Friday 27th January 2017 – THAT WAS A …

… game of two halves and no mistake.

38 minutes gone and OH Leuven 0-3 down. And lucky to get nil too, I can say. It was embarrassing.

Mind you, the first goal was an absolute stunner and well-worth the price of the admission on its own. A quick ball into the penalty area (and how I’ve been going on and on about getting these balls in quicker) behind the front two attackers, but a superb overhead kick from the centre-forward put it into the top corner. It’s just not possible to defend against a goal like that.

The second goal was a breakaway up the field from an OH Leuven attack. Three Lierse SK attackers against two OH Leuven defenders, and the keeper dived at the feet of the overlapping attacker to block a shot not once but twice, but nothing that he could do about the third shot.

The third goal was silly. Everyone, including the goalkeeper, standing around watching the ball 15 yards out. The hoots of derision from the OH Leuven fan behind the goal as that went into the net could have been heard back in Lier.

We had a couple of substitutions at half-time, and quite rightly so if you ask me. On came a left-winger called Loemba and the enigmatic centre-forward Casagolda. But the second-half started as it ended – with all of the action up towards the OH Leuven goal, where we had a new keeper.

But as the match wore on, it became obvious that the wind was slowly starting to change. Loemba was having a superb game and Casagolda was playing like he sometimes does. And this seemed to breathe some life into the big Macedonian striker Kostovski and it looked as if we might have a game on our hands.

And sure enough, after about 60 minutes, we had a goal. And it was OH Leuven. Good play down the wing, an early ball right across the face of the goal and there running in at the far post was Loemba. A few minutes later, Van Hamel in the Lierse SK goal had to palm a fierce shot around the post.

With OH Leuven pressing, it was Lierse SK’s turn to break up the field and they did manage to put the ball into the net for a fourth. But after much debate, discussion and deliberation, and a lengthy consultation with the linesman, the goal was disallowed for offside.

Back up at the Lierse SK end, we had a goal from OH Leuven. Kostovski battled and barged his way into the goal area to sidefoot in, but that was ruled out for offside too – much to the uproar in the crowd. In fact there were several bizarre decisions in this match, none of which seemed to go OH Leuven’s way.

But deep into injury time, with OH Leuven pressing and pressing, we had an incident in the Lierse Sk penalty area where a defender fell on the ball. Did he fall? Was he pushed? Did his arm touch the ball? Was it intentional?

The referee decided on a penalty and Casagolda scored. And there was hardly time to restart the match before the final whistle blew. It’s a shame that OH Leuven hadn’t played for the whole match like they had played the final 30 minutes of this game.

But it’s a shame that I’d had such a bad night. Ages and ages to drop off to sleep again, and then I was off on my travels. Working in an office and I’d reached retirement age, but instead of leaving work, they gave me a new job, cutting the hedges, checking the trailers, all of that kind of thing. But I’d done nothing and it had all caught me up all at once with the hedge sprouting and budding and all of that, and I was starting to look rather silly.

I had my two German ladies with me for breakfast, and later on they said goodbye to me. Are they leaving? I dunno.

The morning was spent having a doze and doing some more research, reading my Finnish expedition notes and chatting on the internet. I had lunch and then carried on with my snooze and my reading.

At About 19:30 I headed off down to the footy, calling at the fritkot on the way. It’s Friday, not Saturday of course, and so the fritkot on the square down at the back here is open this evening.

However, it was a big mistake to be wearing my yellow and black clothes. Lierse SK play in yellow and black and as I made my way into the “home” end of the ground I was asked three times by OH Leuven officials if I was a Lierse SK supporter.

We had a minute’s silence too before the kick-off. I’m not quite sure why, but there we are anyway. And then the match kicked off.

I told you all about what happened earlier so I shan’t repeat it. But at least the crowd here is very friendly and that is always nice. It does me good to get out and about, and you are all always saying that I ought to get out more often.

On the way back here, I stopped off at Caliburn to pick up some soya milk and soft drinks, and now I’m having a late night.

I hope that I’ll sleep well too.

Thursday 26th January 2017- I’VE SPENT MOST …

… of the day asleep today, which is a shame. The exertions of the last couple of days have been far too much for me apparently. And when you consider how far I’ve walked since the weekend, it’s hardly any surprise, is it?

It took me ages to go off to sleep last night but once I’d gone, I’d gone. It was a really hard struggle to force my way out of bed and upstairs for breakfast, and I wasn’t the first either. There are a couple of German women staying here apparently, and they were first in. That meant that I had to make do with the cheap plastic bowls for my cereal and my muesli and soya milk don’t take so good out of those.

I managed to struggle out for my baguette at lunchtime and for tea I made a mega-meal of kidney beans, mushrooms, onions, vegetables garlic and tomato sauce. And I had company too while I was cooking – the two German ladies were there too, although they didn’t have anything to say.

And apart from that, what a miserable day. Most of it fast asleep or otherwise drifting in and out of it all. I’m not having a very good time right now but it’s one of the things that I have to accet, because it’s not going to get much better than this.

Wednesday 25th January 2017 – PARKING …

… is a relentless subject on this blog – especially now that I’m in Belgium where the standard of parking, never mind driving, is totally abysmal.

And so here we are again – a small crowd of people and a police van with its blue lights flashing.

Of the men down there, a couple of them belong to that yellow van parked down there. They want to move off about their business but they can’t because the dark blue Volkswagen is blocking them in.

The police were called and eventually turned up, but they had no luck in resolving the issue.

But it managed to resolve itself because the two cars double-parked, one of which is the silver BMW, belong to the employees of a shop here. The driver of the BMW came down from the shop, backed his car out, the van could then manoeuvre itself out of the mess (and it took quite a while because it really was tight) and then the BMW driver put his car back.

But it’s really miserable, this Belgium parking. You ain’t seen nuffink like it.

I had a reasonable sleep last night. It took me ages to drop off thoroughly, but once I’d gone, I was gone until the workmen started to move about. I’d been on my travels too but once more, it all evaporated just as soon as I awoke and I don’t remember a thing.

There were bread and juice issues yet again this morning, but for some reason I wasn’t all that hungry and ended up pouring half of my breakfast away.

And then Hans came round to say goodbye. He’s hitting the road back to the UK for a fortnight or so.

