-0 was how it finished and you aren’t ever going to win a match playing like these two teams did this evening.

I had to wait for a while for the train back – the last train from Genk as it happened. And it was a little rowdy too with a few Kortrijk supporters who had clearly been just a little too close to the barmaid’s apron.

It was quite late by the time I arrived back, so I wasn’t going to hang around. I had some pineapple and ice cream for pudding and then I went to bed. Although it’s a Sunday there’s an alarm set for 06:00. i’m off out early and I’ll be gone all day.

load of boels schepenenstraat leuven louvain belgium