He brought his travelling companion Selfie Ted around with him to say goodbye to Strawberry Moose, and then we went out for a coffee, a walk and another chat.

There’s so much to say when you have known someone for more than half a century. Almost 51 years since our first day at Nantwich Grammar School.

After lunch I crashed out for quite a while. I’m definitely feeling the strain and I’ve had a really busy few days just now. I can’t last the pace these days.

I was told on Monday that today would be the day that they would do my room. And so I’d done a little cleaning around but you know just as well as I do what was likely to happen. That’s right – no-one turned up. No big surprise, that, is it?

But I did manage a lengthy chat with Liz on the internet, and then I went for tea. Croquettes, vegan sausages and baked beans followed by pineapple rings and citron sorbet. It was all really delicious.

So let’s try for another early night again. I need as many as I can get and one day I’ll be able to fall straight asleep and not awaken until the alarm goes off.

But I’m not too optimistic about that.

Tuesday 24th January 2017 – I’VE HAD ANOTHER …

… day where I nip out for half an hour and don’t come back until late in the evening.

Rather reminiscent in fact of when I was 18 and living at home and had a couple of friends come round on Friday evening. “I’m just nipping out for half an hour” I said to my parents, and came back on Sunday night. I remember it well.

I awoke early this morning, what with the unfortunate 06:30 cacophony from my Eastern European housemates. And I’d been on my travels during the night too. Of course, it all evaporated straight away as soon as I awoke, although I do remember that it did feature a girl who at one time featured three or four times over a period of a couple of weeks. I wish that I could remember what it was all about though.

After breakfast, I sat and watched the snowstorm for a while. It was quite heavy and sticking too, starting to look quite interesting. But unfortunately it all started to melt after a while and the weather cleared up.

Next task was to tidy my room a little, and then at about 11:00 I set off up town. Right the way across town in fact to the ring road by the local nick to meet my friend Hans who was coming up from Munich. He’s passing through on his way to the UK for a week or two, and old age is catching up with him too. He’d drive up from Munich to Zeebrugge all in one go but now he feels that he needs to break his journey. He’s staying in Leuven tonight at the flat-hotel place.

We met up and went for lunch – and then for a coffee – and then to a bar where Hans tried a local beer or four, and then back to the Indian place where I had been the other day. We had a good chat about old times – after all, we’ve been friends for over 50 years.

A walk through the cold evening saw me escort him back to his room so that he wouldn’t miss his way. His place is a tiny little studio that he has rented for the night and I’m quite envious. Ages ago, I’d enquired about a studio at this place but they wouldn’t give me a discount for a long stay so I’d ruled it out. Quite right too in my opinion – I couldn’t afford it – but its basic price is the same as here and had I been able to negotiate it down to a price similar to what I have here, it would have been absolutely perfect.

Ahhh well.

So now I’m back here. Late again. I’ll try to have a good sleep, to see where that takes me. And tomorrow we are going for a coffee before Hans hits the road again.

Monday 23rd January 2017 – I PAID …

… for my exciting weekend today, as you might expect. Struggled to finish my lunch before I crashed out, and then was gone until about 16:30. Completely too, and it was a struggle to come round again.

Last night didn’t help much though. I struggled to go to sleep – it took ages to drop off but at least I had a deep undisturbed sleep – until 06:30 when my Eastern European housemates awoke. They are reasonably quiet in their behaviour so I can’t complain too much, but 06:30 is rather early to start running around and showering and all of that.

They remembered to bring breakfast around so at least we had fresh bread today. But they had forgotten to empty the waste bin for a couple of days running now so that’s overflowing now.

After breakfast, I had a slow steady morning and then went for a walk. I need some shopping so I decided to walk right down to the Carrefour by the football ground. And I’m glad that I did too because they were selling 1-litre tubs of vegan citron sorbet for just €2:00, as well as large tins of pineapple slices for €0:59. That means that my puddings for the next few days will be extremely interesting.

Of course, this afternoon passed by without much of a whimper and I was talking to my little-niece Hannah on the internet. She’s come to Madrid for 6 months under a University exchange scheme and that will do her good. I’m all in favour of young people broadening their horizons as much as they possibly can.

Tonight I had my pizza and garlic bread for tea, and now I’m having an early night for I’m having visitors tomorrow.

I’ve had more visits here than I ever had living back in the Auvergne haven’t I? At least there’s some benefit to living here, isn’t there?

Sunday 22nd January 2017 – WHAT A SURPRISE!

Indeed! And I’d only nipped out for half an hour too!

Last night was another awful night and once more I’m not sure why. I should have fallen asleep like a baby but it wasn’t at all like that. I kept on falling asleep and waking up right the way through.

However I had managed to go off on my travels too. I had to go for a drink with someone and I’d made an appointment to meet him in a bar. But I couldn’t really remember what he looked like. And then I remembered that I had an appointment with someone else – at the same bar half an hour earlier. And the person I was seeing first was waiting outside so he went in to buy me half a pint of beer and as I walked in I saw someone who resembled the person I was to meet second, but I wasn’t sure. But anyway I smiled at him and said hello, then went to look for the person I was to meet first. But before I could meet up with him I met a third person, a young girl whom I had been hoping to see for a while. She was there too, and we started to chat. And not only that, there was this tiny girl with black curly hair who was extremely attractive and I wouldn’t have minded meeting her on another occasion. But eventually I could disentangle myself from all of these other engagements and go to meet the guy – it was indeed him and he had saved a space for me on a seat, but sitting on it was the girl with black curly hair. He asked if I didn’t mind and so I replied that it didn’t bother me. If she didn’t budge up, she could sit on my knee.

It seems that they had forgotten us for breakfast. Stale bread from yesterday, no orange juice – it was that that greeted me this morning and that dismayed me. But I suppose that it happens. Back down here I had a shower and a shave and a change of clothes, and then attacked yesterday’s blog. You may remember that I crashed out yesterday as soon as I returned home, before I have even had time to start it. 2362 words later (I had had a busy day, remember!) it was finished, and it was lunchtime too.

I’d had a good chat on the internet with “The One That Got Away” – that was pleasant too.

And then I went out for half an hour. There’s a guy who used to live here and he’s asked me about doing a furniture job with Caliburn, and should we go for a coffee?

Sounded like a good plan for me, and so we did. That was at 14:00 and I finally made it back at about 20:30. We’d had a few coffees and so on, a really good chat, and then it turned out that he was a big fan of Indian food and knew where there was a good Indian restaurant.

Of course, I’m always game for an Indian and finding anywhere half-decent in mainland Europe is extremely difficult. Consequently, off we went and there we were. And I’ve tasted much worse Indian meals than this.

That’s why I’ve only just returned, from my half-hour coffee break.

As you know, I’m not very sociable, so going out like this is a strange thing. but anyway, there I was, and here I am now, back home

I’ve had an excellent, busy weekend and quite right too. High time I did things like this and after all, everyone is always telling me that I ought to get out more often.

Saturday 2Ist January 2017 – PHEW!

I’m exhausted!

I’ve just seen the most exciting football match that I’ve seen for years!

So after yesterday, I had something of a disturbed night. But that’s really no surprise what with everything else that had been going around here just recently.

And it was disturbed for a variety of reasons, not the least being that I was off on my travels again. And for quite a while too.

I started off in Labrador but I don’t remember very much about what I was doing there.
But I do remember being back at my house in France and there was a huge queue of 4×4 quads passing up the track in front of my house making a great deal of noise. But a large tractor went out of control, demolished the stone wall at the back of my house and went bang into my wooden verandah. I went out to see what happened and to chat with the tractor driver who was sitting on a big old red tractor of the 1920s. The verandah was shaken but didn’t seem to be damaged, but the wall was in a state and it occurred to me that this damage made a convenient exit for me to go out there and load up the Escort van which I was still using. So while I wanted him to repair the wall, I didn’t want him to do it quite then.
From there I was back in the UK on the road between Whitchurch and Oswestry. I’d driven past some kind of tall cylindrical brick building like a water tower, followed by a huge brick blockhouse kind of place in a rhomboid shape flanked by two outer towers – used as a big ammunition store. It was set in a very dirty and untidy pig farm, which would prevent visits, that’s for sure. Just after this was a kind of bluff about 30 feet high with a house on the peak, and here I met Nerina. We had quite a lengthy discussion, which revolved around shopping. I asked her if she went to the market at Whitchurch or the market at Oswestry. She replied that the Whitchurch market had closed down and she went occasionally to Stoke on Trent on a Friday evening for her shopping. We ended up going for a walk around Oswestry to the shops and I was telling her about France – how LIDL had opened a branch in St Eloy and how it didn’t matter because at St Gervais (which was actually Commentry, but never mind) they had opened not just a LIDL but an ALDI so we still weren’t shopping in St Eloy, although not that that would matter too much to her because she had never been there anyway – I was confusing her last night with Laurence.

I struggled into breakfast where I had company for about 30 seconds – another lodger stuck his head around the door just long enough to gulp down a glass of orange juice – and then I came back down here to chill.

As the day brightened up, I decided to go for a walk to the shops. But this involved going down to Caliburn to pick up the shopping bags that I had left there by mistake the other day.

I could have gone on down to the Carrefour had I thought on, but instead I walked back towards the town in the freezing cold weather and headed towards the market and the Delhaize supermarket

Instead of going straight on down the Kapucijnenvoer and up the Brusselsestraat, I took the short cut through the maze of narrow streets, cutting off the corner.

There is a great deal of “Old Leuven” that either escaped the ravages of the German Army in 1914 and 1940, Allied bombing in 1944 and the extremes of modern architecture that did more damage to British cities than the Luftwaffe ever did.

As well as that, when the city was rebuilt after all of the damage, it was rebuilt in many cases as it used to be, not as modern architects thought that it ought to be.

Loads of little alleys, loads of little archways that really bring out the medieval flavour of the city. You can imagine just how this city must have been 120 years ago – how wonderful it must have looked.

It’s certainly a much more interesting way to come into the city centre than straight up the Brusselsestraat.

That’s the Brusselsestraat there – down the end of the Predikherenstraat there. And unfortunately, that’s not managed to escape the ravages of modern architects.

Luckily, when the architects and rebuilders turned to the Predikherenkerk, we had something that resembled very much what it was supposed to have been.

This is said to be the oldest Gothic church in the city and dates from 1234. It was originally the church of the Dominican order and the resting place of some of the Dukes of Brabant.

It was badly damaged during World War II, and restoration began in 1961. it wasn’t finally completed until 2008

My trek then took me down along the Oudlievevrouwstraat and over the bridge across the River Dyle. Unfortunately this area hasn’t escaped the ravages of the second half of the 20th Century and a huge pile of new apartments has sprung up overlooking the river.

I must admit that despite the rather bland appearance of the buildings, I wouldn’t mind a little apartment in a block just there, as long as there was a view of the river to comfort me.

Back here to warm up again, I had a coffee and a sit in front of the radiator for a while. And a brief search on the internet for nothing particular produced some astonishing results.

During the “unavailability” of my grandparents, my mother and her sister were boarded, when they were small, with a family in Palmers Green, London and later in Birchington, Kent during the 1930s. We’d kept in contact with them until they had died in the 1950s and 60s and even been to visit them as small children, although I don’t remember very much. My brother was actually named after one of the “cousins”.

It had come up in a discussion that I’d had the other day, and so in a fit of idleness I typed in the family name of one of these people. Much to my surprise, I found several pages on the internet that related to this family. Not only did this bring back many happy memories, I ended up having an on-line conversation with someone from those days.

The world is a surprisingly small place these days, isn’t it?

Another thing that I did, which I’ve been meaning to do for quite a while, is to go through all of the till receipts in my wallet. Some of them have been there since I was in Canada.

Amongst the things that I found were a couple of receipts for medication, and a €20 note. That cheered me up, and no mistake.

After my butties and a little chat with Liz on line, I walked up into town and to the railway station. I’m not going to sit around here and be miserable when I can be miserable somewhere else, and it’s usually football at weekend isn’t it?

And I remembered why I had packed an oversize pair of the sports trousers that I usually wear. They had been in my Canada stuff and I’d brought them back here for some reason or other.

Before setting out, I slipped them over the normal-sized pair of trousers that I usually wear. They fitted perfectly and I was comparatively warm, considering that it was minus 3°C

Loads of places that I would have wanted to visit, like Eupen playing in the First Division, or even Hasselt in the Third Division, but Belgian football has staggered kick-off times, and the bizarre thing about that is that all of the matches that I would have liked to have seen, even OH Leuven’s match at Royal Antwerp, finished too late for me to catch a train back home again.

It would have to be Lier and Lierse SK with their cheerleaders.

What a shame!

At the railway station at Lier were three locomotives parked up in a siding, so I went over to have a look at them.

The two on the right, 6291 and 6317, are two of a class of 136 lightweight diesel-electrics built to a style of my former employers, General Electric. They date from the early 1960s.

The one on the left, 7798, is one of a class of 170 heavy shunter-freight locomotives built in the early years of the 21st Century by the German company Vossloh.

I was there in plenty of time and so I went for a walk around the site of the old ramparts of the city.

They have long-been demolished and little remains now. Nothing whatever at the site of the Antwerpsepoort – the Antwerp Gate. But it was here on 5th October 1914 that the British Army’s rearguard, guarding the retreat to Antwerp, erected a barricade and held up the attacking Germans long enough. for the rest of the Army to escape

I was expecting much more of a crowd seeing that the visitors today were Cercle Brugge. But the popular side was packed out anyway, and they made a lot of noise that contributed to the tremendous atmosphere.

I was in my usual place to the left of the goal with all of the other old fogeys, where there was a good view of the cheerleaders. I mean, there have to be some compensations about coming all of the way to Lier in the freezing cold.

As the cheerleaders withdrew from the field they stopped for a moment at the foot of one of the stands so I was able to take a quick snap of them.

It’s all blurred and out-of focus but the camera on my phone isn’t really up to all that much in these kinds of half-light conditions when you are snapping away in haste. And of course, you can’t take DSLRs into public venues in Belgium so this photo will have to do.

Liz asked me how the cheerleaders performed – well, I couldn’t tell you that from first-hand experience but you can see some of their dancing in this video clip just here that should give you some idea.

Not the best cheerleaders that I have ever seen but I just appreciate the effort that Lierse SK has taken to entertain the fans. If for some reason I can’t get out to see OH Leuven I’ll gladly come here and spend my money and I’m sure that I’m not alone.

I can still chase after the women, even if I can’t remember why!

As for the football itself, the two teams were evenly matched. As the first half wore on, Lierse gradually grew in confidence and took control, but Cercle Brugge looked dangerous on the break, especially down the right wing. However, as I have said on many occasions at this level of football, the teams are far too slow to play the ball forward, dwelling on it for far too long and finding the brief opportunites closed down.

Half-time was 0-0 but Lierse had hit the post and the bar, and had a couple cleared off the line too. Cercle Brugge had missed a sitter, open goal from 5 yards out, right in front of where I was sitting. A no-score draw it was, but boring it was not.

After half-time, the teams came out with much more of a purpose and the battle raged from end to end. Everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats as the pendulum swung from one side to the other. The slippery, ice surface was a wild-card in the match too, with players losing their footing at vital moments.

And sure enough, we had a goal. And to the surprise of almost everyone except those who follow this rubbish, it was Cercle Brugge who took the lead. For once they played the ball in early from the wing and caught the Lierse SK defence flat-footed.

And if you think that the game had been exciting up to this point, the two teams upped a gear and we were pinned to our seat as the tension mounted. We probably had the best 30 minutes football that I had ever seen from this point on.

Lierse SK equalised with 15 minutes to go, and Cercle Brugge can consider themselves to be quite unlucky to concede this goal. A Lierse SK player went down on the edge of the penalty area, no more than about 15 metres from where I was sitting, and I had a clear view of it. To me, it looked clearly as if the player had slipped on the frosty surface but not only did the referee blow for a foul, he booked the Cercle Brugge defender. I had a good look, and the linesman certainly didn’t flag for a foul and he was closer to the action than I was too.

From the free kick, the ball went straight to the head of a Lierse SK attacker, totally unmarked at the far post, and he didn’t miss from there.

The final 15 minutes continued at this roaring pace and when the final whistle went, the teams received a standing ovation from some of the crowd. And quite right too because it really was that good a match. And it was a shame about the equaliser – it meant that I didn’t get to console any of the cheerleaders.

I came home in the sub-zero temperature and caught my train at Lier. It’s the Liege train that I catch and I have to change at Aarschot. The train is at 16 minutes past the hour and there are only a couple of weekends when the 20:16 train doesn’t run, aren’t there?

By the time that I returned, I was cold and tired. But I’d had a really good day out and I was feeling a little better than I was yesterday.

I’ll pay for this day out of course, but ask me if I care.

And you wouldn’t care either after having to sit here and read over 2360 words, you poor people.

Friday 20th January 2017 – I’VE HAD A …

… really bad day today.

It wasn’t so bad until the afternoon, when I crashed out again somewhat, but when I went, I really went.

Although I struggled up to make a coffee at about 16:30 I still wasn’t in any fit state and it took until about 19:30 for me to properly come round. It was just like the bad old days today – it really was, and I was totally dismayed. Instead of getting better, I’m just getting worse.

I had another disturbed sleep last night, although I did manage to go off on a ramble. I was back in Shavington, at Goodall’s Corner in fact, heading south to Wybunbury on foot, and there was this woman on the far side of the road heading in the same way. At a certain moment I came to a railway bridge (not that there is one along there of course) and stopped to look down at the rails. This woman crossed half-way across towards me and then changed her mind and started to cross back. It was just at this moment that a huge grey Volvo lorry – the bonnet-nose type, came hurtling around the corner and just managed to screech to a halt, with its front bumper right in the small of this woman’s back. It was half an inch away from bowling her over.

Alone again at breakfast, and then I carried on with my reading. Tanner says that the reason for the decline in the Inuit population is that many of the Inuit girls married settler males and produced Métis offspring, which make up a good proportion of the population of the “liveyers” on the Labrador coast. He further states that

the Unuit girls have an extremely sensual nature
they are very keen to marry settlers of European descent
the girls are the hardest-working of all of the Inuit people, and goes on to list all of the household tasks that they are expected to do in the home

So when’s the next flight to Makkovik? I’m packing my bags.

But here’s a thing. Makkovik is an Inuit name for one of their settlements on the North Labrador coast. And it’s on an inlet deep into the interior. Now have a look at the etymology of the stem …vik… It’s a Norse stem for “cove” or “inlet”.

Of course, there are a thousand reasons why an Inuit word should look as if it has some kind of Norse etymology (not the least of which is that the first Moravian missionary there was a Scandinavian) but it’s very tempting to tie up the idea that the Inuit have absorbed some of the early Norse culture, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not the only Inuit place along the Labrador coast and the shore of the Ungava Bay that ends in … vik either.

And so I hope that I shall be feeling much better tomorrow. What with one thing or another, I’m feeling quite depressed right now. But I’ve been here before and I know that there’s a way out and in a few days I’ll be back up again as usual.

I hope.

Thursday 19th January 2017 – I HAD A NICE …

… day out today for a change.

I’d run out of lunch stuff and so I set off to the Carrefour by the football ground for a good shop. On the way down there I stopped off at Caliburn to see how he was doing, but it was a bit of a struggle to start him up with the cold and the fact that he’s not been anywhere for quite a while.

And so I decided to give him a run up and down the road and that in the end led me out to Kessel-Lo. I went to Bio-Planet for a baguette and some vegan cheese, and then to the Carrefour down the road for a big shop. It was 13:40 by the time I came back. But I’d had a good couple of hours out for a change.

last night was another bad night with me not dropping off until late. And then I was awake a couple of times during the night, finally at about 06:45. Alone again for breakfast and then back down here for a while.

There was no heating this morning – that was what made me go out for a good wander. It would have to be the coldest day of the year so far, wouldn’t it? But later tonight it was fixed and that’s better.

I’ve had a crash out as well this afternoon, and read some more about this Finnish expedition to Labrador. They are spending a lot of time talking about the Inuit and their wanderings around Labrador. It seems that the population insofar as it has been recorded has hovered around the 1200-1300 mark. But a rough count around 1921 came out with just 800 or so – this being just after the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918-19 which decimated the population of the Labrador coast and wiped out the villages of Okak and Hebron.

Tonight I finished off my curry and so I have my chips for tomorrow – well, in fact, croquettes. Trying to find oven chips here is next-to-impossible, even in a huge supermarket like the Carrefour. So tomorrow it will be croquettes, beans and sausages and Iam looking forward to that.

Now I’m having an early night if I can. There are quite a few new people here today and I hope that they are quiet.

Wednesday 18th January 2017 – LAST NIGHT …

… was something a bit more like it too.

Although it took me ages to go off to sleep (I was reading Vaino Tanner’s notes on the Finnish expedition to Labrador until something silly in the morning) I ended up soundly asleep until the Eastern European workmen awoke me at 06:30. They were actually quite quiet during the night which was very a pleasant surprise.

On my own at breakfast, I came back down here and … errr … went back under the bedclothes to keep warm (it was minus 5°C outside). The next thing that I remembered was that it was 11:10. I’d slept for 3 hours without any difficulty at all.

Braving the freezing cold I nipped out to the supermarket on the corner for my baguette and an apple – I’ve run out of fruit in here. But making my butties at lunchtime, I was joined by a Far-Eastern woman and another man whom I don’t recall having seen before.

I pressed on with my expedition notes this afternoon in between crashing out somewhat. We’ve hit the anthropological stuff now, and he talks at great length about the Inuit. He’s tentatively identified a new race of Inuit round about the 15th Century that began to push aside the Thule Inuit, but fails to draw the obvious conclusion from his notes

Although now discredited by almost everyone despite the efforts of James Enterline in his book Viking America: The Norse Crossings and Their Legacy, the obvious conclusion has quite a logical ring to it – in that with the Little Ice Age descending on Greenland in the mid-14th Century and the Norse settlers being cut off from Iceland by the dramatic deterioration in weather, the only way for the Norse to escape the weather would be to head west and live off the ocean instead of the land.

Like many Europeans since then – in fact right up until the early 20th century, the quickest way for a new settler to assimilate traditional survival skills in a hostile environment is to take a native spouse who can teach you the necessary skills. Most of the population of Labrador are descendants of mixed unions of European men and Inuit women, and had the Norse assimilated (and there is no reason to suppose that they didn’t – they aren’t likely to have sat around and starved or frozen to death), there would be a completely mixed gene pool within just a couple of generations. And with their better technology and knowledge of iron, they would quickly have overwhelmed the less-developed Thule culture.

And the timescale fits too.

Liz and I had a good chat on the laptop later and then I went for tea. I was on my own for most of the time except for a young family with a baby (so we have this to deal with tonight).

Now I’m off for a shower and a change of clothes, and then I’ll be having an early night.

Tuesday 17th January 2017 – THIS REALLY WAS …

… delicious tonight – and if the improvement overnight is anything to go by, it’s going to be magnificent by the time that I get to the last portion.

On a plate too – not out of a saucepan either. And because it looked so nice and the presentation was so good, I took a photo of it. Just imagine it with some fennel and coriander leaves sprinkled over the top.

And I wasn’t alone in the kitchen either. I have been invaded by a pile of Eastern European workmen. There are at least five of them and they were eating away in the kitchen when I went up there. They seem friendly enough inasmuch as we could understand each other, but I wonder how noisy they are going to be.

That’s quite a good point on which to ponder too, because for once, last night, I had my best sleep for ages. In bed early, crashed out quickly enough, awoke to switch off the laptop and then I remember nothing at all until the alarm clock went off.

Well, that’s not quite correct either because I’d been on a mega-ramble during the night. And a mega-ramble it was too. I was with the girl who has been described in these pages as “The One That Got Away”. We’d gone to buy a caravan from some kind of second-hand car sales place. We’d turned up as soon as the place opened, explained what we wanted, and were told to wait. And wait we did, for five hours at least until we lost patience. We then went off in search of a salesman but ended up with the female secretary again, the one whom we had seen as we arrived. She wouldn’t put us in touch with a salesman instead but came out with a variety of reasons why we couldn’t see one – all kinds of silly statements such as “if we moved he caravan what is going to happen about the bare, worn patch where the caravan is sitting?”. Despite the silliness of the questions and the ease with which we could answer the questions and solve the problem, she just came up with even more silly problems and we weren’t getting anywhere with this.

A little later I was with the father of Zero, a girl who sometimes accompanies me on my travels although she wasn’t out there tonight. We were driving somewhere in Canada at the back of Montreal.The road that we were taking was a road that I didn’t know but at a T-junction where we hit a main road, I suddenly recognised the road and where we were – we had just come a different way round. We were very low on fuel but it didn’t really matter because I knew that along this road was a big “Shell” service station where we could stop.

We haven’t finished yet either. I was back at school, and it was here that I had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. It was just a case of getting on as best as I could – the same for a few other people who were having similar problems. One boy in particular was having a hard time coming to terms with his illness and I had to keep on telling him to pull himself together. But then he put in another appearance, moping around, and although I could only see him from behind I was convinced that it was him, so I snapped at him to “pull himself together”. He turned round and it wasn’t him but a good friend of mine whose wife was ill, and I immediately regretted having said what I had said. We ended up having a chat about our various problems but it wasn’t doing anyone any good.

Yes, with a night like that, I can do with another half-dozen

I was alone at breakfast, and then came back down here to carry on with my work. I’m still on the notes of that Finnish expedition and we are discussing vegetation right now. I’m up to page 424 and that’s about half-way. I can’t wait to get onto the history and anthropology bits, but whenever that might be, I really have no idea.

What is interesting though is that they haven’t actually gone into the interior – I suppose that in 1937-39 the interior of Labrador is pretty much unexplored. They are making interpretations of the interior based on other people’s published voyages and I note that the works of Mina Hubbard and Dillon Wallace are referred to quite often, as well as the notes of an explorer by the name of AP Low who went into the interior in the late 19th century in a canoe.

As an aside, it was Low’s badly-drawn maps that led Leonidas Hubbard up a creek without a paddle on his ill-fated voyage of 1903. Low only recorded one river at the end of Grand Lake when there are in fact three, the Beaver, the Susan and the Naskaupi, and Hubbard could only find one – but the wrong one.

I’ve had a play around with my 3D program too, as well as a good crash-out after lunch. So soon after lunch that I hadn’t even drunk my lunchtime coffee.

And I made it to the supermarket for my baguette today. There were also a couple of black plastic storage boxes in the rubbish, so I’ve liberated those too. I really do need to take some down to Caliburn as my room is filling up. At the last count there’s 11 of them in here.

Now here’s a thing.

Parked in the Kruisstraat this morning was an almost-new BMW saloon. And a short while after it pulled up and the owner disappeared, another car pulled up.

The driver was extremely interested in the vehicle and stopped, took out a camera, and snapped it about a dozen times from all angles, including a close-up of the rear number-plate and of the wheels.

And then he got back into his car and drove off.

Of course, I’m making no suggestion or allegation whatever. In fact, regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I’m quite often pulling up at the side of the road to take photos of vehicles parked in the street or in people’s driveway.

But not of brand-new BMWs though, and it did look rather weird to me. But without any doubt he had a good reason for doing it.

So now, I’m going to try to have an early night again. Despite all of the new arrivals, I hope that my sleep will be as good as last night’s!

Monday 16th January 2017 – WHAT A BEAUTIFUL …

… tea that was!

First of all, I sliced up a large carrot and potato and put them on to boil. And while they were doing, I sliced up an onion and some garlic and fried them in vegan margarine with some cumin and turmeric.

Once they were fried to perfection, I added a tin of mushrooms and a small tin of macedoine vegetables, and then tipped in the potato and carrot. Once they were simmering away, I cooked a pan of rice in turmeric.

There’s enough curry for four days, so three helpings went in the fridge and I had the fourth with the rice. And just for a change, I had it on a plate instead of eating out of my saucepan. Completely delicious. And there’s more to come over the next three days, when the spices have had more of an opportunity to percolate into the food.

A job well done, my curry!

I slept right through until the alarm went off, with only one distraction and no nocturnal rambling either. Alone again at breakfast and I might well be alone in the building too, because I’ve not heard a thing from anyone else for a good few hours.

That gave me plenty of opportunity to crack on with some other stuff today. I did some stuff on the 3D program that I use, using the design function and I actually managed to create something. Or, rather, modify an existing prop. It wasn’t difficult but it’s a step forward all the same.

As well as that, I’ve been doing some more research with my Labrador project and the Finnish espeditions. Interestingly, they make reference to a Priest, the Reverend Paul Hettasch, who was a Moravian priest from Germany who ran one of the Moravian missions on the coast, at Makkovik. The author of the report, Vaino Tanner, talks at length about all of the weather reports that Hettasch was keeping – how precise, complete and thorough they were. And a further search about Hettasch on the internet revealed that according to the Canadian Police, Hettasch was a Nazi sympathiser who sent all of his weather notes back to Germany and these formed the basis of the weather predictions that aided the German bombers of the Luftwaffe in their attacks over the UK in the early days of World War II.

It’s amazing what you can uncover these days in all of these research projects.

But while I was looking over the Labrador censuses during the inter-war period I came across some interesting notes taken by the census-recorder at Davis Inlet while he was asking about the Innu settlement at Voisey’s Bay in 1935. His notes were extremely brief, with just the most basic details recorded, and he explained that the “… information was furnished by a Davis Inlet Indian and it was impossible to get further details. Their life is a nomadic one and it would be futile to go look for them.”

But it was difficult this afternoon. I kept on dozing off here and there, and when I was awake, it was difficult to concentrate. I need to do what I can to recover my fighting spirit and get back to work properly.

I can’t go on like this!

And you may well have noticed – I’ve not set a single foot outside the building today.

Sunday 15th January 2017 – I WAS RIGHT …

… about suffering today for my efforts of yesterday.

Although I had a brief awakening at about 06:10, I don’t really remember anything until 07:00 when the alarm went off, and although I remember switching it off again, the next thing that I remember was the alarm going off at 07:15 for the second call. That’s not happened for months, if not years, that’s for sure. I didn’t even have to leave my bed during the night, never mind going on a nocturnal ramble.

I was alone at breakfast and once I came down here, I crashed out until 09:30. And then I wasn’t up to much for quite a while. And aching too! Yes, I knew that I had had a tough day yesterday.

Once I’d gathered my wits, which doesn’t take long these days, I rewrote yesterday’s entry – all 2004 words of it – and included the photographs that I had taken. That took me most of the day, as it happened. It’s not very often that I din’t feel up to that kind of thing.

For lunch I had my butties, using the loaf that I had bought yesterday morning. And I was joined by the boy-friend who was making a coffee. It’s the djervushka‘s last day today and she said goodbye to me. But I’m not alone. There’s an Asian woman here as well as some others on the ground floor whom I have yet to meet. I’m not even sure if there really is anyone there, but there is certainly some kind of noise from down below.

My pizza and garlic bread tonight was excellent. I think that I’ve finally sussed out the little table-top oven because everything came out superbly. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Talking of enjoying it, I forgot to mention these yesterday.

While we were in Aachen yesterday we walked into a shopping arcade where there was an absolutely overwhelming smell of licorice. Further enquiries revealed a stall selling home-made sweets, some of which were fennel-flavoured.

Having checked that they were vegan, I treated myself to a packet. And they are delicious.

Not only that, in an ordinary run-of-the-mill supermarket, they were selling vegan chocolate. And one lot was made with coconut milk and contained coconut gratings. And this is the nicest chocolate that I have have ever tasted.

I’m well-impressed with this and it makes me feel much better.

So now, it’s early-night time yet again. And I’ll probably have a bad night tonight seeing as how I’ve done nothing at all. I seem to sleep so much better when I move about during the evening.

Saturday 14th January 2017 – PHEW, I’M WHACKED!

I’ve had a really busy day today and I’m going to pay for it tomorrow. But ask me if I care!

I’ve always said that I’ll do what I have the opportunity to do whenever I have the opportunity to do it, and today was just like that.

Remember when I went shopping with Alison last weekend? She ended up not buying a ski suit but she did manage to pick one up during the week. But she decided that she would go to look for another one today – in Aachen, Germany, to be precise. Did I want to go?

Well, do bears go for picnics in the woods?

Last night was another typical bad night with an interruption in the small hours as usual. And that’s annoying me as you can imagine. But I made it into the kitchen for breakfast bang on time all the same.

Now here’s a thing that is more than unusual. it’s more than surprising too, and certainly extraordinary. And that is that I was down at the Delhaize in town, doing my shopping and back in my room afterwards for 09:00. When did that ever happen?

By 11:00 I’d showered, shaved, had clean clothes, all of that and gone outside where Alison was waiting for me.

And so, all aboard, we headed off eastwards down the motorway to Aachen. We farhn, fahrn, fahrn’d down the autobahn, in fact.

The weather could have been better though. It was cold, although not that cold, and grey and overcast with snow flurries throughout the day.

We arrived at Aachen where the snow had beaten us to it, and first stop was to sort out some clothing for Alison.

While Alison was searching around in the shops I went for a little wander around in the vicinity. Of course, when women are buying clothes, there’s plenty of time to do that, and even more so when people are in the queue for paying.

It seems that almost everyone in the city was shopping for ski-wear. After all, it’s Carnival quite soon and this is the traditional time for the kids to hit the slopes.

From there, we walked up the hill into town past some nice fairly-modern brick-built buildings that looked quite nice and blended quite well into the surroundings.

A coffee was next, and Alison knew a pretty good cafe. And I’ve drunk much worse coffee than that, I can tell you. I was surprised though, that there was no public toilet in there. I wonder what the EU would have to say about it.

But it does reinforce everything that I have said about the different attitudes that different countries have. Most countries agree to everything, and then have a very lax attitude about enforcing it. The UK fights tooth-and-nail, wasting everyone’s time, about various legislation, end then enforces it to the most ridiculous lengths. Remind me to tell you one day about the tip at Leek.

After the coffee we went off up the hill into the city centre, and while Alison went off in search of a woolly hat to go with her new ski jacket that she had bought, I went off for a wander around.

Luckily, Aachen was spared the worst excesses of the Allied terror-bombing of World War II so there is a great deal of the medieval city remaining, despite the American shelling and the SS demolition squads during its capture in October 1944.

And while it’s not the most attractive medieval city that I’ve ever visited, it certainly retains a lot of its charm.

The Town Hall, or Rathaus, which I always thought was a quite appropriate name for a town hall in any country or any language, was damaged during the capture of the city, but you would never ever think so from just looking at it.

And I don’t just mean the quality of the restoration either. The building could do with a really good clean for a start and it would look so much better if they were to take the time to do it.

One of the things that I did like about the Rathaus were the beautiful medieval wooden buildings – a pub so Alison told me, that were attached to the side, taking advantage of the stone wall of the Rathaus at the back.

It’s not the first time that we’ve seen this style of construction. There’s the same kind of construction in Belgium at a church near the Bourse that has wooden buildings constructed against it. It certainly saves on construction materials

Round the side of the central square was another small square tucked away out of sight. Alison told me that there was a restaurant there that had vegan food advertised on the menu, so that sounded like a good place to go for lunch.

It’s over there at the back, on the right, hidden by what look very much like historical remains. And I was intrigued to see these remains still standing – they look like the kind of remains that would have fallen down years ago.

Alison had a salmon steak and new potatoes, and my vegan ratatouille made with fresh vegetables of the day was even better. It was a little over-priced in my opinion, but it was still delicious and light years away from a bag of chips.

It too was served with sliced new potatoes and that worked so well that I’ll be trying this as soon as I can, now that I have a bag of spuds to play with.

But I didn’t think that the name of the restaurant was appropriate – fancy calling it the Living Room, which could be translated into Lebensraum, the project which concerned the Nazis invading Eastern Europe and exterminating its population.

And I shan’t say anything about setting the décor on fire either.

Outside the Living Room there was a view of the cathedral, to the right of the historic arches, and if you excuse the building work and the crane thing in the way.

It’s not the best view in the world but unfortunately, like many other well-preserved medieval cities, the cathedral is tightly hemmed in by buildings and it’s not possible to do any better than this.

If the RAF and the American artillery can’t clear the scene, neither can I

The cathedral itself is a magnificent pile and I expect that you are waiting with bated breath to see a whole raft of photos of the gorgeous interior, the tomb of Charlemagne, and all kinds of relics, including building materials such as marble that were sent by Pope Hadrian I to incorporate into the construction

Unfortunately there was a person loitering just inside the interior whose task it is to pounce upon anyone pointing a camera at anything, and demand a “licence fee” for the privilege of so doing.

Clearly the cathedral authorities have never ever heard of “Christian Charity” and don’t understand the concept of “sharing”. It’s not the first time that I’ve passed comment on the quality and value of the treasures contained in a church – something that goes totally against the concept of Jesus viz “give all thou hast to the poor”, but when it even comes down to naked exploitation and profiteering of the idea of sharing images of what the church possesses, then I’m convinced that there is something totally wrong with the church’s morality.

The oldest part of the Cathedral dates from 792 and is part of Charlemagne’s Palace – probably the only surviving part. And its rare octagonal shape is an indication of its age.

The stained glass therein is stunning too and all in all, it’s quite an impressive building. One day I shall go back – alone – and bring you back some photos to demonstrate what I mean.

The streets surrounding the cathedral are not without interest. Small, tight and cobbled – the very typical medieval street scenes that were swept away in the mid-20th Century in most cities in the UK

And this sculpture was quite exciting too. All of the models on it are mobile and can be manipulated around. It drew quite a crowd and I had to wait ages for a suitable opportunity to photograph it, when there was no-one else loitering in the vicinity.

Aachen is quite a historic city.

Settlement dates back to neolithic times and was settled by the Romans, attracted to the site by the warm sulphur springs. It was in fact on the frontier of the settled Roman area.

Excavations have taken place in the city from time to time and some of the discoveries are on display, like this site in one of the town squares that is surrounded by a glass case. I particularly liked the idea of the drainage channel just here in the foreground.

The warm springs are just lower down from where these ruins are located, and I went off for a taste. Very sulphuric, and quite warm too. The taste was disgusting, but I had to try it. No point in being here if you don’t do something like that.

There is no photograph of the springs, and no photograph of the plaques with the list of names of the notable personalities who came here to take the water. This was because at this moment we were engulfed in something of a snowstorm.

As the snow eased off we walked back to the car.

Parts of the town are still decorated for Christmas, and some of the shop windows are phenomenal. This was one of my favourites, with the snowmen and other winter scenes, but there were plenty of others too.

And I can’t get over the bakeries either. I love German bread – there is just so much of it and it’s all good, and Aachen is no exception. Thoughts such as working out where the railway station might be in connection with the railway line to Leuven started to run through my mind.

As it grew dark, we hit the highway and headed for home. The return journey was quite quick and I was back here by 18:15. Many thanks to Alison for a good day out.

My day wasn’t finished though. OH Leuven were playing at home against Tubize, kick-off 20:00, so I braved the snowstorm and the freezing cold to go down there, grabbing a bag of chips on the way.

For a change, I wasn’t behind the goal but high up in the stand along the touchline level with the edge of the penalty area. A grandstand view, especially of down there where I usually sit.

AFC Tubize looked the better side and they had a player, the n°97, who looked streets ahead of anyone else on the field. His name is Jae-Gun Lee and he’s a recent signing, aged just 19, from Korea.

He’ll go far in European football, that’s for sure. Remember that you heard his name first on here

But OH Leuven went into the dressing room 1-0 up at half-time, rather against the run of play, thanks to an audacious step-over in the penalty area that totally flat-footed the Tubize defence.

I said that there was still plenty of time for OH Leuven to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and how prophetic those words were. From the first attack of the second half, Tubize won a penalty and it went all downhill after that.

And so in the torrential snowstorm that we were having, OH Leuven’s hopes drifted away. Tubize ran out 3-1 winners, and ended with the crowd booing the home side and cheering on the visitors.

That was rather harsh because OH Leuven had tried very hard, but their final ball was always falling short of where it was supposed to go. Nevertheless, they had plenty of chances to equalise, if not to win. But it was one of those games where nothing at all went right.

I walked back, freezing cold, and I’m tired and ready for bed. And I know that I’ll pay for all of this effort in the morning.

I’ll leave you instead with about 2,000 words and hope that you enjoy it.

Friday 13th January 2017 – I WOKE UP THIS MORNING …

… du deh du der deh … to find that the snows of winter have once more been covering our landduring the night.

Nothing like as impressive as the other morning (not that that was particularly impressive) but snow just the same. And just like me, it didn’t last all that long either.

And that’s right – I didn’t last long either. I’d had a bad night and had an awakening at about 03:15, but this time I don’t know why I awoke like that. At 04:15 I was still awake too and I didn’t feel at all like going back to sleep, but nevertheless I must have done because the alarm awoke me yet again.

I was alone at breakfast at first, but someone whom I didn’t recognise at all came to join me later. A new tenant because I had to show him around and show him how everything works in the kitchen.

Back down here I did some work, reading this paper that I talked about the other day, and then I had some real work to do. I didn’t mention it yesterday but I had made a start on defrosting the freezer compartments in the fridges here. I have spoken about the oven chips and how they come in big bags. There is in fact the space to put a bag like that although you might not think so seeing how the ice compartments are full to the brim with ice, the doors having been left open at some time. With my mini-wok and boiling water, I managed to defrost everything after a while and clean them out. Now we have room for all kinds of stuff and quite rightly so.

Just before lunch I went out to the supermarket for the baguette, and ended up having a good chat to the girl who seems to manage the place. We were there for about 10 minutes chatting, although I probably understood as much as one word in 20.

After lunch, I went down to Caliburn to bring back some more stuff and the laundry sop – braving the snow because by now the snow was teeming down quite heavily – although it didn’t stick at all.

The launderette was next and I washed a ton of stuff. And now I have all clean clothes, as well as three odd socks and I’ve no idea how I managed that. But it always happens, doesn’t it? There’s a sock goblin living even in launderette washing machines.

Back here I had a crash-out and then made tea. A quick tea out of a tin seeing as tomorrow I’m footballing and Sunday is pizza night.

The djervushka is still here too, but with a young boy in tow tonight. So I can cross her off my list, which is a shame. It also means that I won’t have much of a sleep as her room is directly above mine and we know how these beds creak.

I’m still going to try got an early night though. If the weather is reasonable tomorrow there’s a possibility of a day out. We shall see.

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality